Xbox 360 Elite - 20 months old - Won't read disc's

[kiethton]

Hi Guys,

Wonder if you could give me a little help.

Upon my brother returning home from holiday this weekend it seems that his Xbox no longer works, likely co-incidental. The problem seems to be with the disc reader and its inability to read the discs although other arcade style games and the Xbox live interface work. This is a bit of a hinderance as he is on it regularly and it's an area of interest and environment in which he feels comfortable as well as being his primary point of interaction with friends from school who are spread over a wide geographic area (SEN).

So in my absence, when finding that it doesn't work today he returned to another branch of the store that he (well my parents as a present) purchased it from, think national retailer of computer GAMEs. They say that due to the age of the console (20 months) they were unable to help in store so gave him the number of the Microsoft Xbox helpline who repeat that due to it being 20 months old it it out of warranty and thus his problem. From my thinking a console should be expected to last longer than 20 months, especially as it is the new style elite console and cost in the region of £300. The console itself looks pristine and it looks like it is just the disc reader that has packed up (won't read any disc's).

How do I progress things from here as I now have a brother thats at a little bit of a lost end, although thankfully goes back to school tomorrow. The receipt itself is likely squirrelled away somewhere to be found in years to come, although we will be able to prove purchase via bank statements.

[Slink]

you could just send it to microsoft for them to fix it, or take it to an indy to fix, will be cheaper with the indy but more chance of needing work in the future.

[kiethton]

Slink said:

you could just send it to microsoft for them to fix it, or take it to an indy to fix, will be cheaper with the indy but more chance of needing work in the future.

Thanks for the advice but was aiming to avoid having to pay for repairs on a console thats not even two years old yet, surely it should be broken after 20 months?

[davepoth]

kiethton said:

Thanks for the advice but was aiming to avoid having to pay for repairs on a console thats not even two years old yet, surely it should be broken after 20 months?

Sale of Goods act probably applies here. Watch this One Show video. There is a form letter too.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theoneshow/consumer/200...

[kiethton]

davepoth said:

kiethton said:

Thanks for the advice but was aiming to avoid having to pay for repairs on a console thats not even two years old yet, surely it should be broken after 20 months?

Sale of Goods act probably applies here. Watch this One Show video. There is a form letter too.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theoneshow/consumer/200...

Thanks for that, I'll take a look at the full process in the morning, think it may also be an idea to try and use my lunch break to try and get this fixed.

[Silverbullet767]

You could try a DVD lens cleaner, worth a shot if the lens is gunked up.

[davepoth]

Silverbullet767 said:

You could try a DVD lens cleaner, worth a shot if the lens is gunked up.

True enough - might be a bit of dust or something in there.

[Streps]

My elite has been unable to read disks properly for about 13 months.
(Bought in 2009)
I just play games off my hard drive and use a friends console for burning new games onto it.
will probably get it sorted when it finally completely dies on me.

They do seem to be prone to faults.. not the most reliable things.
At least it's only red ringed on me once..