Has anyone sent in a xbox 360 for repair without the warranty seal? did they fix it or send it back to you?
I just bought a used xbox and it has the e74 error and is still under warranty. I am capable of making sure the firmware on the drive is stock, and I can purchase a warranty sticker if I really need to, but I figure I would check to see how close microsoft inspects these things.
If the sticker is removed, Microsoft will contact you and tell you that they can send it back, or you can pay $100 for repair. If the sticker is already gone I would suggest trying to fix it yourself. There are about 2 or 3 different methods, the easiest to do and to clean up if it doesn't work 100%, is the penny fix. Take 3 pennies and stack them and wrap them in electric tape... Do that three times. Put some thermal paste on the chip and tightly tape down the stacks of pennies. You could also do the X-Clamp fix while you have it open, and flash the firmware.
If you are not comfortable fixing it yourself, you can do what you said and buy a sticker, as long as you know it is under warranty. Don't even worry about checking the firmware, when you send your 360 to Microsoft they don't even check the firmware on the DVD drive. Myself, and 2 friends have sent in modded 360 in with no problems.
So to sum everything up.
- Yes, they will fix it without the sticker... But be ready to pay $100
- Yes, they will still fix it with the flashed firmware on it
- First step, if you are comfortable with it, is to try and fix it yourself
I would buy a warranty sticker and just send it in... I'm pretty sure you can get 1 for about $25, isn't the x-clamp fix kit like $15? The e74 error is now covered for 3 years
Btw cheez, the penny trick is used as a last resort, it actually bends the board, i don't know why anyone would suggest doing this when it is still under warranty.
anyone who pays $15.00 for a xclamp kit is an idiot. They are only $2 for all the parts. Of course if you need the Artic Silver that's $10 but will last forever since you don't use that much. I've gotten like at least 20 xboxes out of 1 tube. Find a sticker and send it in.
