Xbox gives "your xbox requires service" message

[SkiDragon]

I bought a broken Xbox, and it says "Your Xbox requires service. Please call Xbox Customer Service." when I turn it on. The front LED also blinks red and green. It does this with or without a game. I think it is a really old Xbox. Does anybody have any ideas on what could be wrong? I opened it up as far as I could, but couldn't see any obvious problems. It did not look like it was opened up previously, although it looks like someone tried.

Any ideas?

[omnedon]

Try to mod it and pop a new HDD in.

Good chance that will do the trick. Does it make a clack clack noise when the error comes up?

If it has an old (2001, early 2002) DVDrom drive, it likely has issues reading discs as well.

I'm seeing a lot of failing HDD's now.

[SkiDragon]

I hear no odd noises. The DVD drive is a Thompson. According to one wesite I checked, it is a version "1.0", with a manufacturing date of Oct. 2001.

I bought another Xbox with it that was supposedly broken. I plugged it in and finished a whole level of Halo 2, although it did give me an error when I tried a Tiger Woods golf game. This Xbox is also a version "1.0" with a manufacturing date of Oct. 2001. Could I somehow swap the hard drives and see if that makes the first one work? Is there anything I must do besides physically swap them?

[omnedon]

HD's cannot swap without mod.

Your DVDrom drives are barely working in a best case scenario.

Good mod candidates, but that's it.

[MrKitt]

well actually you can but you need to lock the new one with a code that is calculated using the xbox idkey

[omnedon]

well actually you can but you need to lock the new one with a code that is calculated using the xbox idkey

For myself, the mod is easier than that. Others may find that easier.

[SkiDragon]

I may try a mod. Im guessing I should look elsewhere for help with that, but I was wondering if those "soft mod" non-chip mods will work. Will they allow me to swap hard drives? Im not afraid of soldering, but I am afraid of paying money.

[MrKitt]

soft mod will work with swapped hdd

[Jagasian]

Soft modding an Xbox makes it the best console to own in the current generation. You play tons of classic games on it via emulation and you can play mp3s, divx/xvids, and DVDs! www.xbox-scene.com

[SkiDragon]

Ok, I looked into it some. It seems that there are four main "types" of mods, but I cant see how I could accomplish any of them if the hard drive, and by extension the xbox does not work in the first place. The 'softmods' seems to require a game, but mine wont play any games. Is the chip my only option? Will a chip even work? If so, can you reccomend a model? Maybe this is too much trouble to be worth it.

[SuperShark]

I will be watching this thread! A friend of mine promisses to get a XBOX 360 when they come out and to give me his dead XBOX as soon as he gets his 360 (he is wanting me to wait for some reason, go figure. Oh well, free system that i hope to mode, i wont complain). His XOBX is having the same problems for the most part. I to suspect the HDD is the problem. Game or not, the system when turned on will start flashing green and red light and there is something, i guess the HDD, inside the case clicking. After this, it goes to the your system needs service screen.

When i get this free XBOX, i plan to do some sort of mod and to replace the HDD. I hope to be able to burn games, roms, and emulators onto the HDD. I too would like to do a soft-mod/chipless mod as i have never done such an opperation as moding a XBOX with a chip in my life. I thought this sounded like the easiest and safeest, but games wont play.

If you, SkiDragon, find a good reliable mod that is esy and you do it and it fixes your system(s), PLEASE tell me!

November 22, Officail US XBOX 360 Launch! The Time Is Nearing For My Free XBOX!

[SkiDragon]

Im now pretty sure that a chip is required to fix this problem. All the other methods require a working xbox to implement.

[SuperShark]

Agreed. Now if someone here like omnedon can provide good information to a good, easy, safe, reliable, and preferably cheap mod or mod chip with a step-by-step on how to do it!

[SkiDragon]

I would at least like a reccomendation. There is a lot of info out there, but its not very organized.

[SkiDragon]

How about actually fixing the hard drive? This is probably impossible, but do you think the error would be visible, or on a microscopic level? I was able to remove to top plate of the hard drive, and the bottom circuit board, but could not remove the actual disk.

I am not very familiar with hard drives, but this gave me another idea. If whatever it is that locks the hard drive from other xboxes or computers is located in the circuit board on the bottom, could I swap the circuit board to make another drive work??

[heyricochet]

Wait, did you just say you opened the hard drive? If you did, don't bother putting it back in. Hard drives are done in a clean room with no dust particles because if ANY get inside the drive then it scratches the hell out of the platter and destroyes the drive.

[SkiDragon]

Yeah, I figured it might not be good for it, but since its broken anyway I figured why not. Plus I dont thing I got any dust in it.

[squirrelnut]

Yeah, I figured it might not be good for it, but since its broken anyway I figured why not. Plus I dont thing I got any dust in it.

we are talking dust you cant see with the human eye. Stuff smaller then a micron. The SECOND you opened it up the hard drive was shot period. The arm aperature hovers over the data platters (the silver disks) at a fraction of what a finger print is. If the platter was as big as the Sears Tower, the arm would be 1 centimeter off the building. Yes, one centimeter. Hard drives are the most fragile things ever. I am seriously amazed that they even work. They are way too fragile IMHO for game systems.

Oh and btw, when he says clean rooms. He means 4x cleaner then open heart surgery rooms.

[SkiDragon]

It didnt work anyway. Is it normal for the arm to be on the bottom of the disk?

[DogP]

Actually... Hard Drives aren't THAT fragile... I've popped them open, and even used them open, put them back together, and never had problems with them (mostly just for fun, old 1 gig drives, 400 meg drives, etc). I've also swapped a platter on an 8 gig drive that someone didn't back up their "SUPER MEGA IMPORTANT" data on, although I just swapped the platters, hooked it up, pulled the data off it, then threw it in the bottom of our storage closet. It's all magnetic, just like fingerprints don't really affect floppies, although of course hard drives have a much higher density than floppies, so they are more sensitive to disturbances, but a spec of dust won't kill a drive (unless it lodges itself between the platter and the head and scratches the platter really badly, but like you said, the gap is REALLY small).

DogP