My Xbox 360 may be busted, please help

[cptpooface]

I have had my Xbox for maybe five months and I am starting to have troubles with it. My problem is that I don't know if it is a problem with the games I am playing or if the problem is the Xbox itself.

I have been playing Far Cry Evolution lately and I was on the second to last level. I ran through a canyon that is supposed to take me to the next level. The first time I tried it the screen went black and froze like that. The second time I tried it, it went to the loading screen and froze there. I know it froze on the loading screen because there is an icon that rotates in a circle if the game is loading and the thing wasn't rotating it was frozen in place. The third time I tried it the screen went black and froze. Each time I tried it I had taken the disc out and tried to clean it as good as possible. I bought the game used so I don't know if the game is screwed or if it's the xbox. I was able to play the entire game without problems until this spot.

After the mess with far cry I decided to play Gears of War. I bought it brand new when I got my xbox. I have played through the campaign once and it has been in it's case ever since. I was able to play the game for a while, but then I went from an inside environment to an outside environment and the background and floor disappeared. I could still move around but almost everything was invisible. I tried cleaning the disc and then I tried it again a couple of times with the exact same result every time. This was the first game I ever played on my xbox 360 and after a few hours of playing it came up with the screen that says it can't read the disc. This pissed me off because the game and the console were pretty much brand new.

Since I couldn't play either of those games any more I started playing call of duty 3. I have been playing it for the last week maybe an hour a day. I have had no problems with this game. This is really confusing me and I don't know what to do to fix it. Is this a common glitch in these games, or do you think it's something wrong with the xbox. I looked at both games and neither seemed to have any scratches or anything. I would really appreciate any help anyone can give me on this. I really enjoyed both of those games and would like to keep playing them, but every time I try it screws up.

I have also heard some rumors about a Nyko external cooling fan (which I use). I think it's called the intercooler or something like that. The posts I have read on other sites say that this thing trashes the xbox 360. I'm not sure what it destroys or how it destroys it, but if it does damage the console I don't want to use it. But I am also scared to run the console without this extra cooling. If someone could give me some input on this I would really appreciate it, I don't know if it's okay to run the console without an extra cooler or not, and I don't know if the rumors about this thing destroying the console are true so any input would be greatly appreciated. I apologize for the length of this post, I just want to get playing my xbox again.

[Gregtheman10]

I would just go to blockbuster or something, rent those two games and play them through. If the same problems occur the problem is obviously your xbox and you might want to call customer support. If nothing happens with the rented games, i guess you would just have to buy the games again. About the intercooler, they say that it takes a lot of power away from your system, causing power failure. It also brings hot air to the back of the console, and some people report having the intercooler stuck to the back. I would just go without the intercooler like most people do and keep the console in a well ventilated area.

[TTR Dr Payne]

i would do what Greg said for the games, thats a great idea.

As for the Intercooler, if you want an in-depth, partly arguing read, then theres a long thread on this site about the Intercooler. To give a quick sum up tho, the old intercoolers, mostly version 1, not sure if version 2 had the same issues, probably did though, did sometimes melt to your 360 because the part going into the 360 was plastic. The new Intercoolers, version 3, the Intercooler EX do not seem to have this problem since the part that used to cause the problem is now metal instead of plastic. So if you have a Intercooler EX, then you should be fine(it says on the Intercooler INTERCOOLER EX or just INTERCOOLER 360 so u can tell which is which) the old Intercoolers the chances are you will be fine, but there is a bit of a chance you might have a problem. The Intercooler wont be causing the problem your having though.

I was originally going to say your 360 is the problem, but since you said COD3 is running fine, then i would imagine its your disks. Basically to solve this problem i would say do what Greg said, rent the two games(or one of them) and c if you have the same problem. If you do, then your 360 is the problem, if you dont, your disk is the problem.

Hope this helps!

[paintba||er]

If it does the exact same thing at the same moments every time then it is probably your games.