Today, I finally went to EB and purchased a new headset for the 360. I've been without the ability to use voice on the 360 for about a week now, since my dog Caesar took it upon himself to grab the old headset off my desk while I slept and chew the wire into little bits. What a wonderful pup I have.

As luck would have it, Caesar got a hold of the NEW headset, too, while I was playing Enchanted Arms. This time he didn't chew the wire. He did something much more bizarre. He laid down in the floor with them, licked them a few times, and then closed his eyes as if they were his favorite stuffed toy.

By the time I had gotten across the room to where he was, he had taken off with them in his mouth. When I finally took them away from him, he whimpered. I felt bad for him, so he got his favorite snack in it's place: a carrot. Yes, my dog thinks he is a rabbit.

BUT, that's not it yet. Once I finally made my way back to the 360, the system was off. I found this incredibly odd since I had been playing just 5 minutes before, and did not recall shutting it off. So, without hesitation, I turned the system back on. Then all HELL showed up on my monitor:

E 68 (This is an error code, that means hardware failure,as I soon found out) "PLEASE CALL XBOX CUSTOMER SUPPORT"

My heart stopped, then beat in reverse. My breath suddenly left my lungs, and I was unable to even stand or think properly or take in air. It was if I was having an asthma attack, and the only relief was to see the 360's dashboard.

Minutes on end went by, but they felt like hours. I tried this and that and then this again. Finally I remembered what a Customer Support Rep told me months ago when the leaderboards were down.

"Unhook your HDD and then turn the 360 on"

Worked perfectly. So, my HDD must be fried or corrupted, because the 360 works without it attached. Well, considering I have 3 profiles and about 20 Arcade games on that disk drive, I thought this to be very crappy indeed.

But, the gods of gaming shown down on me in my time of need. Just as a fluke, because I knew my HDD was done for, I hooked it back in and turned the power to the 360 back on.

It worked fine. Every profile, every game, every download and demo, was right where I had left it. The 360 acted as if nothing was wrong, and as if nothing ever had been. My heart slowly returned to normal. My breath came back. My head didn't feel like it was going to float away.

Sure, I had a panic attack. But at least I can still play my 360. It was the equivalent of going through 500 quality haunted houses without a break. I was THAT scared. But now everything is fine and dandy. Maybe some of you with a "hardware failure" should just take the HDD out and then put it right back in after turning the power on and off.

It worked for me.