Xbox, HDD Slowly dying, Read post for more info..

[Slate]

Update: I know the problem that my xbox is having now, But i bumped the topic back up for info on modifications to my xbox.

Original post:

My xbox is a 2003 model. It is going through something wierd..

I am experiencing a wierd electrical humming noise with two games after i play for a long time. How it happens, I play either Destroy All Humans! or Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

With DAH!, I just have to get an enitre army onto me and it'll Stop (More like pausing a VHS movie) And make a humming noise. The controller has no use at this point, and to stop it i have to turn the xbox off.

With SA, I only experienced it once, last night.

I was playing the Explosive Situation mission, and all of a sudden it does the DAH routine - Pauses like a VHS movie, then made a humming noise. I then turned it off.

If you are curious about what the noise sounds like, Take the audio cords out of a VHS player or DVD player (Leave the cords attached to your TV with the volume on) And touch one of the cords' tips to the rims of the inputs on the player. Should sound close enough if you do it right.

I have used my xbox a lot, and it has gone far past 100 hours of use. Anyone else experience this?

[DogP]

Does it sound like the DVD drive spinning down and spinning slowly (and kinda off balance)? If you pop the DVD out of the drive does it stop? That would be my first guess... although I guess it could also be a fan, but since you say it happens at certain spots, I'd guess it's having a problem reading the disc. A fan would usually not cause the game to lock up until the chip overheated, which would be long after it started making noise (unless it wasn't moving to start with).

So I'd clean the discs and the drive, and if that doesn't work, try adjusting the drive and/or replace it.

DogP

[omnedon]

I vote for HDD failure. It can be slow, and it would act like that. It would make more of a clack clack noise.

Is the electrical noise out of your speakers? Is it a buzz, a bzzzzzt, a click, what?

LOL

[Avatard]

Is the hum comming from the box or the speakers?

[Slate]

The bzzzzz Is coming out of the Speakers after it pauses like a movie. Although i did notice that the drive skips sometimes, but does not affect gameplay, since it only does that when starting up.

I have played this xbox a lot. I own 27 games for it, And, come to think of it, It has actually gone past 250 hours of use.

[omnedon]

Your HDD is likely slowly dying. It's a good candidate for an HDD upgrade. You cannot swap another Xbox HDD straight into it. It requires a mod, at least temporarily to install a replacement HDD.

If it gets worse, you will get an error message at bootup. I have seen HDD fails exactly like you describe. The first one was a bitch to diagnose, due to it's intermittent nature. Games and DVD movies would eventually freeze, and the speakers would lock on to the last sound, manifesting in a buzz from speakers.

[Slate]

Will i lose the data stored on my Xbox when it does fail? Rather dumb question, i know..

But, with this happening to my Xbox HDD, What should i do - Buy another xbox and a memory card to transfer the saves, fix it, call up microsoft..?

I have a LOT of time's worth of game saves on that hard drive. It is going to REALLY stink when it dies!

Edit:

If i should buy a new xbox, Do you have any reccomendations on ones with better hard drives, so i can check the serial number on them before i buy another one?

[ProgrammingAce]

If you softmod the xbox and just add a new hard drive you'll be able to take all of your saves with you. After the new drive is in, you could turn off the mod if you are against modding. If you've taken the xbox on live before, you won't be able to go on live with the new hard drive. If you've never been on live you'll be able to go on as long as you disable the mod.

[omnedon]

HDD's are HDD's in the Xbox anyway. Whatever you decide to do, you want to get as many saves off of that, as quickly as possible. It could literally fail completely the next time you turn it on. At that point your saves will be lost forever. Rescue as many as you can with a mem card. Soon.

[Slate]

A few questions..

If i get a hard drive for it that is in the High gigabyte range (Over 100 gigs) Will i need a higher voltage power cord? I won't get one over 20 gigs, but i was curious about this.

How does softmodding go?

What hard drive should i get?

