POSESSED console: Need some 360 help

Around two nights ago, I went downstairs at midnight to grab some food and on the way down I heard some fans running. I got downstairs to see my 360 on with the disc tray ejected. No one had touched the thing all day so there was no way it was intentional. Also, none of the four quadrants of the RoL were lit up, signaling that none of the controllers were on or connected to the console (and none of them could have been turned on, all of them were in open space face up with nothing around to press the XBox button). I turned it off confused and went to the kitchen. On the way back, the tray was out and it was on again. I turned it off and two seconds later it fired back up and the tray came out again. I left it unplugged.

I tried plugging it in again and after maybe 3-5 minutes it fires up and the disc tray ejects. Today, again, I wondered what was wrong and plugged it back in. My brother also wanted to play RB so he fired up the console, the tray ejected around 25-30 seconds after the console was turned on, and then he closed the tray and went to play. Halfway through the song the tray ejected and booted him out of the game into the dashboard.

Also, today, the tray didn't only open, it would close and open a ridiculous amount of times. It might close all the way then open again two seconds later, or it might keep going in and out without closing or opening all the way.

To clarify some other things, the eject button is perfectly fine. I've metered the switch that the eject button presses. It is not being depressed and it shorts the two terminals fine when pressed. There is nothing physically wrong with the console at all, and everything still works fine besides the fact that the disc tray ejects completely randomly. Also, there is no problem with the DVD drive. I fired up the console without the disc drive in (I pulled the SATA and power plug from it) and then fired the console up. The power light randomly changed from blinking to solid, as if someone was pushing the eject button (and the tray was opening/closing). If I hold the eject button, the tray stays where it currently is. For instance, if it's closed and I hold the eject button, it stays closed and it doesn't open on it's own until I let go and wait.

I cannot for the life of me figure out WHY this is happening. Searches on google turn up either "Xbox 360 randomly turning off" or "OMG THE 360 IS TURNING ON ON IT'S OWN IT'S HAUNTED KILL IT BEFORE IT KILLS YOU". I called MS and they said that it's out of warranty so they need $99 (plus they won't fix it anyway because the warranty sticker is cut up since I had to open it up and up the laser voltage to cure the DREs I was getting).

Any ideas?

Sounds like you have a short in the eject button... But I'm not sure what to do about it...

It's not the eject button, I've already tested it for continuity and it's perfectly fine.

Even though your tests show nothing, it is certainly behaving as though the eject button is not working properly...

oakstave said:

Even though your tests show nothing, it is certainly behaving as though the eject button is not working properly...

Click to expand...

I have a feeling as if it's something software, when I was metering the eject switch I had the console opened and running, and it was ejecting without the two contacts of the switch having continuity.

Could it be something with the IR receiver? Possibly interference of some sort?

If you block it off and it stops, that is the issue, otherwise the hardware or firmware is to blame.

thideras said:

Could it be something with the IR receiver? Possibly interference of some sort?

If you block it off and it stops, that is the issue, otherwise the hardware or firmware is to blame.

Click to expand...

I'm going to say no on the firmware. Firmware doesn't just go bad on its own. Unless there were a recent firmware update... and I don't think there has been. Regardless of Snake's trusted multimeter... I'm inclined to believe there's something wrong SOMEWHERE in the eject system. A firmware couldn't make the system come on by itself... but the system DOES come on when the eject button is pressed. In fact it ONLY comes on when either the eject button, power button, or x-button on the controller is pressed. (You can't... say... program your 360 to come on every morningat 5:22am and play Yellow Submarine.) Once it's off... it's dormant. So that rules out a software issue.

In closing: I DON'T REALLY GIVE A DAMNED WHAT YOUR MULTI-METER SAYS!

It's a problem with the eject button. So put the multimeter DOWN and find out what the problem is. Could be something as simple as dust.

Might be the IR. I know this has nothing to do with it. But, i had to block my window air conditioner's receiver because it picked up all kinds of gadgets around the house and we thought it was haunted at first. Different tv remotes to even the neighbor's remotes would cause it to do different things. (i live in a trailer park and the trailers are right next to each other just about lol). But i had tons of werid things going on with it.

