why is this happening?

[redrider]

ok so im all done with my 360..or so i thought... I got it all together and everything then tried to play a game and it comes up with an error saying please insert an xbox 360 disk.... i tied a movie and it works fine but i cant get any of my games to play.
Any thoughts? 

just saw this to lol...when i put a game in and am on dashboard it says i have a DVD in...WTF lol

[Max_Kreeger]

What mods have you exactly done to it ?

[802Chives]

dangit, that message is a pain when all you want to do is game.  Ok this is a fairly common thing with these consoles, obviously it is a DVD drive problem. 

I noticed in a different thread you disassembled for painting your dvd drive, did you paint the actual tray? the thickness of the paint could be the culprit which means you have to adjust your laser.

Did you notice the little black ring on the top of the dvd player the keeps the disc centered when spinning? sometimes those fail or people forget em.

Sometimes it is just dust on the laser lense. Sometimes the laser has gone bad. sometimes the tray alignment will do it to you. Any number of things could be the culprit.  Try a DVD just to make sure it still reads properly and it isnt an alignment issue.

When I went through this, i just bought another drive that was the same part# and swapped out the DVD drive motherboards from the one that came with the console.  Since the original mobo is keyed specifically to the console it came with.

I googled "please insert disk in xbox 360" and came up with a lot of hits, as well as a lot of mis-information.  Basically it comes down to the key being bad on flashed drives, or the laser fails on unflashed drives.  The remedy is usually like I stated above: replace the DVD drive.  Some people have had luck replacing the lasers, but I feel that you may just end of replacing the drive when the laser replacement doesnt work.

hope that helps

[Modded Matt]

very well stated chives. you should be able put it in and take it out and put it in untill ......it works, but it will eventually stop working. this is very common, microsoft will replace this under waranty if that is still an option for you.  I called and read them the error message and that was it they said "how do you want to send it back?"

[redrider]

ya i painted the tray to so i will try to adjust the laser... how exactly do i do that though?and yes a dvd reads and plays properly and everything. thanks for the help guys.

[802Chives]

hmm, darnit I was hoping you werent going to ask that  

first of all you are %100 certain your lense didnt get anything on it(make sure power is unhooked before inspection, lasers can blind you). 

As far as a mechanical adjustment I am still not convinced that the paint was your problem as the disk doesnt actually spin on the tray rather it gets lifted off and pressed against the little ring on the top. I dont know how to make a mechanical adjustment, but I think probably there is a way. If adjustment is needed, it will only be a slight adjustment of like 0.005" so that it is the same thickness as the paint. could also try sanding the paint off.

You can also adjust the intensity of the laser using a small screwdriver like in this link:
http://dwl.xbox-scene.com/tutorial/XBOX_360_POT_CALIBRATION_V1.0_by_Moda.pdf(pdf)

I suggest doing more research and trying a bunch of different things and seeing if they work, but my gut tells me you may end up chasing this problem around in a circle and ultimately finding out you needed to get a new drive in the first place. If it was me, I set a time limit on how long to work on it before calling it and buying a new one.  I would spend 2 hours tops, trying to resolve it before ordering a new one.  I got my new drive for $40. Let us know of any discoveries you may have.