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View Full Version : Xbox Consoles Dying??



Satch
07-16-2004, 03:57 PM
I'm kinda scared of this with all the talk recently about drives, thompsons, etc. Well, I have an Xbox from about a month after launch (like around the first Christmas after it was out) and it DOES have a thompson. I've had the occasional dirty disc errors, and of course, I have gotten several Morrowind error, which is normal. I haven't gotten any major signs that my Xbox is going to die (which means it stops reading any discs right?) Man, that would suck horribly. Does anyone know if you can BACK UP (I know you can't save while playing the game) a Morrowind save to a memory card in case my xbox "dies" and I lose my data? Oh, and do you think from the info I gave that my Xbox should be all right?

LiquidX
07-16-2004, 04:09 PM
Your Xbox sounds fine. A lot of games are prone to DDE's, GTA games for example. You can buy a memory card to back up saves onto. There are also things that allow you to put saves on your PC using a memory card (action replay does this I think).

LTM360
07-16-2004, 04:45 PM
Not all Thompson drive are defective, and it seems at this point at least yours isn't. And I think it's safe to say, if your isn't broken by now, odds are it will be fine. But I cannot gaurentee anything. But as LiquidX said, your xbox seems fine, don't worry about it until you either get a service screen, or constant DDEs.

Variation-XBA
07-16-2004, 05:50 PM
Don't knock the Thompsons! I've still got mine working flawlessly since day 1!

Xtopia
07-16-2004, 06:14 PM
I honestly lost count how many Xboxes I've had that have broke....four or five now...maybe six.

It sucks. Two have stopped functioning all together. Two can't network. So I guess I'm on my fith.

TOTTEN
07-16-2004, 07:23 PM
Don't knock the Thompsons! I've still got mine working flawlessly since day 1!
stop your gonna jinx it. thats what i said before mine died

Ninjermy
07-16-2004, 08:34 PM
u just never know when its gonna die. some will probably never die! if they still have working ataris, then there will be some people whos xbox's just wont quit and will go on for years and years. even the thompsons!

Satch
07-16-2004, 08:51 PM
Very true...I just hope I'm one of them

pvsurfer03
07-16-2004, 09:28 PM
I'm now on my second, i had a thompson in my first and it got to a point where my xbox was unplayable. The xbox i have now is a samsung and i havent had one problem with it.

Wolfboy_888
07-17-2004, 12:30 AM
Grand theft auto vice city and madden 2004 have been by far the worst xbox games ive had with the Dirty disk error blues. Vice city took me an hour to work at some points..and madden was usually a 5 minute chore to get it to work..weird on vice city because i have no trouble whatsoever(knock on wood) with GTA3.

Peepers
07-17-2004, 02:55 AM
Morrowind saves fit on a memory card if you're that concerned.

SoundX
07-17-2004, 03:58 AM
Well my Thompson used to do all of that crap, it is a launch one after all. But I had it opened up and tweaked a bit and I've never had any problems since.

But at the time, I bought a Crystal Xbox just incase :) lol

Rancey
07-17-2004, 09:38 AM
My Thompson died a couple months ago (started getting worse and worse), I had it from launch...so it can last a while before going. I bought 2 crystal Xboxs, selling one on Ebay and keeping the other...unless the first goes for a bit :p

Plugs Ebay link: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=62054&item=8119012838&rd=1

trabucles
07-17-2004, 02:40 PM
my thompson just started havin problems, I tryed fixing it with a lens cleaner and it worked fine for 3 months, after that, it continue giving me the DDE. I just bought metal arms and i cant play it, simply cuz my xbox cant read it saying it is dirty or it isnt original.

Satch
07-18-2004, 04:12 PM
If I'm interpreting this right, it seems like the thompson xboxs that fail the most are the launch ones. Of course, I got mine about a month after launch...hopefully this was enough time...seems like it would have started screwing up by now right?

Shadow20002
07-18-2004, 08:08 PM
Well, i have Thomson drive and is working perfectly except for Morrowind (everyone knows that the first edition of the game got major problems), GOTY edition works great for me.

