My 360 finally died!

I was the last of a dying breed. Those whose original Xbox 360s still worked. Then last night, I was replaying Mass Effect and fighting the boss battle at Peak 15 when the graphics started getting lines through them(like when I updated Half-Life 2). I couldn't see and kept dying. Tried a couple restarts and it would still act up. Powered down and went to bed.

Played some this morning and after a short amount of time the lines came back. But now they were everywhere - Mass Effect, the Dashboard, Beautiful Katamari. Powered it down again.

Went back later and got an E-74 error message. I've gotten the E-74 error from time to time since getting my 360 in January 2006. Usually a quick reset and it's gone. But now my 360 refuses to do anything other than show the E-74 error.

An E-74 error means there is a 90% chance it's a scaler chip problem (the "ANA" or "HANA" chip near the AV cable connection). It can also be caused by a faulty AV cable, but I checked that. In rare cases, it is a problem with the GPU.



I talked to Microsoft, and they made me try a bunch of stuff I already tried on my own(unplugging and plugging back in cables, harddrives, etc). Shockingly, none of it worked this time either. So it needs repairs.

Of course, their system is down right now so they can't take my repair order. I should call back in 2-4 hours. And I asked about costs. Since I'm not under warranty and it's not the 3 Red Rings, it'll cost me around $99. Plus the time away from my 360.

I'm thinking about going out and picking up an Xbox 360 Arcade system and just throwing my harddrive on it.

On a positive note, I like the program who answers the phone for 1-800-4MY-XBOX. I've dealt with a few of these programs recently and Microsoft's seemed the most friendly and realistic. Of course, I still had to repeat most of the information to the real person I eventually talked to.