Even with it covered i had to end up putting thick tape over the receiver because it would still pick something up here and there and change it's speeds or turn off cooling and go to fan lol.

rainless said:

(You can't... say... program your 360 to come on every morningat 5:22am and play Yellow Submarine.)

Click to expand...

The system could be aware of the time, you could easily make it wake up at 5:22am and play whatever song you want...I've had a few motherboards that could do this.

My bet is still on the receiver though

Hmm, last night I blocked the IR receiver and then played some RB with my brother for an hour or so with no problems. I unblocked the IR receiver and went upstairs for a bit. Came back down in a few hours and, you guessed it, the console was on. I blocked the receiver while it was on again and it didn't do anything... I turned the console off and blocked the receiver and it still turned itself back on in around 3 seconds.

I am thoroughly confused.

I'll take some videos for you... it's pretty funny to watch

Find all the IR sources in the room (remotes, etc.), and take each one individually out until it stops.

And there you go.

NsOmNiA91130 said:

Find all the IR sources in the room (remotes, etc.), and take each one individually out until it stops.

And there you go.

Click to expand...

It's not IR. I blocked the receiver and that wasn't it. Plus, since there is no new IR source in the room, and also that this is still occurring in a COMPLETELY different house across town leads me to believe it's not IR.

I found a temporary fix... take the damn console half-apart, and then have it rest on something that can push the bottom section of the eject button (the part that goes down from the top-half of the case to the bottom half to push the actual switch on the mobo).

BTW, what is the IR for in the 360? The controllers are Bluetooh, IIRC. I assume the DVD remote or something?

The ps3 and wii use bluetooth but the 360 doesn't. I think it uses the same frequency as cordless phones and wifi.

Hardin said:

The ps3 and wii use bluetooth but the 360 doesn't. I think it uses the same frequency as cordless phones and wifi.

Click to expand...

Well, it uses radio, not IR.

SolidxSnake said:

It's not IR. I blocked the receiver and that wasn't it. Plus, since there is no new IR source in the room, and also that this is still occurring in a COMPLETELY different house across town leads me to believe it's not IR.

I found a temporary fix... take the damn console half-apart, and then have it rest on something that can push the bottom section of the eject button (the part that goes down from the top-half of the case to the bottom half to push the actual switch on the mobo).

BTW, what is the IR for in the 360? The controllers are Bluetooh, IIRC. I assume the DVD remote or something?

Click to expand...

Yeah, the IR is for remotes. I can actually control any 360 with my PSP using Irshell. It's pretty cool actually Stores where they have it turned off, I can just turn it back on and start playing.

Popped it open and remounted the heatsinks (first time I did the console gave me two red rings after around 5 seconds as the fans cranked steadily up to full speed, second time i mounted them fine I guess). I also tried to desolder the eject switch but my iron does not nearly have enough capacity to heat up those damn joints (the board acts as a giant heatsink because three of the prongs are on the ground plane).

Haven't had any problems for almost a day now

i never really looked into this since iv never had the problem but i know there is some kind of open tray error on the 360's but i dont think its as bad as your problem look for that in xbox-scene.com they should be able to help you

xtkxhom3r said:

i never really looked into this since iv never had the problem but i know there is some kind of open tray error on the 360's but i dont think its as bad as your problem look for that in xbox-scene.com they should be able to help you

Click to expand...

But he solved his problem like 2 weeks ago...

New problem... Couple days ago, my brother went downstairs to play the 360 I assume. I guess he said the power plug fell out of the brick so he went behind and plugged it back in. Eventually he messed up the AV switch I have setup (switches like 3-4 HD Component sources to the only HD input on my terrible terrible TV) and after around 15-20 mins I got it back working. However, the 360 wasn't turning on still. The brick was lit up yellow like it always is when the 360 isn't on but it just wouldn't turn on. I tried shorting pin 7 on the PSU connector to ground to fire it up and still nothing. After around an hour or two of trying to figure out what was wrong, I tried turning the console on with a controller (for the time being I was hitting the power/eject buttons) and it fired right up. So this means that either the buttons are busted (I don't see HOW that could have happened) or something else is up. I saw something somewhere about how a busted DVD Drive power cable could be giving me the issues I'm having but I sort of doubt it.

Any clues?