Broke 360: Pay $140 for repair or $280 for an Arcade?

[wouldyoukindly]

I was changing the disc in my 360 and rested my arm on the shelf and the shelf decided to pull out of the wall and send my 360 into the floor. The disc tray snapped in half. MS will charge at least $140 to repair this. I already have all of the things that came with my already twice repaired premium 360 so if I was to get a new one it would be a $280 Arcade. I can't decide if it's worth it.

Arcade:
the Arcade disc with five games (of which the only one I want is Pacman)
HDMI (I would need the cable to use it)
a memory card (which I can't think of any use for)
a controller (I don't really need three)
new quieter chip
warranty $140 more (which means I must get a loan from my mom or girlfriend since I'm post-Christmas broke until January 20th)

-vs-

Repair:
$140 less
takes a month to get here

Maybe I should just wait until the next price drop but that's a long time to not be playing Call of Duty 4.

[Hush]

I would probably go for the Arcade. You could sell the arcade disc, controller, and memory card to recoup some of the money. I think it would be worth it to get the quieter chipset, HDMI, and a new warranty. I think the only problem you will run into is when you put your existing HD on the Core system, you have to be signed into Live to access all of your D/L content, right?

[Corvin]

Tough decision that a lot of people will face when the RROD warranty expires.

If you aren't down for buying another warranty, I'd just pay the repair. The quieter chip would be nice, but is it $190 nice?

[mbennum]

Can you just get a replacement drive on Ebay and swap it out yourself? They're only $40-50 I think.

[spoo]

Get the arcade bundle, at least you also get a new wireless controller, HDMI and a quieter system.

[seen]

Can you just get a replacement drive on Ebay and swap it out yourself? They're only $40-50 I think.

I'd do that if your hardware inclined, and also mod the fans to make it quieter while you've got it open.

Otherwise get a new console, just console only unless you need to spend the extra to get the other stuff too.

[jakehoss]

the arcade isnt as cool looking as the prem. and its not going to be that much quieter. but you would have the full brand new 3 yr warranty for when it shits the bed in 6 months.

[gimmepilotwings]

get the arcade, and sell your current one on Craigslist for $75. People will buy them and fix/resell.

[ElwoodCuse]

How much do you get if you trade in a non-broken 360 without the hard drive (just the cables and a controller)?

[bigdsinferno]

i'd repair it myself. it's pretty simple to do. Otherwise, sell it on craigslist to recoup some of the costs.

[yummytyson]

Get the arcade, sell the controller and memory card and sell your broken 360 on craigslist. Maybe you can bundle it all together and sell it.

[eswat]

$140 for a disc tray...

[Gourd]

Honestly? I'd try simply repairing it yourself.

Look at it this way. You can probably buy a flashed DVD drive from somewhere that will be relatively easy to install.

At least /sell/ the broken unit. Heck, I might buy it from you. If I can get it working, I could send it off to a poor relative in West Virginia.

[wouldyoukindly]

If I was to repair it how would I go about doing it? I could probably handle hooking up an IDE cable but I am ignorant of anything more technical.

[wouldyoukindly]

Also, if it makes my 360 not work on Live then I will just buy a new one.

[lbradeen]

in your case it's probably just the mechanical parts of the drive that are broken so what you'd do is buy a drive of the same type and swap out the electronics. There are only a couple screws on the drive and as long as you take pictures of what you're doing taking it apart it shouldn't be too tough to put back together.

Edit: And you wouldnt have to worry about being banned from live. If you modded your firmware while it was open and then played burned games you'd have to worry.

[TimPV3]

Buy the new one, and send me the broken one so I can pay $140.

[linkpwns]

Honestly? I'd try simply repairing it yourself.

Look at it this way. You can probably buy a flashed DVD drive from somewhere that will be relatively easy to install.

At least /sell/ the broken unit. Heck, I might buy it from you. If I can get it working, I could send it off to a poor relative in West Virginia.

Do you realize that in order to do that, you'll need to break the seal? If he gets RROD'd, he can't get it fixed at all...

[michael6668]

Ebay or CL it... people are always looking for parts... just the PS is worth something.

Buy the Arcade and have a full warranty and a new system. It is the better long term solution in my opinion.

[Gourd]

Do you realize that in order to do that, you'll need to break the seal? If he gets RROD'd, he can't get it fixed at all...


He seems unwilling to get it fixed /now./ So, tell me. Do you really think Microsoft will fix the Broken Drive Tray for free if he wondermagickally 'develops' a RROD problem on a console that can't actually HOLD any disks? His snapped in half drive tray is effectively going to amount to the same thing as having a broken seal: having to pay for any repair done to the system.

Yes. I realize he has to break the seal. All I stated is what I would do in his situation: Fix the drive for seventy dollars worth of parts.

As for my relative in West Virigina, we're talking about the sort of person that can coax a little more life out of a dying Civic.

They'd probably fix it themselves, or get someone else to do it for them.

[wouldyoukindly]

I'm not unwilling to get it fixed. When my 360 red ringed it took them six weeks to get it back to me. I am unwilling to wait another six weeks since most of my gaming is done on the 360.

[Hoffer]

I would get the arcade. It will be a new unit with full warranty. MS will just send you some refurbed unit for $140 that will probably die in 6 months.

I bought a new premium unit when Halo 3 came out. My existing 360 quit reading discs just before that. Luckily, MS only charged me $25 to fix it out of warranty. Now I have two 360s for when one of them dies, I have a backup.

[Ice2Dragon]

It just depends.. do you want one now.. or do you want one in two months.

Guess its personal choice.. but me?

Id just buy a new arcade model.

That way you can at least play some video games.

[niceguyshawne]

I would buy the Arcade and sell off the excess stuff you don't need. That should get you back around to the $140 level and you won't have to wait for the shipping.