What's happening to my Xbox 360?

[NotAPie]

A day ago I was playing Alan Wake (Great game I might add) anyway I played it nonstop since I got it, now for some reason while I was playing it my screen started doing this:

At first I thought it was the game, but later on in the day when I tried to play Left 4 Dead 2 it did the same thing. I thought it was the wire but my HDMI wire worked fine with my brothers xbox so did my standard definition wire.
I thought it was my tv but this thing is new and once again didn't do the same thing with my brothers xbox.
So I know it's the Xbox, but what is the problem? I've had people tell me it's my graphics card and others tell me it is my video card.

Another question, will Microsoft fix this? I'm out of warranty but I heard warranty only applies to the RROD and that other popular error.
Any help would be great.

Edit: Another important detail, it does this faster on Alan Wake, and most of the time the screen will start looking like that when I'm in gameplay in all of my games.

 

[Insanum]

Take some mind altering drugs, Sit back & enjoy?

In all seriousness though, Is it your TV? Do you have sound?

 

[NotAPie]

Take some mind altering drugs, Sit back & enjoy?

In all seriousness though, Is it your TV? Do you have sound?

Oh yeah I have perfect sound it's just the screen. I can hear everything in the game clearly but 5 minutes into gameplay and the screen will start to screw up.

 

[Blind Sight]

It appears to be going through the wormhole that Dave Bowman discovered orbiting Jupiter in 2001: A Space Odyssey. My suggestion? Call up the support line, see if the warranty's still good or just plain lie, they usually don't care that much. Meanwhile, pop in Pink Floyd's 'Echoes', roll a joint, and enjoy.

I WISH my Xbox did something that cool when it RRODed last week.

 

[300lb. Samoan]

I've had people tell me it's my graphics card and others tell me it is my video card.

First of all, those are the same thing. Second, that's also my best guess - your GPU (which generates the graphics and outputs them to video) may have suffered some heat-damage after extensive Alan Wake sessions and is now susceptible to glitching (making all that horrible noise on your screen) whenever it gets too hot, which presumably is happening much faster now that it is damaged.

If this is the case (GPU is damaged from regular use) then what you are looking at is an RROD event that didn't manage to trigger the actual RROD response, so I would think that this is covered under warranty (which I now see you don't have - that sucks.) If you are out of warranty then I'm inclined to think that Microsoft will only fix it (or replace it) if you are willing to pay up.

[small]EDIT:[/small]

Edit: Another important detail, it does this faster on Alan Wake, and most of the time the screen will start looking like that when I'm in gameplay in all of my games.

This seems to support the heat-damage theory. Alan Wake has stunning graphics, so I'd imagine it uses a lot of GPU horsepower compared to older games. Also, if the GPU is damaged, it wouldn't necessarily affect cinematic playback since those codecs are likely handled by the CPU, but all gameplay is going to utilize the GPU for interactive graphics (or in your case, rainbow vomit).

 

[NotAPie]

This will likely end up in an RROD. The thermal paste connecting the GPU or the CPU and the heat sink is drying out...not to mention they don't put on enough anyway...But the microprocessor is overheating...because of the seal drying out the heat sink is also not putting pressure on the unit to keep the hot air tied to the sink. This is the xbox's way of say OHHH FUCK CRITICAL HEAT FAILURE...without RRODing

Since it hasn't Red ringed yet would I be able to send it to Microsoft for repairs?

 

[300lb. Samoan]

Have been an actual PC tech for 5 years. A+ certified.

I'll be the one to state the obvious: seeing as OP didn't know the 'difference' between a graphics card and a video card, I don't think he'll be doing his own thermal paste re-application any time soon. No offense Pie, all that shit he told you to do sounds really intimidating and there's no way in hell I'd ever consider trying that on my own XBox. But the pennies-on-the-ram trick is a neat idea, if I ever have the thing open I'll probably go ahead and do that.

Sorry for revising after posting, I'm a little woozy right now.

 

[King of the Sandbox]

This looks like your TV, to me, at least. My tv flips out like that every once in a while.

Next time it happens, try turning yout TV on and off.

 

[NotAPie]

Have been an actual PC tech for 5 years. A+ certified.

I'll be the one to state the obvious, but seeing as OP didn't know the 'difference' between a GPU and a CPU, I don't think he'll be doing his own thermal paste re-application any time soon. No offense Pie, all that shit he told you to do sounds really intimidating and there's no way in hell I'd ever consider trying that on my own XBox. But the pennies-on-the-ram trick is a neat idea, if I ever have the thing open I'll probably go ahead and do that.

I wasn't planning to open it up no matter what anyone said. I'm just trying to avoid buying a new Xbox.

 

[The Mick]

It's about to red ring dude you've gotta send that back to Microsoft for repair, it should be free right mine was. Same thing happened to me took about a month or so for repair.

 

[Krion_Vark]

A day ago I was playing Alan Wake (Great game I might add) anyway I played it nonstop since I got it, now for some reason while I was playing it my screen started doing this:

SSSSHHHH SSSSHHHH SSSSSHHHHH SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH just let it happen


But in all seriousness really dude? You have to ask the question when you said it yourself you played it nonstop? Me and my little brother managed to get the Red Ring of death on a new Xbox 360 that its supposed to be really hard to get it on because we played it nonstop. If you have to ask why your xbox is messing up because its over heated go outside and play. Yeah I know real life graphics suck compared to games these days but you really did play way too much to mess up your graphics card to the point that its screwing up the graphics output like that.

You can always claim its a red ring as well. I mean do they really actually check the Xbox to make sure its a red ring before fixing it?

 

[300lb. Samoan]

I wasn't planning to open it up no matter what anyone said. I'm just trying to avoid buying a new Xbox.

Well, sadly it seems that opening your XBox is the only way it's going to get better. So unless your Craigslist search is fortuitous, I'd take this guy's advice:

its dieing, make it comfortable and start making funeral preparations.

Maybe curl up next to the fireplace with it and read it a couple Halo novels. Sorry dude.

 

[NotAPie]

A day ago I was playing Alan Wake (Great game I might add) anyway I played it nonstop since I got it, now for some reason while I was playing it my screen started doing this:

But in all seriousness really dude? You have to ask the question when you said it yourself you played it nonstop? Me and my little brother managed to get the Red Ring of death on a new Xbox 360 that its supposed to be really hard to get it on because we played it nonstop. If you have to ask why your xbox is messing up because its over heated go outside and play. Yeah I know real life graphics suck compared to games these days but you really did play way too much to mess up your graphics card to the point that its screwing up the graphics output like that.

Oh come on that is just mean. I do go outside and this is really the first time in a few months that I've played a game nonstop like that.

I wasn't planning to open it up no matter what anyone said. I'm just trying to avoid buying a new Xbox.

Well, sadly it seems that opening your XBox is the only way it's going to get better. So unless your Craigslist search is fortuitous, I'd take this guy's advice:

its dieing, make it comfortable and start making funeral preparations.

Maybe curl up next to the fireplace with it and read it a couple Halo novels. Sorry dude.

Eh I guess I'm going to have to buy a new one. This really sucks but thanks for the help.

 

[Brad Shepard]

Send it to Microsoft, I can say ive never seen anything like this outside of someone throwing up fruit loops.

 

[Brad Shepard]

it really has to be the tv, because it looks like i can see the health sphear/map thing of Alan Wake on the top left corner.