XBOX 360 problem - only middle green light flashing and no error message

Hi everyone,

This is my first post on afterdawn so I hope this works. I come across a problem on my Xbox 360 for which I had a lot of difficulty finding information on.

I got a brand new XBox 360 (with Toshiba DVD ROM) and got a firmware upgrade to play backup games. Everything was all ok until about one month ago, when I was playing Halo 3. Half-way throug the game, the Xbox restarted itself (there was no warning message etc, just black out, and then restart to the XBOX logo page), but then I could restart the game and play again. This problem became more frequent over about 2-3 weeks until one day, the xbox restarted itself and I got the flashing green light in the centre (no red lights at all). Although I could get into the dashboard ok, the DVD drive wouldn't eject, nor would it read the actual DVD for me to play the game. I had to get the DVD out manually. But after a few minutes of switching off the Xbox and trying again, it was ok again. This got worse to the point that sometimes I don't even have to be playing a game, and the xbox would restart, for instance in dashboard. The breaking point was last week, when the Xbox just wouldn't work at all. I would turn it on and would just get the flashing green light. The DVD ROM was completely gone.

Because I got the firmware upgrade, I had voided my warranty, and had to take the xbox to a guy who kind of knew how to fix it. According to him, the DVD ROM/laser was gone, because if he took out the motherboard and put in with a different rom, it would work. So to cut the long story short, he had to put a new rom in. I will pick it up on the weekend to try it.

Now I guess my question is what would kill the DVD ROM? My own guess (and I am no expert in this) is that it could have been the TDK DVD+R DL that I used (going to take everyone's advise and stick with Verbatim... more expensive but definitely worth it). I read also that "Dead Rising" pushes the Xbox360 to the edge, a game I played heaps. Any thoughts?

Has anyone else come across this problem? I will keep you posted when I get my Xbox 360 back on the weekend.

Henry

 

Hi Henry

I have the same problem with my xbox with Toshiba drive. I first noticed this during one evenening I was playing fifa07 which is backed up on a Lazer DL DVD+R. I heard a loud grinding sound, turned the machine off. After turning it back in it wouldn't eject the disc, i did a manual eject played another gave worked for a while but started playing up from then on. Same symtoms it would restart in the middle of a game, even on the dashboard. Most of the time eject doesn't work just flashes the eject / power indicator.

 

hi semsem282,

Can you still play games on the xbox? Did you get it looked at to see what was wrong with it?

I wonder if this is a problem with the Toshiba drives.

 

yeah I can still play games but it restarts randomly, I'm getting it looked at by the place that did the firmware upgrade tomorrow. Perhaps they've heard of this before??? I'll ask them to do it again... let you know how it goes

 

The middle light means that you are flashing your drive so to say

its in mode b. that mihgt also be it

 

Ok... here is an update of the latest.

I got my xbox 360 back with a new ROM. Played a version of "dead rising" , this time on good quality verbatim DVD's. After about 10 minutes of the game, same thing again... game kind of freezes, and restarts. I now am thinking whether it could just be a bad backup of this game. Doesn't seem to have happened when I played an original version of "Gears of War," only backups.

Is it worth getting the firmware re-flashed or doing an OS software update? Any thoughts?

 

Ok... another update.

Yesterday the xbox 360 crashed... just freezed half way through a game after ~10 minutes of playing. The DVD ROM was making really loud noises and then the console froze and restarted. I got the same error (blinking green light with no error message) and couldn't eject my DVD. But this morning it was good again... after playing dead rising for a while, I went back to dashboard and heard this noise in the system, and it restarted, green lights again etc etc.

As I got the ROM replaced, I am using verbatim DVD's, and I keep my xbox next to a window, I can rule out the ROM, DVD quality, or the heating.

I wonder whether it is a firmware problem or whether it has to do with how the xbox was flahsed in the first place. Any thoughts?? I am seriously thinking of getting a PS3 and just selling this piece of junk on ebay.

 

Ok... this is my final post for this thread to update people on the latest .

To summarise, the problem that I am having are:
- The middle green light flashes
- DVD unable to eject
- console restarts half-way through game
- console restarts at dashboard.

This is inconsistent, but tend to resolve if I leave my console off overnight. i have never had any red lights until 2 weeks ago, i got 2 red lights and the start up screen went all funny. i called the repair guy (as my console's warranty had been voided). He said that he had seen this problem before and that I was heading to the RROD. So the thing i wanted to let people know who were getting this problem is that perhaps the green flashing light is a precursor to the RROD problem.

As for my console, the tech guy said that he could have a go at fixing it by doing something to the heat sink (i presume it is the x-clamp thing that i read about in the other posts), but that i needed to invest in a fan, not play for long hours, get an external fan etc etc etc. I am a bit annoyed and have had enough with this console. All i wanted when i purchased the xbox is something reliable, but it is not what i am getting. So as i hinted in the last post, I don't want the hassel of forever fixing this faulty piece of junk, and will post it on ebay tomorrow. I went out this morning and bought a PS3.

peace and out.