[omnedon]

I consider softmodding unreliable. It is my (professional) opinion. Softmodding has made great strides, but for reliability and range of use, nothing beats a properly installed soldered in chip. Again, my opinion, based mainly on a string of failed softmods I'm asked to repair, plus having seen many failed Xbox motherboard BIOS eeproms (where the softmod does it's magic). IMO unreliable by comparision.

No, no power requirement issues with replacement HDD's.

Unless I'm mistaken it's nearly impossible (or at least way more difficult) to put a larger HDD into a soft modded Xbox.

[ProgrammingAce]

I consider softmodding unreliable. It is my (professional) opinion. Softmodding has made great strides, but for reliability and range of use, nothing beats a properly installed soldered in chip. Again, my opinion, based mainly on a string of failed softmods I'm asked to repair, plus having seen many failed Xbox motherboard BIOS eeproms (where the softmod does it's magic). IMO unreliable by comparision.

No, no power requirement issues with replacement HDD's.

Unless I'm mistaken it's nearly impossible (or at least way more difficult) to put a larger HDD into a soft modded Xbox.

I installed 3 200 gig hard drives into softmodded xboxes today alone. It's quite possible, and quite easy... Softmod is the only way i roll, but to each his own.

[omnedon]

The softmod uses a different format style of the HDD right? Or is that changed now too?

Again, softmodding has come a long way. :) I'm a hardware guy, so I lean that way. That, and I've seen many a fragged mobo brought back to life by a hardware BIOS (chip), so I like to go straight to the permanent fix.

[ProgrammingAce]

Any hard drive made in the last few years should work (there are a few exceptions). Basicly you just need to be able to lock the drive, most newer drives support the ATA Security Locking Protocol. I'm not knocking mod chips, they work just as well and in many cases are the only way to recover a dead xbox. But then again, i have more tricks up my sleve that are usually availible to the average modder.

[omnedon]

I was under the impression that softmods required a different format than chipped ones did.

Thanks!

[Slate]

I still have some questions..

I am going to purchase a new xbox soon, Most likely from walmart (The $180 deal with one game and a xbox live trial) I need to know about the serial numbers on them, so i can ID the hard drive within. Wich ones have the best HDDs?

[ProgrammingAce]

basicly there is no way of telling the hard drive without buying and opening the xbox up.

This site lists all of the infomation you can get from the serial number:

http://www.xbox-linux.org/wiki/Xbox_Versions_HOWTO

[Slate]

Thanks to everyone who replied.

[Slate]

Update...

I have decided to not buy a new xbox, And the problem has not become worse, It is still with those two games, Destroy all humans and GTA San andreas.

And you know what, San andreas locked up again at the same part of the game a few months ago!

I have not experienced this problem in any other games.

I am thinking i'll install a new HDD sometime. But how would i transfer the saves from one HDD to the other, and how would i install a new HDD? And while i'm at it, what cool mods are there for the xbox?

[shadowkn55]

It seems to me that its more of an overheating problem than a hard drive problem. According to scenarios in which the problems occur, those are graphically intense parts of the game. The xbox would need to work harder, thus produce more heat, to render those parts of the game. What you can do is open up the xbox and clean out the dust.

A good mod to do while its open is to remove the heatsinks off the cpu and gpu. Clean off the junk that is there with some goof-off or a cleaner of some sort and apply a thin layer of Arctic Silver 5 to the dies of the cpu and gpu. Don;t forget to clip on the heatsinks. That should lower the temps a few degress and hopefully solve that problem.

If you plan to mod it, I suggest a hard mod. They are quite reliable and fairly cheap ($10-$15 for the DuoX2). You'll be able to swap hard drives fairly easily and it unlocks the full potential of an xbox. Using the xbox as a media center is pretty awesome.

If you get the modchip, transferring your saves will be pretty easy if you plan to upgrade to a bigger hard drive. You'll need to make a backup of your current hard drive (including saves) through FTP when you swap drives so its all taken care of.