CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

JustGreg · Joined: 07 Mar 2006 Posts: 3098 Location: Kenosha, WI

I got an email from M$ Saturday confirming they received my defective 360. I was told on the phone when I called almost 2 weeks ago that they would have it back to me in 6-8 DAYS after they received it. The email says 6-8 WEEKS! Man am I pissed off.
I think they should just keep the frigging thing and send me a voucher for Best Buy and I'll go get another one. What a bunch of sh*t. I think Hajjii was yelled at by pissed off consumers so much he learned to lie about the return time.

And the fact they aren't going to install a new cooling system pisses me off more. I should have just opened it and taken a shot at fixing it myself.

<sigh> Oh well. To find the silver lining, I guess I can use this time to pull my projector down, install the 145's and Joust mods, and cycle in the tubes I suspect as being bad from my parts 8500.

So any of you sending out your 360 that has been keeping your kids occupied during the summer vacation, don't plan on getting it back until after they're back to school.

Greg

WanMan · Joined: 19 Mar 2006 Posts: 10270

You know Greg, it is really hard trying to read one of your posts when that avatar is playing.

**AnalogRocks** · Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 2:03 am Post subject:

Ohh there was a post? Musta missed that.

Joust · Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 2:33 am Post subject:

my replacements did not take that long really.

JustGreg · Joined: 07 Mar 2006 Posts: 3098 Location: Kenosha, WI

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 3:08 am Post subject:

Nah, it's the unzipped jeans and what she's saying to me. Yes, to me, not to you, you're at least second in line...

BTW, I took the plunge and bought two local defective X360s this week. One has the 3 red LED symptom, one won't read the disc. Maybe I threw out $350, but worst case I can fix one, sell it and break even.

With MS taking 6-8 weeks for turnaround, my 2 day service will probably get some locals interested. I just heard the note on the MS support line: Refund checks will take 8-12 weeks. Their site hasn't been updated since July 5. I wonder how they are handling Canadian warranty claims?

Oh and BTW, yelling 'f*ck' into the automated system completely bypasses the wait time:) I told this to the tech support guy and he started laughing. He didn't know.

Joust · Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 3:40 am Post subject:

Does it? I'll have to try that
Max didn't like that bad word? LOL
call me, I can give you advice to fix your machine. BTW you cannot swap DVD drives in machines. you can but they will not read original game disks. there is a Key encoded in the drives firmware. You can extract it and put it in a new drive though.

JustGreg · Joined: 07 Mar 2006 Posts: 3098 Location: Kenosha, WI

I found a source for the warranty seals for the 360's. Twisted Evil

I need to do some more research to determine their "authenticity" and passability.

Muah ha ha ha ha. Evil or Very Mad

Greg

WanMan · Joined: 19 Mar 2006 Posts: 10270

BTW, since I started using the Nyko Intercooler I have not had any session disconnects, video anomalies, or console lockups. Pessimist is my trait, but I will have to ante up that this one worked.

Before, I would have the AC around 72ºF and a fan blowing on the power supply and console (which was sitting upright). Now I leave the AC at 76-77ºF and the fan is off and no problems therein.

Does this negate any responsibility on Microsoft's part? No. But I think function over form is a tell tale condition that Microsoft should strongly consider the next time they design a console, AND insure manufacturing processes are better.

Joust · Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2007 1:52 pm Post subject:

"Let me ’splain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up." –Inigo Montoya

don't sit your console upright. the heat sink compound runs out from between chip and heat sink. it'll run fine for a while then start overheating.

my 2¢

WanMan · Joined: 19 Mar 2006 Posts: 10270

But how else am I going to red-ring death my 360?

Joust · Posted: Mon Jul 23, 2007 1:19 pm Post subject:

You want to force it to fail?

CRT_Ben · Joined: 28 Aug 2006 Posts: 1684 Location: Northern Virginia

WanMan · Joined: 19 Mar 2006 Posts: 10270

Void my warranty? How will the 360 report I was using it in the first place? So, I could not use it and not play the 360, or use it and play with a questionable warranty scenario.

"Hello Microsoft, you 360 just died on me. Yes, I did add a 3rd party device to it and thus it melted everything. What, you are not going to support it because I was stupid enough to tell you what I did?"

Seriously, unless the Nyko itself melts and causes evidences on the chassis then I am a little bewildered how any sane person could determine what I did and didn't do.

Joust · Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 11:51 am Post subject:

I agree. how can this external box void a warrantee? I recomend its use. any more cooling this thing can get can only help.

CRT_Ben · Joined: 28 Aug 2006 Posts: 1684 Location: Northern Virginia

**Curt Palme** · Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 8:39 pm Post subject:

Just FYI, I had an XBox 360 that didn't have a red circle of death, it powered up fine, booted the DVD, but had no video output at all. As soon as I pulled the machine apart, the red circle of death did appear again and doing the fix cured both problems.

I did get the video to come up once before the red circle of death kicked in, so more than one type of problem can be cured with that fix.

Joust · Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 9:42 pm Post subject:

That stands to reason.
Its the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) that is failing. Depends on what pin/s fail what symptom is exhibited.

JustGreg · Joined: 07 Mar 2006 Posts: 3098 Location: Kenosha, WI

Here's an animation of the differences between the Elite and the "original" 360 if anyone is interested.
I was hoping there would be solder points to add additional memory packages like on the original Xbox but I don't see any. I added an additional 64MB to my old 1.5ver and got rid of the POS Thompson DVD for a 52X modded ver...in addition to adding an Executer X3 mod chip. That ole thing is still rockin' n' rollin' strong.

Greg

Joust · Posted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 10:21 pm Post subject:

no hacks yet....
other than firmware hacks for the DVD drives to allow you to play backups.

I got into the old xbox hacking because my son used to step on the DVDs and break them. Loading them on an internal Hard Disk turned out to be a lot cheaper. It is great as a media center as well.
even supports VGA somewhat.