Xbox 360: I wish they told me...

[JayRPG]

So, I bought an xbox 360, mainly just to play 1 game (but I've found a few other exclusives I want to play too).

Sitting, playing, everything seems fine, the console itself is quite loud in comparison to my PS3 and wii u but it's not horrible;
I don't find the controller as 'good' or comfortable as I've heard it being, I still prefer the Gamecube controller -> PS -> Xbox.

Now, what I did wish they told me, at any point during setup, or at any point after pausing the game, or maybe in a little warning somewhere, that if you pause a game it actually acts like the system is in idle and will auto turn off the console... without saving a state for the game in the RAM (like a quick launch) or actually forcing an un-ordinary save or instead of turning the console fully off it just goes into a sleep mode.

I had to quickly run out of the house so I paused the game (no save points nearby), ran out, I was gone for about 30 minutes; I come back and the console is off - It didn't save my game, save a state, make it a resume quick launch, it didn't put the console into sleep or idle mode, nope. In the middle of a game, the console shuts off and whatever game was opened get's forced to close.

I have never owned any console, ever, that has this as a default feature with absolutely no warnings noted anywhere, no mentions of it during setup, nowhere.

Just lost 2 hours of gameplay because I assumed the console that was supposed to have won last generation was as advanced and as logical as my other consoles.

TL;DR Why in the world would a game console regard pausing a game as putting the system in idle so they can freely shut off said console?
Having a game opened is pretty much the most important thing for console...

 

[ZCAB]

Even if the console is idling, it isn't supposed to shut down until after 6 hours of inactivity (and that's if you have the default auto-shutdown enabled). What happened to you is not a default design feature. Maybe it was caused by a power issue (perhaps your brick is faulty, or you had a short outage that you didn't notice while you were gone), maybe the system crashed, but it's not the way the console was designed.
What model of the console do you have? I'm not sure about the new Xbox One-style model, but I've never experienced the S model to be any louder than the PS3.

 

[JayRPG]

Even if the console is idling, it isn't supposed to shut down until after 6 hours of inactivity (and that's if you have the default auto-shutdown enabled). What happened to you is not a default design feature. Maybe it was caused by a power issue (perhaps your brick is faulty, or you had a short outage that you didn't notice while you were gone), maybe the system crashed, but it's not the way the console was designed.
What model of the console do you have? I'm not sure about the new Xbox One-style model, but I've never experienced the S model to be any louder than the PS3.

It's the Star wars S model, just seems to be quite loud when it's turned on, my Ps3 slim is almost inaudible.

I'm positive there was not a power issue or short as my T.V was still on and they are both on the same surge protected power board.

The console itself turned back on as usual when I pressed the power button, I assumed that it had gone into some kind of sleep mode but it shut off completely.

From what I read on google it does this to stop itself from overheating (to prevent RRoD) but if it was in danger of overheating after only 30 minutes then there is a serious problem.

 

[Able Seacat]

I don't think they are meant to shut down after 30min either. As ZCAB said, there's an option for auto-shutdown after 6 hours of inactivity.

Is the game you're plying installed to the hard drive? That should make it run a little bit quieter.

 

[Smooth Operator]

That does sound like an overheating problem actually.
Did you buy this thing used, or from a shady shop that doesn't tell you when shit is used? Because in either case you should expect the thing to be gunked up with dust so it can't cool properly, also makes the fans run on full all the time which makes it quite the screamer box.

 

[ZCAB]

Even if the console is idling, it isn't supposed to shut down until after 6 hours of inactivity (and that's if you have the default auto-shutdown enabled). What happened to you is not a default design feature. Maybe it was caused by a power issue (perhaps your brick is faulty, or you had a short outage that you didn't notice while you were gone), maybe the system crashed, but it's not the way the console was designed.
What model of the console do you have? I'm not sure about the new Xbox One-style model, but I've never experienced the S model to be any louder than the PS3.

It's the Star wars S model, just seems to be quite loud when it's turned on, my Ps3 slim is almost inaudible.

I'm positive there was not a power issue or short as my T.V was still on and they are both on the same surge protected power board.

The console itself turned back on as usual when I pressed the power button, I assumed that it had gone into some kind of sleep mode but it shut off completely.

From what I read on google it does this to stop itself from overheating (to prevent RRoD) but if it was in danger of overheating after only 30 minutes then there is a serious problem.

Regardless, it's not a default design feature of the 360 like you were suggesting.