 

I personally have always kept my xbox in the same enclosed spot (its literally surrounded on both sides and the back with about 3 inches going each way) in a wooden entertainment center. I bought mine 3 months after it initially launched and have not ONCE had any kind of issues with mine. Granted that doesn't count the time when i purchased the nyko intercooler and it kept turning off randomly with 4 blinking red lights (not enough power) and after i removed any type of external fan it runs fine.

However i never flashed my firmware or modded it. Im going to go ahead and assume that since its just the one green light and to my knowledge nobody that HASNT flashed theirs has run into this error that it probably is a drive/firmware issue.

Dont blame the box

my .02 cents

 

It is great to hear that your xbox is running well (touch wood) and I hope that continues for you.

I am not convinced that it is because I have modded my firmware, because firstly, it worked for 5 months, and secondly, there are at least 2 other people who I know who are getting the flashing green light problem who have not modded their firmware. Perhaps we just were unlucky and got a bad box, which can happen for any console. But understand my situation, I have had many consoles which have been modded etc, and have had no problems at all(generally thanks for the help of this forum). This is the first time i have run into problems with a console.

At the end of the day, all I am saying is that for ME, I have had enough with the xbox 360. I am not blaming "THE BOX," just "My BOX". I am cool with others loving their xbox and willing to go to lengths to get it repaired, to get good playing time out of it. I have enjoyed my time with the xbox, especially playing "Dead Rising." i think it is a cool system, but its inconsistencies (which are evident through the many faults that are posted on this web) is NOT FOR ME. In fact, if it wasn't because this was a gift from my brother, I personally would have not bought it in the first place.

So i am cool with you liking your xbox, as long as you are cool with me getting annoyed with mine and selling it

 

I'm having the same problem with the DVD drive, and I have not flashed my 360. So it's not a problem with modded xboxes...

 

i am telling you now i bet the guy you brought the box to did NOT fix the dvd rom or replace, he probably just cleaned and dinged you money to pay for nothing, second, the blinking light means the dvd drive is actually trying to eject, there is something wrong with power cable to dvd rom or you actually need a new dvdrom, i had this problem once and it was when i was doing the 2 wire trick, rrod has nothing to do with the blinking green light. trust me! you roms are partially working because it is about to DIE, it won't be long before it is done for good. it has nothing to do with firmware or anything like that. you should really take your stuff to someone who knows what they are doing and you can trust.

 

I agree that it has nothing to do with the firmware mod, so we can rule that out. The guy that originally changed my rom came highly recommended in my area and apparently if he couldn't fix it, then no one else could. My own thoughts is that the DVD rom was losing connection, but do not know the cause of it. I no longer have the xbox 360 so I guess I will never know....

 

Sadly the same has happend to me - I was wondering if anyone knows of a way to fix this problem: could it really be the power supply being disconnected or w/e from teh dvdrom tray or would i have to buy a new tray as well. So basically my question is if there is a definitive way to fix this problem or if anyone has called microsoft tech support to even ask if they kno what the problem is... i am willing to dish out some dough i just want my XBOX 360 back!

 

I had this problem twice before and one time it was due to a badly flashed drive, so i reflashed it and it worked fine. the second time it was due to a broken circuit board due to inserting the power connecter the wrong way. I would try re-flashing the drive as you can't lose by doing it, the worst that will happen is you'll be back where you started. If that doesn't work buy a new drive, extract the drive key and insert it into the new drive and flash the drive. the flashing center light definately means it is a problem with the drive from my experience.

Hope this might help,
james

 

alrite thanks a lot for the resposne i will for sure try that out and let you kno how it goes!

thanks again mate

 

check to make sure your not overheating, try moving your xbox into a more open space, make sure its sat horizontally,
i can see why the confusion is about on this one. a flashing green light at start up means that your xbox 360 dvd drive is in mode b(recovery mode) waiting to be flashed.

however i have also seen this on an overheated console,
leave the xbox for approximately 3 hrs and then all is well again.

when you turn it back on and the flashing lights come one, you cant play games as this would start using the consoles graphics and cpu and memory and dvd drive and the heat would start rising again.

instead it lets the console boot up allowing the fans to start and try to get rid of some of the heat inside.

 

I would agree that heating has something to do with it, because when I had my console and I get the error, I can leave the console overnight, turn it on the next day and it would work for a while again. I guess this is what made me think that perhaps there is some loose cable or crapy soldering to the DVD ROM.

 

hey guys..

so sad, but I also have the same problem. disc drive wont eject and the power indicator keeps on blinking. and it wont read the disc inside.

sadly i dunno whats wrong with my 360. It was working fine until I bought and played Devil May Cry 4 which when i inserted it in my 360 it asked for an update. so I did updated it. then around about 2 or 3 days my 360 was just crazy. it wont eject and the power indicator light keeps blinking and it wont read discs..

oh man tomorrow im bringing it back to the shop, i just hope it can be fix.. im praying..

 

I've ran into this problem twice.

The first time I fixed it by replacing the dvd-rom power cable.

The second occassion i was unable to root the cause of. The power cable was good and the drive was good. (both worked in a different xbox 360).