Tutorial written by : Moe
Caution: Proceed at OWN risk!

Since I’ve got my HP DVD200i writer, I realise that many « cheap » DVD+R media and most DVD+RW media didn’t work in my Xbox. So after many research to find a tutorial to tweak the laser of my Xbox Philips DVD drive, without any luck, I’ve decided to try it on my own. Since the final result really work for me I write this tutorial to help those with the same problem.

1/ Tear down the Xbox (I assume you already know how ! )

2/ Take the DVD drive out of the Xbox

3/ By removing the four screw on the top, remove the cover of the drive.

4/ Now you’ll see the laser unit, take a look on the side of the laser unit to locate the two pot. (look at the picture below)

click picture for full view

5/ The pot that we need to work on is the one with the yellow arrow. First mark with a permanent pen the original location of the pot (this way you can always come back to the original setting)

6/ Now take a mini screwdriver and turn very gently the pot CLOCKWISE, don’t turn the pot too much, in my case I almost did a quarter turn. Caution : If you turn too much, the unit could become noisy and even be destroy. I suggest that you try to turn the pot little by little, and test the unit each time.

7/ re assemble & test

Since I’ve made this adjustment my Xbox play all my DVD+R, DVD+RW, and even some CD-R (those with the light coloured recording surface: BASF,HP,Cursor...)