I just wanted some opnions and help on this issue. To say my 360 is "old" would be an understatment. I've had this thing for I don't know how many years, but I want to say that I've had it since I was 10 or 11, I'm 16 now. It one of the big, old, loud, white 360s that only has like 14 gigs of memory that they haven't made in forever. This thing is so loud, that I can tell if it's going to play a game or not, based on the type of sound it's making.

But anyway, on to the problems. First off, the disc tray. This used to happen only occasionally, but now it is happening quite often, the disc tray just won't open, it will try to and the lights will flash, but it will stay shut. It will also refuse to play games, again, happening more frequently now. My 360 will just say to open the the tray(forget the exact wording) as if I hadn't put a disc in. Although, it seems like it tries to read it, as if I put no disc in it, it will give me the empty tray message much faster, like a few seconds. But if I do it with a game in it, I'll only get it after a minute or more of the 360 trying to read it.

It will also tell me that the disc is "unrecognisable" even though it's played it before and the game works. Another problem is shutting it off. When I shut the thing off, it takes a minute or more for it completely shut off and for the fans to stop making noise, the lights on my router, controller, controller charger, and 360 0n/off light all flsh on and off during this. So does anybody have any help or advice on this? Is it possible to fix it, or should I just give up and get a new one?

Well, since no one else has replied yet....

The disc tray problems sound like typical "your DVD player/reader/recorder needs replacing" symptoms. Since I assume you can't just replace the DVD part of the Xbox as a separate unit (like on a PC) unless you send it to MS for repair or something, and considering the units overall age & other symptoms....I'd replace it.

Is getting a PC instead of replacing it an option? You probably won't have such problems on a PC.

Its probably time to turn it in. When my old white one started having heating issues and the instore warranty ran out I brought it into Gamestop for instore credit. Sounds like you dont use it much anyways I would just play PC games until the next gen console releases. The word on the street is MS will launch in 2013.

Oh no, I use it quite often, and I think that's one of the problems, I think I've just "worn it out", for lack of a better word, from all the years of playing it.

@Shashow Probably not, I'm not a big PC player and my family's low on $$$ right now. And I just generally prefer consoles for some reason. It's probably their ease of use.

I think your laser disc reading thing had become very weak. You could try and contact Microsoft and see if they can repair it for $100 I think, but they may say its too old or had too many problems or something like that. But I'd say try and see if Microsoft can fix it so you can save $100, because the new console supposedly is coming out soon.

You can replace the DVD drive with a standard PC drive. Google it for full details. (Read: Cheapest option.)

I too was going to say try and wait out the dead time til the new consoles come, but if it's your only gaming device, or preferred, I can understand that would be hard to do.

I'd try and squeeze out what you can by replacing the DVD drive as I first mentioned. To spend the money on a new console, even "new" used, seems like a bad investment to me. Unless the used option is a really good deal, or steal if you like. (As in steal of a deal, not suggestion one steals it, or anything.)