Xbox 360 disk tray will not open

ok first go to 3pic.com then youll see instructions it shows u how you open when not opening and how to stop ur disk from spinning when the disk tray is opening

The reason the drive tray will not open is due to the belt on the motor slipping. This is a common problem with ANY optical disc drive that uses a belt and motor combination instead of direct drive gears. When the belt gets old, or in the case of the 360 VERY HOT it will stretch and slip. When it slips it can not break the magnetic clutch free that is on the spindle (the nubbin that goes through the center of the DVD disc) and the tray can not open.

What you can do is disassemble the drive and take the belt off (it is in the front of the unit under the tray) and take it to an electronics supply house and have them match it up. This process was common in the old days of repairing VCRs. A popular company that makes all types of belts is PRB (Projector Recorder Belt Company). The salesman has a chart he can measure the belt with and give you a replacement.

If you are in a hurry you can put the belt in boiling water for a couple of minutes to shrink it and it will work for a short while, but as hot as the 360 DVD drives get you should really match it up and get a couple of spares, you will probably encounter the problem again (especially with the Samsung drives; even the original Xbox Samsung drives were bad about this problem).

In every case where I have encountered either Xbox with a DVD drive tray that would not open the slipping belt was the problem (and I have fixed a BUNCH of them).

Hope this gets you going,

Hoyt

I have the solution my friends :)

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when the xbox is trying to open use the base of your hand and give it a quick hit it opens up perfectly then and if you leave a game in it it will not stick again i use this all the time when it makes  the noise like a click give it a moderate hit then  it wil pop open 

This worked for me!

I've had this same problem for most of the life of my console. The funny thing is I originally sent it in for a problem relating to the Red Rings of Doom, and got it back with a malfunctioning drive. Originally I solved the problem by permanently keeping a disc in the tray. Sadly a friend was playing GTA4 on there and took the disc out, and didn't replace the disc that was in the drive before when he was finished. Now the drive is jammed shut. I can't even hear it trying to open the drive. In short I'm severely annoyed and probably about ready to have a coronary.

Hoyt has the correct answer. Read his listing above or get a different video game system all together!

I found a solution to spending all the money for new belts and it only cost me $0.98. I went to Walmart and bought a package of the rubber ponytail holders and they work great. The added bonus is you get like a hundred in the package so they wil last awhile.

This is a great video clip relating to this problem!

The two things I did to get mine to open were:

1: Test to see if the large pulley will spin freely after you remove the gears so you can test it, and if it does a turn or two on it's own when you spin it, then it should be fine, but if not, then pull of the large pulley, and check the lubrication on the hub it was on to see if it has gunk in it, and if it does clean the lubrication off, and put new lubrication on, or just put the pulley back on and test to see if can spin freely again, and if it does then put it all back together, with the top of drive case, and see if it'll open up alright, if not then your belt is stretched out, so onto step two, which is really easy.

2: Use a little rubber band, that you can loop around the big pulley several times, then put the drive together again, and try again, since the little rubber band basically expands the inside of the pulley making the belt tight again.

I did both of these to get my 360 drive to open, since I bought it with a stuck drive tray off ebay in the first place, I had every intention of opening it up, but if you don't want to, or can't, then you should find the method somewhere on the internet that tells you how to take off the belt without opening your 360 using tweezers or whatever, and see if you can get a rubber band wrapped around the big pulley, anyway, I hope this helps somebody.

my mate had the same problem there is a simple solution why it doesn't open. the xbox 360 was probaly drop before getting to you!once drop because it is so fradgil and made from cheap plastic it jams it inside

Try this link . . . www.microsoft.com/Xbox360Console

To find your best solution.

15

ok for one all of your a mostly idiots. the xbox 360 is not cheap plastic. 2 there are multiple problems here for one the belt, two not hte belt it can be the gears. but the easiest solution here i think is just u take the front of the xbox bring it up about 2 centimeters and drop it. the disc tray will open

well my 360 won't open either and if you press the open button and then keep pressing in on the actual drive it sometimes opens. but if your like this hoyt dude and you love to open your 360 then your a crackhead.

the xbox 360 uses a lot of cheap parts so it is the most easy system to break. microsoft is cheap

just keep on pushin the open button and dont stop

SIMPLE TO FIX DOOR NOT OPENING!

Looked at the video on how to replace the belt (in previous siloution). Heres how it is done:

1) virtually all XBOX use samsung drives. can get replacement on line from richspsxparts.com (TS-H943A Samsung DVD drive belt)- $6.95, free shipping.

2) as noted in video, open drive (by tapping on hard on top when hitting open button if needed), unplug power.

3) you see see belt on top, on 2 drives, One small, in back, bigger one in front. Use toothpick to take off belt- careful to not have it fly off).
4) put on new belt (you should notice your replacement belt is smaller, as the old one probably has stretched). Put on small drive in back first, as it is harder to reach. Then put belt on backside on large drive in front and gently stretch belt with toothpick aqroud to the front of drive..

Once on, turn drive with your finger and the door should close- If so- it is fixed. Be careful to ensure belt is straight and didn't get twisted when you put it on. By turning by hand you should see if it is.

hope it helps!!!!!

Dirty drive belt on mine. Cleaned it and it's working fine, though a replacement will be in order soon I figure. Thanks for all the help on this site!

hey thanx titan...that really helped. i did it a couple times and it finally opened. thanx again

thx for video titan very helpful!

i am able to swap the sammy drive belts without opening console, by tilting it with the tray partly open

Lifelong gets my legend award! Nice work man. Good solution to the problem. I can offer some additional advice based on what I learned from your excellent video and tips.

I've lived with this problem since the XBOX was new and I refused to take it back because there was no other problem with the thing... so didn't want to risk getting a replacement with some other MS sponsored known problem.

Lifelong's solution shown in his video clip works perfectly. But I can add to this by saying BEFORE you try taking out that drive belt (it's pretty easy but there's a small chance you can drop it inside the XBOX), try cleaning the belt with pure alcohol (isopropanol etc - but NOT anything oil based). Put some on a cotton bud and, referring to the video he posted, give the belt and particularly the wheels a clean. You can spin the wheels and belt back and forth by simply pulling the tray in and out a bit. Just be caureful not to catch large bits of the cotton bud between the belt and the wheels.

As soon as I did this, problem solved.

However, I did also see that my drive belt was a little loose, so slipping it off as shown in Lifelong's video and taking it along to an audio/video supplier to match the part should solve the problem long term.

Once again, thank you Lifelong from me and my kids!! :)

i just put my xbox in the horizontal position and press open the tap the drive till it opens

this has just happend 2 me and i allways thourght xbox was better den ps3 but ovessly not

yeah man i xbox is doing the same thing, but now the eject button is starting to go haywire..... i really have to push hard to even get it to register that i want it to open.....really pisses me off, anyways thanks for letting me no that the belt is the main problem...also which systems have the samsung disc drive in them?

Umm no dude the xbox 360 is not cheap plastic, it is a 2 cased piece of technology the plastic case is 1, and on the inside there is a metal case. so HA!