Support NeoGAF

[StoOgE]

Over the last 6 months I havnt bought a new Xbox game, and its not for lack of wanting to get one.. Luckily Psychonauts made it over to the PC, but Ive missed out on Forza, Jade Empire and a few other games I would love to play, and its all thanks to my Thompson drive Xbox.

I got my first Xbox at launch, and by late January I was getting the dreaded Dirty Disc errors, luckily I bought the EB games warranty thing so I just took it in and got a new one.. I lost all my save files, but it wasnt a huge deal (and there was no way I was waiting till MS fixed the damn console, JSRF was almost out).. then for nearly a year everything went just fine. No problems to speak of with any games I bought (well, outside of Morrowind), but over the last year I started getting more Dirty Disc errors.. and its gotten worse. Its now to the point where I am doing good to get a single session of Halo 2 on Xbox Live before I get a failed to load map error... I cant even touch the single player game, the game comes to a screeching hault for about 30 seconds when the music changes in the background, and its a 50 50 shot if the game will fail completely when I get to a check point.

The Splinter Cell games are even worse (not Chaos Theory, Im not buying any new games for this system).. I had to cancell my Phantasy Star Online Hunters Card because I lost all of my items twice (alot of rare weapons too) because my Xbox crashed during a loading screen (erasing your data when you power off without saving is an anti-cheating feature for the game).

I would normally buy a new one, but with 360 so close and the promise that at least *most* of my games should be playable I cant justify spending the money on a new Xbox..

I guess what I wanted to say is this: "Dear Microsoft, please dont go with cutrate shitty manufacturers for the 360."

 

[sangreal]

You can get a new drive for like $20 on ebay. Sure it'll be another crappy Thomson, but you just need it till 360 comes out anyway

 

[StoOgE]

You can get a new drive for like $20 on ebay. Sure it'll be another crappy Thomson, but you just need it till 360 comes out anyway

will I need to mod the Xbox to get it to work though? Im unmodded at this point, and dont want to go through the hassle.

Edit: Just checked Ebay, this is actually pretty funny.. so did RCA make an assload of these things for the Xbox and then MS told them to shove it when they started breaking? Looks like they had alot of backstock to clear.

 

[_Angelus_]

I feel your pain. I'm on my 3rd Xbox and guess what this one decided to do-it won't display a component signal anymore. I've ran out and boughten 2 pairs component cables and I get a scrambled signal every time. It hurts to play my games in composit nowdays

What's amazing is I had so much trouble with the 3 SONY PSX units in the old days,but my PS2 holds up like its Superman,incredible:lol

 

[VALIS]

I finally bit the bullet last week and bought a new one after over a year's worth of hassle on my launch Xbox. It's funny, I'm so used to playing the old POS Xbox that may freeze or give me a dirty disc error at any second that I'm still nervous when playing the new one. "I may have just saved, but I better save again in case this freezes," or, "Sure hope I can finish this level before the game crashes." :lol Old habits are hard to break.

 

[StoOgE]

replaying Morrowind last summer was the worst thing ever. I was litereally saving every minute or so. Because it is hard as hell to get around the east side of that Island, especially when all the Wizards that will transport you around are trying to kill you because you stole some expensive shit off them.

 

[U.2.K. Tha Greate$t]

Maybe if you stop wasting money on bored 50 dollar xbox games, come on now halo haahaha, and start buying some cool budget games like mad dash or mustang GT, your xbox might last longer. And besides, xbox is cheap now, its only 130 bucks used and 150 bucks new.

 

[bdoughty]

If only someone would come up with an idea to extend the life of the Dreamcast for another 10 years with over 500 new titles and online gaming like you have never experienced. There would be no need to purchase yet another Xbox

If only someone dared to dream the impossible.

 

[Shogmaster]

Maybe if you stop wasting money on bored 50 dollar xbox games, come on now halo haahaha, and start buying some cool budget games like mad dash or mustang GT, your xbox might last longer. And besides, xbox is cheap now, its only 130 bucks used and 150 bucks new.

