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[Dave Long]

*sigh* I got my Xbox used from a fellow I know. He takes pretty good care of his stuff so I wasn't worried about the machine being used hard or having been dipped in honey or anything like that. The price was good too. I paid about $110 for the system, four games and an Xbox Live kit with a year of service. The downside? I got it home and discovered it has a Thomson drive.

I bought a bunch of games since then and I absolutely LOVE Xbox Live.

I've had one or two DDEs in ESPN NHL 2K5 during online games. I'd lose the commentary and then about five minutes later I was losing connection. It wasn't frequent and it didn't seem like too big a problem. No other games gave me issues.

That all changed on Friday with Halo and now its way worse with Rallisport Challenge 2 which is BRAND NEW. I got RC2 in the TRU sale last week and it's been failing after races, before, you name it. Online play last night was very frustrating because of it.

So it looks like I'm headed to the dreaded phone call. What do I need to know? How can I get this thing replaced without spending a fortune or preferably, not paying anything at all? These damn consoles SHOULD NOT FAIL like this and I'm really beginning to believe that sales of consoles are artificially inflated because of second system buyers after their first one crapped out.

Any ideas? Should I try a lens cleaner? Can I take the lid off and replace the drive myself somehow? Thanks.

 

[bitwise]

yeah, do a search. just buy a drive off ebay & replace it yourself.

 

[Dave Long]

Bleh... I looked at the prices on eBay and I'd prefer not to spend that much considering this should be their problem and not mine. :/ Plus I'm really not in the mood to go tearing up my box.

I guess I'm going to have to call.

 

[ChrisReid]

Really depends on which game you're playing. Rallisport 2 is one of the major ones that will throw up DDEs with your Thomson.

 

[evilromero]

Happened when I tried to load Fable the other day. Now take in mind Fable is the only game I've played on my box since I beat Riddick like three months ago. I rarely play the thing.

 

[Lhadatt]

MS will charge you $80 or more. For that amount of money, you ought to get a modified Samsung 616T. It's a 16X DVD-ROM, but the modified versions will only read at 4X like standard Xbox drives (due to using the firmware from the actual Xbox Samsung drive). I'm told you can just pop the customized drive (don't use the drive without modification, it needs hardware work to get it to talk to the Xbox) into a Xbox (modded or not) and it should work, no problems even on Live. Search for it on ebay.

 

[Scoobert]

Um, I'm pretty sure with that dive you can't use original Xbox games.

 

[dlobro1080]

Hey,

Anyone know? I just bought an Xbox -- which I love -- but I'm a bit paranoid, reading about all these drive errors. Is it true you can tell which brand drive you have by the "design" of the tray? Is there a way to tell on the box? Thanks.

Dan

 

[Rekwest]

I have a Thompson since day one with not problem at all,just use a DVD laser cleaner time to time and you willl be ok.