 

[KarmaTheAlligator]

Never had that happens. The screen dims to not make the TV blow up, but that's all that happens.

 

[x EvilErmine x]

If it's a used console then check the setting menu to see if the previous owner changed the aut-off timer IIRC it can be change to shut down the console after a certain time in idle (when the screen goes darker).

If it's a new console then return it for replacement as it's suffering an over heating issue. Again IIRC Microsoft patched it so that the console will auto-shutdown to prevent RROD and damage to the hardware. If it's kicking in after only 30 mins then you likely have a heatsink problem.

Either way it's not a default feature.

 

[Padwolf]

Hmm, mine does auto turn off, but only after an hour of it just sitting there and the screen dims down. I am pretty sure that there is an option for it all though somewhere. Or it could be a heating issue.

 

[Saltyk]

I'm not sure. But honestly, the 360 didn't "Win" the last generation. In terms of total sales, it's pretty even with PS3, and actually a little fewer. It dominated in North America, but lost everywhere else in the world. In terms of total sales, the Wii actually won. And in terms of games that people seem to remember and talk about, well I'd say that is PS3 with games like The Last of Us, Uncharted, and such. Really judging the "Winner" of last generation in an not easy, unlike previous generations where PS1 and PS2 destroyed all competitors in sales.

 

[Zetatrain]

Was it brand new or pre-owned? I believe the same thing happened with my Xbox360, but it was pre-owned so the original owner probably left it on.

 

[MysticSlayer]

They do warn you that the console shuts off after some time of inactivity. I can't remember where, but I do remember reading it when I first got mine, either during setup or in the user's manual. The thing is, I believe the time is one hour, not thirty minutes, so it might be that your house had a brief power issue while you were gone and it was enough to shut off the 360. If it was used, maybe the old owner set it to shut down after about 15-30 minutes, and you could try changing it back to an hour or more.

 

[w9496]

You can adjust that or turn it off in the settings tab of your console. It shuts off by itself to save energy and so the console doesn't have to work hard when you aren't doing anything with it.

If it is that big of a deal, then turn it off or set it for a longer time. I'm pretty sure you can set it for at least an hour.

 

[fix-the-spade]

TL;DR Why in the world would a game console regard pausing a game as putting the system in idle so they can freely shut off said console?
Having a game opened is pretty much the most important thing for console...

Because Microsoft positively hates, yes you specifically.

What model Xbox? The early fall over prone ones had this due to the whole overheating issue and it being especially bad when the unit sits idle for any length of time (a typically top fix by Microsoft). The Slim and Slimmer don't generally power off when left on pause (they go into an idle state with the screen greyed out by default, or they should), but it is in the options.

Also, unlucky dude!

 

[GamerGeneration7]

Never had that happen. Sounds like it could be an overheating problem.

Did you buy it from a "shady" place, where the Xbox is probably used and clogged up with gunk?

 

[Brotha Desmond]

This happens to me sometimes to when I leave it alone to go eat or run an errand, so it's not a power failure.

 

[dystopiaINC]

Even if the console is idling, it isn't supposed to shut down until after 6 hours of inactivity (and that's if you have the default auto-shutdown enabled). What happened to you is not a default design feature. Maybe it was caused by a power issue (perhaps your brick is faulty, or you had a short outage that you didn't notice while you were gone), maybe the system crashed, but it's not the way the console was designed.
What model of the console do you have? I'm not sure about the new Xbox One-style model, but I've never experienced the S model to be any louder than the PS3.

When fable 3 was new, the rent system came in every 5 minutes of game time and a big chunk of money if you quit for the night and came back later. I would leave my 360 on and paused in the morning when I went to school with the tv off and come back 6 hours later to massive profits. the console did go into an idle state but that ended as soon as i started using the controller. never shut off on me.

 

[Zeraki]

It shouldn't be shutting down after just 30 minutes like that. It sounds like it may have overheated when you were out. I had a launch 360 that lasted 7 years and the only time it ever randomly shut off on me was because it got too hot.

Do you keep the system somewhere it might not be getting proper ventilation? Like a small shelf in a TV stand, or someplace cramped?

I'm not sure how well the slim models handle that sort of thing compared to the launch 360's, but overheating is the only thing I can think of that would cause this.

 

[RevRaptor]

Do you have a slim model?
They do come with auto shut off enabled as a power saving feature, There's even a little warning message that comes up about ten minutes before shut off.

It's pretty easy to turn off though. just go into your setting its not hard to find