OMG WTF

 

[ChrisReid]

Maybe if you stop wasting money on bored 50 dollar xbox games, come on now halo haahaha, and start buying some cool budget games like mad dash or mustang GT, your xbox might last longer. And besides, xbox is cheap now, its only 130 bucks used and 150 bucks new.

I don't get it.

 

[Starfire]

Same thing happened to my first XBOX, worked fine, a few discs gave me some trouble, but fool around with them long enough, and they'd load. Then one day (after my warranty had expired of course) my drive failed to read anything. Forget the power cord Microsoft, you owe me a new drive

 

[StoOgE]

Maybe if you stop wasting money on bored 50 dollar xbox games, come on now halo haahaha, and start buying some cool budget games like mad dash or mustang GT, your xbox might last longer. And besides, xbox is cheap now, its only 130 bucks used and 150 bucks new.

you are right, my Xbox died of Boredom.. Luckily I have enough money to do whatever I want, so I think I will bring back the Jaguar in 2064. Do the Match bitches.

and yeah, 150 bucks for a new Xbox isnt that much, but I would also lose save files for about 30 games or so, some of which dont transfer, and I have some really awesome Morrowind charachters that Im not going to part with just yet. Plus, Im spending 300 or so on a 360 in 4 months... I'd rather save that money for some more launch games (or perhaps some current Xbox games) when that hits.

 

[LakeEarth]

My Xbox keeps vibrating for a few minutes here and there. Gets me a bit nervous.

 

[Blimblim]

will I need to mod the Xbox to get it to work though? Im unmodded at this point, and dont want to go through the hassle.

You can change the DVD drive without any problem, it's not linked to the Xbox serial number like the Hard Drive is. Just remove a few screws, exchange the drive, and put all back together and you are done.

 

[Daigoro]

I don't get it.

um hello?

DC4LIFE!

PEACE

 

[Jonnyram]

My first Xbox died a totally different way.
The power light died, then the box kept resetting when it wanted. I couldn't power off without pulling the cable out either. Totally useless for online play, so I just bought a new Xbox when the DOA bundle came out - got a nice blow-up cushion, too! That reminds me... I should really get round to selling that some day :lol

 

[Shaheed79]

I remember when we use to get into arguments over the quality of the Xbox hardware at TXB OCD and now you have me paranoid as hell with my new Xbox. I checked to make sure it didn't have a Thomson drive but I heard the HD can be a whole nother bag of nails to step on. They truly went bottom of the barrel with some their manufacturers.

 

[StoOgE]

I remember when we use to get into arguments over the quality of the Xbox hardware at TXB OCD and now you have me paranoid as hell with my new Xbox. I checked to make sure it didn't have a Thomson drive but I heard the HD can be a whole nother bag of nails to step on. They truly went bottom of the barrel with some their manufacturers.

yeah, I recall those as well. Lots of people yelling and/or getting mad because people had broken systems.. most people saying that I obvisouly didnt know how to take care of my games and or system.

But from what I understand the newer Xbox's are not an issue, they should all have Seagate HD's in them (not too bad) and Samsung DVD Drives (not bad at all). MS went bottom of the barrel early on figuring it wouldnt really matter and would save them some cash, then they had really really bad failure rates.

Blim: In any case, Ive got my new Disc Drive on the way.. is there just IDE and power cables sitting in the Xbox that I need to hook up? Would getting a faster drive help in any way with loading times?

 

[Blimblim]

Blim: In any case, Ive got my new Disc Drive on the way.. is there just IDE and power cables sitting in the Xbox that I need to hook up? Would getting a faster drive help in any way with loading times?

Yes, ide cable plus special power cable, as easy as on a PC. And yes a faster drive can help a bit.

