they better replace it, it wasn't your fault.

I was on the giving end of this one time. For a long time my friend was too cheap to get a wireless attachment for his 360 so he was draping an ethernet cable across his apartment to get internet to it. I spent the night there one night and had to leave really early in the morning before the sun was out. The sun was still down and I didn't want to wake anyone up by turning on the lights. When I went over to the door to get my shoes, I tripped over the ethernet cable and knocked his 360 off the coffee table pretty hard.

I made him test it out before I left to make sure it wasn't broken. I felt like a huge dick. About two months later I got a 360 of my own and offered him a free shot, but he didn't take it. He's a good friend.

Well, I just got a call from UPS telling me my shipment (busted Xbox) should be back tomorrow. I never heard anything from MS regarding a charge to fix it, so I'm guessing the fact it was really old helped get it fixed under warranty. Now to see if it got fixed, or replaced. I'm crossing my fingers for replaced, and getting one with an HDMI port.

Though I'm not sure how I'd have to run the cords to use HDMI out for video, but use the optical cable from my HD cables for sound. Anyone know if something like that would be possible if I don't have an HDMI input on my receiver? This thought just occurred to me.

Dunno if you can do that on the 360 or not, Fro. I would check the audio options when you get it. If there is an optical setting, it should be possible. I run a similar configuration on my PS3 because my receiver is an HDMI switcher only (meaning the cable carries no audio).

Yeah, the only thing I can think of would be leaving my HD cables in, (the cables themselves plugged into nothing) and plugging the optical cable from those into the receiver, and then running the HDMI to the TV, which has 2 HDMI ports on it. (I honestly wasn't expecting it to have them, since it's 3 years old now, but I guess when you spend big bucks on a TV you get some decent future-proofing features, like HDMI.)

If I get it back and it's fixed instead of replaced, then it's all moot anyway. Guess I'll find out tomorrow sometime. Just glad it got taken care of for free, regardless of how the ensured my system comes back in working order.

OMG a 360 not working?!?!?! WHAT HAS THE WORLD COME TO?

Highly useful comment. Though in this case, it was due to my roommate knocking it off a shelf and rendering the disc drive useless. Thanks for popping in, though.