5 posts tagged “xbox 360”
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.)
A funny little website. Xbox Live, the online service that allows you to game online with your Xbox 360, keeps and displays a pretty wide arrange of information about the player and their gaming habits.
A website, 360voice.com, has taken all that info, and done something pretty funny. It puts out a "blog" for your Xbox 360. The 360 updates its blog every day, and keeps the readers informed about the games your playing, and your gamer points.
For example, one day when I didn't log on, my Xbox 360 posted to its blog, "I was a sad Xbox 360 yesterday... UberKevin never showed up to game. That makes 6 days!"
Its a pretty funny site. Points for originality. Here is mine if you want to check it out. UberKevin's Xbox 360 can blog
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.
Two of my friends, Jake and Bryan, stood in line for PS3's. Stupid? Maybe. We report, you decide. Anyway, I talked with both of them about their experience, and they both told similar stories.
Both of them stood inline for the Xbox 360 last year, and had good things to say about it. They said it was friendly, people playing DS, playing football, joking around, talking about what games to get, and letting people freely leave line for bathroom breaks and getting food from parents and friends in the parking lot.
Fast foward one year, and they said the PS3 line was less friendly. No joking, no football, no DS (or PSP) and arguments if you leave the line and come back ("Hey! That guy was behind me! Get back there you bastard!"). My friend Bryan said a big argument broke out between two groups of people, those people selling it to eBay, and the group who were buying it to play it.
Why is this? Well, my first thought, probably due to my anti-Sony slant the past few months, was that Playstation fans are jagged, and (pardon my French) assholes, compared to Xbox fans, but, maybe there is another angle to this.
Sony has made the PS3 out to be rarer than gold. News stories of people fetching $3000+ on eBay and this being hailed the console to end all consoles have all created a frenzy about this new console. Add in the Wii and this massive Holiday '06, and its kind of a general anxiety.
For now, I'm happy with my PC and Xbox 1. I plan to upgrade both to a faster PC and a Xbox 360, but for now, thats good. (I recently ordered the game Oblivion. Has a fan of its prequel, Morrowind, I'm really excited. Because I had $25 to burn, and I'm impatient, I got Amazon.com next-day shipping. Coming tomorrow, ordered on Sunday. Heh heh.)
I've even got more thoughts on the Wii, where I think its going, and just thoughts. Stay tuned, same Vox time, same Vox channel.
After a lengthy conversation with my friend about the OPM "closing" and me blaming Sony, he brought up an issue I never thought of. Blu-ray.
Has I speculated, OPM probably was doing horribly, and they have those demo disks. Honestly, I don't like demo disks. I've got a few from PC Gamer, OXM and some other magazines, and they aren't that great. They seem so... PS1-era. I don't know, its hard to explain my dislike of demo disks.
Anyway, we all know that Sony's online plan for the PS3 is junk. It supposed to be like Xbox Live... but better... and free. Yeah, right. Anyway, they couldn't finish it before launch, and now, Resistance is shipping with its own game-only online system, a lot like the PS2's online that everybody hated. If the PS3 had a real online system, they could offer download able demos, like XBL, which I would say is better that those damn demo disks.
I'm wayyy off topic. Back ON topic now, my friend thinks the cost of a Blu-ray is too much for a demo disk, and since all the Sony fanboys love their OPM demo disks, Uncle Ziff is worried that they won't buy it. Oh hum.
I'm not positive, but didn't something like this arise when the PS2 and Xbox came out, then the DVD was the format of choice? I mean, I think somebody told me that demo disks for the 7th Generation of Consoles wouldn't happen because DVD's were so darned expensive.
Well, Blu-rays will either fail or become the next big format, and the price will go down. So, despite my hatred of the Blu-ray format, I can't blame that on OPM's demise.
My friends also brought up another point. I have become very anti-Sony in the past few months. I mean, I ripped their throats out on the battery recall, on the PS3's overall design, on the PS3's price, on the rumored price of the PS3 games, on just about everything, including Blu-ray? I thought OPM was the weakest of the 1UP Group's print offerings (yes, even GCW, which I ignored for a rival PC gaming magazine), and when I suspect Sony shutting them down, I suddenly defend them. How did I come such an anti-Sony guy? Who knows. I think its just a reaction, since everybody thinks the PS3 will be teh rock, and I naturally think it'll be the worst of the "big three", so I'm going into defensive mode. Oh well, I think I'll be proven right on PS3, Sony and Blu-ray. I doubt the general public will ever know.
Oddly enough, I didn't like OPM, but I subscribed to their podcast feed so I can hear their thoughts on the closing, but thats the only reason. I don't own a PS2 (my suffered a terrible accident after 2 weeks) and I don't plan on getting a PS3, but I want to hear the staff's comments.
This is what THEY should do. Go the shock jock route and totally bitch out everybody who canceled OPM and name names and give reasons. Well, they probably don't want to burn bridges with Ziff, but honestly, I think that would be going out in a blaze of glory.
Then again, that would be a hell of a bad job reference when they try to go get a job at some other magazine.
