My son's XBOX has gone on the fritz. We are getting error 14,16,21 all with different games. No mods at all that I am aware of. 6 months ago I sent it away to get the DVD drive replaced and all worked. Worked for about 5 months. It started doing the "require service screen" again so I sent it away again. They found no problems at all so they sent it back. Worked for 2 weeks and went to the "service required" screen with error 14, 16, and 21. Lights flash red!! I know how to take it apart. And I know how to insert games. I don't plan on soft modding or hard modding this uit. What can a father do to fix this XBOX?
Needs a new dash. Dash has become corrupt and is showing up intermittantly. You will need to "Hotswap". Do a search.
http://www.teammodders.com/forum/how-to-hotswap-and-recover-a-hd-without-an-eeprom-backup-t91.html that may help you. Problem is that after doing this and formating, then re-setting up the drive everything will be lost since you are not modded and have no way to back up any of the information like game saves.
Thanks for the input and you guys are quick!! Major problem here is that I am a NOOOBY at this type of stuff and was hoping for a very simple answer. I do have a couple of very old pc's (P1's) but that is about it. I'm not all up to speed on this hardmod, soft mod, hot swapping that you guys talk about. I'm not worried about his game saves, he can play them again and save them if he wants. Any other "simple" options for the freshman xBox'r? I have the tools to take it apart and can remove the drives. Beyond that I am lost. If there isn't a simple answer then maybe just gt him a 360 or a PS2 would make him happy.
well the absolute easiest answer is to send it off to Teammodders.com (if your in the USA) and have them install a cheap modchip like a DuoX2 GS . They may even be able to save the current drive and all his saves. Once you get it back and it has a chip installing a new, larger, hard drive is very simple. Open it up, take out the old one, slap in a new one. Then get a disc (download) called Slayer 2.7 and burn it to a DVD. Stick it into the drive and it can format the new drive and install everything you never knew your Xbox xould do. Your Xbox will be 10X better than it was before i assure you. Here is a breakdown. Chip $22 Install i think is $35 Shipping UPS about $15 each way Hard drive you buy yourself at an online shop like Newegg.com about $90 for at least 250GB Your son will go absolutly bonkers with all the things he can do after that. Such as 1. FTP files between the Xbox and your PC using a $12 CAT5 Crossover cable 2. play music and movies with XBMC (Xbox Media Center) 3. Play movies also wit DVD RegionX (multi-region DVD player) 4. Stream music from the PC (with an internet connection) to his XBMC on the Xbox. Also can stream movies as well. 5. Play a ton of old games from systems like Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Gameboy, NeoGeo, Gamboy Advanced, Sega Genesis and other with the use of emulators and roms. 6. use cheats in games with what are called "trainers" 7. have cool dashboards with various extra features and lots of cool skins (pictures) 8. store and play all his games from the hard drive which gives faster loading times and no wear and tear on the discs or your Xbox laser. You install them with DVD2Xbox which will also be on Slayer 2.7 9. play game after game by using a combo of controller buttons to access IGR (In Game Reset) which takes you from one game back to the dashboard where you can load another without leaving your seat. and i am sure other things i am forgetting. Pretty cool step huh.
Does the microsoft dashboard (the screen that loads when no game is present) load when no games are in the DVD drive? You were unclear whether the Xbox will not boot at all, or if it only does it in games. If the dashboard loads properly without games it is likely a cache problem, which can be an easy fix. Back up any gamesaves you want to save to a memory card, then delete ALL your gamesaves and stored music data from the Xbox hard drive. Wipe everything it will let you and reboot the box. There is a good chance this will fix your drive if it has never been modded or tinkered with. If that does not work, or you cannot boot the msdash, then your only option is to chip your box or perform a hotswap on your hard drive (not complicated, but can be very tricky as timing is crucial) and replace the corrupted files. You can hotswap your drive and fix the files without modding your Xbox though. Use a program called Xplorer360 (Google it) and investigate the contents of your C drive and compare to a complete C drive from somewhere else. (Google again) You can copy or replace files as necessary and then reinstall the hard drive with a complete dashboard. However, if you screw this up without modding it first, you could brick your box unless you want to build an eeprom reader, in which case you may as well do the softmod as it is really less work. Good luck! p.s.: I agree with steimy, you really should consider modding your box. Even if you don't want to use it for downloaded games, the value as a media center PC is awesome. I have four modded boxes networked throughout my house, all with games, movies and music ready at the touch of a button! It may even delay the unnecessary purchase of one of those shoddy 3rd gen systems (except the Wii, it rocks!)
