Does anyone have a 'spare' XBox lying around?
Discussion
This clown would like it for his unemployed brother.
What should my response be?
What should my response be?
Freecycler said:
[XXXXXXXFreecycle] WANTED: XBox (XXXXX XXXXX)
From: My Freecycle (xxxxxxx@freecycle.org) on behalf of xxxxxxxxxx (xxxxxxx@posts.freecycle.org)
You may not know this sender.Mark as safe|Mark as junk
Sent: 10 May 2010 03:09:17
To: sday12 (xxxxx@xxxxxxxxx)
I want an old style XBox, for my brother who had one of theseuntil recently. It died on him, and as he is unemployed, he cannot afford to replace it. If you have one, sitting there doing nothing, and are consideringgetting rid of it, can I put it to good use?
Never seen the appeal myself.
From: My Freecycle (xxxxxxx@freecycle.org) on behalf of xxxxxxxxxx (xxxxxxx@posts.freecycle.org)
You may not know this sender.Mark as safe|Mark as junk
Sent: 10 May 2010 03:09:17
To: sday12 (xxxxx@xxxxxxxxx)
I want an old style XBox, for my brother who had one of theseuntil recently. It died on him, and as he is unemployed, he cannot afford to replace it. If you have one, sitting there doing nothing, and are consideringgetting rid of it, can I put it to good use?
Never seen the appeal myself.
He is asking for an old one which is only going to be worth £30 at the most without games. I have one but would never give it away or sell it as I still play some of the old games on there 
He doesn't seem to be very polite though, but people of freecycle never seem to write more than a line or two.
He doesn't seem to be very polite though, but people of freecycle never seem to write more than a line or two.Edited by JakeS on Monday 10th May 09:23
Ask weirdneville for his old one to send?
weirdneville said:
Well, the saga continues!
I spoke today to a lovely bloke called Rasheed, after the promised supervisor call back failed to materialise. He said that they had received the engineers report and that the reasons given why they refused to repair my XBox 360 were "water damage and screws were missing". He even said that the engineer had photos of this. I asked for him to email them but apparently he can't because of security reasons. Yeah, I can see that, a photo of an Xbox is a dangerous thing in the wrong hands. I'm still awaiting a supervisor call back, and they're still saying that they won't fix my Xbox under warranty.
With this information I decided to have a closer look at my returned XBox, to see if I could see what they had seen. A couple of things jumped out at me. Firstly, the back was damaged where it had been pryed open by the engineer and the warranty sticker on the front was no longer stuck down to seal the case.
Note that the front flap is broken like it wasn't when I sent it, and also that they've added a fetching red dot to go with the flashing red lights.
Damage to the rear from prying:
Secondly, on powering up, It goes to 2 red and 2 green lights, alternating top and bottom. This apparently indicates "general motherboard failure". This is interesting as before I sent it it did one of two things. It either worked briefly, then locked up and showed RROD on reboot, or it showed RROD straight away. So, it's come back more damaged then it went then. Great.
Anyway, I decided to have a look inside. This was because firstly they were saying it had been opened already, so why the f
k shouldn't I? And secondly, I wanted to see what they were talking about. I wasn't going to fight a war of proof emptyhanded now, was I?! Finally, I wanted to make sure that the console wasn't chock full of dogs piss, as my dog has in the past pee'd on various expensive electrical items left lying about, and I wanted to make sure the same fate hadn't befallen my Xbox. I didn't think this was the case because it lives on a shelf about 6" higher than his 4"cock, and also I've given him a nice NAD amplifier to piss on and this seems to keep him happy. Even I would accept that if it's full of piss, I shouldn't expect for it to be repaired under warranty.
It's not that hard to crack open an XBox 360, as it turns out, depite the evidence left by the spanner monkey at Microsoft. Just follow one of the many guides available on Youtube.
Inside, this is what it looks like. There were no missing screws that I could identify, so either they're not missing, were missing but have been replaced, or have been missing ever since it came from the factory.
Note the complete lack of, well, anything interesting really.
Not deterred, I soldiered on. There are no more screws to undo from this point, so why not, eh? Off comes the optical drive.
Iiiiiiiinnnnteresting.... A Letter. I photo'd it in situ, tucked under the DVD drive (Which is actually a Blu-Ray drive, they've just put a dab of superglue on the Blu-ray laser to deactivate it). You won't be able to read it so I've included a transcript of it at the end of the post. Suffice to say, much is revealed to the intrepid spanner wielding geek!
