Yeah, I can see how that was confusing. I knew it was hardware/video related when I didnt see the red light when the HDMI cable was unplugged.
Its my father-in-laws old Xbox elite 120GB that he has since replaced. I asked him if I could have it to see if I could.....re-engineer it to get it working. Its out of warranty for the E74 error by like 4 months so I can either try to fix it myself for like $6 or send it to MS and get it fixed for $99. Either way I consider it a steal since my out of pocket at the moment is $0.
Needless to say when I got the box home, plugged in the power and fired it up and DIDNT see any RROD, I was really excited.