360 Crisis

[Blackjack041277]

So, the disc drive in my 360 doesn't want to read discs anymore. Or it's at least extremely reluctant to. It will sometimes, when it's in the right mood I guess, but such times are becoming increasingly rare (usually, once it manages to initially detect the disc if it does, it does fine after that.)

Obviously, were this a RRoD, I'd be sending it in. But, something like this isn't covered anymore since I've had the 360 for more than a year. Which means I'd be spending $100 to get it fixed and still have no warranty on anything else that goes wrong. Furthermore, they tell me I can't change the return address once I submit a repair order. Meaning if it takes them more than a month to repair it (easily conceivable) I'll have gone back to California for the summer and there'll be nobody here in Iowa to receive it. That means to be on the safe side I would have to wait until I got back to California, then send it in, and be Xbox-less for months.

So, I'm thinking about getting a refurbished 360 with a 20GB HD for just under $200 and popping my current 60GB HD into it. Is there anything that might go wrong with that? And what do you need to do to get a new 360 marked as the "official" one your account/gamertag belongs to?

[vedis]

you can do that, or get an arcade and pop your HD on it

there is a license transfer tool on the xbox live website you have to go through thats available "ONCE PER YEAR" to transfer the console license of all your stuff over to a new console(which is what your going to need to do)

you dont really transfer your gamertag etc over sinse its the HD that stores the info on most stuff

[BuRn7 CaK3]

If you keep your hard drive, you won't need to worry about the 360. Your gamertag is saved directly to the HDD instead of the 360 (unless you have an arcade 360 already).

You're just better off buying a refurb'd 360 or just buying an arcade 360 brand new for the same price.

[Hanrahan89]

After I bought the game MLB2K10 if I shut the Xbox off without first going to the dashboard when I turned it on again later it would say "Open Tray". It wouldn't recognize any disc until I took the disc out and closed it with nothing inside then opened it and put a disc in. I don't know if you have the same problem but you should try closing the tray with nothing inside then put in a disc.

[Jglaubman]

Yeah, I would go with the brand new Arcade for 200 bucks (or maybe less now) rather than a refurbished 360.

[vedis]

After I bought the game MLB2K10 if I shut the Xbox off without first going to the dashboard when I turned it on again later it would say "Open Tray". It wouldn't recognize any disc until I took the disc out and closed it with nothing inside then opened it and put a disc in. I don't know if you have the same problem but you should try closing the tray with nothing inside then put in a disc.

the open tray bug is annoying
sometimes you just need to give your system a minute or 2 to warm up and itl read it properly(or sometimes its the disc itself being a little out of shape)

[monkeyfish]

I had all the problems with my first 360. Disc read errors, a disk drive that you'd have to pry open with a knife if it closed without anything in it, a dead fan and eventual RRoD.

But like everyone else is saying, just buy a new 360 and switch the license around by going to the main XBL site. Newer models are much less prone to sudden defects and death.

[Blackjack041277]

Well, if you can put an HD into an arcade that's definitely the way to go. If I got the cheap refurbished one I'd still have that superfluous 20gb HD hanging around. I remember you can't play DLC unless you're logged into XBL and can't play games from the HD at all even when you have your old HD in a different 360, it's that license transfer thing I was wondering about.

[BuRn7 CaK3]

^ ~> http://www.xbox.com/en-us/support/systemuse/xbox360/licensemigration/

So, I'm thinking about getting a refurbished 360 with a 20GB HD for just under $200 and popping my current 60GB HD into it. Is there anything that might go wrong with that? And what do you need to do to get a new 360 marked as the "official" one your account/gamertag belongs to?

Yeah, it'd be pointless for you to get a 20GB refurb'd one when you can get an arcade for just $40 more, plus it'd be brand new and you'd have a warranty on it if it breaks within a year. If you buy a refurb'd one, you won't have a warranty on it. What happens if the console you just bought breaks in 6 months? Looks like you'd have to fork over more money for another refurb'd one.

[Blackjack041277]

After I bought the game MLB2K10 if I shut the Xbox off without first going to the dashboard when I turned it on again later it would say "Open Tray". It wouldn't recognize any disc until I took the disc out and closed it with nothing inside then opened it and put a disc in. I don't know if you have the same problem but you should try closing the tray with nothing inside then put in a disc.I wondered if that might help but it doesn't seem to make any difference.

[Blackjack041277]

Yeah, it'd be pointless for you to get a 20GB refurb'd one when you can get an arcade for just $40 more, plus it'd be brand new and you'd have a warranty on it if it breaks within a year. If you buy a refurb'd one, you won't have a warranty on it. What happens if the console you just bought breaks in 6 months? Looks like you'd have to fork over more money for another refurb'd one.I was pretty sure the refurbishes had a warranty too, I just didn't know you could put an HD into an arcade.

Just dance, yo. (quoting Happy Dragon)

[BuRn7 CaK3]

I was pretty sure the refurbishes had a warranty too, I just didn't know you could put an HD into an arcade.

