My 360 is dying- Do I buy a new one now, or wait to see what E3 brings?

Danimal

Danimal

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So the other day when I turned on my 360, it makes this loud buzzing noise. I put a disc in, and it can't read it, so I try to eject the disc, but it won't pop out. I end up having to restart the 360, and it promptly freezes on the starting "XBox 360" screen. Still can't eject my disc. Then the screen goes black, one red ring (on the lower right quadrant) appears, and a message pops up saying I've got an E-65 error, which apparently has something to do with the disc tray. I finally get the tray to open, but the disc is spinning rapidly in it even as it's ejecting. The disc appears fine; no scratches or anything. I tried the system once more last night- no error message, and it read the disc this time, but it made the same hideous buzzing noise when I turned it on, and again the disc was spinning rapidly as the tray ejected it.

I don't feel like paying $100 to get it fixed. This is an older refurbed 20 gig system I got back when my original 20 gig model crapped the bed about a year ago. Plus, a bigger hard drive would be nice; I'm at the point where even just to download XBLA demos, I have to look to see what can be deleted to make space for it. Probably should have moved up to an Elite a while ago.

So, here's my conundrum: do I buy myself an Elite now (I noticed that Target is giving a $50 gift card with the purchase of an Elite this week), or do I hold out a bit to see if the rumored 360 Slim gets announced at E3 next week? I'm not sure how much that would change things for me anyway- would it usher in a price drop on the Elite? More than the $50 I could essentially get back (in GC form) buying it this week? How soon would Slims even be available?

More questions, assuming I just buy an Elite this week: Is there a certain model # I should be looking for that would signify it as being from a newer, presumably more reliable batch of consoles? A model # I should avoid at all costs? How do I go about transferring data from my current HDD to a new HDD? (That may be a stupid question, but I'm extremely tech-challenged, so please bear with me) Once I've got my Live account attached to my new console, and everything I want on my new HDD, how do I clear it all off the old one for good, in case I wanted to sell it? (I would absolutely let any potential buyers know about the E-65 problem)

Oh, and before anyone posts that I should dump my pos 360 and get a PS3, I'll mention that I already have one, love it very much, but I also love the 360 despite it being a pos, and I kind of want to finish Red Dead Redemption and Alan Wake, both of which I'm right smack in the middle of. Not to mention my large backlog of unplayed 360 games.

Thanks for reading all of this. Opinions and/or advice will be much appreciated.
 
Im not reading all that. E3 isn't going to bring anything new xbox 360-wise. If it does, it will be far off enough that someone with a 360 dying right now wouldnt want to wait for. As for looking for a newer system that wont red ring you are probably going to be ok with whatever is currently new on the shelf. There is no fail proof xbox (or any electronic device for that matter) and your chances are good for a newer xbox with whatever your local store has on the shelf.
 
I'd wait - especially since you have a PS3 to keep you busy. If they announce a slim 360 it will probably be on store shelves by the end of the month because just an announcement like that will make everyone stop buying 360s and they don't want that. Also, maybe you will be able to get Natal or something packed in for $50 more instead of paying $150 as an add-on - who knows? I'd wait.
 
I would go ahead and buy a new Elite now. Any of the new bundles will be pretty safe from the RROD, and the rumor was that the slim would drop at the same time as Natal which is rumored to be October. Do you really want to wait that long?

Honestly, and I say this as someone who loves the hell out of my 360, I wouldn't want to be an early adopter on the slim anyway after seeing what the early adopters for the 360 have gone through.
 
I would get a new one. Whatever is shown at E3 won't be out for a few years, if ever.
BTW, investing in the extended warranty that Best Buy offers has been the best for me. I've 'exchanged' a couple of 360's, no questions asked, through them.
 
[quote name='chi.bri']I would get a new one. Whatever is shown at E3 won't be out for a few years, if ever.
BTW, investing in the extended warranty that Best Buy offers has been the best for me. I've 'exchanged' a couple of 360's, no questions asked, through them.[/QUOTE]


No more exchanging. Geek Squad fixes it or some shit now.
 
correct me if im wrong but usually when they have a "new" system come out you can trade it to gamestop...werent they doin that w/ ps2 slims..trade your old ps2 and $50 for a slim..same w/ ps3 if i remember right...so if u want the slim so bad u can trade up for it w/ your new elite...
 
[quote name='jason00']I would go ahead and buy a new Elite now. Any of the new bundles will be pretty safe from the RROD, and the rumor was that the slim would drop at the same time as Natal which is rumored to be October. Do you really want to wait that long?

Honestly, and I say this as someone who loves the hell out of my 360, I wouldn't want to be an early adopter on the slim anyway after seeing what the early adopters for the 360 have gone through.[/QUOTE]Well, it's not so much that I want a Slim, as much as wondering if an announcement of the Slim would drop prices on what's out now.

I just finished playing RDR for almost 2 hours with no problems- no buzzing, no problems reading the disc, nothing. Still, I don't expect that to last. I may go pick up an Elite on Saturday to get the $50 GC, then keep playing the one I have now for as long as I can, or until I'm done with RDR and Alan Wake, whichever comes first.
 
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