XBox making funny noises...

[AdamAnt316]

Hey everyone. I picked up an XBox, which was supposedly new (won in a contest), a few weeks ago. Yesterday, when I turned it on, it started making loud clacking noises, and the power indicator started flashing red and green, with the screen displaying a "Out Of Service" message in several languages. I was able to get it to play a DVD for a little while (with the noises occasionally popping up), but it now refuses to do anything without making that awful noise, and the error message. What could it be? I doubt I'm covered under any warranty due to the circumstances, so I'm probably on my own here. Thanks in advance.
-Adam

[omnedon]

Your HDD is dead. The system needs to be modded to repair it. Might as well upgrade it while your at it.

Popping a HDD from another Xbox into it will not work.

[c0ldb33r]

what do the noises sound like?

The cheapest and easiest way to softmod the xbox and install a new HDD. It can be new or used, but if you're going to install one, may as well make it big enough to stick some fun stuff on it

Softmodding is super easy too. If this is what you' like to do just let us know.

[SkiDragon]

I have an Xbox that has a broken hard drive. I wanted to mod it, but I think the soft mod require the xbox to actually work. I wanted to put a chip in it but there are a million different kinds and they cost money.

[AdamAnt316]

It makes a constant "cla-click cla-click cla-click cla-click" noise, accompanied by a slight whine (haven't been able to figure out if it varies along with the clicking), coming from approximately the rear right corner of the unit (though I could be wrong). I'd like to see if anything can be done to restore the unit to OEM without paying through the nose, but failing that, I'd be willing to mod it if it meant not having wasted $130 on the system.
-Adam

[SkiDragon]

Yep, it has to be the hard drive. The only other moving parts are the DVD drive and the fan, and neither of those would make such a noise.

[c0ldb33r]

It makes a constant "cla-click cla-click cla-click cla-click" noise, accompanied by a slight whine (haven't been able to figure out if it varies along with the clicking), coming from approximately the rear right corner of the unit (though I could be wrong). I'd like to see if anything can be done to restore the unit to OEM without paying through the nose, but failing that, I'd be willing to mod it if it meant not having wasted $130 on the system.
-Adam

If you want it returned to original condition - I'm not sure what you can do. Send it to MS or an authorized repair place?

If you want it to work, and work better than a stock MS - mod it. Either a chip or softmod.

[omnedon]

Good stuff costs money sometimes.

[ProgrammingAce]

You can't do a soft mod unless the console is actually working.

Right now you have three options:

1. Throw a cheep mod chip in there and replace the hard drive. Which would be a bit dificult because you don't have a working hard drive to copy the dashboard files from. You would need a friend with a working xbox to copy the files off of.

2. Return it to microsoft. Tell them how you got the console. They will be able to look up the serial number and see when the console was bought. If it was in the last 90 days they'll replace the xbox for free.

3. Sell it on ebay as a defective system. If you describe the problem you're having, someone will probably buy it for somewhere in the neighborhood of $70-80. (it's a fairly easy fix for someone who fixes xboxes regularly).

[c0ldb33r]

Geeze sorry I didn't notice the xbox wasn't working at all.

You'll need a chip.