after 3.5 years of very light use my xbox gave me the RROD.
So as I'm to tight to buy a new one or give MS £90 to fix it
Trouble is Alan, if it's over three years old it has the old chipset, and they are prone to breaking down on a regular basis. I've had my sons Xbox elite repaired three times, and got so fed up with it costing £50 each time. The motherboard flexes as it cools down / heats up etc and the processor breaks away from the solder. A few months ago it broke down for the last time.

Decided to replace it with a Xbox arcade version, and to be honest that's the best way to go if you already have the hard drive from your existing one. This also has the jasper chipset which runs cooler uses less power, and has a smaller power supply. Apart from the colour and no hardrive it is identical to the elite.
We paid £129.99 with a free spare wireless elite controller and two games. Same deal is still on, but I think it's now gone up to £139.00 from Argos.
Good luck with the repair though.