Replacing hardware

[Ricky G]

Hello Chaps


I wonder if any of you will be able to help with a little problem a mate of mine is having at the moment.


Basically his XBox is dead! R.I.P Box!! Over the course of the last few months, load speed has been grinding to a halt. This mainly happened on his FIFA games but has spread to all others. As his Discs run fine on mine I can only conclude there is a hardware problem of some sort.


He took his Box apart last night and found a lot of dust.After blowing all the dirt and putting it back together it seems to be running a little better but no where near the speed it did when he first purchased it.


So I was wondering if any of you could answer the following:-

1. Has any one had any similar problems and if so how did they overcome them?
2. Can individual components such as the DVD rom be replaced and if so where's best to purchase them?
3. Will replacing the devices be seen as a mod and prevent the machine from accessing XBox Live?


Cheers

[Boom]

Originally Posted by Ricky G

1. Has any one had any similar problems and if so how did they overcome them?

If its within the 1-year warranty period, phone M$ and they will replace for free. Not sure how much they will charge if it's outside of warranty.

Alternatively, some people have cleaned the DVD lens themselves which seems to be a major problem with slow-down.

Originally Posted by Ricky G

2. Can individual components such as the DVD rom be replaced and if so where's best to purchase them?

Yes, it can, but AFAIK only through M$, but you could always look for xbox mod forums because they more than likely have replaced individualcomponents themselves.

Originally Posted by Ricky G

3. Will replacing the devices be seen as a mod and prevent the machine from accessing XBox Live?

AFAIK, you should be able to change the DVD player and not have to worry about being banned as long as the BIOS has not been mucked about with or the chip changed.

[Jarandco]

Well i got my dvd dirve replaced by MS free of charge as it was within its year warrenty mainly because i had dirty disk erros even on brand new games! So they replaced it and since then its worked pretty much perfectly!

[Caspar]

Top tip!

If it doesn't work like new and you want it fixed here's what to do, assuming it's out of warranty...

Box it up, after taking your saved games and XBL account of course!, and take it down to Game or GameStation and flog it for £60 or so... Assuming it works to the degree of them not noticing the speed problem whilst in testing?

Then with your £60 goto Game or online buy a new console!...

New console will cost you £99 (I think is the latest price?)....The £40 extra outlay buys you a warranty and a MS promise that this one will work and will work on XBL!

You could even get a discount from Game, saying you want to upgrade the black Xbox to a greenmachine (assuming the limited is not so limited and have stopped selling them!)...buy it with a few latest games, you should be able to get yourself a decent discount! :p


Also, tell your m8 to keep his prized possession dust free! :p

Whatever you do - don't take apart the xbox! I've read recently in a games mag news letter page that someone had an xbox that refused to start, (they'd had it since launch day) they phoned M$ expecting the old line of paying for it to be fixed or paying for a new one - Microsoft gave them a brand new one, free of charge and no charge for picking the old machine up and delivering the new one! Always, always phone the Xbox support line first before doing anything is the motto!

[Ricky G]

Thanks for the replies people. Its certainly somewhere to start. I'll keep you posted on how this progresses.