The player -Smartfox- from the areagames.de-forums discovered a way to reduce the speed of the Xbox360 DVD-drive and reduce the noise while playing without real hacking or opening the Xbox360. All you need is an unmodified Xbox360 console, a game where a Xbox live patch exists for and of course an internet connection to get that patch.

 

First all patches on the console must be deleted with a maintenance of the data storage units. To do this, go to the the System blade, go on memory and press Y (if you have a memory card inserted you first have to select the HDD to get the Y-option.) Enter X, X, LB, RB, X, X to call the hidden maintenance option and confirm the question with Y. No other downloads than the patches will be affected.

 

Start the patchable game or insert it into the DVD-drive and close the tray and wait to the message that an update is available. At this point, do not confirm the message! Open the tray and close it again (You may insert a game-disc of a game where no patch exists for) and now confirm the message and download the patch. The game will then start with reduced drive speed! This procedure must be repeated each time starting the game again to reduce the speed.

 

Please test it, enjoy it and spread the word (this text and also how it works for you and what you think about it) so MS can see we need a slowdown patch. We tested this little hack with "Gears of War" and "Project Gotham Racing 3" and there were no noticeable lags or popups. Perhaps the loading times raised a bit, but that was acceptable so far. It IS possible, that future games need the full speed of the DVD drive, but till then - enjoy the silence! :)))

Sounds good . Considering the 360 sounds like a hair dryer. it would be good for night time playing

 

By removing the patches does that mean you have to update every time?

 

Does it work for all games?

Yes, it means to update every time your games.
You are deleting all patches at once, but it is really worth to do it!!!

I am so glad to know this workaround

@Microsoft
Something is going absolutly wrong with your 360, there is no need to speed up the dvd drive up to 12x!

I testet 10 Games and only 1 game (Battlefield 2), needs longer to load!!!
Please bring a patch out to solve this big big  problem!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lukutus, also from the areagames.de-forums, compared RS6:Vegas with and without that trick and measured a 15 watts lower power consumption with reduced speed. Sweet!

Tried it and must say that I'm really happy with it. It's a bit of a pain, to delete all of the patches everytime you want to play a game in "silent"-mode, but I think it is really worth it. For now a great workaround for the *imo* biggest cons for a 360...

Let's cross our fingers and hope that MS will eventually fix this issue after seeing that the gaming community isn't concerned by eventual "longer" loading times (we're speaking of maybe 2 seconds) and would prefer that over a console as noisy as a vacuum cleaner.

Got to say thanks to TitanBlue67,  just tried this fix to slow down the speed of the DVD drive and it works great, shame you have to do this every time you play the same game.  

Microsoft should take note and give us the option in slowing down the drives in our own preferences in dashboard.

For someone who hasn’t tried this fix it makes a huge difference in reducing the noise level.

Maybe start an online petition to Microsoft on this issue?

Please remember -Smartfox- first discovered this, not me. I just translated it and spread the word to make Microsoft see that people are happy with reduced DVD speed and minimal slowdowns while gaming/loading and they need to solve this problem better than this workaround, cause it's a shame.

For someone like me who has their 360 right next to them when they play, the noise thats ejected from the 360's backside can be so annoying at times. I often find that when playing, I have to turn up the volume really loud just to drown out the blasted noise. 

Anyway, thanks for this, I'll give it a go to see if it works for me.

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After getting my replacement console, 80% of the noise is the fans, not the dvd drive.

Would be a nice option though, especially if you have a console that actually has a loud drive.

 TitanBlue67 wrote:

The player -Smartfox- from the areagames.de-forums discovered a way to reduce the speed of the Xbox360 DVD-drive and reduce the noise while playing without real hacking or opening the Xbox360. All you need is an unmodified Xbox360 console, a game where a Xbox live patch exists for and of course an internet connection to get that patch.

 

First all patches on the console must be deleted with a maintenance of the data storage units. To do this, go to the the System blade, go on memory and press Y (if you have a memory card inserted you first have to select the HDD to get the Y-option.) Enter X, X, LB, RB, X, X to call the hidden maintenance option and confirm the question with Y. No other downloads than the patches will be affected.

 

Start the patchable game or insert it into the DVD-drive and close the tray and wait to the message that an update is available. At this point, do not confirm the message! Open the tray and close it again (You may insert a game-disc of a game where no patch exists for) and now confirm the message and download the patch. The game will then start with reduced drive speed! This procedure must be repeated each time starting the game again to reduce the speed.

