DVD Drive Repair

[SatanX]

I've seen a few guides online but I haven't read too far into anything yet. Since I'm now accumulating about a dozen xboxes, I have quite a few bum drives, about half or more actually. I was wondering if anyone here tried their hand at repairing the xbox's DVD drive or if you're better off buying the LG drive instead with the adapter and flashing it with new firmware.

I've also seen people selling just the lens itself online and I was wondering if somebody could explain just what role the lens plays in all of it. I have zero experience with the inner workings of optical drives and I figured the lens was solely for reading and had nothing to do with how the disk spins or the drive opens and closes.

Do most DVD drive errors result in just a faulty lens or is there a lot more required to fixing them?

[Boost]

most are an easy fix

take the case off the xbox and task out the DVDROM, from there pop off the top of the DVDROM and with a Qtip and some rubbing alcohol clean the lens. let it air dry for a minute or so.

put it all back together and try to read a game.

usuaslly that works bout 80% of the time.

other than that it's easier to replace te DVDROM than changing out the lens of course.
it just depends on how well you are with tiny parts

BOOST

[SatanX]

Thanks Boost, I'll give it a shot. I think one of them for sure though has a bum motor or something. It's a Samsung and unlike the Thomsons or Philips drives I have, it won't even open or close, I had to use the tab at the bottom to force it open and manually close it. Now that I think of it, even though the Samsungs seem to have a longer shelf life, they all seem to need a bit of help opening and closing.

Also, is there any soldering involved with replacing some of these parts? I heard there was when fixing the PS2's bad drive but I can't remember now. I'm also looking around for guides but if anybody has links, feel free to share them.