Sunday, May 27, 2007

Refurbished Xbox 360 Update


As I mentioned in the last update of my continuing Xbox 360 saga (I'm pitching the movie rights to Fox as we speak), I experienced some jamming of the DVD drive with the refurbished console that Xbox Support sent me. At the time of that post, the drive jammed on me the first three times I attempted to open it from a vertical position.

I've now been playing on that refurbished console for close to a week (including an 8 hour binge-session with The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion yesterday), and I'm happy to say that the DVD drive only jammed on me one more time, and this was when I went to truly play on it for the first time about half a week ago. The drive got stuck, so I attempted to open it a second time and tapped it as I did so, and thus far it's opened spot-on every time since.

Aside from that, the console has been working very well. I've noticed that the console's fan is a bit louder than my original unit, but I believe that the DVD drive is a bit quieter, save for a clicking sound it can make when accessing data. Overall, the general noise factor between my original and refurbished unit is roughly the same.

I have noticed that the refurbished unit can take about 5 to 10 seconds longer to properly turn on, however this is negligible and certainly not worth complaining about. I'm also still waiting for the delivery of my copy of Perfect Dark Zero, which I'm expecting sometime this week.

At this point, I think the console will work out fine, so I've filled out and sent off the survey that came with the unit to Microsoft to provide my feedback.

Now the only thing that's screwed me over is actually something to do with the Xbox Live Marketplace and Microsoft's security policy. Whenever you purchase content via the Xbox Live Marketplace, that content is tied to two things: 1) Your Xbox Live Account, and 2) Your console's serial number or unit number, I'm not sure which (or if its both).

What does this mean in English? This means if you buy a new console or receive a refurbished console as I did and use your original HDD, you will _only_ be able to use any purchased content while connected to Xbox Live. Even after connecting to Xbox Live, you still can not use said content offline, and re-downloading the content does not seem to resolve the issue.

This means that every Xbox Live Arcade game I legally purchased will only work as a demo version if I'm offline, and I can not access any of the Themes I bought unless I'm connected. Overall, this is not a huge deal, as I'm online 99% of the time anyway, but had I purchased something significant, like The Elder Scrolls IV: Shivering Isles, I would have been pissed. Again, I'd mainly be able to play it, but its the principle of the thing: I should be able to play offline content offline if I've legally purchased it.

After surfing the forums, the only solution is to go through Support and you'll hopefully get a refund of your Microsoft Points to repurchase the content. What I'm going to do is email that rep who called me a week ago and see what he says.

I've also read that Microsoft is working on a solution to this "issue," however from what I've read said solution will only be effective for anyone encountering the problem after its implemented, the rest of us will still be out of luck.

Anyways, I'll see what the rep says.

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