hi all. just wonderin what problems u guys have had with ur xbox's.
a few months back my xbox started going abit mad. i could have it on all day watching films or listening to music but the second i played a game 4 or 5 mins in it wud shut itself down. then a week later i got the (3 red rings). so i took my xbox apart and hoovered the motherboard and cleared out all the grills. and it worked perfectly again. but then a few weeks later i got the (open disk tray) error. were every time i stuck a game in it would make a grunting noise as if it were tryin to play the game then it would just say open disk tray again. but if i kept presing the disk tray button loads an the let go it would play now and then. but i got annoyed with this so watched a few vids online and found a solution. i took my xbox apart again and removed the disk tray. opened that up an there r 2 little gold screws. all i did was turn the left screw a tiny bit to the left and put it all back toghether. this fixed the problem completely and the games all played first time everytime. (wouldn't advise this if u still have ur warranty). anyways my xbox has been running fine for like 2 months now. but this mornin while in the middle of a mod warfare 2 match online the picture went abit funny and i had loads of black dots and lines on my screen as if some pixels were failing. so i switch the xbox off and on and i got the 1 red light (bottom right 1) and the system error contact xbox customer service screen with the big e74 at the bottom. this is a e74 error. i have done abit of looking up and have a few solutions to this problem to try but just wanted to know if anyone local has had any experience with this problem ?

let u all know how i get on with this.

forgot to mention even tho the screen was messed up while playing mod warfare if i pressed my middle (X) button. the menu and friends list an stuff didnt have the pixel problems on it :S

E74 Error means that either the GPU or Scaler Chip inside has malformed or has fried completely. the only way it can be fixed is to either send it off again or replace the chip on the motherboard. (this problem affects core, falcon and Jasper units)

nar i've seen it fixed online, just gna try it. get back to yas later

YAY ! fixed it. all i did was took the xbox apart and removed the xclamp. took the heat sink out and removed the bolts from it then i got some 30mm m5 roofing bolts and hack sawed them down to 10 mm. got 8 m5 washers to put either side of the motherboard and re-attached the heatsink using the botls and got rid of microsofts old fixings. all i have to do now is re drill the back metal plate so my bolts fit snug. i didnt even replace the thermal compound on the heatsink i just left the old stuff on then when i put it all back togeva i took the fan from its original place but left it sucking air from the metal thing next to the heat sink. (this is the safest way of overheating the xbox without damage) let it overheat for 10 mins. turned it off let it cool for 10 - 15 mins. and my xbox is workin like a dream god i love youtube !

if anyone needs any help with any problems with their xbox just drop me a message. i have now fixed the 3 red rings. the open disk tray erro. and the E74 error. all in all microsoft would have now charged me over £200 if they were all fixed seperatley and it has cost me £1.02 for the bolts and washers from screwfix.

microsoft gets it's arse handed to them once again