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I fixed my first XBOX

I fixed my first XBOX

This summer we took our second XBOX to South Padre.  I debated whether to take it at all but I’m glad we did because the first day it rained all day.  David and I finished the Halo 2 campaign in cooperative mode.  The next few days, the XBOX had trouble reading some of the games. By the end of the week, it couldn’t read any disks.  Don’t know if it was the humidity, the car ride, fine sand that got inside?  At home it continued to fail to read ANY disk including DVD movie or music CD.  I could, however, get online, and view game saves on the hardisk.  It seemed like a DVD drive or laser problem.

Halogoldcampaign

Tonight I finally got around to trying to fix it.  I followed the instructions here to open the case and then  did a thorough DVD drive cleaning as described here.  I was setting my expectations low, but low and behold, it worked!  After disassembling the XBOX, using a $3.50 can of compressed air to dust the inside and the laser components, then reassembling it back, it fired up!  David and I celebrated (past his bedtime) by playing a level of Halo2.  This was the XBOX where we finished the campaign so we jumped directly to one of our favorite levels: The Great Journey.

We’ve missed having the second XBOX and playing XLINKed games.  It will also come in handy for our XBOX Nights.

Using a PC Monitor with your classic XBOX

Using a PC Monitor with your classic XBOX

http://midwestgames.stores.yahoo.net/prsccovgabox.html
http://www.viewsonic.com/products/tventertainment/tvvideoprocessors/nextvisionn5/
http://www.x2vga.com/
http://gear.ign.com/articles/365/365333p1.html
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=KS-A022&cat=TOO (Alsot at Amazon through geeks.com)
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/archive/index.php/t-128896.html
http://forums.xbox.com/196109/ShowPost.aspx

"Xbox and Gamecube have VGA boxes that can be used with monitors, but the problem is that only progressive scan games will display using them. You’ll have the same problem using that adapter that you linked, so even if you got this working you can’t play every game unless you have a deinterlacer in there… same goes for some dreamcast games.

The best solution I can think of is 2 converters (RCA-to-VGA) and (component/console to VGA) and you switch them based on which game you’re playing…"

The XBOX 360 has a cleaner solution. No limitations are mentioned for the official XBOX 360 VGA Kit

Perspective Wiki

Perspective Wiki

I’m giving Pespective a try.  It had all the features I was looking according to www.wikimatrix.org:

You want some installable software with WYSIWYG editing and a page history which uses file based storage and is Free and Open Source and which is written in C or C# or C#/XSLT or C++.

There is exactly one Wiki available matching your criteria:

  • Perspective Details

Perspective uses Windows Indexing Service to implement it’s search function.

Ink by mail

Ink by mail

Printer manufacturers claim that only their custom inks can garauntee the quality and expected functionality from their printers.  Thay may be true, but ink is soooo expensive I’m not sure I want the "best" quality.  If replacement cartidges are "good enough", then that’s what I want.  I’m not trying to print high-quality photos or print professional brochures.

For our Epson CX4200, black cartridge (T060120)
www.inksmile.com     $5.95 90-day moneyback garauntee
www.inkforsale.com    $2.95
www.ldproducts.com    $6.99
www.inkgrabber.com    $4.50
www.epson.com            $18.99