I had that happen once.  Luckily for me the problem I was having, DVD failures typically happened within 90 days so rarely did one last very long.  As I recall, that particular console also had a bad USB slot.  That particular console never should have left the repair facility.

They stopped providing boxes years ago.  Other than it took a while to finally get my problem resolved (it was due to the patch process), I had great support from Microsoft. 

Well i'm just not gonna buy one bc Baldy is a creeper 

Most of my 360 issues are RRoD related. The console would freeze regardless of what I was playing, and often froze in the dashboard. I used to play off both a USB/HDD, and it didn't matter if I only had 1 plugged in at the time, it still froze.

One of the 360 consoles MS replaced mine with wouldn't play disks which I had DLC for. It also wouldn't play online for half my games at random. Was a weird issue, had to spend 2 hours on the phone with MS and Bell, just to get MS to admit fault.

I used the same HDD on all 3 of my consoles, and now I have a larger HDD because my friend upgraded to the non-compatible Slim (Another reason to dislike MS). If this new console starts to freeze often I'll try to play off USB like you said. Actually, because I play at my friends quite often, my account is always on my memory card, so I don't really use my HDD all that much, unless I'm playing an installed game.

Oh you want to provide a rebuttal do you? 

Well at least Sony isn't a US company, and therefore bent over and forced to provide data to the NSA like Microsoft is.  

I'm pro-Sony, don't worry.......but I am worried that Mark Cerny wants to eat my unborn children....i.e. testicles.

Not a fan of American products. Poor reliability, poor customer service, and often long term expenses/contracts/repairs. Microsoft, Apple, Chrysler, Chevrolet, HP.......Why not just get the cheaper, more reliable, quality products like Nintendo/Sony, Samsung, Toyota, BMW, ASUS, etc?

I just hate when things break pre-maturely. If I buy something, I want it to work the entire duration I use it. Except in the case of cars, once they hit 150,000 miles, then I'm okay with spending some money on repairs. However I read, and experienced, that American cars typically die at 80,000-120,000 miles, where my Japanese car is fine at 150,000 miles, and my sisters BMW made it to 180,000 miles.

If the HDD is plugged in, it can cause the system to freeze.  When a HDD is present, the console will still use the HDD to cache graphical content regardless of where the game is played.  If the problem isn't exhibitted with the HDD you get from your friend, try putting your previous HDD back in and see if it fails once again.  If so, then pretty much guaranteed that you have a bad HDD.

Which reminds me, have you gone through the process of clearing the HDD cache?  I'm guessing you have as that is often standard practise in the basic support steps.

It taking over 100 hours to the get the Factory Driver achievement was just PR talk by Turn 10.  My guess it can be done in less then 50 hours with most manufactures.  I have 930/1000 achievements in Forza 2, 985/1000 in Forza 3, 880/1250 in Forza 4, 1095/1500 (only 360 game where I have over 1000 points) in Forza Horizon and I'm 4th tier in the Forza Rewards program.

Maybe, well I'm only at affinity lvl 20. I think for Forza 4 I'm just going to finish the single player, and that's it. I'm not going to try to finish every race in event mode, or get factory driver, or own all the expensive cars. I'll be 300 points short, but much happier.

Plus GT6 is releasing soon......so, when that happens, Forza goes bye bye.