Xbox 360 modded with slot loading DVD drive, fire vision, mind control

This Xbox 360 mod may be a little less dramatic than some we've seen, but we think that anyone who's had their nerves rattled by the incessant banging of their console's optical drive tray will really appreciate it. RDC over at the benheck.com forum has installed a slot loader into his Xbox the hard way -- by gutting the innards of his console's DVD-ROM and installing them in the case of his old iMac's slot loader. After taking everything apart, it was a simple matter of rebuilding the spindle, rigging up a tiny breadboard with a few transistors, cramming the new Frankenstein drive into the game system, and -- of course -- finishing up with some handy case mod. Sure, the whole affair seems needlessly complicated, but the end result looks pretty good to us. Catch a video of the finished business after the break.

[From My Cube @ Nov 24th 2008 10:20AM]

he got it done just in time to load all his favorite games to his harddrive :)

[Maestro @ Nov 24th 2008 10:24AM]

But he still needs the disc in the drive.

[OneLove @ Nov 24th 2008 10:35AM]

I didn't see any mind control. :(

[a ham sandwich @ Nov 24th 2008 10:55AM]

you're not looking hard enough :P

[Pusta @ Nov 24th 2008 11:20AM]

@onelove - That's what they want you to believe

[vypergts @ Nov 24th 2008 11:49AM]

Might be worth it if it's quieter.

[ryan @ Nov 24th 2008 12:18PM]

cool! now its like the ps3!

[ZaxCG2 @ Nov 24th 2008 3:34PM]

@ryan.
YES! BUT WITH BETTER ONLINE PLAY!

[Steveorevo @ Nov 25th 2008 6:59AM]

Perhaps a new feature for XBox? Wow, combined with the New XBox Experience, its even more of a rip off of Wii meets iTunes cover flow. Can M$ do anything original?

[Verbatim47 @ Nov 24th 2008 10:21AM]

They should have done this from the start... Microsoft pffft...

[Mike Cerm @ Nov 24th 2008 10:31AM]

Why? Slot-loading drives have always been more expensive, slower, and more prone to failure, trapping discs inside when they do. It seems like a lose, lose, lose...

[Flashpoint @ Nov 24th 2008 10:42AM]

I agree with MIKE.

The technology isn't there yet for reliable slot loading drives.
With standard drives, even if the tray fails, you can typicaly pop it open with a needle until you can replace it. With a slot loader, you have to open up the entire system or risk scratching the disk if you attempt to remove it by force.

[Mokano40 @ Nov 24th 2008 11:03AM]

Agree with mike too

[ZaxCG2 @ Nov 24th 2008 11:32AM]

I like my consoles inexpensive thankyouverymuch.

[Oli D @ Nov 24th 2008 11:53AM]

i like slot loaders, guess why.

yep i have a mac mini, and its never failed on me (apart from the time i put a minidisk in... lesson learnt)

[Quix @ Nov 24th 2008 12:02PM]

"The technology isn't there yet for reliable slot loading drives." - Flashpoint

Which is why I've had slot-loading drives in my car stereos for almost 20 YEARS NOW???

Slot-loading drives work great on my Macs. And on my Wii. I'm sorry that Microsoft isn't smart enough to figure out how to use slot-loading drives successfully...

[Michael Scrip @ Nov 24th 2008 2:59PM]

> "The technology isn't there yet for reliable slot loading drives."

Decades of car stereos disagree...

[kornation @ Nov 24th 2008 3:03PM]

Slot load drives are there, they wasn't reliable enough by the time the original Xbox was released but the 360 was, see the Wii, Mac Mini, countless laptop drives and more.

My 360 has a terrible time opening up the disc drive, it wont open sometimes, sometimes it will open and shut straight away, others it will open and won't shut or open half-way and shut itself, add this to the 360 disc drive scratching problems etc and the slot drive seems like the bright idea.

[inteller @ Nov 24th 2008 10:22AM]

well there is one more 360 that will get banned on XBL for no good reason.

[matt @ Nov 24th 2008 10:26AM]

unless he's playing "backup" (pirate) games online, he won't get banned. read up on things before you make dumb comments next time.

[Crazyglues @ Nov 24th 2008 10:30AM]

yeah I was just about to say that, I wonder if it will get banned... so sad..

It really should have had this feature from the start, and ok even if you could not do it then, surely there is no reason why new 360's don't have this feature...

[inteller @ Nov 24th 2008 10:31AM]

I guess you've not heard about the serialized hardware checks XBL does from time to time. we'll see who's dumb after that mod yields an XBL boot.

[matt @ Nov 24th 2008 10:38AM]

he's using the same chips and same firmware... MS will never know the difference

[oZ @ Nov 24th 2008 10:39AM]

inteller: The article states that he actually took the innards of the existing drive and just used the existing slot loading mechanism of his old iMac. That would lead me to believe that the serial numbers and checksum would remain the same, which was probably his goal.

[Neil @ Nov 24th 2008 10:53AM]

@inteller

Reading really is a lost art eh?

