Shoot, man. Our office had an import Dreamcast. We sent someone to the Akihabara district in Tokyo so that he could buy one the day it was released, and fly back with it. Along with the 2 or 3 gems of games he brought back was this stinker called Godzilla. Oh god, was it bad. I played it for hours just to see how much worse it could get.
We also had an air hockey table at one time, but people in the adjacent conference rooms complained about the incessant THWOCK THWOCK THWOCK noises, so we auctioned it off.
We just were talking about this in another thread. It seems that you might need to call a few times to get someone who knows, but they are still repairing original xboxes for no charge (replacing the drives). Mine came back with no problems at all, while someone else’s came back with a wiped hard drive.
We just were talking about this in another thread. It seems that you might need to call a few times to get someone who knows, but they are still repairing original xboxes for no charge (replacing the drives). Mine came back with no problems at all, while someone else’s came back with a wiped hard drive.
Thanks. I looked for it, but clearly my search karma is weak today.[/quote]
Actually, I was looking for the thread you posted in when I originally posted my xbox repair story – so your search-fu was stronger than mine. I ended up posting in a marginally off-topic thread.
And Roger, I’ve sort of rectified the situation by working for myself now and working from home. Since most of my work is with schools, summer is pretty slow, and I’ve spent a fair amount of time playing CoH and Spiderman 2 in the last few weeks.
Which isn’t as cool as having an xbox at work and playing with others at work (some of my fondest multiplayer memories are of playing Quake 2 at Symantec’s Santa Monica office, where a friend of mine worked in the mid-90s), but it’ll do for now.
I called 1-800-4myxbox today regarding my disc-reading and game-freezing issues. The very polite lady that answered the phone didn’t know anything about any offers for owners of original XBOX issues. HOWEVER, after she keyed in my serial # and took my nformation she told me that my only cost to have the XBOX serviced would be one-way shipping, and that they would have it back to me within 8 days. I think a stop by the UPS store will be called for on Monday.
Will do. It’ll probably be a couple more days before I ship it out. My friend with the memory module is out of town, so it looks like I’m going to have to purchase one. I want to back up my games (especially my hundreds of hours of Morrowind!) before I send the box off, just in case.
Will do. It’ll probably be a couple more days before I ship it out. My friend with the memory module is out of town, so it looks like I’m going to have to purchase one. I want to back up my games (especially my hundreds of hours of Morrowind!) before I send the box off, just in case.[/quote]
I dropped the Xbox off with FedEx today. They said regular Groud (I believe about $14 w/insurance) would arrive Friday, so I did that.
I called the support number tonight to confirm they had received my Xbox in the mail. The very polite fella named Mike what took the call confirmed they had it, said that the turnaround time was usually a day, and that it would probably be on it’s way home Monday.
The jury is still out, of course, since I haven’t seen what they will do, but so far I am a little creeped out. I’m not used to Microsoft being quick or polite about things, let alone efficient. I’ve been pleasently surprised so far; let’s see if it lasts after my box gets returned.
As best I could. The Mad Katz memory module I bought was 8mb (800 blocks). The saves for Morrowind, Sudeki and (I think) Crimson Skies were pretty big, like 200 blocks each big. I only got one save for each. DAOC Volleyball didn’t allow memory swapping at all (haven’t played in a year anyway), and I got a save from most other games, since they are mostly just 5-20 blocks each.
It turns out a friend of mine did this about a year ago and had no trouble, but his XBox did come back with a new hard drive and no saved games, so I was forwarned. I was also warned here, so bought the memory module.
Saving the games was pretty effortless once I figured it out. I’m actually pretty fond of my Xbox and use it as a DVD player, music player and gaming machine. I really don’t have many games, maybe 12-16. I do tend to play the ones I have to death, though.
The Xbox came back home Wednesday. Sorry for not posting sooner, it’s been a busy week. Not bad, under a week from ship to return.
I plugged it back in Thursday for a spin, and here’s what I found:
:arrow: There is a new disc reader/DVD. The logo looks a little different, and the motor when it opens and closes sounds -entirely- differerent from the old drie.
:arrow: The hard drive was wiped. I loaded my save games from the Mad Katz module with no issue. In fact, it seemed faster, but that’s probably because the module writes slower than the hard drive.
:arrow: I tried movies first. Matrix (the first one) still didn’t want to load (it loads okay on my DVD player upstairs), but Pirates of the Caribbean loaded no problem.
:arrow: Sudeki (I know, it’s not the greatest game, but it gave a lot of trouble to me before) loaded on the first try, and had no problems. I’ll try Morrowind GOTY once I’ve finished with Sudeki. Morrowind gave me a hellishly bad time when I tried to play GOTY, crashing every 5-10 minutes and taking 5 minutes to load again. Bleah.
So, it looks like the topic was originally about the first Xbox, but I’m wondering about a 360. This seems as relevant a place as any, around here, though.
I hooked my spare Xbox 360 Arcade unit up in the basement today, hoping to get in some Rock Band on the treadmill (whether that’s advisable or not is a topic for another thread), and it won’t read any discs. No DVDs, games, or CDs. Nothing. It just spins for a while and then offers me the “open tray” option.
I’ve done everything the troubleshooter has recommended, and it just doesn’t work. So, am I doomed to send this one in for service? Or is there a solution I haven’t tried?
In my ownership of three XBOX 360 consoles, I have had two DVD failures. I only managed to repair one of them.
The first DVD failure was due to a magnet that came lose and attached itself to the top of the metal DVD housing. This magnet played an important role in making sure the disc stuck to the spindle so that it could be spun at the proper RPM. I fixed that myself by disassembling everything and using superglue to permanently attach the magnet to the little plastic spindle from whence it had come.
The second DVD failure I’m sure is a lens or laser issue. I just need a replacement DVD drive to fix that. But rather than deal with it, I gave that XBOX away to a friend. It was out of warranty by 2 days.
