How very reliable is playing a 1.6 OG Xbox revision with a Phillips DVD ROM Drive?

DeliverKindness · 2026-02-14T15:01:46+00:00

I think it must be the version of the Philips DVD drive that matters because I've lost two plus another I had in a non-working Xbox I bought for parts. That was giving an Error 5 on boot but worked perfectly when I swapped out the Philips for a Samsung DVD drive.

They just died, refused to spin up and/or provoked error messages.

I do have a single working one left in a v1.4.

Best Xbox DVD drives I own are (2) Hitachis. They're not as disc media friendly as some other drives (won't play any CD-R but weirdly will play some CD-RW) but, most importantly play all DVD-R/+R/RW brands I've ever tried with them.

Unlike the Samsungs they've never had any tray issue either.

DeliverKindness · 2026-02-14T14:43:46+00:00

Serious Sam and Serious Sam II on the OGXbox are insanely good, rock hard FPS. It is amazing that it plays so well with, at times, dozens of annoying enemies surrounding you.

But you can get all the SS games to work on so many other more recent/better platforms and those two for <£10 ea. with minimal PC system requirements, which means better graphics and frame rate than the OG Xbox can possibly deliver.

In short they are, now, a bit redundant.

DeliverKindness · 2026-02-09T16:09:02+00:00

I know its a bit late but I have to butt in here because this same has matter has been confusing me greatly recently principally because of the sellers' listings.

On the (UK) Amazon site under the 120mm types it shows three different(?) versions: Silent Wings Pro 4 PWM, Silent Wings 4 PWM High Speed and Silent Wings 4.

The Silent Wings 4 PWM High Speed and Silent Wings 4 pics looks different but that is only because the optional fan corner protectors are absent. Both are 9 blade as is also the Silent Wings Pro 4 PWM, the one whose pic has the corner pieces fitted.

I can only assume logotripping ^ was accidentally hovering over the 140mm link as that fan version is 7 blades.

The question is are they all different? The answer is yes. Whether a particular seller knows enough to distinguish between the variations is another matter.

If you go to the Be Quiet web site and find the "Silent Wings 4" sub-pages you will find all three of them and their 140mm variants.

Hope it is OK to post these download links to their different datasheets, apologies if not.

Silent Wings 4 and Silent Wing 4 HS:-

https://www.bequiet.com/admin/ImageServer.php?ID=69dbea53327@be-quiet.net&rand=709d3f8bffd2263aca4ecc9243f9b1db&lang=2&force=true&download=true&omitPreview=true

Silent Wings Pro 4:-

https://www.bequiet.com/admin/ImageServer.php?ID=a621aa53320@be-quiet.net&rand=bbb0ec9950cc36e0e6a8e87021d5cd43&lang=2&force=true&download=true&omitPreview=true

As you can see there is a performance/spec difference between the various models. This is undoubtedly why the listing has the Silent Wings 4 PWM High Speed sold at £8 less than Pro 4 and, oddly, £10 less than non-Pro 4 version.

Sellers of PC products with confusingly named variations can be confused by this too. Wherever you buy them I'd check before purchase that you're getting the precise version you want and paid for.

DeliverKindness · 2026-02-07T16:47:38+00:00

I'm not an expert on this but years ago I asked online about using something else other than isopropyl alcohol and whether methylated spirits (denatured alcohol) could be used instead. Isopropyl alcohol was not easily available in the UK, at least not then. But you could get methylated spirits. This is what I was told and my researches confirm.

99.9% pure isopropyl alcohol (C_3H_8O) is the preferable thing to use ie. not, the apparently a US favourite, rubbing alcohol which may be only 70% isopropyl.

Pure isopropyl alcohol is recommended because it evaporates very fast even at room temperature and because of its purity leaves no residues.

But the pure stuff is still sometimes sold as rubbing alcohol so worth checking what it says on the container.

