My xbox 360 update: no longer plays dvds.

Unless is a software problem (were you playing a DVDR or an original movie?) then that means MS is goin sony style: using el cheapo parts in the X360 as sony did in the PS2.

Anyways, you could always change the drive by yourself, but then kiss your warranty goodbye...

 

Assembler, you seem to have really had crappy luck with your 360.

 

A lot of people have, alls sorts of rebooting non playing etc issues, bad luck man.

Really not a good enough show from Microsoft.

 

yeah mine played badly burned movies that none of my other players would play.

 

Well, maybe karma is in my favour this time round - I got stuck with two f-ing thompson drives in both my xbox. (both LE so I didn't want to crack them open) My 360 is going strong - Apart from one time when it suddenly chose mid-game to move the controller light on the ring as if it was placed on its side. I just reset and all was cool.

My power supply even remains cool even after a couple of hours, despite running through a step down transformer! It is pure luck with this first load of 360, though it is worrying that they appear to stop working almost instantly when the shit does hit the fan.

So unlucky - hope MS don't mess you about.

 

For whatever reason this is becoming more of an issuse (more sure hours of launch, then recently), but thankful your system isn't eatting your games or movies.
Most likey have you send it in.

 

Assembler,
I think it's time to return your unit for another one or ebay it. I don't think your current 360 will ever love you. So time to dump it for a new 360.

 

Did you let your PSU cool down for 80hours?

Seriously, sucks that your 360 is crapping out on you. Could be the drive just messing up and skipping the disks.

 

I have got to agree: dump this albatross and replace it (if you even still want a 360 after all these problems).

 

Suck, dude. Good luck with getting it replaced.

 

Only problem ive ever had was madden glitching twice where the playbook didnt come up and just left me viewing the background.

 

Hang your movies from your entertainment center...

eh, I got nothing.

 

Weird indeed, it has to be a software issue.

Did you call MS? what did they tell you?

 

Are they by chance movies which use Macrovision protection? Do you have a movie to test which doesn't have it (an import perhaps)?

 

We've had about six 360s crap out on us at work, the "red circle of doom" as we call it (goes nice with "blue screen of death" don't you think?) We assume this stuff mostly has to do with overheating problems, but you can't be sure.

Yeah we put them through hell, running for 8-12 hours a day, sometimes for days at a time, multiple reboots, etc. But once I ruined one by turning off the console, then pressing the eject button. Simple stuff that any game system should be able to handle. Another guy got his to just suddenly stop working by removing the ethernet cable in mid game.

One guy found some kind of global save in the Memory blade, and after deleting it now for some reason has to do the test connection thing each time the machine is turned on and off. We were doing online testing today and whenever he joined the lobby the connection was dropped for everybody.

I also found that you can sometimes corrupt this same global save file by doing bad things while a game is saving, turning it off, removing the memory card, etc. The console then refuses to save anything, ever again. To be fair there's usually some kind of message that tells you not to do this. But it's my job to monkey with games, that includes doing the stuff you're not supposed to do. But this could concievealby happen to a home user. Like what if you're at home playing and the power goes out right when you're saving something?

There seems to be no way to create a new global save file once yours is deleted or corrupted. Even flashing the launcher and wiping the hard drive doesn't help. We are using test units with the XDK launcher, so maybe this doesn't apply to a retial 360, but I wouldn't be suprised. So if you see that file leave it alone. If anybody knows a solution to this it would help us out a lot.

 

I'm thinking that the problem stems from the architecture of the system itself. Something internally, on the hardware, has just gone haywire and won't revert back to normal function.

I don't think the engineers at MS thoroughly burned in the hardware. But I'm seeing this as a trend now. The PSX had a bad laser, sony "admits" it is, so people who's system stop reading discs had to buy a new one or pay to get it serviced only to have the problem happen a year later. The same with the PS2 and the xbox, most laser units they put in were of low quality and consumers had to spend more money. And now the 360 with having a 33% failure rate, for now, which might grow as new problems keep cropping up. I have a feeling the PS3 will be the same and that people will be forced to either buy a new console or pay to repair it because it stops reading blu-ray discs after a few hours, etc.

If someone can make all the connections and gather statistics they have a class action lawsuit for companies knowing that they are selling defective hardware only if its executed the right way.


I have an idea, Assembler. If there is no way you can take the system back and get a new one, then take it apart. Disconnect all the hardware from the motherboard such as the DVD ROM, HDD, etc. Plug in the motherboard and turn just the motherboard on. When you turn it on the motherboard won't detect the DVDROM drive, nor the HDD and will probably just stay there wondering where they are at. Turn it off, then hook everything back up, and see if it boots up normally. Of course, I have no liability of what actually happens if you do this. Do it at your own risk as this is all just a theory.

 

@Hawanja: You're saying the refresh disc didn't fix it?

 

So a reasonable guess would be "Hardware is still not stable" which is something to expect like it happened on the PS2 and the PSP.

But at that price !!! If I recall well MS skipped a lot of quality assurance processes to get the console out in time for Christmas. I wonder how the new batch of machines are performing.

It's really sad that the early adopter always pay an added premium to get the console first and always end up with the crappiest quality.

You could always try to put the console on your fridge and try it like that, might be heat causing the problem, I am more tempted to say bad QA.

Sabre