[Ghen @ Nov 24th 2008 1:05PM]

not just XBL, if he had used a 3rd party slot-loader instead of building his own from the legit disc drive the xbox wouldn't even play games locally. Every piece of hardware is digitally signed, that's why you can't replace items that cause RRODs, you have to send the whole thing back to MS. Its a brilliant solution to hardware hacking that would work better if the hardware didn't have a 25-30% failure rate in the first year. (quasi-statistic based on stories joystiq has posted from retailers)

Too bad they didn't digitally sign the DVD drive's firmware. easiest console to hack hands down.

[Mike Cerm @ Nov 24th 2008 10:27AM]

If it's not going to effect drive noise or load times, why would you bother with this mod?

[ArcticFox @ Nov 24th 2008 10:51AM]

Because he can, if everyone though "why bother" wed still be on abacuses.

[teej @ Nov 24th 2008 11:20AM]

^^ +1

[Lowest Ranked @ Nov 24th 2008 11:48AM]

What was wrong with an abacus? I never got any spam mail on it.

[Oli D @ Nov 24th 2008 11:56AM]

oh i did, Plato was always fucking around with mine,
leaving me binary messages

(please dont correct me on my plato reference, first abacus related person i could think of.)
(and binary, i know, save the effort)

[Ghen @ Nov 24th 2008 1:06PM]

01110111 01100001 01101110 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01100010 01110101 01111001 00100000 01110110 01101001 01100001 01100111 01110010 01100001 00111111

[StalematE @ Nov 24th 2008 1:23PM]

01010010 01100101 01100110 01101001 01101110 01100001 01101110 01100011 01100101 00100000 01010100 01101111 01100100 01100001 01111001 00100001

[Chi @ Nov 24th 2008 3:30PM]

01001110011011110010000001110100011010000110000101101110011010110010000001111001011011110111010100100001

[ZaxCG2 @ Nov 24th 2008 3:36PM]

STOP BRINGING BACK BAD MEMORIES OF COMPUTER PROGRAMING CLASS.

[Technex @ Nov 25th 2008 8:46AM]

01010011 01010000 01000001 01001101 00100000 01010011 01010000 01000001 01001101 00100000 01010011 01010000 01000001 01001101 00100000 01010011 01010000 01000001 01001101 00100000 01010011 01010000 01000001 01001101 00100000 01010011 01010000 01000001 01001101 00100000 01010011 01010000 01000001 01001101 00100000 01010011 01010000 01000001 01001101

[Eleazar @ Dec 14th 2008 6:11AM]

01101101 01100101 00100000 01100111 01110101 01110011 01110100 01100001 00100000 01100101 01101100 00100000 01110000 01101111 01101100 01101100 01101111

[Shadowise @ Nov 24th 2008 10:30AM]

One of the more useful mods I've seen...

I wish it was just a case of swapping the drives..

[ZOMBIE @ Nov 24th 2008 12:31PM]

he should either reveal the way he did it or start selling these, i would love to experiment a slot loading drive for my xbox...plus this opens up the ability to start experimenting with blu ray drive implementation :)....not that i need one i have a ps3 :(...but i would definitely do it anyways :)

/\ happy sad happy...i cant make up my mind

[Turtle @ Nov 24th 2008 10:31AM]

"it was a simple matter of rebuilding the spindle, rigging up a tiny breadboard with a few transistors, cramming the new Frankenstein drive into the game system, and -- of course -- finishing up with some handy case mod."

I am a small, small man. I rebuilt my bathroom wall and tub hardware this weekend.

[Cubfan786 @ Nov 24th 2008 11:03AM]

I brushed my teeth this morning....

[teej @ Nov 24th 2008 11:20AM]

i got uh rock :-\

[ZaxCG2 @ Nov 24th 2008 11:34AM]

I can ride my bike with no handle bars...

[rock99rock @ Nov 24th 2008 12:08PM]

I got uh teej.

[Barbaric @ Nov 24th 2008 11:40AM]

Now if he stuck in a Blu Ray drive and was able to trick XBL into not noticing... But this may be the first step in that direction.

[srrbrrgrr @ Nov 24th 2008 5:23PM]

So then what? He could play PS3 games on his 360?

A Blu Ray drive would do nothing.

[Barbaric @ Nov 25th 2008 8:39AM]

I was thinking along the lines of watching Blu Ray movies. Kind of a all in one media center device. I know the games would never play.

[eric f. @ Nov 24th 2008 11:47AM]

"we think that anyone who's had their nerves rattled by the incessant banging of their console's optical drive tray will really appreciate it"

Seriously? Incessant banging? How many times does it bang when you put one disk in, and why are you changing the disks so often?

[Lowest Ranked @ Nov 24th 2008 11:51AM]

You haven't really lived until you've incessantly banged your optical drive.

[Oli D @ Nov 24th 2008 11:58AM]

thats why he prefers slot loader, tray loaders have a tendency to close inadvertently during banging.