I have completed my very first Drivereplacementoctomy, that is, I replaced the DVD drive in an Xbox 360.
This doesn't sound like that big of a deal, but it is. For starters, the DVD drive has an encryption key that matches it to one particular Xbox 360. This means that if you buy the exact replacement unit needed by your machine, it will not work.
How to fix this?
The hard way: figure out a way of pulling out the key from the old drive, then upgrade the firmware of the new drive with the correct encryption key.
The easy way: remove the logic board from the old DVD drive and install it into the new drive. Since the units are identical, it will work.
Some enterprising individuals around here will charge you $50 plus materials to do it the hard way.
Why am I doing this?
Because PJ broke his DVD tray into two, and you can't order replacements (that I know). Ivette of course wanted to buy a new one, since we got wads of $400 lying around. I decided to take a shot at replacing the drive and doing the PCB swap myself. If I failed I could still order a second drive and pay somebody to do the job for less than the cost of a new Xbox 360.
Overall, the process is simple:
2. Replace the PCB in the new drive with the old one.
3. Re-assemble the Xbox 360.
4. Try to play one DVD and one game disc. Pray that both work.
That is about it. The hairiest part? One of the data cables in the PCB are aligned by hand, then held into place with a very small plastic clip. The rest was more tedious than hard.
And what did PJ do when I showed him that he can now play again on his 360, after more than 2 weeks dead? He switched to his AppleTV and kicked me out of his room.
That's parenthood right there.
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