Over the last couple of weeks my xbox has started to make a strange noise during the course of playing files, usually leading to freezing during play. I use my xbox predominently for my XBMC. It basically sounds like its working hard to load creating noise akin to "kachum-kachum-kachum kachum-kachum-kachum kachum-kachum-kachum" in long loud sets of threes. I opened it up thinking perhaps the ide cable might be loose but they are perfectly tight. Maybe i need a new laser but i have no idea. My system is chipped. The last it happened the sound continued even AFTER i shut my xbox off!
does it only make this sound when playing discs? If not then it may be the hard drive making those noises.
Hard to say. I always have a disc in the system, and it seems to do it seemingly automatically sometimes. I'll see what happens with no disc inside. Stupid question but would that cause discs to freeze while viewing (refering to video files not games)?
well freezing can either be low quality media used that the laser has problems reading, a problem with the program itself, or a laser problem. Which i know really doesn't narrow it down much. One thing i never do is keep discs in the system when i am not using them.
I use taiyo yuden 12x or 8x DVD-r media burned at 4x (sometimes 2x) speed. I just puchased a samsung DVD drive (I have a Thompsons)and ATA166 IDE cable (uncut). When you say "program", suppose you mean the XBMC. I might need an upgrade on that too. Thinking about getting new larger hard-drive as well. Any advice? And thank you for your help so far.
well, i have a 300GB Western Digital in mine. That will store more than enough games for me. http://xboxdrives.x-pec.com/?p=list http://www.teammodders.com/forum/how-to-install-a-new-hdd-and-format-it-using-slayers-2-6-t672.html Franks XBMC auto installer you can also get at the site i listed. It is a fast and easy way to install XBMC. Just burn it to a CD and stick it into the Xbox. It will do the rest for you. Just make sure you use a file browser on the Xbox to go into your XBMC folder, delete all the files, then put the new copy in that same folder. If the name or path to that folder changes in any way you will not be able to access it from your menu's without editing the EvoX.ini file. Which is a good think to learn to do. Editing that file you can put a link to any program you want right on the main screen of your dashboard. This saves a few steps in starting it.
It's funny because it's Franks Auto installer that I used to upgrade my XBMC. I received my new DVD drive and IDE cable and should install those this weekend. I was doing a little research today at work and found that upgrading my HDD may not be possible due to it being an early model with a early modchip. I think I have an Xecutor 2 or lite. have to figure out how old my mdel xbox is now.