What are game store custies doing to their consoles?

[dalesys]

... white Xbox 360 ... trade in... nothing inside except for a large stone tablet...

Itsa mackerel! Moses' iPad!

[Alpha Strike]

Ozcatbug et al:

I remember working at Gamest$p 15+ years ago - when we traded systems and such in, we weren't even required to test them out first. Of course we paid peanuts for what we got, but still...

For those of you who actually dissemble these systems and then repair 'em - any suggestions on internal maintenance or upkeep? I'm fastidious about keeping the externals clean, and I have no pets or kids, but there's not much I (knowingly) can do about the insides...

[ozcatbug]

Alpha Strike - as long as you keep the vents clear of dust, make sure you keep the console where it has good air-flow around it, and don't put anything in the drive that shouldn't be there you should be fine. It's amazing how just letting the vents block up with dust will affect performance.

I actually picked up a customer repair yesterday and without even looking at the paperwork could guess that it wouldn't read discs. How could I tell? By the thick carpet of dust covering the vents. I couldn't even see the USB port as it was a big square of fuzz. I haven't opened it up but this looks like a 10 minute job: open it up, blow out all the dust from the console and drive, clean off the laser, test and put back together.

[Opalin]

Oh the glorious unexplained stains. Blarf. I'm not sure I could keep my faith in humanity working where you do, since you get a concentration of the worst.

The worst part about this was, my useless coworker (yes, he was holiday help) had apparently excepted this for trade WITHOUT testing it as we are required to do. Needles to say SOMEONE got a stern talking to from our manager the next day.

Guess who wasn't kept on after the holidays?

Sometimes you get gems from holiday help, sometimes you wish the cannon-fodder hiring was less literal. We have 3 holiday hires at my store and I'm still trying to work out which one keeps failing at putting things away correctly. I will find you... and I. Will. Teach. You! (the alphabet)

[DGoddessChardonnay]

OMG the only CDs and DVDs that I have that are scratched to hell are the ones I burn myself for use in my car. break one of those NO problem burn another one.

Otherwise treat with kid gloves

Agreed.

Growing up, we didn't have a whole lot (maybe compared to the other kid int he neighborhood) but having a single parent, if we wanted anything major, we had to wait for it - and when we did get it, we took care of what we had.

I've had 3 smartphones now - not one of them has a cracked or blemish on the screens.

My laptops are in good shape. They are kept blown out regularly and I do clean the optical drives - same with the PS3 console in my office.

My brother is just as anal as I am over keeping his stuff clean inside and out - just about every month, I'm having to buy more canned air/Swiffers/Swiffer sprays

CD's and DVD's are kept in their cases when not being used (or at least a sleeve.)

It's not hard to do. It's common sense. Unfortunately it's become a superpower these days.

[EricKei]

Alpha - Canned air is so, so useful ^_^ Just follow the instructions and you'll be fine. That, and "what they said"

My fave was a roach-infested classic XBOX someone brought in, maybe a week after our store had reopened, post-Katrina. New cashwrap, new walls, hell, new carpet, even. It might as well have been a brand new store. We plugged it in and set it up for testing, when we suddenly see a mass exodus of the little baby bastards flying out of the console as it warmed up. It is at this point that we rush to unplug and bag the damn thing, as the customer nonchalantly mentions that "Oh, it doesn't work, on account o' them roaches that set up a nest inside..." We told him in no uncertain terms to GTFO and take his roach motel with him.

Fucker. ONE whole week with no bugs of any kind in a store...ARRRRRGH. The only reason they didn't really take root was the fact that we almost never had food in there (those stupid video-game-themed "candies" had to have been made of plastic or recycled tires or something; even the roaches didn't touch them), and we were far enough from the food court that we didn't have to worry about THEIR food-disposal priorities.

[wolfie]

My fave was a roach-infested classic XBOX someone brought in, maybe a week after our store had reopened, post-Katrina.

Fucker. ONE whole week with no bugs of any kind in a store...ARRRRRGH.

So this was the first XBOX brought into the store, and you didn't have any Microsoft games? After all, anything from Microsoft is crawling with bugs.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Did you know a grill cheese sandwich makes a great VCR tape? Neither did I, but someone's three year old did! Same goes for teething rings and oatmeal.

But Mommy, the VCR was hungry.

Interesting excuse to take apart the said VCR and modify it into a two way listening device.