 

[StoOgE]

Yes, ide cable plus special power cable, as easy as on a PC. And yes a faster drive can help a bit.

will a standard PC drive fit in the Xbox, because I have a 52x,52x,32x drive sitting in my old PC right now. I'll have to pry the faceplate off obviously and switch it out, but the Xbox one looks like it might be smaller.

 

[Fowler]

you are right, my Xbox died of Boredom..

:lol :lol

Totally useless for online play, so I just bought a new Xbox when the DOA bundle came out - got a nice blow-up cushion, too! That reminds me... I should really get round to selling that some day

Haha, I wonder how many takers "HOT KASUMI LIFE SIZE BLOW UP PILLOW -- USED!" will get!

 

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

God damnit. My Xbox finally died this morning too but it wasn't that piece of shit Thompson drive that failed, it was the hard drive. I can turn it on but the HD inside just keeps clicking and clicking until eventually I get the "your xbox needs service" message. This bites. Just last night I hooked it back online to play some Halo 2 again (I haven't gone on Live in months) and was having a pretty damn good time with the new maps but when I woke up this morning I get nothing but click....click....click....click....click....service message.

So now I'm at a loss trying to figure out what to do. I don't want open this thing up myself 'cause that will void my Xbox Live account (which just got renewed last month) but if I send it in for repairs it'll end up costing me nearly a hundred bucks plus I doubt they'll replace that damn Thompson Drive unless I would pony up some more money. I guess I could go out and get a new system but with the 360 just around the corner and the possibility of it being backwards compatible it may not be worth it to go out another Xbox.

*sigh*

 

[SpeedingUptoStop]

My Xbox died a few months ago. The actual laser inside was melting :lol too much gaming. Now I'm worried with my new one after long sessions, I hope it was just the Thompson drive...

 

[The Bookerman]

Once I got KOTOR 2, my X-box(a refurbished one) wouldn't let me play it for more than an hour....

It made me so pissed off that I sold it to a co-worker for 50 bucks for him to mod....

Unfortunetly, his friend wasted 300$ of mod chips on it, trying to make them work and the damn chips wouldn't work.

Dunno what the hell they did when Microsoft refurbished the console.

 

[sprsk]

my xbox died, due to uh..."tinkering". I'm just gonna wait for the 360 though. Instead of buying all the 360 games ill just binge on all the xbox games i missed.

 

[StoOgE]

yeah, I just got around to ordering my replacement drive today, should be here by next weekend (I hope).

 

[Tain]

will a standard PC drive fit in the Xbox, because I have a 52x,52x,32x drive sitting in my old PC right now. I'll have to pry the faceplate off obviously and switch it out, but the Xbox one looks like it might be smaller.

I thought the Xbox drives use an additional tiny yellow cable, lord knows why.

If not, I shold replace my Thompson drive ASAP.

 

[StoOgE]

I thought the Xbox drives use an additional tiny yellow cable, lord knows why.

If not, I shold replace my Thompson drive ASAP.

gimmie a week and I will let you know if it is standard or not.. I went ahead and ordered a new Thompson drive (it only has to last 4-5 months), so when I install it, I will compare it to standard PC drives.

 

[Hitler Stole My Potato]

I know I should just wait for the 360 to come out but man is it going to be hard to resist going out and buying another Xbox 'cause I've been playing the hell out if lately. My GTA:SA save....ruined.

*cries*

 

[wipeout364]

I've been getting the dirty disc errors on regular basis lately. Jade Empire was almost unplayable due to it. I have thought about the Xbox 360 route but I am concerned about Microsofts Backwards compatiblity on only select games.

I have a backcatalog that I still want to play through so I guess I will be going for the forza bundle sometime in the near future. My Xbox is a lunch one so I guess it lasted reasonably well.

Its too bad microsoft didn't include a Lan option to tranfer save files in their Xbox Dashboard.

