General XBox 360 problem Thread: - Page 9

360 died. I just got done replacing my Sub that blew on me the other day and was all pumped up to hook up the new one. I turned on the 360 to listen to some music, hit play for a song, the music sounded great with the new sub and then all of a sudden a loud buzzing sound started and the tv screen looked all jaggy and then froze.

I turned it off and then back on. 3 RED Blinking Lights. I called MS and they told me I was 2 days past my warranty. I was really pissed but they told me I could still buy the extended, which I did.

This thing has been working perfect from the day we got it. If you don't have a warranty, I would get one.

I was able to return my 360 and received the "new" one yesterday. It seems to work fine, but it is older than my previous one. The born-on date is sometime in December 2005, which leads me to believe that it's a reburbished one from a previous return.

I hope they have correctly diagnosed the root cause of the defect. Given that so many people have returned theirs and eventually had the same problem I kind of doubt it.

I just bought a LN-S4051D and have hooked up the Xbox 360 through a VGA input. But whenever I turn off the TV or the Xbox, the picture settings get reset to the horrible looking manufacturer's settings.

For example, I have a custom picture setting in which the manufacturer's defaults are Contrast = 80 and Brightness = 50. I changed these to Contrast = 73 and Brightness = 75. I turned off the Xbox. When I truned it back on, the custom picture settings were back to Contrast = 80 and Brightness = 50. When I hook up the Xbox through the component connections, there is no problem with the picture settings.

Does anybody have an idea what the problem might be?

i have an xbox 360 hooked up to a benq 8700+ dlp projector. whenever i toggle the switch from TV to HD, the screen gets scrambled and flips around. in TV mode, it works fine. HD is scrambled. my hd directv receiver plays 480p, 720p, and 1080i beautifully on this projector. cant figure out why this wont work. i actually returned the first console back to best buy because i thought it was a console problem...now i am on the second console and there is no difference in performance.

i noticed that someone several months ago posted this problem but didnt see a solution. does anyone have any suggetions on what i might need to do in order to fix this problem? thanks.
jt

My son's just froze, call MS they asked for the serial number, then said the return box is on it's way. It's out of warranty, nobody's talking about a repair charge. Has anybody else returned unit out of warranty?

Did they quote you a repair charge?

I returned mine out of warranty and free of charge. They originally told me to take it back to the store to get a new one, but that wasn't an option. So I called them back, and they let me send it in for repair. They didn't make me send a copy of the receipt, so they couldn't have known for sure. Someone earlier said they have extended the warranty on all units to 1 year. I think you should have no problem getting it repaired free of charge.

My 360 Premium died last week and I finally called MS last night. The first rep I talked to said mine was out of warranty and I would have to pay for repairs. After speaking with his manager they finally agreed to repair it free of charge. I specifically asked about the rumored 1 year warranty extension for all units and he said that is just a rumor, they have not extended the warranty past 90 days. But he did say they are making exceptions for some repairs.

Received our return box last night, 3 day express. The box is made for shipping 360's. Just put the unit in a plastic bag, then into the box, replace the shipping label, they even include the tape to seal the box.

My guess is MS has repaired more than just a couple units.

Considering the failure rate for new electronics is usually pegged at 3-5%, several tens of thousands more than a couple.

My 360 broke last sunday. I would get the three red lights. I called MS and was told that my 360 had run out of warranty the previous thursday which doesn't make any sense, since he also told me that the warranty was 90 days. I bought the 360 on launch date and it obviously doesn't add up. He said that I could send it in for repair and that it would be $129. I'm guessing that's a flat repair fee. I'm really dissapointed with MS right now. My xbox didn't break until 2 years after I bought it and that was actually my fault, so I just bought a new one.

My launch day Premium 360 seems to have just bought it tonight. No red lights or the like, but it freezes about half the time as the 360 logo is displaying and goes checkerboard with random garbage as sound. The other half the time you can actually get into a game but it'll freeze within around 30 seconds. I'll be exchanging tomorrow at EB Games, who claims I'll be able to keep my current hard drive. Guess I'll see how it goes.

