Xbox trouble reading burnt disc... sometime

[DarkXander]

Hi!

Long story short, I've just got an old original Xbox and to my suprise, I found out it was modded. (Soft I think I don't know a lot about those thing, first modded console)

When I boot the console, I got the UnleashX Dash, and from there I can do multiple thing and when searching the web, I found out I could
play burnt games. I tried with one, and it worked perfectly. I then tried with others... and they can of work... when they launch.

Most of the time, the dash say my disk is empty, but with some effort of disc swapping, open the tray, close de tray, repeat, the games
sometimes work, perfecly. But that kind of a bummer! Original game work without problem, ONE burnt game also work everytime, but
the others... it's seem like luck!

Does anyone would know why? And how could I get rid of this problem?

Edit: There the list of game I burnt:
Simpson Road Rage: Alway work
Cold Fear: Never worked
Silent Hill 4: Work sometime
Just Cause: Work Sometime
Conker Live and Reloaded: Work sometime

[RobertX]

Maybe the other ones are bad burns. Did you try to burn another copy?

[DarkXander]

No, did not try, but the fact that they were bad burned can cause them to work only sometime?
For example, Conker worked pretty well yesterday... but this morning, no matter what, did not wanted to launch,
but right now, is working like a charm!

But thanks for your answer!

[Zorlon]

The first thing to go on the Xbox is the CD/DVD drive, and the result is what you are getting

To help this kind of issue you can try using higher quality media to burn onto, preferably DVD+R media that is in general higher quality than DVD-R, also remember to burn at the slowest possible speed to help is get read back smoothly

To expand on the media you can also check out http://www.videohelp.com/dvdmedia to find out how well the media you have has worked for other users of the same media

I would check to see how big the internal HDD is, if it was modded there is a strong chance it has a large HDD inside it, the original HDD is about 8GB but that is not big enough really unless you install one game at a time or install several small games

I there is space on the HDD then just install the games onto that via FTP preferably via qwix (PC side) and Avalaunch (Xbox side) [Avalaunch is actually a dash that is much better than UnleashX though I will go further and say I only have that installed as an App as I use XBMC on my Xbox that is even better than both of those Dashboards, Avalaunch just has FTP boosts and qwix takes advantage of that and has a few extra features for managing your games and saves]

It is very important to manage the saves because if you hit the max amount no new software will work after the limit is hit, so best avoided (P.S. do note that if this is softmodded some saves do need to stay on the xbox for it to still be modded)

[DarkXander]

Thank for your answer!

I just checked, and it only have the original HDD... 8go. The Xbox was never opened, the screw are still hidden under the notice paper under the
console.

As I only want to play some game, I wish I could only make sure my burnt disc work, will try to burn as slow as possible. Two game were burnt at
2.4x (the one that always work and one that work sometime) and the others at 8x...and I've got more trouble with them, so I'll have to try!

As for the disc drive... on youtube people tell to at least clean the lens by opening the console. I may try that too. I hope it's not the drive
itself, because it seem they cost quite a bit to buy now. (When you think I bought the console only 25$ with 2 controllers and 1 game...)

Do you think cleaning the lens could help?

As for the other stuff... I haven't got time to search and learn about Xbox modding, so I know absolutely nothing about that... how to change dash, what is XBMC,
so I guess I'll have to pass!

[Zorlon]

Would be cheaper and more advantageous to replace the HDD drive

If you are just want to clean the lens just grab a cheapo drive cleaning CD and run it though, you don't need a specific DVD cleaning kit and normal CD one will do

It's easy enough to clone a drive then add extra partitions/expand partitions though it may take a bit of time to do, and have a feeling I just put you off totally but it's not as complex as that sounds

The dash is the easiest thing in the world to replace, just FTP the new dash over the old one, though avalaunch may be a better choice if you have no plans on doing anything with the HDD, XBMC is great but what you would be using it for there is very little need for it except maybe a few game launch fixes, though not sure it has any more than Avalaunch does both have more than what UnleashX does though

P.S. FTP access would be via either a crossover cable direct from Xbox to PC/Laptop or a standard cat5 cable from the Xbox to a router or network hub (Plus whatever way to connect your PC to the same network, better via Cat5 also though for speed rather than WiFi, but WiFi does work, done that myself)

[DarkXander]

Then again, thank for you answer!

I'll try the drive cleaning... at least l'll know if it's only the lens!

As for the rest, as I bought the console 25$, and that I only wanted an Xbox to play some game,
I don't want to mess around and risk doing something wrong. I'm sure it's pretty easy, but I'm a complete noob
in this domain and I don't really have the budget right now to risk breaking something!
so, I'll stick with the cleaning and trying to burn at lower speed!

If anyone have anything else to say, you're welcome!

[Zorlon]

You got a great deal and it was modded as an added bonus so can't blame you for wanting some use out of it before taking any extra steps like replacing the HDD

Anyway hope you enjoy the few games you are starting to play

I love my Xbox though mostly because of all the homebrew including emulators and ports, saying that almost every multi release was better on the xbox plus it has a number of great exclusive games (Not even thinking of Halo ) as well as the multi system releases on xbox