Solved. If anyone has ever had issues with their xbox not getting past the green loading screen when you turn on your console, or recurring "game xxx took too long to start errors" here's the fix... - hold the controller sync button + eject button + power button until you hear 2 beeps - this launches the troubleshoot mode of the console - select "factory reset" (you can also get here through your settings if you can get past the green screen) - select "keep games and apps" option - follow through the prompts to re setup your console I suppose this fix helps clear corrupted data or operating systems from the console - it also helped my console be much quicker and reactive (ex in the main xbox menu there was sometimes lag between me wanting to move through the menu and the console registering the movements)