360 Slim 250GB making weird grinding noise at startup

Good day to all of you.

For the last couple of months, my 360 slim that I've had for about four and a half years have been making this really loud grinding noise at startup, and sometimes it goes into overdrive and the noise gets even worse. Usually the noise goes away if I restart
the console a couple of times, but always comes back after turning it on when it hasn't been on for a couple of hours. When it first started it was a very silent noise that went away after the console had been on for a couple of minutes, but now it has gotten
way worse and it doesn't go away at all.

No blinking lights or anything are shown, and the console works perfectly fine other than the noise. I have it laying down on its side and always have, and the noise happens regardless if there's a disc in the tray or not.

I suspect there's something wrong with the fans, but I'm not sure what to do about it. Help?

:)

 

Xbox 360 (Slim) Making a Grinding noise

I wouldn't try any fixes myself if I were you. These self fixes are normally only temporary and can cause more damage to the console and/or violate Microsoft's Terms of Use in which case you wouldn't be able to send it off to Microsoft for repairs.

It will cost you only $79 to get it repaired and you can set it up here.

 

Xbox 360 (Slim) Making a Grinding noise

I played last night till 10:00 pm and was fine. to day my brother gets on and it grinds.

 

The slim has a single fan mounted directly to a heat sink for the CPU/GPU die. The fan, disc drive, and HDD are the only moving parts in the console. Does the noise continue if the disc tray is open? It probably is the fan, but your opening the console to
service it invalidates the warranty (which is long gone now anyway) but more importantly xbox won't service it if the console has been disassembled.

This isn't uncommon with small DC fan motors. My laptop did it for years until the fan stopped altogether. Physically hitting the case would make it stop for awhile. Not that I'm suggesting you do that.. If I were you, I would submit a repair request online.
It's $79 if you do it over the internet or $99 if you call and arrange it. See:
myservice.xbox.com/.../Welcome.aspx

 

No, the noise does not stop if the disc tray is open. Thank you for your answer.

 

Almost certainly the fan in that case. HDDs don't make noise until they're moments from failing and knowing how finicky the xbox os is about drive integrity, it would probably fail to start anyway.

If it's any consolation it may go a very long time before it fails altogether.