Xbox cuts off and dies after 10-20 mins - apparent hdd failure. Help?

I've had my Xbox 360 for around 18 months. It is a slim 250gb. It has always worked perfectly, but around an hour ago I was playing a game when it suddenly cut out and wouldn't reboot until it was unplugged at the mains. I tried again and it did it once
more, so I tested it a third time and once again it died. I contacted Microsoft who took me through some steps. The console seemed to work OK with no HDD but would die very fast with the HDD in. They told me to look through it and see if there were any corrupted
files (which there were) and delete them. I did this but it still did not work and keeps cutting out. I've been advised to test the HDD in another system but cannot do that for a week, so has anybody got any advice on possible causes and fixes?

:)

 

Instant on mode with and Ext HDD.

i just did a "test". first i left the box labled "When xbox is off, turn off storage" and for about 5 mins the both my xbox and HDD wasquiet then the LED on the HDD turned on. ok fine. then after about 10 -15seconds it turned off. then again 10 seconds later
it turned on. so i listened and every 10 seconds it would spin up and then turn off. i waited for about 20 mins seeing if it would stp but it never did. then i went and unchecked the box and the same thing. would spin my HDD up for 10 secs then turn off for
10 secs. it doesnt take a genius to tell that somthing is wrong with that. thereis no reason it should make the HDD turn on and off every 10 seconds.

Untill this stupid instant on mode is fixed ill be stuck with the ever worse energy saver mode. and yes i ubderstand if it weredownloading something it would do that. but i shouldnt. if it wereto be downloading something it shouldnt turn the HDD on and off
every 10 seconds!!

 

Destiny only plays for 10 minutes before losing connection

Nope still doesn't work Still cuts out after 10 mins of play. Any other suggestions?

 

Unfortunately it looks as though there may be an issue with the hard drive. However, another option to try is to see if the console works with a different hard drive as well. If you have any friends who can bring theirs over that would be a good test too.

If the console does the same thing with someone else's drive then the console should be repaired.

 

Thanks onyx62is, I'll try that.

 

Update:

I have left the console overnight and it seems to be working perfectly fine. It has not shut off once in over and hour, so all things look good.

 

Re-update:

It seems to me that the Xbox only crashes when a certain game (MW3) is being played, as I have played numerous other games without it crashing. However, when I began to play MW3 it crashed after 10 minutes. The files re-corrupted also, and like I said the
Xbox seems to be OK on any other game. Could the disk be faulty? I'll try my theory again later to see if it is indeed MW3 or just a coincidence.

 

It's broken. Every time it turns on it takes 20 minutes, then BAM. Off it goes. It's definitely not the hdd as it shuts off when it's not in the console, so it is either the hardware or the battery. In my opinion, it is the battery, so should I test it on
another console? If it's the system, is it worth getting it repaired, getting a new console or just leaving it as I have an Xbox One?

 

If the console is crashing without the drive then it could be a hardware issue which would need to be repaired/replaced.

If you want to have another 360 to use then you can do either of those things. If it's no big deal to you and you just want to play on the One then there's that option as well.

 

Thanks for that, I have a friend testing the battery right now. If it is the hardware then I'll probably try and get it repaired seeing as the 360 was my favourite console for multiplayer and I would still play it. Do you have any idea why it would've become
faulty? I've never tampered with it and have only used it for its sole purpose - to play on it. Has it just reached the end?