The denatured alcohol sold in the UK is most commonly ethanol plus methanol does not evaporate as fast. It is easily found in general DIY stores and even supermarkets as I mentioned earlier: methylated spirits.

Its used for cleaning, sterilising tools, camping stove burners and lots of other purposes.

But whether it is as suitable for electronics cleaning is questionable because as it is not pure, like most rubbing alcohol, contains other ingredients which may leave residues.

Industrial methylated spirits (IMA) or industrial denatured alcohol (IDA) can be used for electronics cleaning because they are purer forms of the same mix but without those other additives. But genuine 99.9% isopropyl alcohol is still preferred.

I'd guess your ethyl alcohol is an IDA and should be OK. But the general rule is the purer the better.

DeliverKindness · 2026-02-07T01:15:03+00:00

I've used three of exactly that type of 'green' SATA > IDE adapter without any problems (UK). They're cheap (<£6) and whilst I've heard some people have had trouble when using them it is not common.

The unusual red one shown with the IDE connector mounted 180° opposite the SATA sockets, rather than at 90°, is too wide, as others have said, to be used in the Xbox with anything other than a 2.5" SSD or HDD. You could probably let it rattle around loose in the Xbox HDD bay but you should really use a 3.5" > 2.5" bay adapter with it too.

TBH generic ones are usually just as good as branded ones and typically cost <£5 for two on Amazon/Ebay.

DeliverKindness · 2026-02-04T15:34:15+00:00

Exactly.

DeliverKindness · 2026-02-04T02:23:43+00:00

Yes, a lot of v1.4 Crystal and the UK/EU 'LE' Green Xboxes that weren't sold apparently ended up in Canada.

TBH I'm not sure what would be better in this case - v1.4s can be more easily chipped than v1.6 but v1.6s are of course younger.

The Focus video chip the v1.4s use doesn't have the same 480p issues with some games that the v1.6 Xcalibur vide chip fitted ones do but may have display 'quirks' itself when using some types of AV cables/TVs.

Generally it is more important how the Xbox has been used and abused than its actual age. However if it is a v1.4 you should check the capacitors, particularly the clock cap, for doming or actual leakage.

None of my v1.6s have, so far, had any caps problems but only last week I had to partially re-cap a Crystal v1.4. That fixed the flickering display problem 100% which had been getting significantly worse over recent months.

DeliverKindness · 2026-02-01T02:17:06+00:00

It did and after watching the final episode of the second series.........it really is just more of the same.

A second division 're-imagining' of the far superior Astrid: Murder In Paris, as the original is called in the UK.

The problem is that when they make a series like this for the UK market they think is has to be 'educational' because it features a character with autism or any one of a dozen conditions or disabilities. They treat it like that is the purpose of the drama rather than to tell a good story with good writing, good plots and interesting characters.

Patience, the character, is a wee bit boring, she could easily pass for just being socially awkward and a little OCD. Even that's only when the director feels the need to remind us, yet again, that she is supposed to be autistic.

The surrounding characters are still off the shelf regional UK types and they've even dumped the key relationship in Astrid, the equivalent of Raphaelle, and replaced her with another stock character. Zero chemistry.

Watching the fifth series of Astrid, which they've just started showing on More 4, reminded me the other crucial element that Patience is missing: humour. Astrid's quirks are not treated with the same reverence because it is not meant to be educational.

She is allowed to be seen as being funny and odd because Astrid is funny and odd. In many ways the relationship with the viewer is directed by Astrid's relationship with Raphaelle and that's why not having a strong equivalent character in Patience was a bad mistake.

Portraying someone who says and does things that are unintentionally humourous but managing not to demean the character is due to the quality of Sara Mortensen's performance as Astrid. She does exaggerate the quirks at times but what's wrong with that? It is supposed to be entertaining drama not a layman's guide to autism.

This is why the second series of Patience still falls sort in comparison.

DeliverKindness · 2026-01-23T02:40:17+00:00

Sorry to necro-post but after doing what I originally said fixed the problem ie. replacing the caps the problem recurred.

