My (original) XBox DVD drive is screwed up

[Teggy]

Less than 3 years old and supposedly one of the "good" Samsung drives. Best I can tell from descriptions I have read, the tray is misaligned but I guess there could be more to it.  Drive tends to pop right back open when I close it, it makes a grinding noise when discs finally do load up, it freezes for periods during gameplay and the music often drops out. I found instructions on the net for realigning one of the older drive types, but I broke open the drive and the internals were a bit different on the Samsung. I've got us on an austerity budget now to pay down grad school loans so I can't really justify replacing it, especially since I have plenty of backlog on the PS2 and Wii. But I just ordered a copy of Splinter Cell 3 from an Amazon gift certificate I had won and now I can't play it. 

[kronovan]

Teggy have you checked around to see what a preowned or refurbished unit costs. I know that EB is only offering a $18 trade in value for them where I live, so you should be able to get 1 cheap. I'd offer you mine for cheap, but I just gifted it to my nephew who's away at college with no console to play.
Have you posted a LF in the trading forum for one; maybe some other GT'er has 1 kicking around gathering dust.

[Teggy]

Well, from looking around the net, I can get a new replacement drive for $50 shipped - I'm sure the boxes at GS are more than that.   What I'll probably wind up doing is asking for it for the holidays, which is kind of lame, but oh well.

[ras752000]

Same exact 'chainsaw' noise happened to mine that was purchased last Christmas . . . all I had to do was hold the phone up to the console and they agreed to send me a box.  Just got the replacement unit last week . . .