Xbox (original) - Problem Reading Disks

[fauxshot]

Hi all!

So, I have an original Xbox, and it appears to have a disk reading issue. I'll pop in a game, and it'll play for a while... perhaps 10 minutes? However, after a short time, it stops reading the disk and will either freeze or pull up a message saying it's having problems reading the disk.

I know the disc is not the problem, as this has occurred with two different ones I've tried to use.

I had taken it inside a house a long time ago (when I was younger) where people smoked, and I kinda think that it might have contracted some kind of smoke damage. But I doubt that that is the problem. Any ideas about what might be wrong?

[byron]

Clean the laser lens. You can take apart the Xbox and clean it with a Q-Tip and alcohol if you have the right screwdriver. You can also buy a cleaning disc, but I don't know how well those work and a T20 Torx screwdriver is probably cheaper anyway.

Here's a video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrMF1ve_1Rw

[maximo310]

Yeah it's most likely a laser lens problem. If cleaning it doesn't solve the problem, than you may need to replace the disk drive with one of 4 models of disk drives that the original xbox can use.

[fauxshot]

Alrighty, thanks for the suggestions! I'll try opening it up sometime and seeing if I can clean it properly.

[pceslayer]

Also clean the rubber part of the spindle that helps hold the disc in place. If it gets too dirty the disc can slip when spinning and cause read issues.

[DreamsDied13101]

This is the most common issue I have had with all of my Original Xboxes.

It has been rarely due to a laser cleaning issue. Most of the disc drive lasers have just burned out (I assume).

I need to open them up and see if it is a common manufacturer of the drives. Normally the consoles were so cheap back in the day I would just buy a new one locally (this is when the 360 had already been released).

Let us know if cleaning solves yours. I would be curious to see if that was the issue.