Dvd skips and eventually locks up after playing about one hour.

The DVD Player is overheating, dont have other hot machines under it, let it cool down naturaly and whatever you do, DON'T try to cool it quickly with a fan or vacuum cleaner becasue the fast temperature change will crack the internal components.

This is going to be a bit long -- but very detailed, so please read it carefully. There are several reasons that an xbox 360 system will have problem reading discs. The error messages also vary from unreadable disk, no message at all but the game skips, "please insert disc in a 360 console" to "open tray." There are a few reasons this may happen:

1.Bad disc. Check the back of your disc for scratches. If it looks good (or plays fine in another console), then the disc is probably fine. Also-- try more than 1 game to be sure.

2. Bad laser. The XBox 360 has a DVD drive very similar to a PC's DVD drive inside. The drive contains a bunch of parts including a few motors and gears and a laser.The laser is the part that actually reads the disc. The reality is...with all the hours and hours of game play, lasers do eventually wear out. The laser isn't very easy to replace, but it is replaceable. You can find any and all XBox 360 lasers at the following website:

http://store.richspsxparts.com/xb360ac.html

3.Bad DVD Drive. Sometimes other components inside of the DVD drive can become bad such as the motor that spins the disk, the motors that open the tray, etc, etc. You can get a new DVD drive to just replace everything,including the laser, in one shot but there is a catch. The XBOX 360's DVD drive is tied to the motherboard using a software lock.The easiest way to overcome this lock is to buy the exact same manufacture DVD drive that is in your system now, remove the circuit board from the old DVD drive (which contains the software key) and transfer the circuit board into the new DVD drive that you purchase. If you do this simple procedure, there is no flashing involved. The following website carries DVD drives and also provides instructions on swapping the circuit board from the old drive into the new one.

XBox 360 parts: http://store.richspsxparts.com/xb360ac.html

DVD Drive Swap Info: http://store.richspsxparts.com/imnooninxb36.html

This is going to be a bit long -- but very detailed, so please read it carefully. There are several reasons that an xbox 360 system will have problem reading discs. The error messages also vary from unreadable disk, no message at all but the game skips, "please insert disc in a 360 console" to "open tray." There are a few reasons this mayhappen:

1.Bad disc. Check the back of your disc for scratches. If it looks good (or plays fine in another console), then the disc is probably fine. Also-- try more than 1 game to be sure.

2. Bad laser. The XBox 360 has a DVD drive very similar to a PC's DVD drive inside. The drive contains a bunch of parts including a few motors and gears and a laser.The laser is the part that actually reads the disc. The reality is...with all the hours and hours of game play, lasers do eventually wear out. The laser isn't very easy to replace, but it is replaceable. You can find any and all XBox 360 lasers at the following website:

http://store.richspsxparts.com/xb360ac.html

3.Bad DVD Drive. Sometimes other components inside of the DVD drive can become bad such as the motor that spins the disk, the motors that open the tray, etc, etc. You can get a new DVD drive to just replace everything,including the laser, in one shot but there is a catch. The XBOX 360's DVD drive is tied to the motherboard using a software lock.The easiest way to overcome this lock is to buy the exact same manufacture DVD drive that is in your system now, remove the circuit board from the old DVD drive (which contains the software key) and transfer the circuit board into the new DVD drive that you purchase. If you do this simple procedure, there is no flashing involved. The following website carries DVD drives and also provides instructions on swapping the circuit board from the old drive into the new one.

XBox 360 parts: http://store.richspsxparts.com/xb360ac.html

DVD Drive Swap Info: http://store.richspsxparts.com/imnooninxb36.html

Have you tried unplugging the unit and blowing out all the dust and lint along with cleaning the laser?

Yes, it should. Most will take a few hours (two or more) to cool down to a "safe" temperature so you can open the door. If it has been more than 12 hours, you may have a door lock issue and may need to schedule a service call.

mine did the same thing it just kept ticking when i wanted to play a disk, id take to top off with the four tiny little screws and hoover it, mine still makes a bit of noise but works x

it sounds like you have a heat problem,try to put your player somewhere that it has alot of room to keep cool,i've noticed some people put there players on top of the t.v. or close to other electronics,the whole key is keeping things cool,let me know if this helps because you have a very good player.

had the same prob with a sony dav dz it kept saying locked but after hours and hours of pressing random combinations it came off im sure it was unplug plugback in then hold power and open tray and tap stop or a combination of those buttons.i woud try it again on mine to make sure but i do not want to lock it again.

As it's been 5 months I suspect problem's been solved - how? I have similar problem, E50 recorded DVD-r's lock up after playing about an hour. RAMs and commercial DVDs play fine.

Just dying from overwork perhaps