After 11 business days, 2 lost repair orders, and another 2 delays, I finally have the refurbished Xbox 360 console from Xbox Support. After hugging it, taking it to a romantic candle-lit dinner at Chuck E. Cheese's, and promising never to fight again, I decided to inspect the unit, plug it in, and of course make sure it works.
After opening the box the first thing that was there was a form instructing me how to connect my Wireless Controller to the refurbished console. Next was a letter from Xbox Support telling me that they'd register this unit to me and remove my prior unit's registration. They also apologized for any issues and provided me with the one month Xbox Live Gold Membership I was originally promised. Under that letter was a survey which I'll fill out later (to bad I'll need to pay for postage since I don't live in the US), and finally, there was the bag-wrapped console itself.
I took the console out of the bag and inspected it. The unit is in fairly good condition. There's a nice sized scratch on the bottom of the left panel of the console (when standing vertically), some residual adhesive from some kind of label on the top of the right panel, and a small pen or marker mark on the faceplate. It is a Pro console, however, so I still have the nice chrome finish on the DVD drive. The console itself was also manufactured about 2 weeks or so after my original unit, and it looks like it has the Samsung DVD Drive instead of a Hitachi one.
I connected the unit, stood it up vertically, turned it on, and reconnected my Wireless Controller. The first thing I noticed is that the fan(s) seem a bit louder than what I remember from my previous units, but if they help keep the console cooler I can deal with that.
It detected my HDD and let me load my Profile, connected to Xbox Live, and downloaded an update. The console then rebooted and went through the initial run set up process. After that, everything was looking good. All my HDD content was there, my Theme loaded up, etc.
I then decided to open the disc tray via the Dashboard open option and the tray opened about a quarter of a millimeter, sputtered for a second, then pulled back in. I attempted this twice more with no success; the tray would not open. After a good bit of grumbling, I turned off my console, put it in it's horizontal position, and tried again. This time, the drive opened no problem. I opened and closed it both via the Dashboard and the eject button a few times to be sure. I then powered down the console, put it back in its vertical position, and tried again. This time it worked, opening and closing about a dozen times while using both the Dashboard and the eject button (For those who don't know, never, ever move your Xbox 360 from a horizontal to a vertical position or vice versa while its powered up and a disc is in the drive unless you want to get your disc scratched and ruined. It's a known issue with the console's design and you've been warned).
A bit concerned but generally satisfied that the drive wouldn't kill me, I threw in Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter to see if it would a) read the disc and b) eject it properly. Everything worked fine, though I noticed this Samsung drive has different disc reading noises than the Hitachi model I previously had. I also read that the Samsung drive is supposed to be noticeably quieter, but I honestly didn't notice a difference.
So there you have it. I am a little concerned with that DVD drive, as having it jam while trying to open from the get-go ain't the best sign, however the only way to truly see if the console is in good shape or not is to use it. My classic Xbox, which has been going strong since Oct. 2004 when I bought it, also has a Samsung drive and it's never given me a spot of trouble, so I'm going to lean on an optimistic side for once. I intend to put this refurbished Xbox 360 through it's paces with as many marathon sessions of crack... I mean The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, that I can between now and the end of the coming weekend. If it all holds together fine, I'll fill out that survey and send it in, use some rubbing alcohol to get rid of that bit of adhesive, and if that pen mark really bothers me, I might just go buy that Halo Faceplate.
Even if the console does break on me, this refurbished unit falls under my original warranty, so its covered for the next 7 months and change, but I really don't want to go through that process again.
As always, I'll let you know if something goes boom.
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