My XBOX 360 DVD woes part 2: The Saga Continues.

 Well, I've so far managed to play through the frst Act and a bit of Gears of War 1 - which seemed to be the worst effected game.  And all ths without even opening my box!  I do have some cleaning stuff and tools on order - but less invasive surgery is always preferable; the XBOX 360 DVD laser lens and mirror is a fickle enough piece of equipment as it is without me tinkering with it.  I have also identified the drive -  clearly have one with a BenQ drive.  Which may be unfortunate, as I don't believe you can do the 'change your drive and get it working by swapping your old drives circuit board' technique on the BenQ.
 
Still, I'm going to keep running it and using the lens cleaner CD and hope that gradually I can improve it further without dismantling it.  

I actually had an interesting conversation regarding this with my sister-in-law.  She claims that many of her friends who have XBOX’s and particularly those that have had them for a long time see them as something of a consumable.  Apparently it’s quite normal to go through two or three XBOX’s in a two year period, possibly more if you use it a lot.  

Now if this is true I find it despicable, that Microsoft are throwing out pieces of junk that are designed to last through the warranty covered period then go belly up.  It’s ridiculous, my PC is much older and more reliable, my PS2, Mega Drive, N64 and all my other retro consoles still work fine!

Ahhh, but you might argue the XBOX 360 is a much more sophisticated beast!  So much more powerful and hence sensitive!  I would then argue that my PC is actually far more powerful – if not as focused as the 360 – and it’s been running fine for over twice as long as the 360 with no problems.

 Suppose the only conclusion  I can come to, is that there are two things combined that cause the problem of comedically unreliable machines – that is the combination of powerful, sophisticated machine, built as cheaply as is imaginably possible.   I suppose one of the factors that steered me towards the 360 over the PS3 was the cheapness factor – although if you have a 250 GB Elite, the gap is tighter…

Clearly that choice came at a price.  I’ve come to love the 360, but I genuinely don’t want the expense and hassle of replacing the stupid thing every 18 months because it’s a flimsy piece of cack, built down to the penny so it can be sold as value for money.   I mean if it was totally foo-barred and I had to swap it,  would actually happily pay £50 more, maybe £80 more for a machine that was reliable enough to work for 5 years without any problems, as you would expect of a PC.  Not extended warranty – this stupid idea of sending your console to Microsoft while you sit at home playing all your PS2 games again doesn’t wash… Somethng that actually works, and doesn’t break and has comparable reliablity to a PC.

 

 
 
 
 

 Well, I've so far managed to play through the frst Act and a bit of Gears of War 1 - which seemed to be the worst effected game.  And all ths without even opening my box!  I do have some cleaning stuff and tools on order - but less invasive surgery is always preferable; the XBOX 360 DVD laser lens and mirror is a fickle enough piece of equipment as it is without me tinkering with it.  I have also identified the drive -  clearly have one with a BenQ drive.  Which may be unfortunate, as I don't believe you can do the 'change your drive and get it working by swapping your old drives circuit board' technique on the BenQ.
 
Still, I'm going to keep running it and using the lens cleaner CD and hope that gradually I can improve it further without dismantling it.  

I actually had an interesting conversation regarding this with my sister-in-law.  She claims that many of her friends who have XBOX’s and particularly those that have had them for a long time see them as something of a consumable.  Apparently it’s quite normal to go through two or three XBOX’s in a two year period, possibly more if you use it a lot.  

Now if this is true I find it despicable, that Microsoft are throwing out pieces of junk that are designed to last through the warranty covered period then go belly up.  It’s ridiculous, my PC is much older and more reliable, my PS2, Mega Drive, N64 and all my other retro consoles still work fine!

Ahhh, but you might argue the XBOX 360 is a much more sophisticated beast!  So much more powerful and hence sensitive!  I would then argue that my PC is actually far more powerful – if not as focused as the 360 – and it’s been running fine for over twice as long as the 360 with no problems.

 Suppose the only conclusion  I can come to, is that there are two things combined that cause the problem of comedically unreliable machines – that is the combination of powerful, sophisticated machine, built as cheaply as is imaginably possible.   I suppose one of the factors that steered me towards the 360 over the PS3 was the cheapness factor – although if you have a 250 GB Elite, the gap is tighter…

Clearly that choice came at a price.  I’ve come to love the 360, but I genuinely don’t want the expense and hassle of replacing the stupid thing every 18 months because it’s a flimsy piece of cack, built down to the penny so it can be sold as value for money.   I mean if it was totally foo-barred and I had to swap it,  would actually happily pay £50 more, maybe £80 more for a machine that was reliable enough to work for 5 years without any problems, as you would expect of a PC.  Not extended warranty – this stupid idea of sending your console to Microsoft while you sit at home playing all your PS2 games again doesn’t wash… Somethng that actually works, and doesn’t break and has comparable reliablity to a PC.

 

 
 
 
 

There is a way to increase the lasers power but again you'd have to open the xbox. I fixed my old 360's dvd drive that way and my friends. Just sayin'