EDIT:
https://forum.blockland.us/index.php?topic=309449.msg9514152#msg9514152That was unexpected. Original OP below.
I've been collecting Bungie Halo gear for a while now. Special Editions of Games and Consoles. Just a personal hobby, collected some cool stuff. All I need is a Reach Xbox and the ODST Controller.
One of the things I had to have was a Halo Special Edition Xbox. There were three versions; Transparent Green (released worldwide in April 2004; essentially has the same shell as the Debug Xbox but with the word "Debug" replaced with "Halo" and none of the special hardware), Transparent Orange (of which only one exists) and Transparent Blue (the Halo 2 version, released in 2005 with a copy of Halo 2, strictly limited to Canada and Asia).
Given that the Orange isn't for sale at all and Ice Blue wasn't ever available in Australia (and is pretty rare itself), I was satisfied just claiming the green one, which themselves are still pretty rare. Thankfully, a cursory search on eBay revealed a number of these units floating about, and so I picked what looked like a good deal.
Little did I realise my mistake.
The Xbox arrived days before I got any games to test with it, and by the time I did get to poking at it, the refund period had expired and my feedback had already been sent. This was a big mistake on my behalf. After testing, I sent this post to /r/consolerepair:
Hey, I've got an Australian Halo Special Edition Xbox which I recently picked up, and it's acting quite erratic.
Known symptoms:
- If this is the first or second time I'm booting the console up in a little while, the boot-up audio will play but the screen will show pink and white stripes.
- If this is the first time I'm booting the console up and the game is already in the drive, it will launch the game correctly and I can play.
- If I push the eject button, all audio/video will stop (black screen with the TV reporting No Signal) and the console will blink a green light while the sounds of the DVD Drive reading the disc can be heard.
- If I turn the console off and press the eject button, the drive will properly eject the disc but will still do the pink/white stripes.
- After two "successful" boot-ups, from then on until I've left the console sitting for 30 minutes or more, if I press the power button there is no video or audio, but the console still shows a solid green light as if everything is okay.
When the console first arrived, it operated as expected but in the two days since with minimal use has begun to devolve into total chaos.
The MFG Date is listed as 2004-01-28 and the Serial Number is 5001636 40505, but I wasn't able record the firmware version before it stopped showing the normal home screen. All information would point to this being a 1.4/1.5 unit (if they even exist), even though Halo Special Editions are supposed to be 1.2.
I can see a LOT of dust inside the cover, so I'm already planning on cleaning that all out (just need to grab some Torx screwdrivers this weekend). I'm pretty sure this goes deeper than dust, though, and so I'm wondering if there's any other parts which it sounds like I'll need to replace or repair. I'm kind of half-heartedly expecting that I might even need to go as far as a motherboard replacement.
Cheers.
It wasn't dust. Granted, there was a bit of dust to clean out, but still;
The rust is telling.
From what I've gathered of the seller's location and the overall condition of the unit, this console experienced the recent cyclone and flooding up in Queensland pretty heavily. It's amazing it was even operable when I received it, but it's pretty clear this unit has had it.
I've since secured a new unit by a seller who answered my questions, and this unit is clean, has had the clock cap removed and is guaranteed to not break when I so much as try to take a disc out.