 

[Mejilan]

I feel your pain. My PS2 started giving me DREs with blue CD discs. DVDs and PSOne games seem to play fine, but blue PS2 CDs are almostly complete fucked.

Sent it in to Sony twice for their free repairs, but all they do is "clean" the system, and that ultimately does nothing for me.

Finally got an HD Loader, and just started installing the games onto my HDD, and now I don't have any real problems. Still... annoying.

 

[StRaNgE]

I thought the Xbox drives use an additional tiny yellow cable, lord knows why.

If not, I shold replace my Thompson drive ASAP.

you can buy a thompson drive new on ebay for like 20 bucks.

drop it in plug it up and play again. easy as can be.

when mine went out i switched to a samsung drive . a friend of mine is on his 3rd drive (all thompson's) it is a quick , easy , and inexpensive way to get it working again till the 360 replaces it.


what drive comes with the xbox now adays anyway?

 

[Pachinko]

I've been lucky I guess, the only system I've had crap out on me that bad was my PS1 5500 model. This was probally due to my trying to preform a swap trick before I realized it only worked with 1000 model playstations...

My PS2 got the occasional DRE with dvd's and some discs simply wouldn't play dvd wise but cleaning the lens, putting diagnosis mode on and making the cd clean would usually work... usually. It was dying so I bought a slim ps2, but it took 4 years to get really bad.

My Xbox has small issues with playing video files- they skip , but the only time I've gotten a DRE error was with an Xbox demo disc, and at that only when they still used cardboard disc holders- those things generate to much static electricity. Other then that it works fine enough, a thompson drive to boot.

My gamecube has never had a single problem its entire life but then I've played it about 1/4 as much as either my xbox or PS2.

 

[fartblast]

My Xbox keeps vibrating for a few minutes here and there. Gets me a bit nervous.

oh no dude Tina's vibrator fell out of your DOAX save and into your xbox :~(

 

[Ecrofirt]

If you put a PC drive in your Xbox, you can't play retail games.

Stooge: You should have posted this thread when you started having problems. You would have never missed anything.

 

[jobber]

It's easy to replace the drive. Just make sure you have the right type of screwdriver and look up a site that shows where all the screws are located.

 

[Ecrofirt]

I believe the two screws you'll need are Torx 10 and Torx 20.

You can pry the silver warranty sticker off the bottom with an exacto knife and a blow dryer. Work slowly and carefully, and the job will loog very good.

 

[Uncle Dukey]

My xbox died a few months ago, but for me it's the hard drive. It makes clunking sounds and locks up the system when I try to play games. It's possible for me to put in a new one without having a modchip right?

 

[sangreal]

My xbox died a few months ago, but for me it's the hard drive. It makes clunking sounds and locks up the system when I try to play games. It's possible for me to put in a new one without having a modchip right?

I don't think so. IIRC, the drive needs to be "locked" to use it without a modchip, a step which requires a modchip (and a code from the original drive?)

Again, it has been awhile so I'm not 100% sure. Check the x-s tutorials

You can replace the dvd drive w/o a modchip though

 

[DIrtyWeasel]

what drive comes with the xbox now adays anyway?

Microsoft has been using Hitachi GDR-8050L in some Xbox systems as of Sept 04.

I heard that the Samsung drives were discontinued.

 

[Tain]

My xbox died a few months ago, but for me it's the hard drive. It makes clunking sounds and locks up the system when I try to play games. It's possible for me to put in a new one without having a modchip right?

Every game, every time? You might be able to get a 007/MA/Splinter Cell savegame exploit to run, get your BIOS info to your PC, unlock the HD, and lock the new HD accordingly.

 

[dskillzhtown]

My xbox died a few months ago, but for me it's the hard drive. It makes clunking sounds and locks up the system when I try to play games. It's possible for me to put in a new one without having a modchip right?

My hard drive just died today. Right before Madden!!!! So now...what do I do? Get a used X-Box, or just wait for the 360???