Xbox 360 Problems

[The Dude]

About 3-4 months ago I picked up a 360 Arcade console as my previous Premium was having problems running dual layered discs and paying 100 to microsoft for a fix was out of the question.

Well now my 360 as of Today *thanks to my brother not telling me about it for 2 weeks but still happy enough to keep running his DVD's on it without telling me* keeps coming up with disc read error logos for every disc, even more annoying because i've finally decided to sit down and play Gears 2 only to find my console is in fact buggered.

Any suggestions? Or should I just forget the damn thing and get a new console? *which isn't really a good idea as im near broke to begin with*

[riderkid]

did you acticate the warranty for the arcade, all new 360s have warranty for a year

[Gradon]

Miclolsoft.
I'm not sure what to do, unless you get it repaired again, but theres always a chance that it'll break again.
Another way is a console replacement, but meh, same again, might break.
And buying another console will just be a silly suggestion if you're nearly broke.

[The Dude]

Just an advance warning, please keep fanboyism out of my topic, im asking for help not a bitchfest.

Looks like its not been activated *the arcade warranty*, suppose I should do it but frankly as it seems to be a disc drive error, from what I hear they're pretty much unrepairable to begin with and any microsoft repair is only a quick fix.

I figured Microsoft would charge you for repairs unless its a red ring/hardware fault issue anyway, not too sure on the details as the UK site for the 360 is a midfield of errors and misdirections.

[Borman]

As much of a dick move as it is, make the console red ring. There are places online that tell you plenty of ways to get it to die so.

[The Dude]

Quick suggestions? How long is the turnaround when getting it repaired? weeks or months?

[Vector]

You can make the console red ring? Wtf?

[Gradon]

Yes, by burning it out, so I've heard.
Overheating it, or putting it in the freezer, oddly I've heard both of these.
But dont quote me on this, I have no idea, all I can advice is keeping it on like 24/7...

[Borman]

Basically, there are ways to poke around the insides and stuff through the air holes or fan holes or something, theres a spot you can hit to make it red ring,

Or just call them up and tell them it red rings randomly. It doesnt always happen, but it can, and its annoying, and you want it fixed lol.

[kevstah2004]

You cut it's airflow thus causing the gpu and cpu to overheat resulting in a red ring simple just make sure you don't do it for to long or you'll set it on fire or at they very least melt the tracks on the pcb.

[Carnivol]

Got something nasty stuck on the lens inside?
Bad ventilation/heat making it DRE for unexplainable reasons?

I'd try to run a cleaning disc of some sort on it.

If that doesn't really help, your two main options are:

A: Live with it, evt. just live off of HDD install when the NXE hits next week. (Meh, that's no fun. Especially if you don't have a mighty big HDD available)

B: Hit up Xbox.com and order a repair on warranty. No need to RRoD it, just say it doesn't read game discs in the problem report *period*. They'll send out a courier to pick up the 360, bring it to their European service center (Which is in Eastern Europe, unless the UK uses a different one) and run it through the performance test. If the problem is anywhere as frequent as you say it is, the machine will fail the disc read test for sure, they'll swap the DVD rom, they'll check it on the funky form that lists what's been done to your 360 and then send it back home to you.

They swapped the DVD rom on my old 360 when I had mine in for an RRoD (they also swapped/fixed the mobo), and I didn't even have a problem with the the DVD rom at all (Like... maybe a total of 10-15 DREs over a period of nearly two years).


Thing is, before they back the 360s to their owners (after a fix or when receiving one for repair with some odd problem mentioned) they will run the system through a performance/diagnostic check. If something fails the check, they'll swap that component.

[The Dude]

UK has its own place you send it to if memory serves.
Thing is I though the army of death charged you for anything other then red ring. Despite warranty.

It runs DVD rom's for sure, but won't run 360 games oddly, I used a lens cleaner, it ran Force Unleashed for 5mins then crashed, most my other games won't even load, or if they do, I get disc read errors pretty much after title screan loadup.
Theres no question that its the DVD drive thats the problem, as i've tried most my games on a relatives console, and they've all run with no problems.
Its in a well ventilated spot, and theres little or no dust around there or in my room as i've got allergies to it.

So its definitley the DVD drive at fault, so you're certain my warranty permits a free repair?

[riderkid]

last time i checked all 360s havea one year warranty, i know because the reason i bought a new one is the old one expired a year after we registered

[The Dude]

Fair enough, I assume as I got it June its in its warranty still, so i'll ring up Microsoft tomorrow about it.

*Either that or cough up money for an Elite which I can't really afford as the Pro and Arcade consoles have had the same problem for me*

[Carnivol]

Yeah, your warranty covers broken DVD roms, failed power supplies and all sorts of piss. Pretty much anything that you haven't brought upon the console yourself and that is only brought upon it during the warranty through what's called "normal use".


Sounds like the problem is that the DVD rom hates Dual Layer discs or something.
But yeah, just call up MS (or use the Xbox.com repair order form thingy) and tell them it doesn't read game discs. Give them the system ID and all that piss and they'll come pick it up and you should be good to go. Read the fancy letter and all that before shipping it (tells you just the usual garbage of "detach all parts, such as HDDs and memory units"). They'll probably just swap the drive, so don't expect a new unit, unless they find other issues during the performance check.