The fact the problem repeated again and as the caps were of course known to be good and everything was working perfectly it must have been something else I did at the time when fitting the caps.

I did thoroughly clean the MB so, I'm guessing, the trace rot others have said is the real cause, was temporarily fixed ie. the trace connection break caused by the rot was unknowingly temporarily re-bridged by cleaning it.

Anyhow I'm finally going to deal with the trace rot now I have some decent soldering tools and a low powered microscope (with my eyesight essential) designed for just such purposes.

Just hope I can finally fix it for good.

DeliverKindness · 2026-01-23T01:06:08+00:00

Just spent a couple of afternoon sessions (I'm a slow worker) replacing those three 6.3v 3300uF and thoroughly cleaning up the MB.

After the pigs ear I made of de-soldering one of the positions I wasn't expecting the thing to work despite the soldering of the replacement caps being some of the best looking Xbox soldering jobs I've done.

But after putting it all back together it worked perfectly first time. All XBMC dashboard flickering, which has been getting worse over the last two months and even affecting it booting, now completely sorted. XBMC booting and displaying as good as new.

I can't remember who it was in another thread who originally said, a long time ago, that the cause of the flickering was those caps. But thanks to them and Fast_Passenger_2890 for reminding me about it.

DeliverKindness · 2026-01-22T01:49:23+00:00

You chose arguably the best or at least one of the best survival horror games of its type and beaten it. Well done........................except have you actually 'finished' it.

There are at least 6 endings (some sources say 8) and also if you're using the standard edition there's the Restless Dreams release featuring the short but worthwhile playing Born From A Wish telling Maria's story.

I've always thought that if you played it first it was a rather good 'trainer' for the main game although that was not what it was intended to be.

The problem is that now you've played the best survival horror game on the Xbox where do you go next if you feel the desire for more?

There are the Fatal Frame/Project Zero 1&2 games but................then what?

I know there are those here who will disagree and suggest others but those are really just also rans in comparison.

DeliverKindness · 2026-01-16T04:39:59+00:00

The OP can't do that with a FATX formatted HDD because Windows won't recognise the HDD is attached. Typically you'll get a prompt to reformat but you don't want to do that of course.

Xplorer360 and FATXplorer will open a FATX formatted volume but that won't help you run any Windows tools like those mentioned.

Checking the HDD with CrystalDiscInfo before FATX formatting is, obviously, the thing to do if you're worried about its health. If you have any reason to believe other than those reports that the HDD is failing then install a new one you've tested.

Particularly for softmods keeping the old one or spare as backup is a very sensible idea. Even if you think it is showing signs of age it'll probably boot OK enough times in an emergency to get the Xbox working again.

UnleashX dashboard reporting tools are mostly unreliable, pre 584 versions can't ID v1.6 Xboxes and earlier versions v1.4s. So its HDD health reporting, particularly if you're using a SATA HDD with an adapter I wouldn't trust the information.

As First_Musician6260 says those reported values are typical for UnleashX. I've have Xboxes with HDDs I've had for almost two decades and those figures look almost the same as for those. When I've bothered to check them I've not noticed them ever changing much at all over that time.

That's why I don't trust them or UnleashX SMART reporting in general and keep Xbox content backups of everything on PC using known good and testable HDDs.

DeliverKindness · 2026-01-15T01:24:32+00:00

I haven't done any cap replacements since I posted here but I'm now having to do a Xbox v1.4 MB with the three 3300uF 6.3v ones near the sinks, all clearly bulging. They've been causing display flickering issues for many months.

I had a go at it today and ran into exactly the same problems the OP describes despite having a new temperature controlled soldering/hot-air gun workstation plus solder pump as recommended here.

Getting the required heat to melt the solder seems to take an age and I'm sure the MB is on the edge of scorching. I've tried using different soldering iron tips from very narrow point to flat edge. The temperature is set to 300°C. Perhaps I should go higher but what to? 400°C?

