3 posts tagged “microsoft”

So, my Xbox 360 red ringed today, and I thought my widely unused Vox blog would be a great place to document my attempts to get it fixed, hopefully via Microsoft.

So, a little backstory. I got this 360 for Christmas 2006. Ran great, loved the thing. No problems what so ever. While my friends who have had theirs at launch are on their second or third 360's, I'm loving mine.

Yesterday, I boot up MLB 2k7, and it tells me there is an update. I download the update, everything goes well. Go back to playing the baseball, and then everything goes to hell.

There are these bizarre graphical artifacts all over the screen. I escape to the dashboard, and its the same there. Rebooting fixes the problem, but it happens everytime in MLB 2k7, about 15 minutes in.

I assume its the recent update, so I clear the cache and try to backdate the updates. Works good. I play some Hitman Blood Money. No problems, back to the good Xbox 360. Then, I get the same graphical artifacts, albeit, a little differently, in Hitman.

Since this is now a 360 problem, not a MLB 2k7 problem, I turn to my unlimited research library (aka google) and start searching for problems. I quickly discover, that this problem is semi-to-less common, and its usually caused by the heatsink on the GPU overheating. Since the GPU isn't 'critical' thats why it can spazzz out and the little red ring finder doesn't trip for it.

The most common cause seems to be too much dust in the bottom air intake. So, people exchange stories of using compressed air or small vaccums to clear the dust off the heatsink. I decide to do this, but since its late, I wait for today.

I wake up this morning, decide to try it, and uh noes, I get a red ring. Lower right quadrant. E74 error, which is...

A) Bad AV Cables (not true, I tried them with my two sets of cables. Same Problem)
B) Scaler Chip Error
C) GPU Error

Considering I don't want to void my warranty by opening up my Xbox 360 to try to install some cheap Chinese GPU or Scaler Chip, I'm forced to try to call Microsoft.

Its June 30th, 2007. Has of now, my Xbox 360 is dead, with the red rings. I am going to contact Microsoft later today, and hopefully they'll give me a free-shipping-free-repair deal, since mine is under warranty, and I didn't put mayo in the DVD drive or anything.

(Thats my little journal thing that will hopefully make up the majority of the Xbox is Dead things. Notice how I bloded the text, right? Nice, I know.)

Hmmmm....

When I plug my USB keyboard into my Windows PC, it takes roughly 5-10 seconds for Windows XP to recognize the keyboard, and then boot up the drivers for it. When I plug my USB keyboard into my Xbox 360, the integrated verison of Windows CE instantly recognizes it, and I can start typing right away.

Shouldn't the fully functioning verison of Windows let me use the keyboard faster? Oh well. Has are the mysteries of life.

Well, once again, DRM proved to stop digital technology....

For a US History project, I needed to do a Power Point, and set some music to it that was representive of the idea of "Fearlessness". I picked out "Duel of the Fates" by John Williams (bit of Star Wars). I had recently gotten the song legally off of iTunes, and tried to pop it into Power Point, but guess what, Power Point wouldn't recongize the protected Mp4 format.

Well, now, I don't know what I'll do. I tried burning the song to CD, and then copy it back to iTunes, so it would come in Mp3, but iTunes 7 was janked, and I couldn't figure out how to do it. I like to fancy myself a technical-adept person (since I've used a computer since I was 3 year old, you know, but maybe I'm kidding myself).

I wanted to use a purchased song in a simple, legal, Fair Use way. I wasn't going to give a copy to every one of my friends, or put it on the internet, I just simply wanted to use it for my power point, and I couldn't because of the stupid lawyers and their DRM.

On the Zune, I believe that technically, its better that the iPod. Bigger screen, better UI, awesome Wi-Fi sharing feature, but its crippled by DRM features. I've seen a Zune at school, and its a very impressive device, but, the lawyers got their hands on it and ruined it. Microsoft's engineers shouldn't be blamed for the Zune, Microsoft's legal team should. Remember, DRM (or Digital Rights Management) isn't protecting our rights, its protecting the rights of the RIAA. What do you have when you have a RIAA lawyer burried up to his neck in sand?

Not enough sand.