My XBOX keeps freezing up in the middle of games. Does anyone know how to fix this, or a reasonable place I could take it to in Houston that does repairs? And no, Im not going to buy a 360 - no cash at the moment.
Any kind of repair would cost more then buying a used xbox. I'm sure you can find used for pretty cheap right now, under 50 bucks for sure.
Actually, you'd be suprised at how hard it is to find X-Boxes or PS2s in pawn shops. They're still really popular...you almost have to be in the pawn shop when someone sells it there. Most people that sell video game systems online also sell the games with it, so it's pretty difficult to find just an X-Box online, also. Hey drew, do you get a blue screen of death when it locks up?
It's not your x-box. What happened is the games changed. Microsoft screwed all of us. The newer games do not load correctly on first generation x-boxes. I found this out the hard way. Buying games 2x only to find out it was the game, not the x-box. There's nothing you can do. It's going to freeze up. They screwed us. All you could do is buy a new x-box to play the games. There are millions of people who have this exact same problem. I have, however found, that you can play the games if you futz around with the x-box for a while, then once you get the game running correctly never turn it off. Just leave it on. And never touch it. But I have found no other way around this annoying problem.
If you watch ebay and search "used xbox" and then click the "systems" link to the left, you'll see quite a few. Some are bundled with games and obviously more, but there are a few used ones in there for right around 50 bucks. Trouble shooting, parts and repair would cost a lot more then that. You could also sell your old one on eBay to help recoupe about half of the cost of buying another used one.
Reminds me of when I used to spend half an hour trying to get my NES to work right...First you blow on the game contact, then you tap it a couple of times, then you press it down into the system three times while saying the Lord's prayer backwards while doing a traditional Tibetal tribal dance...
I got a used xbox with 12 games and two controllers and some other extra stuff off ebay about 1 year ago for $125
Phi Slamma- If that is true then I will really be pissed off. It happens for pretty much every game and says that I have a disc read error or some kind of problem with my disc. I look at the disc and its in perfect mint condition with no scratches... Frustrating.
Your DVD drive is probably shot. Look into getting a replacement on eBay and/or a "parts" xbox for the job. Opening your Xbox isn't tough and anyone that can put A-B-C together should be able to take one part out and put it back in. The original Xbox was basically made out of off-the-shelf PC parts, so it is super-simple to assemble and take apart. It also could just need a good cleaning... http://www.llamma.com/xbox/Repairs/xbox_dvd_repair.htm You might try searching google for things like xbox dvd repair.
I looked into it a little more closely. The newer games can't load/read onto the infamous "Thomson" drive. You and I probably both have it. Apparently you can fix it by replacing it with one of the two other drives they built. There are three drives: Samsung,Thompson (being the most common and the most crappy) and the Philips. Supposedly the Thomson drive was built in Mexico. Go figure. Somehow it doesn't match up map loads for the newer games. Which causes it to fail even though your game is in perfect condition. X-box refuses to acknowledge the problem. And they will be facing a class action suit fairly soon. I don't think they will lose because the game builders are probably partly at fault. But you never know.
I was just going to post a similar thread. My XBOX this week all of a sudden stopped detecting games. it says please make sure disc is xbox disc or something to that effect. it detects audio cd's just fine by no luck on games. i have no idea how to fix it. im about to open up the cd drive and spray it out with air and run a lense cleaner on it. hopefully itll work. any suggestions guys?
Even tho dust is likely not your problem, they say spraying it with air spreads the dust amongst all the optics and actually makes it worse. So I wouldn't do that. Cleaning it could work, but more likely you have the exact same problem as described above. And your only fix will be to switch out the drives.