Is my 360 on its way to an untimely death?

TelekineticFrog · Oct 2007

So I've had my XBOX 360 now since the launch night and never had any issues with it ever. No overheating, not even warm even after several hours of play and never the red rings o' death. So I buy Halo 3 and play and get this thing where the console locks up and then vertical white pixel patterns come down the screen. Reboot, play some more and it happens. Figure maybe it was software and exchanged it. Nope Halo 3 still would do it while playing and I tried some of my older titles and it never would lock up like that. Now Friday I buy PGR4 and go to play that and the same issue happens and now it's getting worse and happening more often. Makes it kinda impossible to play a game. No red rings o' death either. Even the XBOX techs on the phone didn't know what was up or would tell me if they did. Just wondered if anybody else had a similar issue and knew what was up. I figured maybe failing GPU. Microsoft won't replace it either unless I pay or I wait till the red rings do show then they'll replace it for free.

Guess it's an excuse to hunt down an elite with the new cpu / heatsink.

cep · Oct 2007

Baught mine a year after launch, picked up halo 3 the other day. As soon as I load up the first map,I get the same error along with a beep. Though not withought the ring of death.
Only problem I've had besides this was Fight Night 3 not loading anymore, months after I baught it.

I'm sure your rings are near, Id wait it out if you can, or send it as is, and say you've experienced the 3 red lights that symbol hardware failure.

ebagg · Oct 2007

They really should've taken that extra time to iron out the issues, the xbox 360 is the only console I've had fail on me, much less had to send it back to get repaired.

Gav · Oct 2007

Hey Frog,

The same sort of thing happened to me a few months ago. I was playing Oblivion, I had just gotten back into the mages guild after brutally slaughtering a group of their members and spending multiple sessions collecting items to regain my street cred. I saved my game, noticed that my menu was flickering oddly, went back to the game and noticed that tons of little blue specs were showing up everywhere. Almost as if the spec on everything was bright blue. I thought it was the software, so I exited to my dashboard...noticed that all of the blades had this same "blue spec" problem. Turned off my XBox, waited a few minutes, turned it back on and right at the Xbox title screen it froze on me. Turned it off, waited about half an hour and tried it again. This time no video showed up but I could hear that buttons that I pressed on my controller were actually doing something (for example, going to the dashboard and selecting various items.) I was freaking out because realistically my XBox was dead but I wasn't getting the red ring so this nice new warranty meant nothing. BUT I waited until the next day, unhooked everything from the console, hooked it all back up and then turned it on. I got the same error of having no video but after leaving it run for a few minutes it red ringed.

I know a few other people have had similar issues...Hope it all works out for you!

Gav

skankerzero · Oct 2007

i thought that was a halo3 issue.

i read about that happening to a lot of people.

pliang · Oct 2007

Usually when that happens just let it die then send it out, its not like a pc with component issues you can replace yourself...

I hoipe mine don;t die out once I get it

danr · Oct 2007

I got it constantly while trying to play colin mcrae dirt recently, without the red lights. Had the feel of a gpu problem to me ... "Oh, that shader? Not today, I'm knackered. SCREEEEEEEEEEEEE".

That was a couple of weeks ago, I haven't been bothered to turn it on since ... As expensive electronic engineering goes, the 360 is the biggest pile of shit I've ever bought. Please finish inventing these things before putting them in a box, thankyou

TelekineticFrog · Oct 2007

It just was really disappointing having never had any issues with it until now...especially when I was so ready to play PGR4 for many hours. I think it makes it even harder to swallow knowing I stood in a line in below freezing temps in front of a Best Buy with sleet and snow for 17 1/2 hours straight to get it. I doubt I'd feel as bad about it had I not done that. I guess it was inevitable though seeing as so many others have had them die.

hawken · Oct 2007

free towel included in the new xbox 360 packages

sonic · Oct 2007

Every time a new game comes out that taxes the 360 hardware, you'll see many many complaints that the game caused their 360 to have the RROD. The biggest time it has happened is when Forza 2 came out. The reason is, the RROD error is caused by the motherboard warping because of excess heat and a crappy "X-clamp" that holds the GPU in place. Basically the GPU gets ridiculously hot, and the mobo starts to warp downward because the clamp that holds the heatsink on puts pressure on all four corners from the bottom. Once it gets warped enough, the BGA points slowly start to shift and your 360 will die. The reason this happens the most around the time a new game like Forza 2 or Halo 3 comes out is because the games really tax the GPU and cause it to get hotter than it does for most games, causing the warp.

My best advice for preventing it is to keep the 360 in a semi cool place, and make sure that it has lots of room to ventilate the hot air out the back. I bought my 360 broken a long time ago (before the 3 year warranty) and fixed the RROD myself by replacing the clamp and overheating the 360 so that it would melt back in place. Then I redid the fan shroud to improve air ventilation and put a piece of a cereal box over the top of the heatsinks to increase suction and air flow over the fins. It now never gets too hot inside the system, it never freezes, and I've never had another RROD.

Emil Mujanovic · Oct 2007

I'm not sure if my 360 is on its way out as well, I'm starting to get severe lag spikes. Still slowly playing through Bioshock and at random times it will freeze for about a second, then kick back in like nothing happened. In some areas this will happen really often like its trying to load things and just lagging out.
Did anyone else have this issue? So I know its just the game and not the 360?