And on I continued. I wanted to see the rest of the pathetic heatsinks in all their woeful innefectual glory, so off comes the fan shroud, only to find:
It's stuffed with bog roll from the factory! It's like they actually WANT these things to break! Either that or a disgruntled soldering rig at M$ HQ has made this addition to the build routine to bring pain to the masters that torment him so. Either way, it's a st addition to the Xbox 360.
Taking off the fan shroud also reveals perhaps the biggest upgrade between the Zephyr boards (which mine is) and the Xenon boards. Viewers of Ashens will note that Xenons came equipped with a Warranty Banana. Not so the Zepyr boards!
Behold! The Warranty lemon! Looks in good nick too. I can't think why they refused my claim with such a fresh looking citrus fruit inside! Another point of contention with Microsoft.
Also, note the fat wad of cash tucked in there. Initially I was confused by it, but having read the letter all becomes clear.
So, conclusions:
1) Microsoft engineers are cackhanded lying fks.
2) There is no dog piss in my Xbox.
3) There is no reason I can find that they refused to fix it, although they DID break it more for me.
4) I'm glad I have a PS3.
kers.
I spoke today to a lovely bloke called Rasheed, after the promised supervisor call back failed to materialise. He said that they had received the engineers report and that the reasons given why they refused to repair my XBox 360 were "water damage and screws were missing". He even said that the engineer had photos of this. I asked for him to email them but apparently he can't because of security reasons. Yeah, I can see that, a photo of an Xbox is a dangerous thing in the wrong hands. I'm still awaiting a supervisor call back, and they're still saying that they won't fix my Xbox under warranty.
With this information I decided to have a closer look at my returned XBox, to see if I could see what they had seen. A couple of things jumped out at me. Firstly, the back was damaged where it had been pryed open by the engineer and the warranty sticker on the front was no longer stuck down to seal the case.
Note that the front flap is broken like it wasn't when I sent it, and also that they've added a fetching red dot to go with the flashing red lights.
Damage to the rear from prying:
Secondly, on powering up, It goes to 2 red and 2 green lights, alternating top and bottom. This apparently indicates "general motherboard failure". This is interesting as before I sent it it did one of two things. It either worked briefly, then locked up and showed RROD on reboot, or it showed RROD straight away. So, it's come back more damaged then it went then. Great.
Anyway, I decided to have a look inside. This was because firstly they were saying it had been opened already, so why the f
k shouldn't I? And secondly, I wanted to see what they were talking about. I wasn't going to fight a war of proof emptyhanded now, was I?! Finally, I wanted to make sure that the console wasn't chock full of dogs piss, as my dog has in the past pee'd on various expensive electrical items left lying about, and I wanted to make sure the same fate hadn't befallen my Xbox. I didn't think this was the case because it lives on a shelf about 6" higher than his 4"cock, and also I've given him a nice NAD amplifier to piss on and this seems to keep him happy. Even I would accept that if it's full of piss, I shouldn't expect for it to be repaired under warranty.It's not that hard to crack open an XBox 360, as it turns out, depite the evidence left by the spanner monkey at Microsoft. Just follow one of the many guides available on Youtube.
Inside, this is what it looks like. There were no missing screws that I could identify, so either they're not missing, were missing but have been replaced, or have been missing ever since it came from the factory.
Note the complete lack of, well, anything interesting really.
Not deterred, I soldiered on. There are no more screws to undo from this point, so why not, eh? Off comes the optical drive.
Iiiiiiiinnnnteresting.... A Letter. I photo'd it in situ, tucked under the DVD drive (Which is actually a Blu-Ray drive, they've just put a dab of superglue on the Blu-ray laser to deactivate it). You won't be able to read it so I've included a transcript of it at the end of the post. Suffice to say, much is revealed to the intrepid spanner wielding geek!
And on I continued. I wanted to see the rest of the pathetic heatsinks in all their woeful innefectual glory, so off comes the fan shroud, only to find:
It's stuffed with bog roll from the factory! It's like they actually WANT these things to break! Either that or a disgruntled soldering rig at M$ HQ has made this addition to the build routine to bring pain to the masters that torment him so. Either way, it's a s
t addition to the Xbox 360.Taking off the fan shroud also reveals perhaps the biggest upgrade between the Zephyr boards (which mine is) and the Xenon boards. Viewers of Ashens will note that Xenons came equipped with a Warranty Banana. Not so the Zepyr boards!