Update: after initially disconnecting my console and packing it up, I decided I would go hook it back up and copy what I consider my most critical stuff (i.e., my Oblivion saves ) to my memory card just in case. After freezing while I was navigating in the dashboard to do this, now when I try to turn on my 360, I'm just getting the dreaded blinking 3 red lights of death.

I had my first lockup tonight. I was joining a game of Uno and it completely froze. It's a cool night and most of the windows are open so I don't think it's a heat issue. I was streaming music off my PC at the time so maybe something just wasn't playing nice.

Few questions...

1. I have my 360 in a wood console (horizontally), maybe 3 inches open above, an inch on either side with a hole in the back for the wires. Last night it got really loud even when the glass door closed and was really hot inside. On the main xbox panel, the letters looked like they had shadowing. Turned it off, waited for 10 min, tried again, and it returned to normal, but still loud. Is the console not getting enough ventalition? It it normal to get that hot? Should the lettering fuzz out like that? It's too loud normally to keep outside.

2. I have a Denon 2807 that can upconvert composite to HDMI. Since XBOX 360 only outputs composite, would upconverting to HDMI make the picture any better? worse? Or should I stick to composite to the TV.

3. I have the new Panasonic plasma 50 inch and wanted to know which setting I should keep my 360 on, 1080i or 720p. It's hard to tell since I have to restart the game for each setting. Any ideas/thoughts? What does everyone else have?

Thanks in advance!!!

More specifics please. Was it the DVD drive, or something else? Did you have noise just during gameplay or while in the dashboard?

As for the heat....what it just warm to the touch, or really hot?


I assume you mean component and not composite? Picture quality would depend on the job the Denon does upconverting. You'd probably just have to try it.


Depeonds on the scaler in the TV and it's native resolution. If the TV does a good job, leave the 360 at 720 (its native) and allow the TV to do it's thing.
As for doing an A/B test.....can you not tell al difference in the dashboard between settings?

Playing Perfect Dark Zero. Loud noise more so during game play. I could hear the fan behind the glass and the volume was somewhat loud. It was quite hot. The surface of the wood console it's resting on was getting warm.




Yes, component. my bad..



Not really, 720 and 1080 look the same to me. Which is technically supposed to be better?

I was starting to think I had gotten lucky, but it appears that my 360 is also a lemon. I first started getting lock ups on the weekend where it would freeze and display vertical grey dashed lines all over the screen, and now it's been freezing with checkerboard patterns, or going to black completely.

The unit is also a couple of months out of warranty, so we'll see what happens...

Has anyone else (preferably Canadians) called for service past warranty?

EDIT: Just called and they're doing the repair/replacement, and didn't give me any hassle at all. See everyone in a couple of weeks...

For the record, my unit was built November 28, 2005.

so its only happened a few times, but the sound from my 360 will go into this loud distortion that I normally have to turn it off and on again for it to go away. Last time it happened I unplugged the optical cable and back in and was fixed for about 5mins and then it happened again. Its only happened when playing king kong and battlefield 2. Any ideas what it could be?

I have this configuration as well (actually I have an 8700) and have not seen this problem. My 360 is actually hooked up to an Integra receiver and then sent over to the BenQ via Component. My Dishnetwork 921 and DVD player is hooked up directly to the BenQ via DVI using a 2:1 DVI switch. The only problem I have experienced is when I cycle the BenQ between DVI (TV and DVD) and Component (360) sometimes it fails and takes a few tries to "synch up". I don't toggle any switches, I just switch back and forth between Component and DVI using the BenQ remote or a programmable remote so it sounds like the switching you are doing is causing the problem. Is there any way you can put in a Component switch (or use a receiver)and run everything through Component to the BenQ versus the TV/HD switch or run a DVI cable from the Direct TV receiver to the BenQ?

Has anybody experienced problems with explosions thru their speakers when playing the 360 audio going thru your computer speakers 5.1?

I currently have optical going to my sound card and during the explosions they tend to crackle I hope that makes sense.

Can anybody help?


Thank you,

APaiz

When I called last week to send my latest freezing XBox back it was about 3.5 months since I'd received my first repair/replacement (they actually replaced it the first time - it was a different serial number than my original one - born Dec. 2005). The service guy said something about the warranty period being extended "because" it was a recently repaired/replaced unit. I'm not sure what the criteria is, but it was just assumed that they'd "repair" it again at no charge and I certainly didn't argue.

