RickHarrisMaine Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 So I've been lately having a few issues with my Xbox 360. I'm not sure what version this one is, but it doesn't have HDMI, and it was manufactured in Sept 2008. This was an Xbox 360 Pro with the 20 GB HDD, though I've since upgraded it to a 250 GB HDD. At any rate, I picked up a used copy of Borderlands a few months ago, and it didn't work, but I didn't think too much of it, and tried to resurface it a few times. It never worked though. Then this weekend, my son came upstairs all upset that his new Halo: Reach game doesn't work, and it had been fine since Christmas. I looked over the disc, and saw some grooves into it, but not really bad ones. Other games worked fine, just not Halo: Reach. I used a dvd/cd cleaning disc in the 360, tried that, and as soon as I tried it, the DVD drive door began having trouble opening and closing. It's a little spotty as of late, but I seem to be able to get it open when need be. So I have a problem, it seems, with this disc drive not reading all games, and also the disc drive tray getting a little wonky on me. I'm wondering if anyone here has experienced this, and if so, is the RROD far behind? Should I send the unit to Microsoft for repair, and pay the $99 out of warranty fee for it? Should I trade it in to Gamestop and trade it in on a unit with HDMI, and is presumeably less buggy? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xenomorpher Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 I've had the original Core systems act that way toward my copy of Dead Rising. When I would go to a certain area, the dirty disc message would show up even when I installed to the hard drive. The disc has a decent amount of light scratches though. My drive door has been sticking for the past three and a half years or so too. This may not be the greatest thing to do, but I always keep a disc in so I can always open my drive door. There are a few tutorials on YouTube about fixing that issue though with a tiny new rubberband. With some research you can replace the dvd drive and flash it with the old drive's key and stock firmware. I've done this to a Samsung, and depending on the DVD, it can be very easy or tough. If I were you, I'd first at least see what DVD drive you have by looking at the disc tray and Google how to tell what kind you have. If it's like the Lite-On type, I'd either sell it on eBay because I think you'd get more there than Gamestop, or send it to Microsoft though $99 is a lot of money for this issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snume Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 I originally had the same 360 you have - same model, upgraded to the same HDD and around the same manufacture date. My drive slowly (over the course of a year) gave me more and more grief in the form of read errors. I would need to open and close the drive multiple times to get it to recognize the disc until it finally just wouldn't anymore. I googled which drive I had (I think thee are 3 different manufacturers for those models) and bought a replacement off eBay for about $40. Rather than flash the drive, I just had to swap out the control board on the drive with the one from my old one and worked just fine. After another 1.5 years it Red Ringed on me so I couldn't say the rings are coming for you or not. If you are even more adventurous, you could try a D-I-Y lens swap for only around $10-15. I was too nervous for that one. I did happen to buy a new arcade unit for $130 on a sale back in April so I just had to swap the hard drives and I'm still going, but it seems the Red Rings are just inevitable. My advice would be you only fix what is broken now and save the extra $50-60 for if/when it Red Rings. Hope that helps some. Here are 2 links to more info Swap Drive Info Swap Drive Info with Video & Links to Buy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moycon Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 I had an older 360 stop reading disks. I didn't do anything with it but send it back though because it was still under the extended warranty I had gotten. It would be nice if you could get it to RRoD, that should be covered for 3 years so you could send it back to them for nothing and get it fixed or replaced. Might could call support anyways and see if they'd replace it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FastRobPlus Posted January 31, 2011 Share Posted January 31, 2011 So I've been lately having a few issues with my Xbox 360. I'm not sure what version this one is, but it doesn't have HDMI, and it was manufactured in Sept 2008. This was an Xbox 360 Pro with the 20 GB HDD, though I've since upgraded it to a 250 GB HDD. Flashing lights and drive read issues are not related. Please try this out link - it's the disc read troubleshooter. So I have a problem, it seems, with this disc drive not reading all games, and also the disc drive tray getting a little wonky on me. I'm wondering if anyone here has experienced this, and if so, is the RROD far behind? Should I send the unit to Microsoft for repair, and pay the $99 out of warranty fee for it? Should I trade it in to Gamestop and trade it in on a unit with HDMI, and is presumeably less buggy? If you do find that your drive is not working right, the best solution for you might be to see if you can find a new Xbox 360 Arcade system on closeout ($150 would be a good price) somewhere. If you want to go refurbished form somewhere like gamestop, get only the MS refurboshed unit, and check the power supply. You want to see that the power supply is rated at 175watt or lower. 