I had a problem recently with my Xbox 360, which, up until one day a couple of months ago, had operated fine for about three years. That day, I turned it on to find that, while it powered up, it never actually booted, and the disc drive was no longer responding. Thankfully, I did not see the dreaded "Red Ring of Death" (a sordid tale of poor solder joints), so naturally I assumed something was wrong with the drive.
I went to my old IT method for fixing a stuck drive: using a paper clip to manually pop the drive loose -- that didn't work. There was no access to the gears. This forced me to disassemble the entire unit to get at the drive. Upon inspection, the drive was still locked up. After working the parts loose and reassembling, the original problem persisted.
I went through Microsoft's official troubleshooting guides, which amount to a couple of basic checks ("Are you sure the console is plugged in?," etc.). After you've gone through these motions, the guides dump you into a request for service form. This, of course, costs $120 plus tax, conveniently the same price as a refurbished unit. Figuring the drive was dead, I began to look at buying a replacement drive.
But it wasn't that simple. In an effort to combat piracy, the firmware on the disc drive is keyed to the motherboard, so a replacement wouldn't be recognized by the console. The only way to get a replacement drive recognized by the console would be to get the firmware off of the existing drive and flash it on to the console, which, if I had been able to do, I probably wouldn't have needed a replacement drive in the first place.
One last desperate Google search revealed that sometimes the disc drive power cord dies, rendering the drive unusable until it is replaced. Since I was either going to liquidate my 360 collection or buy a new drive, I purchased a replacement cord for $5 on eBay. After receiving the cord -- and honestly not expecting that to fix the problem (the cord is essentially jumper wires between two jumper blocks, reversed in position for who knows why) -- lo and behold, my Xbox is working again.
I've been gaming for about 25 years, and while I've heard of old systems not working anymore (everyone I knew growing up eventually worked out a ritual to get their NES to work), I've never heard of a console going bad before it got replaced by a next-generation system. I haven't fully investigated what exactly failed in the original cord, but I suspect it has to do with the lack of strain relief of the cords wound around each other.
This entry was submitted by R.J. Hill and edited by Rob Spiegel.
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Your comment about lasting until the next generation of system comes along is interesting. These devices don't really need to last long, do they? Few people stick with an old system becuase the new ones are generally much more attractive in features and performance. They also generally run the games from the last generation. I have even found that there are emulators for old game systems for the PC. If you have a powerful graphics processor on your PC, then this becomes feasible. You can even use the controllers from the older systems on the PC.
Fixing the system by taking it apart is not very comonly done. Many of the kids I know who are into this would do that, though. I don't think they are a representive sample. Probobaly all future engineers.
In troubleshooting, always start with the simplest solutions first. Checking the power cord is always first.
Good to know, just in case my XBOX happens to fall victim to the same issue.
But, I must admit, I don't use it much these days. It was almost exclusively a Netflix streaming device. Jokingly referred to as the NetflixBox. But for $60 a year for just that seemed crazy. So, I ended up just getting a used "Boxee" from a friend. Now I can watch Netflix for free, and stream movies off of a USB drive or SD card.
I don't like matched hardware in industrial equipment, and I don't like it in home equipment. If Microsoft wishes to combat piracy, why is the darn thing modular in the first place?
Actually, I think your comment may be right on target, "I suspect it has to do with the lack of strain relief of the cords wound around each other." In the last year I have seen a blow dryer and a battery charger both fail due to lack of strain relief of the cords...its really frustrating to see such a simple but essential concept for longevity disregarded when it could so easily be fixed.
We don't even part swap anymore - we just throw away things when they quit working and don't think twice. I remember when my printer went out after only two years of light service - I couldn't believe it. My old faithful HP had lasted 5 years or more. When the sales person at Office Depot informed me that two years was about right - I wanted to say, "Beam me up Scotty - there's no intelligent life here!" It's a different world...I guess some folks would say three years on your XBox is stellar - great job finding a fix!
Woo Hoo! Pong! If you set the paddles just right it would play itself which was pretty funny when you speeded it up and it came with a cool plastic rifle too. We were the first kids on the block to get one and thought it was totally cool. That would be the 70's...
I've seen an increase in cord problems due to no built-in strain relief on a variety of consumer electronics devices, including some computer peripherals. It's really really annoying, since many of these cords are not wound around each other. They're just not lined up perfectly flat all day. It's also really really annoying since cords on all electric and electronic devices used to be a heck of lot sturdier.
And did you know a common problem is that people put heavy objects on data cords - flattenning those zeros so they look like ones? Seems to me we could have better quality material to prevent that...Okay, I'm kidding...need more coffee LOL!
But seriously, I agree - strain relief is a real problem that is really so fixable...it is annoying! Used to be "check the cord first" was just not thought of - but now it is.
Since trying to use a paper clip was mentioned I am assuming that the drive in question was the optical drive and therefore the power cable in question would be an internal power cable not an external power cord. Power cable routing/XBox unit assembly and initial power cable assembly would be the most likley candiadtes for failure and there should be no need for strain relief. Usually this type of failure can be traced down to incorrect cable assembly.
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