This time around they've switched from DHL to UPS. When I sent my last lemon in, it was early January 2006 and DHL showed up the very next day after I called with the return shipping box to pack it in. For the latest lemon, it took about 4 days to get the return shipping box, because they're now evidently shipping them direct from the repair facility in Texas rather than having pre-made ones sitting at the shipping companies. Oh well, at least I don't have to pay this time either, even if it is going to take longer.

I still haven't bought the extended warranty for this thing. Obviously I'm going to do that now. The M$ service guy said to just call back again when my 3rd "repaired" box arrives and I can get the extension then.

Based upon my experience, i.e. 3 XBox 360's over a 5 month period, I would HIGHLY suggest that anyone who already has or is planning to buy an XBox 360 buy the extended warranty, on the assumption that you're going to have to send it in for repairs every 2 to 4 months. It's good money after bad, but at this point I already have too much invested in the console and a number of games. This could get very tiresome and annoying after a while though.

Be interested in knowing how many have experienced either/or/and lockups ro dead units that were returned for repair. Seems to be pretty rampant these days on the various boards on the internet.

FWIW, I will be receiving my third in a few weeks. Launch day (3 red lights), replacement/refurb (locks up in all disk games but not arcade games). Damned annoying that's for sure.

my new 360 will not recognize a dlink (usb) wireless adaptor. I just want to use that one i've got instead of buying that freak expensive "xbox360 adaptor"

any ideas? i also tried a belkin usb wireless adaptor from my wifes pc and it didn't come up either...

thanks in advance for the help, B

A USB wireless adapter won't work, because there is no way to load the drivers on the Xbox360. You can use a wireless bridge (or wireless 'game adapter'), which usually run around $60-90, and plug it into the network jack. Since the Xbox360 sees these as just a network connection, and not a USB device, there's no need for a driver. They have the added benefit of being portable to any network-enabled device on your network, and future-proof (until a new wireless standard comes out, anyway).

thats pretty much what i'm hearing everywhere... for some reason i thought i'd heard that is would before i got the thing, no biggie. I'll just return it.


Would a hardwired connection be faster? running the cable would be a pain, but if its really a whole lot better, then maybe i'll try it.

thanks all.

good info, B

You're not going to get any speed with a hardwire over a wireless connection with a decent signal, because your internet connection is slower than both. You may get a little less latency between the Xbox360 and the router/access point, but probably not enough to notice.

IIRC, not all routers will accept/perform wireless bridging (Belkin pre-N for example). You will need to check.

My router is located in the basement , the bridge I used to have was in the sunroom. As the crow flies, one floor and ~80 feet away if that.

With a lot of people in a room (>8) I would lag out consistently...hardwired others are lagging out.

Anyone ever have a problem with The Outfit? I rented it from Gamefly and the audio keeps cutting out.

Just wanted to report on my quick and painless experience with xbox support. I made the call on Monday evening, received a return carton on Wednesday, shipped it back on Thursday, and my replacement unit arrived on Tuesday (and Monday was a holiday).

It sucks that it started freezing in the first place, but at least MS is doing a good job on getting the replacements out fast! Also, my 360 was well over 90 days old and they didn't give me any hassle about the expired warranty.

Has anyone has problems with units Born on or after February of 2006? Just curious as to whether or not I should prepare myself.

Looks like people still want to know when such things happen so....

XBOX360, born date 11/28/2005, purchased at BB on 01/07/06, Ring of 3 red lights continual on 5/24/06. Carton on the way from MS. Yes, I purchased the extended warranty back in January from MS.

For those who wish to sweat ....my symptoms came on as Oblivion freezing into black/white checkerboard pattern, screen freeze - but normal picture and finally, total screen blackout. Demo of Lost Planet also showed checker pattern. Power off/on - sometimes would last for another 5 to 20 minutes of play time. But mostly boot right back to checker pattern at first display of XBOX360 logo or right to three red lights.

No issues other than past month or so. Hard drive not required for return. We'll see what they send me back.