BlindSniper
07-18-2004, 09:30 PM
I have a launch thompson, still works fine, but doesn't seem to boot up oddworld: munches oddysey anymore. Yep, I still play oddworld since the day it came out. The game is intense. But yeah, my xbox is still running. Of coarse I play on the light green SE one now but in my room I've still got old Thompson Norm.

CharlieHustle
07-18-2004, 10:01 PM
I had mine since day 1. I get the usual dde's like you do. The most dde's i got from a game was ninja gaiden. Outside of that, it works fine. No complaints.

MixMasta
07-19-2004, 11:45 AM
Just try to keep your Xbox clean of dust, prolong its life. Get one of those compressed air cans.

Brutus
07-19-2004, 12:40 PM
Mine totally went last month.
After buying the replacement from some guy in Canada off Ebay I was able to get the exact Thomson TGM 600 DVD drive brand-new for $24.00
Since it was the same exact DVD drive that was in there it was just an unplug, plug in method & it was good as new. Better than losing all those game saves & getting a new one (Even though I have two Xbox's).
Also no "modding" was needed. It all just came together so easily, I looked back & laughed at all of the DDE's.
Man, those things, at times, used to completely make me so mad... It's all hunky dory now!

Spaztic
07-19-2004, 02:10 PM
I have a Thompson from launch....Mine acts up now and then. I got hell of dde on rallisport2 I went though 3 games in blockbuster and finally got one that worked well.
I tweaked my drive, and replaced some stuff in it. Still has problems reading some dvds.... :mad:

Brutus
07-19-2004, 03:00 PM
I have a Thompson from launch....Mine acts up now and then. I got hell of dde on rallisport2 I went though 3 games in blockbuster and finally got one that worked well.
I tweaked my drive, and replaced some stuff in it. Still has problems reading some dvds.... :mad:
Either quit whining & replace the whole drive or buy a new one! $149.00

Snapple
07-19-2004, 05:25 PM
Mine makes strange noises sometimes, but it has been doing that for like 5 months now. The noises sound like the game isn't running smoothly or something. Like there is a hair reflecting the lazer. It's wierd. I don't have that much of a problem with DDE
's. I get them in all the same games mostly everyone else gets them i.e. Morrowind.

Satch
07-20-2004, 05:47 PM
Brutus...is it hard to replace the dvd drive? how do you take the old one out? anyone else know?

Brutus
07-21-2004, 10:52 AM
Brutus...is it hard to replace the dvd drive? how do you take the old one out? anyone else know?
It's a sinch, bro. I did it in under a half hour, from start to finish. PM me & I'll reply with the link that'll walk you through it step by step. All you need is a Thin Philips, tork 5 & tork 10 screws & you're set!
First, head over to Ebay, Type in Xbox Drive, or Xbox DVD Drive, By it & get ready to have a perfectly fine XBOX again!

super_ryu
07-21-2004, 02:13 PM
I have an xbox a month or 2 when it came out and its perfectly fine! (Nothing wrong). Its even better then my friends (who got his like a year after the release), and his is having alot of problems :).
I hope your warrenty hasn't run out though :S

SoundX
07-22-2004, 04:41 AM
Woah, I only posted a week ago saying my Thompson drive was fine. And now I've got a Samsung drive that I gotta put in. It finally went, I blame the cheap CD-RW media I used on it. Ah well, screw it, I have a Samsung now, what do I care? :p

GJ1
08-02-2004, 04:11 AM
I got a Samsung 16 off when my thompson died
It really fast

Yannie Boy
08-02-2004, 10:42 AM
actually i got a box about a month after the release and mines beens f'd up since day one.....not only did my xbox not play any games but for about a good year my ac outlet hasn't been working right meaning i had to "wiggle" it for it to work, then last night my box doesn't turn on at all

Hard Boiled Cop
08-02-2004, 11:33 AM
It's a sinch, bro. I did it in under a half hour, from start to finish. PM me & I'll reply with the link that'll walk you through it step by step. All you need is a Thin Philips, tork 5 & tork 10 screws & you're set!
First, head over to Ebay, Type in Xbox Drive, or Xbox DVD Drive, By it & get ready to have a perfectly fine XBOX again!