150watt is best. The lower the wattage, the newer the system. Before the 'S' console, the last Xbox Elite and Arcade units were 150 watt, had fans and disc drives that were far quieter than the early ones, and were nearly bulletproof. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickHarrisMaine Posted February 1, 2011 Author Share Posted February 1, 2011 After doing a little more research, I've determined that I probably have the Opus motherboard on my Xbox 360. Does that fact change anything? I had heard that the Opus board was a replacement for the Falcon board, but without HDMI. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iswitt Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 I had the same issue with my 360. Disc tray sticking, disc read errors on discs that were previously fine, etc. I eventually received the infamous RRoD, which sucked at first until I realized that even though my 360 was no longer under warranty, they still replaced my console free. But it took a really long time for it to die. You're in for the long haul if the same thing is happening to yours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atariboy Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 If it gets the RROD before going out completely and is still under warranty, you'll be all set. They never send the same system back these days so you'll be able to get away from that disc drive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Itchy Koala Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 With some research you can replace the dvd drive and flash it with the old drive's key and stock firmware. I've done this to a Samsung, and depending on the DVD, it can be very easy or tough. If I were you, I'd first at least see what DVD drive you have by looking at the disc tray and Google how to tell what kind you have. This is your best solution, it will cost you around $35 for a new disc drive and they are fairly easy to install. You don't need to flash the old disc drives key, when I did it I just removed the circuitry from the old disc drive, and swapped it with new disc drive's innards. Just make sure you get the same brand drive as your old one, as they are not the same. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickHarrisMaine Posted February 2, 2011 Author Share Posted February 2, 2011 I believe I have an Hitachi drive.... I dunno, this looks a bit complex, given that I'm an idiot and all..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Itchy Koala Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 The one I replaced is Hitachi, trust me its not too bad, the hardest part is swapping out the two boards. And if you don't do it right, well, it was already broken to start with Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickHarrisMaine Posted February 2, 2011 Author Share Posted February 2, 2011 This may be a total pipe dream, but it can't hurt to try..... I think I'll call up Microsoft and tell them about the issue, tell them I'm pretty bummed about having this happen, especially as I got this machine with an Opus motherboard in it, which apparently was a repair replacement for the one before it, but I bought this as a new system, and it's out of warranty, but now this issue is happening, and just after I plunked down the money for their Kinect....how it really bums me out to plunk down that money, and then be forced to plunk down another $100 because they clearly didn't replace the drive when they did the repairs in the first place....yadda yadda yadda... Maybe I'll get someone nice on the other end of the line.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RickHarrisMaine Posted February 2, 2011 Author Share Posted February 2, 2011 spent an hour on the phone with microsoft, escalated to one level, then escalated again to a technical support specialist. they'll be calling me in a day or two.... weird that i could install Halo: Reach to my hard drive from the disc, but couldn't play it at all.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Video Posted February 9, 2011 Share Posted February 9, 2011 Optical drives on modern systems SUCK. The tolerances (even on standard DVD) are just to high, especially for something that will see heavy use like a game system (at least with computer, I just toss the drive and get a new one) Thank god Microsoft has a setup to let you play games off the HDD, all my most played games are on the HDD, and as far as I know, it only reads the disc to make sure you actually have it once you rip it to the HDD. Of course, that won't help you if your drive is already acting up (all it's faults while playing games will be seemlessly copied over tothe HDD as well as whatever it actually correctly reads, unfortunately..) Looks like your in for repair, or a new system. AS aged as it sounds, I would probably say, use your system to back your saves to a memory stick, and get you a new 360S....but get those saves copied, the old drives and memory cards aren't compatible with the 360S Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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