 

Please test it, enjoy it and spread the word (this text and also how it works for you and what you think about it) so MS can see we need a slowdown patch. We tested this little hack with "Gears of War" and "Project Gotham Racing 3" and there were no noticeable lags or popups. Perhaps the loading times raised a bit, but that was acceptable so far. It IS possible, that future games need the full speed of the DVD drive, but till then - enjoy the silence! :)))

You are officially my hero of the day!  Playing Gears never sounded so quiet! Woot.

 

MODS PLEASE STICKY THIS THREAD

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Click your heels together 3 times and repeat "I Need A Life"

 TitanBlue67 wrote:

Please remember -Smartfox- first discovered this, not me. I just translated it and spread the word to make Microsoft see that people are happy with reduced DVD speed and minimal slowdowns while gaming/loading and they need to solve this problem better than this workaround, cause it's a shame.

And for memory, we do not want to wait till the next spring update!!!
It can not be a problem to program a solution!!!

I also noticed that if i install the latest patch and dashboards updates on my HDD then go to a 360 that has not been updated by using my current HDD with that console i do not get a beep at start-up or an increase of air-intake then a decrease when it first loads. I ntoiced this when i got a new 360 and kept the same HDD.

I followed the instruciton, but the noise did not go away. 

I was able to do the maintainence thing as you have posted.   After that I started loading the Rainbow six Vegas (that is when the drive's noise starts) to bring up the patch screen.  I opened the trace and  took out the game as instructed, hit yes to the DL the patch, and close the tray with the Vegas games. The game was loaded but the noise did not go away.  I also removed the Vegas disc and let the screen to go back to the initial dashboard before I re-insert the game,,,,it does not solve the problem either.

What have I done wrong?

Please help...I have not touched my console for 3 months now because of this problem.

Thanks

 

I tried this today and it works!

never has my 360 been so quiet

 Ryuho28 wrote:

I followed the instruciton, but the noise did not go away. 

I was able to do the maintainence thing as you have posted.   After that I started loading the Rainbow six Vegas (that is when the drive's noise starts) to bring up the patch screen.  I opened the trace and  took out the game as instructed, hit yes to the DL the patch, and close the tray with the Vegas games. The game was loaded but the noise did not go away.  I also removed the Vegas disc and let the screen to go back to the initial dashboard before I re-insert the game,,,,it does not solve the problem either.

What have I done wrong?

Please help...I have not touched my console for 3 months now because of this problem.

Thanks

 

 

I think before you install the update, you put in the other game you want to play.

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The way some people find fault, you'd think there was some kind of reward.

Wow, I rarely post on these forums but I have to say, this work around is pretty sweet.  We need to spread the word about this feature.  The more people that know of its benefits the more pressure will be applied to Microsoft to allow slower disc drive speeds.  If you guys are members of other message boards that don't know of this feature then let 'em know about it.  It's great, thanks.

i just wish it was allways this quiet

maybe I will try it tommorow after hearing all the good responses.

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OKLAHOMA
Panasonic TH-42PZ77U

That pretty cool that you can do this to reduce the noise

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My Halo 3 clan come check us out @

www.ceunited.com

Amazing, truly amazing.  How will this affect original xbox games on the 360?

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PGR 2 Rank=>59: 25th overall, 96.1 million Kudos

 Dixxhead wrote:

Tried it and must say that I'm really happy with it. It's a bit of a pain, to delete all of the patches everytime you want to play a game in "silent"-mode, but I think it is really worth it. For now a great workaround for the *imo* biggest cons for a 360...

Let's cross our fingers and hope that MS will eventually fix this issue after seeing that the gaming community isn't concerned by eventual "longer" loading times (we're speaking of maybe 2 seconds) and would prefer that over a console as noisy as a vacuum cleaner.

I think they should at the very least just add an option in the systems settings for setting your own drive speed.  Does anybody know what speed original Xbox games spin at?  I know I NEVER hear the drive spinning when playing in Back compat mode. 

Could this also mean longer life for the DVD-drives since they're not working their (mechanical) *** off when reading at slower speed, or does that matter at all?

Very interesting...

But I just turn up my volume...

Well I used too... Haven't had my 360 for a while...

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Wish: A snapshot feature
Helping to lower XBLA conversion rates.

 Onza wrote:

Very interesting...

But I just turn up my volume...

Well I used too... Haven't had my 360 for a while...

It never bothered me.

What actually bothers me on the 360 I own is that I'm not able to play it because MS is F*CKING HOLDING IT FOR OVER A WEEK AND DOING F*CKING NOTHING TO IT AT THEIR REPAIR CENTER IN TEXAS!

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