**** you did it quick, I tried replacing it but all I did was breaking it. It took me 20 mins before I gave up. I just got a new one.

Yannie Boy
08-02-2004, 12:04 PM
is there any way to swap HDs?

Brutus
08-02-2004, 01:56 PM
**** you did it quick, I tried replacing it but all I did was breaking it. It took me 20 mins before I gave up. I just got a new one.
oH, MAN! I told you to go slow & if any force is needed to make sure you check every angle of the work-piece! Oh well; $149.
How did you break it, it was broken... DId you get frustrated & chuck it out the window! Hahah!

Brutus
08-02-2004, 01:56 PM
is there any way to swap HDs?
Yes & no. It's no because we can't talk about that here!

Huckleberry
08-02-2004, 03:16 PM
i just got a new xbox on saturday and spent 3 hours moving saves from one to the other. that particularly sucked because some saves (particularly kotor) are larger thant the memory module will hold. it keeps 502 blocks and the kotor saves were 1600.

anyway, the old one would take about 20 minutes to actually boot up, and that was with constantly turning it on and off. the drive tray also ceased to open, and i had to do that through the manual open hole.

i'm glad to have a new working xbox, but it pisses me off that i spent 300 bucks for a piece of electronics that should be able to last much longer than that. i mean, i have a working atari 2600, three intellivisions, turbografx, and a million other things that still work. i even have a cd boombox i bought in college (i'm 39) that still works fine. and this piece of crap cd tray goes BOOM and microsoft wants me to pay 100 bucks to get it fixed. i understand they needed to cut production costs, but i want something that will last, not have to be replaced every three years.

Satch
08-02-2004, 09:30 PM
Huckleberry, my thoughts EXACTLY. perfect way up putting it. it pisses me off too. I feel like I need to have another xbox with all my saves on it "just in case", and that sucks...

Jamo
08-03-2004, 08:31 AM
My Xbox has done some pretty funny things before. At my friends house we noticed something about it. On the main menu it.... well moves! It sways back and forth gracefully in a kind of purposeful motion or something. No one elses does that. Has anybody else seen this and what does that mean? And what of the RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!! noise it makes (It's done this before) when I turn it on after bringing it back from a trip or something? Am I going to have to get a new Xbox? (I hope I do but I hope I don't) It's a bit fussy with some games especially used ones that are scratched even the slighteset bit. Could someone please give me some answers.

Brutus
08-03-2004, 09:30 AM
SOund's like you've got one of the Early, Limited Edition Noisemaker Xbox's. THose one's are sweet!
Basically, the only thing that's cool about it is the Serial # will match to one of the earliest made Xbox's! :-)

Ford Mustang
08-03-2004, 09:30 AM
My Xbox has a Thompson drive...and I haven't had any problems with it other than a couple DDEs...Nothing that I can't get over. It's a Launch Xbox too...I guess it just likes me....I hope it keeps on chugging because I don't have the money for another one right now! :)

Jamo
08-03-2004, 01:24 PM
What does it mean though? My Xbox has a thompson and I got it the January after it's luanch. I love my Xbox but I hate it to!

JimmieDoogan
08-03-2004, 02:42 PM
My second Xbox just died on me... Luckily I didn't pay for that one, none the less it's happened twice to me. Last year my Xbox died on me not but a few months after I got it. The one I have now sitting dead next to my TV in the living room is a launch box. I have no choice but to get another because I"m not going to miss Halo2 or Fable... Just sux that MS doesn't know how to build a piece of hard ware to save they're asses... Bill Gates is going to hell anyway so I can't really get mad about it. Damn Thompson drive...

SoundX
08-03-2004, 03:28 PM
Still haven't got round to replacing my Thompson, and to be honest, I'm not sure if I should. I need as much money as I can get at the moment, and really, I think the whole Thompson drive talk kind of made me feel mine was defictive even when it was normaly fine.

I'll probably sell, then get a phillips if the drive gets any worse.