Try blowing on the cartridge.
My husband fixed it! He followed some directions online and took it apart and removed the heat sinks and reattached them a different way and now it’s working again! 
Don’t mean to resurrect this thread, but got an email notification yesterday that my Xbox has been repaired and is being sent back. Tracked it this morning and it’s scheduled to be here today. W00t! RDR here I come.
enjoy. RDR is a great game. Buggy as all hell (well, it’s rockstar, that’s par for the course) but it’s pretty damn enjoyable. Just wish I had more time to play it.
Or take it out and stick it back in a bunch of times (I know, I know. That’s what she said…)
rpinrd - Um, I think the issue is a system that stands anywhere from a somewhat but not incredibly remote to pretty good chance of completely breaking down. I’ve been playing these things since the earliest Atari systems, and I can tell you that this is completely unprecedented. Completely. I’ve had just about every problem imaginable (game won’t load, game doesn’t load properly, controller port stopped working, game freezes, etc.), but none of my systems just flat-out died. (Well, okay, the Neo Geo CD, but that was an ill-advised abortion that I’d left in the closet for several years.)
Why should you expect anyone to just put up with it, even more so now that it’s several years old and Microsoft presumably has had the time to work out whatever crippling defects their flagship console has?
Declan - Wow, thanks. I’m starting to think of getting one in the near future just as soon as I can find a place for it. This will help. I think it’s astonishing and more than a little disturbing just how many things us console buyers have to take into consideration these days, but you do what you gotta. I’m insisting on 12 volt.
RNATB - Yeesh, what the hell was that all about? Were there really gamers so lazy, they couldn’t be bothered to clean the damn cartridge every so often? You could do it with water and a paper towel!
Or apparently you can just get one of the saucy new Slim models instead, starting tomorrow.
Yeah, this new model is tempting to me. I had a RRoD about 3 years ago, and my unit is still going strong. (heh…) I might just replace this one and craigslist it or something if it turns out that the new version is as good as it looks.
I’m not actually clear on what the selling point of the new unit is supposed to be, other than that it’s really shiny. I mean, yes, it has built in Wifi (it’s about **** time.) and a healthy size hard drive (relatively), but otherwise? It’s shiiiiiny.
I don’t really see why anyone would -upgrade- to one. Certainly they’re a nice buy for people who want to get in on the game (Though truthfully, I think they’d be well served by deploying a 1000gb model for $50 less, so they can undercut the PS3.) but for existing owners…meh. If my 360 eventually dies, I’ll replace it with one of these (since that’ll be all they’re selling by that point anyway. 
) but I don’t really understand why I’d go out of my way to upgrade. What’s your motivation?
I’m not sure anyone upgrades for these things, do they? Maybe if they NEED wireless-n. (N wasn’t available in the adapter, was it?)
The older models are going on sale for $50 less at Walmart and Bestbuy. At Walmart you also get a $50 gift card which comes out to $99 xbox (arcade).
I might pick one of those up as a media center extender for the bedroom.