Behold! The Warranty lemon! Looks in good nick too. I can't think why they refused my claim with such a fresh looking citrus fruit inside! Another point of contention with Microsoft.
Also, note the fat wad of cash tucked in there. Initially I was confused by it, but having read the letter all becomes clear.
So, conclusions:
1) Microsoft engineers are cackhanded lying f
ks.2) There is no dog piss in my Xbox.
3) There is no reason I can find that they refused to fix it, although they DID break it more for me.
4) I'm glad I have a PS3.
The included letter from Bill Gates said:
Dear Xbox Enthusiast,
Why the ruddy fk have you taken your console apart? If it's because we've refused your warranty claim, then we certainly will now you idiot! Haha, you fell for one of our easiest tricks you moron. Anyway, you're here now so I might as well take the time to explain a couple of things to you:
The fat wad of cash installed inbetween the GPU and the CPU is there to cock a snoop at Sony. They say they lose £150 just building a PS3! Ha! I can't give money away fast enough. I've got so much of the stuff I fuel my central heating with it. Unfortunately, economies of scale and the fact that I use remand prisoners in tibet to build these peices of crap mean that I can't turn a loss on them no matter how hard I try. Current build cost is about £4.20 and a fresh leather whip for the gang master. To bring us in line with our competitors, I hide this cash in here to keep it away from the tax man. It comes back after 18 months when the console breaks so I can declare it in the following tax year. Clever eh? My most excellent Accountant Steven Driver game me that Idea, and I gave him a new S3 as a bonus.
The lemon is important. NEVER TOUCH THE WARRANTY LEMON! Death or Scurvy may result.
Anyway, thanks loads for all the games and downloadable gubbins you've bought but are not now able to play, sorry it broke but not that sorry, Lots of Love,
Bill
fWhy the ruddy f
k have you taken your console apart? If it's because we've refused your warranty claim, then we certainly will now you idiot! Haha, you fell for one of our easiest tricks you moron. Anyway, you're here now so I might as well take the time to explain a couple of things to you:The fat wad of cash installed inbetween the GPU and the CPU is there to cock a snoop at Sony. They say they lose £150 just building a PS3! Ha! I can't give money away fast enough. I've got so much of the stuff I fuel my central heating with it. Unfortunately, economies of scale and the fact that I use remand prisoners in tibet to build these peices of crap mean that I can't turn a loss on them no matter how hard I try. Current build cost is about £4.20 and a fresh leather whip for the gang master. To bring us in line with our competitors, I hide this cash in here to keep it away from the tax man. It comes back after 18 months when the console breaks so I can declare it in the following tax year. Clever eh? My most excellent Accountant Steven Driver game me that Idea, and I gave him a new S3 as a bonus.
The lemon is important. NEVER TOUCH THE WARRANTY LEMON! Death or Scurvy may result.
Anyway, thanks loads for all the games and downloadable gubbins you've bought but are not now able to play, sorry it broke but not that sorry, Lots of Love,
Bill
kers.Edited by Funk on Monday 10th May 18:08
I had an old xBox a while ago that I took to the tip, he could have had that.
Sad thing was, though, that it was borked through my own stupid fault; I was installing XBMC and tried to make it boot direct to XBMC rather than the default skin. Luckily I picked up a replacement for the grand total of £15 from eBay.
I suspect my bricked xBox didn't make it into the skip, one of the council workers may have taken it home to see if it worked. I kind of hope it has developed a new life, where it is taken to the tip, someone sees it on the "electricals" table (it was in pristine physical condition, like new, just buggered up firmware) and takes it home, only to return to the tip the next week.
Sad thing was, though, that it was borked through my own stupid fault; I was installing XBMC and tried to make it boot direct to XBMC rather than the default skin. Luckily I picked up a replacement for the grand total of £15 from eBay.
I suspect my bricked xBox didn't make it into the skip, one of the council workers may have taken it home to see if it worked. I kind of hope it has developed a new life, where it is taken to the tip, someone sees it on the "electricals" table (it was in pristine physical condition, like new, just buggered up firmware) and takes it home, only to return to the tip the next week.
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