Xbox Help

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Tue Dec 26, 2006 9:12 pm

My friend's Xbox is messed up. When he turns it on, it says it needs service and and light flashes green and red. Its been working up to this for a while.
It started when his cousin dropped some weights on it, and some of his saves got corrupted. Games would load super slow, and sometimes not at all (doesn't help that his games are scratched to heck). He said it started to make weird noises when loading, recently. And now its to the error on start up.
Anyone have any idea whats wrong with it and how to fix it? We're pretty sure it has something to do with the weights dropping on it. I can take it apart if you need me to check anything inside.

Post by **bicostp** » Tue Dec 26, 2006 9:17 pm

If enough weight was dropped on it with enough force, the hard drive and DVD-ROM drive may have been broken. That's what it sounds like to me, since it makes "weird noises when loading" and "some of his saves got corrupted" after the weight got dropped on it.

I think the simplest solution is to buy another Xbox.

Hey! At least this gives him an excuse to get a 360! (If he doesn't have one already

)

timmeh87 · Post by **timmeh87** » Tue Dec 26, 2006 9:24 pm

it sounds like the hard drive had a head collision. if the box was on at the time of the incident, im almost sure of it.

when it tells you it needs to be serviced, it gives you an error code right? you can look it up to see what specifically the problem is.

if so, you cant just drop a new hard drive in without a modchip. if he has a modchip, now is time to get a bigger hard drive.

he he dosent, the cheapest way is to find a new motherboard/hard drive combination (they need to be matched).

otherwise, sell it on ebay "as is" and get a new one.

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Tue Dec 26, 2006 9:46 pm

Thats what I thought, just wanted some of your input. Maybe I could tell him its screwed and convince him to give it to me.

Now he has a reason to get a 360 besides Halo 3.
So is the DVD drive definitely dead? He has been wanting a modchip, so he could get one and give it a bigger hard drive, just as long as the disc drive isn't toast.

timmeh87 · Post by **timmeh87** » Tue Dec 26, 2006 10:18 pm

well. it could be one, the other, or both. did you check into that error code.

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Tue Dec 26, 2006 10:51 pm

timmeh87 wrote:well. it could be one, the other, or both. did you check into that error code.

Oh ya, I'll ask him tomorrow. He didn't mention a number to me, though, just that it said to get it serviced in a ton of languages.

joevennix · Post by **joevennix** » Tue Dec 26, 2006 11:20 pm

If the box can still boot, soft mod it, and use Chimp to format a new hard drive. Check xbox scene for tutorials and stuff.

EDIT: Oh hey, what do you know, didn't really read the first post. There's not much you can do now, except read the contents of the EPROM to get your HD Key, and use the key to format a new hard drive using your computer (again, see xbox-scene).

lifeisbetterwithketchup · Wed Dec 27, 2006 5:39 am

I'd say buy a new DVD-ROM drive from llama.com and then softmod it and replace the HDD after you get the HD key. Xbox-scene is a great place to find stuff on how to mod Xboxen.

If you need any help softmodding, you can PM me.

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Wed Dec 27, 2006 4:42 pm

He said that the error is 07. According to google, it means the IDE cables aren't in all the way (we must not have put them in all the way the last time we took it apart), but I'm pretty sure thats just the beginning of its problems. I'm gonna see if he'll let me borrow it so I can check it.
And if anything, he'd put a modchip in it. Its even cheaper than softmodding.

timmeh87 · Post by **timmeh87** » Wed Dec 27, 2006 5:34 pm

well i looked up 07, and its actually "HDD timeout" specifically. so either the cable is loose like it suggests, or the hard drive is completely shot, and therefore not responding.

now, joe has raised an interesting point in my head... can the console not boot a game due to this error? cause then even a modchip might not be able to save you, since you need to at least be able to boot a utility off of a DVD in order to lock a new hard drive.

however....

putting in a new, unlocked (and therefore unusable) hard drive in may clear the "HDD timeout" error since the new hard drive will be responding, regardless of if its locked or not.. and then you could boot off a DVD and lock it, etc.

but, the last problem you will run into is that you will be missing the entire xbox filesystem thats on the hard drive, and you are supposed to copy from your old drive. i guess you would need to get it from some other xbox. and at any rate. all his saves are gone forever.

i was just kinda thinking out loud here, you should probably consult someone more knowledgeable than me with this information before you make any decisions.

vskid · Post by **vskid** » Wed Dec 27, 2006 5:54 pm

I'll see if I can get it from him tomorrow, and I'll check for the loose cable. If it isn't that, I have an xbox we could get the filesystem from, but will it need that if it has a modchip?

timmeh87 · Post by **timmeh87** » Wed Dec 27, 2006 6:26 pm

im not sure. you could still boot some homebrew dashboard like xbmc. but i dont know if games will save properly ('directory does not exist' errors?), and you wouldn't be able to use the old ms dashboard, which is useful for managing saves and music and stuff.

so if games save properly, i guess you actually dont need any of it.

at any rate its not hard to just copy some other xbox. like your own.