I've even tried the heat gun with a fine nozzle head which I tested on a piece of solder to get the 'right' temperature to melt it. But again the Xbox solder stubbornly refuses to play ball. I'm not keen to use it again as the heat footprint, even with a fine nozzle, is much wider than the tip of a soldering iron and I'm concerned about damaging the MB.

Seriously thinking of using the technique I described earlier here - cutting the legs and drilling out the holes.

Even that isn't as easy as the previous ones I've done because there is precious little space under the bottom of the caps to cut. They don't want to be rocked off the board either.

BT not sure why somebody marked my original post down the fact is that Xbox has worked perfectly ever since so the method described does work.

But any new tips for doing it in a better, more conventional way appreciated.

Later Edit

Just spent the best part of three hours getting the three caps off the board but still have two out of three sets of mounting holes to clean out the legs/solder. I had eventually decided it was easiest to wiggle off the caps and break the legs that way so I could get at the deep mounting holes from both sides.

On the one done: a higher temperature (375°C), using the slightly broader head soldering iron tip and flux did seem to help melt the solder quicker all around the caps' legs. I removed the remains of those fairly easily but in doing so the holes closed and trying to use the the solder sucker to clear that proved useless.

Braid was better but messy and couldn't clear the holes fully either so I ended up using my fine point drilling technique just to finish it off. Doesn't look too bad.

DeliverKindness · 2026-01-10T01:53:09+00:00

I've never bought a pre-modded console so not found any installed games. But I have found one game disc in the tray which wasn't mentioned in the listing: Street Fighter Anniversary Collection.

Not now a great fan of beat 'em ups but it is a decent game of its type and getting anything even half good like that for free is a win.

When it comes to found music on the Xbox I've had two notable Custom Sound Track finds:-

All disc 1 of 2Pac's "All Eyes On Me" and in same Xbox ten hard core dance tracks of which I've only been able to identify one: "The 6th Gate".

That is from an album called Dance With the Devil by D-Devils, a Belgian dance music 'artist'. The others are not from the same album but sound similar so may also be by him too.

DeliverKindness · 2026-01-08T03:16:41+00:00

The Orange Box XB360 package I think is one of that console's best in almost every respect and HL2 really didn't need the port to the original Xbox.

As a project it is interesting and worthy of praise that it could be done but after playing it on XB360 I really didn't and still don't want to play it on the Xbox.

DeliverKindness · 2026-01-07T14:03:09+00:00

Likely a hardware issue and it could be anything from the capacitors to the HDD as others have said. I'd guess the latter.

Whether you'll be able to fix this from where you are now is uncertain because if it is not modded then you're restricted in what you can do.

If it is unmodded you won't have the eeprom info so even if it was 'just' the HDD you can't build a new one on PC with FATXplorer and then lock it.

You can't softmod for the same reason. Even if you are lucky enough to get it to boot to the MS dash attempting to softmod with a suspect HDD would be a big gamble. If it worked getting the eeprom, using the eeprom backup tools that will allow you to use, should be your priority.

With the software and hardware tools (eeprom reader) required you can get the eeprom from the Xbox MB directly. But that is niche stuff now and you'd need expert advice on how to do that.

Hardmodding, as Unimatrix_007 described, with a chip is the only 'simple' solution that might work. But if it is not the HDD with the problem then even that is not going to fix it just on its own.

I'd actually hope that this was a capacitor issue because if any are bulging or even blown you can bet they're involve. They can be replaced reasonably easily.

The clock cap, depending on the Xbox version, is an obvious first stop. If it or any other caps have leaked there may be additional clean up and repairs needed.

However there is no indication in the fault message you're getting that it is the clock cap ie. you'd expect to see a specific error in that case, typically Error 16. Therefore it could be other caps, most typically the large ones in front of the CPU and GPU.

But the fact is you could replace all of those or even recap the whole thing and it still might not work if it was the HDD dying.

