Robin Hoods Playground

Okay-I have a 360 that I've had for about three yrs it's the Arcade system. I swaped out a bad hitachi drive and put in a BenQ drive that I spoofed with no problem. Well I got the 3RR of death and sent the unit to a guy who repairs them and he charged me $50.00 and when I got it back the system did come back on but as soon as I popped a game in I got the open-tray error. So I contacted the guy and these are his exact words."Sometimes when the system overheats and goes to the 3 red lights it overheats the dvd drive causing it to fail also. We try to check every system with a game that leaves here but sometimes we miss one.
The dvd drive is a seperate repair and we charge $55 for it. Since you paid for our red light repair service I will give you a discounted price for $40" Well I was "quite" upset so I googled to find out about the open tray error. I tapped the box as some suggested, checked the position of the laser as some others had suggested and have come to the conclusion the drive is just shot. The drive does open and close but I'm thinking the laser's gone. anyway I could get another drive for $50.00 new on e-bay or $25.00 from Hong kong on e-bay with a long wait. The drives I've checked are warranted for 90 days. My question to the "seasoned" guys are would you invest in having the unit repaired or just buy a new arcade system? I'm looking at getting the Blaster CK3 as well so I don't have to keep opening the console.I can get an Arcade system right now from Best Buy for $199.00 with a new drive or just get another Benq and hope it lasts for sometime. Lastly I've lost the key from the Hitachi off my pc. Can I use the spoofed drives key to flash the repalcement BenQ drive if I go that route?

Thanks Guys!

ok man thats a lot of questions....let me try to be brief but through for you

The DVD drive has NADA to do with the RROD....the damage occured most likely in shipping to or from....

imo The shop does not test the units it fixes for the RROD....for drive function

Don't bother with the drive replacement as the drives from ebay are a hit or miss at best

If I were to order anything I would order a replacement laser....8-10 bucks and not from CHINA for speed.

IMO skip the Blaster and just use a CK3 instead ...don't take that long to open it

Thanks for the input-is replacing the laser a simple job? No soldering or any kind of adjustments that have to be made are they?

Some times there will be a little solder ball that will stop static from building up, you will need to remove that.

As far as installing, all you do is open the drive, unplug 3 or 4 ribbon cables, remove 2 screws slide the laser off the rail, and slide your new one in. Then proceed to plugging in all the ribbon cables again.