I feel like frying xboxes tonight... xboxes tonight...

[tim_n]

I'm doing really well.

Got a free xbox from one of those pyramid sites and had already decided (and bought) the bits and pieces to, erm, maintain it and add it to my wireless network. Also to expand the hard disk etc. Not sure whether I'm allowed to post these kinds of details, but anyway, got my friend round to apply the patches!

Silly fool didn't do any reading up on the subject, I just trusted him as he's done loads before and had no trouble.

Mine was different. MS had patched the stuff and he was using an old disc.

That knackered my retail drive, but after doing some reading up we found we could hotswap the drives, unlock em with his box and use a PC to restore them. w00h00 it worked (after many hours of swearing)

He read up, applied the patch again and this time it worked. So we tried to get my shiny new 300GB maxtor drive to work on it. Would it? nup.

Anyway, getting bored and having a rapidly expiring live account I asked him to rebuild my box so I could do some halo 2. I popped round to pick it up and said 'all sorted'? to which he replied yes and he'd tested it.

Being the cautious man I am, I plugged it in round his and stuck it on his TV.

BANG!

Get the idea? well, perhaps not a bang, more of a electronic fizzing sound. The acrid smell wasn't very nice either.

My retail drive had given up the ghost.

Time from arrival of xbox to leaving my house broken? 23hrs.

Ah well, screw it. It was free anyway.

Moral of the story? don't hotswap I guess = ) or leave the tamper seal on...

Anyway, feeling guilty he lends me his xbox for the weekend.

I could sit here watching the 'error 7 return this xbox to microsoft' screen aaaaaaalllll night.

*sigh*

[XA04]

That sucks man, but I guess it's not all too bad as you got it free.

Should just appreicate it rather than want more

[joeka]

S'pose you could call it Karma..

[Agent]

Was this via a softmod ?
Even with an old disk, you would have to do something seriously wrong to kill it in such a fashion.

[tim_n]

Yeah, it twas a softmod. Quite definately a faulty box (unless it was the hotswap), but there's nothing much I can do about it. Can't return it to argos either bit dodgy with all those seals broken and holes drilled in the back.

Ho hum.

[tim_n]

ok... spooky time.

I've just brought my friends xbox round here and we're trying his drives. Everything is dead. Even the hard disc in the caddy no where near the xboxes refuses to power up. That's three hd's, two of which weren't even connected.

What's the chances of three drives, all different manufacture dying on the same day with the same causes especially when one wasn't even connected to the xbox at all!

So, we're down to only a few explinations unless you can help out!

1) Alien abduction (my favorite... though why they'd give my friend an anal probe AND wipe his xbox drives is beyond me)
2) Huuuuuuge power surge which wiped everything electronic in his house. One of his PCs died on the same day too... but everything is surge protected. Old surge protectors though...
3) His stepfather has a large electro magnet installed in the above loftspace (most likely)

any other guesses?

[Mike Fishcake]

4) Someone somewhere is punishing you for taking part in an immensely annoying pyramid scheme?

*runs away giggling*

[Funkstar]

have you tried the disks in a PC?

could it be the xbox controllers that are fried, not the drives?

[tim_n]

Mike Fishcake: could be... could be...

Funkstar: Yep, none of them even spin up. Totally fried.

[Funkstar]

weird

(i know that comment doens't help, but n'yeah, it's all i have )

[Matt1eD]

You could have given/you could give him your xbox back instead of the good one - see how long till he notices.

Anywho that's really annoying, spose it was free but those schemes tend to take some time.

[blun]

Was it an old version 1.0 xbox? I've just got microsoft to send me a free replacement power cable which has a built in surge protector / circuit breaker. Bit late for you I know but might be useful for other people.

[colincliff]

how did you get that cable sent out - sounds like a wonderful thing...........for free....!

[Clunk]

If you hurry, you might get one

[Whiternoise]

mebe you were EMP'd

[holy god of nil]

Ah crap they're emping us again?
Where did i put my tinfoil hat AGAIN...