Elite owners beware; you too could be plagued with Xbox hardware issues.

I bought an Elite from EB Games in Canada May 2007. In July I started experiencing random lockups while playing games. (Didn't matter the title) I called Xbox support and they suggested trying to play without the hdd attached so I did. The games appeared to not lock up with the hdd removed (we played over a 48hr period and left the console running all night when not in use) As a result of this test, they suggested I send the drive in for replacement. Since this was very inconvenient (send the drive in first on my dime suggesting to me that I use a registered courier so someone has to sign for it and then they'd send a replacement back through the mail!! Yes, this is what they said!! Microsoft could use a page out of Dell's book on support policies sheesh!!) I did a format and maintenance on the drive instead of sending it in. (xx left bumpber right bumper xx is how you do maintenance kind of like a chkdsk in DOS I would assume) The format was successful and the drive maintenance came back clean. We then proceeded to play games and HD DVD movies problem free until last night. Last night, the screen would lock up just on boot up with or without the hdd attached to a red and black check board screen. Multiple times it did this as well as the 3 red lights of death, general hardware failure) I even unplugged from power for half an hour during supper and then tried again. Keep in mind, this is a cold console it hadn't been played all day! I called MS back while this was going on. While on hold, I tried shutting it down and back up again about 5 times and then it finally booted up properly. I then shut it down and back on again a couple more, just to make sure. I then hooked the hdd back up and tried a couple of more, it seemed O.K. By this time I got through to technical support and I explained the situation, they gave me a reference number and told me if this is still happening 24hrs from now to call them back. I was a little perturbed by this answer but agreed to it. After I got off the phone, my room mate tried to play Forza 2 where the console proceeded to lock up again just as before. We decided to leave it off for the night and will try it again at supper time today. I will let you know how I make out with Xbox tech support tonight.

Thx

JAC

Is it too soon to tell?

Did MS alter the x-clamp design, or change the thermal paste? What else have they done apart from making the chip a bit smaller and slapping on another heatsink? Is that good enough?

Guess we gotta wait and see.