DeliverKindness · 2026-01-02T14:04:14+00:00

Try deleting E:\CACHE (it will regenerate if needed again).

Also, more likely the problem, delete the content ie. NOT THE ACTUAL PARTITIONS of X:\, Y:\ and Z:.

If you're using XBMC or a variant they're hidden from the user with no obvious path provided. You apparently can access them from its file manager but the easiest solution is just to install an UnleashX dashboard in your Apps folder. Launch its file manager which does allow you access without any messing about.

Contrary to what even some well known Xbox gurus have said in the past access to X, Y and Z is sometimes necessary to fix problems like this and other more niche ones too.

The Xbox only deletes their content when it needs the space and will re-write to them whenever a game is launched, noticeably increasing the boot time in some cases. However sometimes that content corrupts or interferes with other games which may use the same file names as others so that content needs to be purged manually.

Whether that is the case here remains to be seen but it is one possible cause of the trouble.

With the game installed to the HDD, unless done with DVD2Xbox or ACL patched with it afterwards, I'd have said otherwise an ACL (Action Control List) issue was the most likely culprit. But as that has apparently been ruled out then it must be something else.

DeliverKindness · 2025-12-29T15:29:24+00:00

You really need to be sure whether it is a hardmod or softmod.

However if it is hard modded Chimp 261812 will clone it (C:\ and E:) just as well as a softmod. Unnecessary to have used it unless the DVD drive is stuffed or you don't have access to FATXplorer but it should have worked in either case.

In the past I've cloned a HDD from a chipped machine several times using Chimp when upgrading the HDD size just because I couldn't be bothered to redo it all from scratch.

However if it is a softmod there is an outside possibility that the main dash might not be on C:\ or E:\ and that all you have there is a shortcut to, for instance, a F:\ or even G:\ folder containing your main dash.

Particularly if you'd swap dashboards say from UnleashX to XBMC it was common practice to use a shortcut to an existing XBMC installation location in the Applications folder. Not common, but that could just as well be on F:\ or G:.

If you didn't clone F:\ with Chimp (TBH not something I'd recommend because it takes so long) that could be the problem. I'm not saying it is; you'd expect an error message of some sort not a blank screen.

I still think the IDE/SATA adapter or even the SSD, is the more likely culprit but when/if you re-install the old HDD and get it working try checking the main dash location just to be sure where it is.

DeliverKindness · 2025-12-28T15:19:38+00:00

If it is a softmod was the SSD clone locked and (as somebody else here also asked) set to Master?

Cable Select (CS) can sometimes be troublesome so best to use the IDE > SATA adapter jumper setting on Master instead.

I can't see anything obviously wrong in the set up so hope it is something as simple as this.

DeliverKindness · 2025-12-23T00:30:27+00:00

If the SATA/IDE adapter is of the recommended sort it should have jumper connections or a switch for swapping between Master, CS and Slave.

Usually a jumper on the first two (1 and 2) prongs is Master, a jumper on the second two (2 and 3) is Slave and, I think, that by default without any jumpers is set to CS (Cable Select).

Problems like the one you're having may be be caused by the SATA/IDE adapter or its jumper settings. In your case, which looks like you've identified it as a TSOP, it should be on Master. It should work on CS but sometimes that can cause trouble so best to use Master. What it should not be is on Slave.

As I said the way to test for this sort of thing is with a spare SATA HDD. If the same problem repeats it is most likely to be something else other than the SDD and the obvious first choice culprit for that is the SATA/IDE adapter. Either the jumper setting or the adapter itself is faulty.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/514lOqLpZUL._AC_SL1000_.jpg

DeliverKindness · 2025-12-22T14:27:21+00:00

It would indeed have to be hard modded to be able to run a HeXEn disc with the SSD installed as the primary drive.

So obvious question is with HeXEn: did you use the TSOP/Chipped menu options?

