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Death of a 360


Hannibal

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Oh yeah, that's the problem with every system with a bunch of games you really wanna play. Right now I've got a whole bunch of NES, SNES, N64, GCN, Wii, TG16 and Genesis games I have to play all on my Wii, problem is I buy em faster than I finish them.

 

If I had a 360 I'd be flooded with yet another platform worth of games... I haven't played a 360 in a couple of months now though since my friends and I haven't had the time to play much lately, bleah.

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Well, if the new warranty situation applies to you then I guess you're all gravy and fried chicken, but if for whatever reason you aren't under warranty you might as well try and fix it yourself (assuming you actually know a little something about computer assembly/maintenance).

You can check online for information on error codes and how to access them (pressing eject and the "sync" button in a certain order) when accessed the ring will stop showing the basic error code (eg: the three red lights of death) and blink a more specific component failure code...

This will tell you what you need to fix.

As far as I know the most common 3-red-lights errors are Overheating and Power Disruption.

 

In the case of overheating, you should open the case (find some instructions online so you don't break it or something) (note: this will void your warranty, but you wouldn't be doing this if you were under warranty) and remove the heatsink from the processor, then apply appropriate amount of thermal paste and replace the heatsink (many 360's were shipped without the proper amount of thermal paste, which results in the processor overheating, solder melting, and the board warping).

Again, find a good guide somewhere, I've seen this done first hand, but haven't done it myself so don't take my word for everything. A friend of mine actually buys these red-ringers off E-bay and applies the paste and sells them, they work fine.

 

In the case of power disruption, either there are problems with the way the power is handled in the console itself, in which case you are boned as far as I know, or you simply need to replace the power brick. Runs about $60-100 I think, don't trust the Antec's though because I had to return two of them after getting them DOA.

 

 

Back when I was having problems with mine, after checking the error codes, I discovered that my issue was caused by poor location of my power brick (not enough air circulation) and the electrical service in my area had been seriously raping the power supply with powerouts almost every other day.

 

I now have a used power supply and run it (and my computer, monitor, etc.) off a decent battery backup/surge protector, and I haven't had any serious problems since.

 

Occassionally a power out or electrical surge will have some effect on the power brick and my 360 will flash 3 reds to let me know the power bricks evil Ex made a visit, but it's not a problem with the console.

 

I'd say the first thing you should do when facing 3-rings is borrow a power supply and see if it will power the 360, that should eliminate quite a bit of guesswork.

 

@Herbie, I'll check again, but the Elite should support SD as well. (look at the cables in that picture of the Elite above...) The HDMI is an extra option.

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Mines still working fine, I've had it since around september or december. I love it, however, I have noticed it likes to slow down, ALOT, especially during Oblivion. But XBL is great (I have 56k unfortunatly.) and the games are even better.

 

Mines does heat my room up alot if I play for a couple of hours, but have the window open so its not that bad.

 

The tend to freeze more than anyother console I've ever played. My N64 froze one during world driver, and my original xbox froze one during sould caliber. My 360's frozen a few times, and it freezes everytime I try to quit doom...

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Well I got my Best Buy gift card in the mail. They even reimburse you for the taxes you paid. :)

 

Now I have to decide whether I can wait for the "Falcon" version.

 

Decisions, decisions...

 

I'd probably wait to get the "Falcon" edition since it's coming out this fall according to Rhett. Since Mass Effect is expected to be released in November, I'd wait.

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@inutter, Oblivion has a memory leak glitch thing...

Hold (A) while the console is booting up, that should help clear it up.

Also, make sure you don't have too many savegames, mine ran pretty slow after a few hundred saves, and started crawling after a thousand. Erased most of them and it ran like a very runny thing trying to outrun greased lightning on it's period.

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