It does not appear to be reading the CDs

Im thinking,it maybe the laser?
Can anything be done to fix this or will it be a right off ?  

You might want to read up a bit on extracting security sectors and alike. From what I can recall, it is possible to swap out one drive with another of the exact same model as long as you clone over the serial number/ security sectors from the original. Its kind of like cloning a MAC address on a PC/Router.

Other than that, its warranty time.

Thats the problem. Lost receipts.....

how much would it cost for a shop to look at it? As what you said sounds complicated to me! lol

you can get replacement drives for £40 or lasers for £20 on ebay

Easy to install ??

probably
it would void your warranty, but as you say you have lost your receipts so it dont really make a difference

What it is:

A lady at work (her husband) has a faulty xbox which is now in there loft. He has since got a PS3 so I was thinking of maybe asking how much they would want for it.

What would you say would be a good offer for such a fault? Maybe I could get myself a bargain here.

Quote from: saynorWhat it is:

A lady at work (her husband) has a faulty xbox which is now in there loft. He has since got a PS3 so I was thinking of maybe asking how much they would want for it.

What would you say would be a good offer for such a fault? Maybe I could get myself a bargain here.

Depends, is it the GPU error? (checkerboarding graphics/ 3 red lights) if so £60/70 cash with all the gubbins, hdd etc is a good enough deal, get yourself a heatgun and go for it.

I shall be back if I get a good deal and need help on what to do. At least then I can take home and see what the problem actually is.

you could always buy the HDDVD drive to play games with

No you cant, you can only use the internal drive to play games.  HD-DVD drive will only play HD-DVD and DVD movies.