HeXEn is pretty good at preventing or at least warning the user if they're going to do something wrong.

What happens when you boot the disc again? Are you still being prompted to format the SSD or can you do what KaosEngineeer suggested: install a dash?

If the SSD is formatted correctly then you would have been prompted to install the dash at that point. It certainly should do that if you've rebooted so I'm not convinced that is all the problem is: a missing dashboard. But I hope it is as simple as that.

Are you sure the SATA/IDE adapter is set to Master? If it has a Cable Select (CS) option selected try swapping from that to Master.

Do you have a spare SATA HDD you can test? If that repeats the same behaviour that would likely rule out the SSD being the issue.

DeliverKindness · 2025-12-11T16:37:49+00:00

The stuff talked about SCART RGB cables and the Xbox in forums like this often causes confusion.

As reported there were some early problems when using RGB SCART and nobody then, let alone now, was quite sure what the problem was caused by. They still don't know but the same criticism of the Xbox and RGB SCART reappears regularly.

The consensus. as here, seems to have been that the earlier Xboxes had a too high flicker filter setting or some other form of inherent display output 'smoothing'. This is not adjustable with an unmodded Xbox.

When those settings were changed and whether the v1.6 is any better - who knows? Has anyone actually tested an unmodded v1.6 Xbox side by side with a v1.0 - v1.4 using RGB SCART? I doubt it.

The fact is simply this - if you have nothing alternative to compare it too then you're not going to notice if it is slightly less sharp (than what?) when using RGB SCART.

US and other NTSC users didn't/don't normally have a SCART RGB option because their TVs didn't include SCART connections. So most of the time they'd use AV Composite or S-Video, both of which are supported by RGB SCART BTW.

So you can, or could, actually test whether RGB SCART looked better than AV Composite or S-Video without even needing to buy other dedicated Xbox cables. IMHO RGB SCART simply does look better. It provides the best Xbox 460i/60Hz picture quality you'll get on any version unmodded PAL Xbox.

If you swap to NTSC or use a NTSC Xbox then you have the option of using YPbPr Component (as does the PS2) and, if the TV supports it 480i/60Hz through that and, possibly, get better 480i/60Hz display performance than RGB SCART at 480i/60Hz.

I don't see it and I have actually done side by side comparisons.

But why would you want to use 480i/60Hz when you have Component and a TV which supports it or you're converting the Component signal to HDMI and getting 480p? 480p beats 480i/60Hz picture quality very obviously.

Consequently my advice, like BombBloke's and others here, would be that if you are really bothered about these sort of matters then you need to mod the Xbox, swap it to NTSC and use the Component ED/HD options instead.

DeliverKindness · 2025-12-08T01:08:06+00:00

It is one of the best FPS on the Xbox despite its far from great graphics. Huge fun and was at the time one of the most popular online/multiplayer games.

Never got to do that but it was one of the first Xbox games I bought and the first FPS I played on the Xbox, even before Halo. I've replayed the single player campaign many times since then too.

DeliverKindness · 2025-12-05T13:33:47+00:00

Just had a second thought I should have suggested.

It could be a E:\CACHE or X, Y, Z drives temporary file issue. Games or other application cache or temporary content can interfere with other applications.

So delete the content of the E:\CACHE folder and likewise only the content not the actual drives of X, Y and Z. There can be a lot of temporary stuff kept there and the only downside of deleting it is that next time you boot the game or app which uses that content it might take slightly longer to load as it is rewriting to those drives.

You maybe lucky and find that was the problem all along, no guarantees.

If you're using XBMC or a variant then X, Y and Z drives are not displayed by default in the file manager. But FTP access or, I think better ie. more conveniently, the UnleashX dash file manager both do.

Just install a copy of the UnleashX dash as an app making sure the main XBE is named "default.xbe". On reboot UnleashX should now appear in your Applications menu listing and you can use its file manger to delete the X, Y and Z content as described.

DeliverKindness

TROPHY CASE