-caseyjones

TelekineticFrog · Oct 2007

That sounds more like you need to clear your cache not dying. Just go into the memory options on your dashboard, hit y to bring up the hard drive options and then hit x, x, LB, RB, x, x and then say yes to the next prompt and that should clear it up. That should fix any lagging. If not then maybe you're on your way to the coffin too.

ae. · Dec 2008

my xbox just died (red rings!) today while my brother wa splaying frontlines fules of war, gonna send it in for repair to bad my warranty is over anyone know if they cover the red rings?

gavku · Dec 2008

Yeah I seem to get a fair few disk read errors.....At the moment its at a specific spot in GOW 2....Got the same disk read error in the exact same spot like 5 or 6 times ended up just turning it off.

PixelMasher · Dec 2008

heh when mine died i sent it away and there was some curfuffel and i somehow ended up being sent 2 replacement units. now i have a backup one for when this new one dies.

snemmy · Dec 2008

Had mine die at the end of March. Graphic card died suddenly. Turned it on, things had a very green tint. Restarted and it was fine. Next day the same happened, only this time when I restarted the system the screen came up black. I tried a new cable but that didn't work either. No red rings at all. Called tech and they sent a coffin. I received a replacement and a free month of live to cover the month waiting on the replacement.

And yes, we play a lot of Halo 3. A lot.....

[edit] Oh, almost forgot that I had an error message too. If you received one you can find a list of them through Google and see what went wrong. [/edit]

We've also been getting a lot of disk read errors and a couple of scratched disks (2 copies of Halo3 and Ninja Gaiden 2 died after my roommate's cousin slight broke the inner hole of the dvd and then the spinning weakened it further) while having the 360 set vertically. Laid it back on it's side and they went away. The DVD drives suck. This is what I want:
http://www.engadget.com/2008/11/24/xbox-360-modded-with-slot-loading-dvd-drive-fire-vision-mind-c/
I may take my old iBook apart and try that one day.

b1ll · Dec 2008

Mine redring a while ago, it was to be expected since it was making fucking noise like crazy. I cant say i cared much to change it after it happen, but months after i did, sent it to microsft iand 3 weeks after i had a @new@ one, and i dont know, but even tho it was free, they sent me a fucking piece of shit, sure aint new, its like a refurbished one or some shit, that fucker is making so much noise im affraid to play it ahahaha. Guess Ill just buy a new one once theres game that interest me. In the meantime Ill stick to Not playing the Wii or the ps3 Lol

WHo as time anyway!

ElysiumGX · Dec 2008

I've waited this long (3 years?) for Microsoft to fix their console. Xbox games are great, but the 360 itself is a piece of shit. I'll find one with the new chipset, and hopefully I won't have to worry about this crap months/years later. So I'll avoid buying Halo 3. :P

Michael Knubben · Dec 2008

Just as an interesting aside: who ever expected the blanket statement 'xbox games are great' to roll out of their mouth?

I've been thinking about getting a secondhand one, but didn't want to have to get it fixed soon after, so I've been holding off.

ElysiumGX · Dec 2008

Well, I mean, lots of great titles coming out for the 360 covering a wide demographic. I'm including all the Xbox Live Arcade titles. Actually, I'm talking specifically about Xbox Live Arcade games. Many many games I want to play in that list. Unfortunately, I need the Xbox to play them. Unfortunately, I will also need to fall for their scam and buy an unnecessary, and unreasonably priced $100 wireless adapter.

It's a comparison to the poor direction both Nintendo and Sony are moving with their online content.
But at least they got Wifi right.

Andreas · Dec 2008

I had an elite, and never had any issues with it. But it seems like an absolutely unacceptable and ridiculour number of people have had. Personally I think it is mostly American X-Boxes. American made hardware (P.C.'s, cars, lots of other stuff) is just so badly thrown together in the plants its not funny.

Michael Knubben · Dec 2008

No need to explain, I understand. It's just that at the time of the original xbox, it had a pretty underwhelming offering of games, and now the 360 has had such a great collection of games. I just wouldn't have predicted I'd prefer the xbox over the ps3, back when Sony was king.

Reverenddevil · Dec 2008

Ya, my 360 took a crap when I was playing the beta for COD4. I have had 8 systems since, that has been in maybe less than 2 years. Talk about a fail rate.

It was awesome one day when I went over to my friends house and his son was playing his 360 that he bought at launch and never had an issue and as soon as I started talking about mine just dying again, his got the 3 rings of death. I think his son hates me now, because he thinks I caused his 360 to go to crap..

Thansk Bill for allowing quality product, AGAIN!!!.

Daaark · Dec 2008

BTW: The newer model was just released: http://www.anandtech.com/gadgets/showdoc.aspx?i=3472

Kevin Johnstone · Dec 2008

the first day of my xmas holiday i got played fallout3 late, it crashed while displaying the white and black checkers and when i reset it I got the red rings... so I would say your 360 is just holding on atm

Xenobond · Dec 2008

Mine is still kickin away. Had to do some looking around online to figure out what version I have. Looks like mine is OG Xenon version. Only had a hiccup once when playing TDU and then again playing Halo3 co-op.

I need to find my receipt info. I can't remember when I bought the darned thing.

ElysiumGX · Dec 2008

All this talk gave me the urge to finally go buy a 360, with Xmas cash. I scouted out two stores. The first had none. The second had 4 Arcade systems. One of them has the new Jasper chipset. That one is now MINE! That, plus the discount HDD from Microsoft's promotion makes it a great deal. I'll be sure to let you guys know if it ever gives me the RRoD.

Is my 360 on its way to an untimely death?

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