Oh, I guess they do (warranties on a refurbished 360). It might've helped if I did a little research. Maybe I was just talking about used 360's. :o

Yeah, when my elite broke on me, I kept my 120 gig and bought an arcade. There's this thing that cover's the HDD spot that can be taken off. If you already have a hard drive, there's no point in buying a refurbished 360. If you even trade in the hard drive, that'll give you like $15-$20 for that? You'd be better off just buying an arcade.

[vedis]

I was pretty sure the refurbishes had a warranty too, I just didn't know you could put an HD into an arcade.

Just dance, yo. (quoting Happy Dragon)

you can put one on an arcade, i did

the arcades just dont come with their own HD is all it is, it comes with internal memory(and not very much at that), it also doesnt come with some of the HD wiring i believe(which wont matter if your just replacing anyway sinse you already have the HD wiring)

theres just a panel on the side you pop off to put the hard drive in for the arcades that normaly isnt there on the other 360s(cuz they already have HDs)

[Ehfahq]

I bought an arcade as a back up for when my xbox dies I have an xbox still. Only needed it once. It came brand new, with an internal memory card and a free game. 200 bucks.

And yes you can plug a HD into it. Sometimes you can get a free game too. But its usually sonic tennis and a arcade disk.

[vedis]

I bought an arcade as a back up for when my xbox dies I have an xbox still. Only needed it once. It came brand new, with an internal memory card and a free game. 200 bucks.

And yes you can plug a HD into it. Sometimes you can get a free game too. But its usually sonic tennis and a arcade disk.

lol sonic tennis came with mine

amazingly it gets played(by my 7 year old)

[bengino]

The arcade was the way i went when my original 360 bit the dust. The dude at the store was trying to sell me a different model because it had no memory. I turned to him "hm, dude i have a Hard drive waiting for me at home ready for me to just pop it in this sucker". He left me alone. I got the arcade disk thing as well.

[RockBandAtlanta]

Take your current one and trade it in at GAMESTOP.

If you can catch when they give 25% more for trade-ins, you can get $90 for it.
Add $110 for the arcade and just use your existing HDD.

That's only $10 more than to get it repaired (give or take tax).

[Chuck_Fiasco]

Look around on Craigslist. There's always people around where I live offering to fix 360's at pretty reasonable cost.

[RockBandAtlanta]

FYI.

Arcade for $159 from Dell plus free shipping plus 3% off that if you use their credit card:

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/products/XBOX_360/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=eep&cs=6099&sku=A2860223

[CJHobbes]

I really don't mean to hijack this thread, so apologies if I'm crossing the line here.

This Open Tray error is the worst I've found. I cannot find any concrete info on what causes it, how to avoid it, or how to fix it, anywhere on the internet. Everything I've seen, I've tried, and nothing has worked 100% of the time.

It started with the regular XBox: it gave me the "put this disc in a 360" error (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Aomd5DtLlFw/RgPWFYOZj7I/AAAAAAAAAC0/WU7tmhHYnyA/s400/To+play+this+disc,+put+it+an+Xbox+360+console.jpg) . My warranty was up, so I bought an Elite. 4 months later, Open Tray error. Returned under warranty, brand new Elite: 3 months, Open Tray. Returned and exchanged with MS for a refurbished: 3 months, Open Tray. Returned again, same thing. Bought an Arcade as a spare unit while I wait for the 360 to return, that one Open Tray'd on me. My new Elite is still working, barely, but it's starting to give me another Open Tray error.

It's increasingly frustrating since I'm way too invested with games and DLC on my XBox. I've tried the rubber band trick, switching out the laser lens, cleaning the optical lens, tweaking the POT setting; nothing's worked. My console is in the open, so it's not a heating issue. I live in Vegas, so it might be a dust issue, but when I opened up one of the consoles I didn't find much of anything. I tried using the canned air to clean it out, still nothing.

Since I can still play CDs 100% of the time, I was thinking the DVD lens burned out because they used cheap hardware. This last Elite I installed all my games to the HD so it didn't have to constantly read the disc, but it's giving me the Open Tray error after 4 months now.

I'd like to think I'm fairly software and hardware savvy, but this problem is bugging me to no end. Am I missing something completely obvious, or are the 360 drives really that cheap?

[Darkstar8101]

i think mine was an older version of the elite, it still had the jasper chip and everything. i went to gamestop on that friday, 2 days after my b-day when the price dropped $100. the reason the prices dropped $100 was bcuz they took the HDMI cable out. but i still got the cable when i bought the Xbox(w00t free $100 cable!!). and i had the same problem the disc drive just shut down. u just gotta slap the bottom of the 360(if its laying on its side) a few times and it will eventually read the disc. eventually though its gonna take a lot of slapping(shut up you perves) to read the disc. it got to the point where i was doing that for an hour and it still wouldnt work. i would send it in. and anyways if u send it in and pay $100 they dont fix it they just give u a new one(im pretty sure) and u dont have to pay $200 for an arcade or refurbished.