XBox 360 Issues

[freakydan]

Alright, guys, I'm having problems with my 360, and I'm hoping someone here has an answer for me.

Here's the deal. The old girl fires up just fine, it recognizes video games just like it always has, but the problem comes while I'm playing them. For instance, I was playing Bioshock. I was playing through normally, but as soon as I attacked something, the system completely shut down, like someone had hit the power button. The weird part is, when I started it back up, I tried attacking the air a few times, and there was no problem. As soon as I got to something, in this case, a dead security bot, and hit it, it played about half of the animation of me swinging the wrench, registered as a vibration in the controller, and then died. I have tried other games with similar problems.

The system doesn't flash an error at me, no RROD, the AC Adaptor Box doesn't flash red at me, it just goes from green to orange. Quite simply, if I couldn't see the 360 from where I was sitting, I'd think that someone had turned the system off on me.

I know it's not the outlet, since I was playing my PS3 on it not ten minutes earlier. This has happened to me before on this exact same system, but a good shake solved the problem back then, but now, it's doing nothing.

So, kind Escapists, has this happened to anyone else? Does anyone have any ideas on how to fix it? I'm really not prepared to give my trusty 360 the Ol' Yeller treatment.

PS - The warranty has expired on it, so sending it in for repairs is cost prohibitive, and the XBox tech help website has nothing to say for these symptoms.

 

[CCountZero]

First order of business:

Load up a couple of other games and goof around for a bit.
See if any of them are having issues as well.

If they aren't, it seems unlikely that the hardware is at fault.

 

[freakydan]

First order of business:

Load up a couple of other games and goof around for a bit.
See if any of them are having issues as well.

If they aren't, it seems unlikely that the hardware is at fault.

I've tried loading up X-Men Origins: Wolverine a few times, and it won't even let me get to the main menu. It shuts down in exactly the same way right at the end of the Raven logo.

 

[MercurySteam]

Out of curiosity, how old is your system? Did you buy it new or preowned?

 

[mjc0961]

It could just be getting ready to die on you. I had problems with games before getting and RRoD once as well. I had been playing GTA IV and the draw distance would suddenly decrease drastically so I'd always be crashing into things that popped up right in front of me rather than them loading from further away as they normally should have, and of course games started freezing a lot. Then one day, bam, big red light in my face. RRoD has a 3 year warranty though, so maybe if that happens you could still be covered despite your original 1 year warranty running out.

Alternatively, it could be your disc drive going too. You say you tried other games, but your examples seem to include other retail titles. Try some XBLA games if you have some and see what happens. Also, you could try installing your disc games to the HDD if you have the space, but if your disc drive is indeed going, it probably will fail or lock up before you get anything installed.

Based on what you've said so far, those are the only two possibilities I can think of. Good luck!

 

[freakydan]

Could it be that the processing power has just.. plummeted?

Albeit.. X-men Origins probably takes less than Bioshock

Ehh.. wait it out? let it chill for a while?

If Origins takes less than Bioshock, why would it crash sooner? Bioshock lets me into the game, Origins kicks me out before the main menu.

Out of curiosity, how old is your system? Did you buy it new or preowned?

I bought it preowned about two years ago. With the exception of the little scare that was friggin identical to this one about a year and some change ago, it's worked like a dream.

It is worth noting that I recently took it to a friends house. Tonight is the first time since moving it back to my house that I even turned it on. The last time this happened to me was right after moving it back from a friends house, too.

 

[HapexIndustries]

Sounds like your motherboard if the whole thing shuts down. Maybe your RAM. It's probably on it's last legs. Make sure all the fans are going, though... that's the only helpful advice I can give that hasn't been mentioned.

 

[mjc0961]

I bought it preowned about two years ago.

Oh. Warranty is irrelevant then anyway. You usually aren't entitled to warranty repairs unless you buy it new.

Probably time to start saving up for a new one just in case.

 

[MercurySteam]

I bought it preowned about two years ago. With the exception of the little scare that was friggin identical to this one about a year and some change ago, it's worked like a dream.

You should look on the back to figure out when it was manufactured. If it's built with the old chipset and is 4+ years old then I figure that it's at the end of it's lifespan. Time to upgrade to one of those sexy Slims!

 

[mjc0961]

If Origins takes less than Bioshock, why would it crash sooner? Bioshock lets me into the game, Origins kicks me out before the main menu.


I bought it preowned about two years ago. With the exception of the little scare that was friggin identical to this one about a year and some change ago, it's worked like a dream.

It is worth noting that I recently took it to a friends house. Tonight is the first time since moving it back to my house that I even turned it on. The last time this happened to me was right after moving it back from a friends house, too.

Oh wait, shuts off like someone hit the power button. My bad; forget what I said about the disc drive, that wouldn't cause the entire console to shut off.

Maybe it's the power supply? But you said it just goes from green to orange, so that's normal for the system powering off... I really don't know. Double check that all the cables are plugged in tightly? And maybe pop the faceplate off and then put it back on... Probably not that either, because it'd likely be randomly turning on too if something was hitting the power button, but it can't really hurt either.

Sorry man.

 

[matthudson]

Haven't had much experience (read: any) with xboxes. But if my computer was doing that, my guesses would be (in order):
1) Broken game media (unlikely if it happens with more that one game)
2) Dead RAM
3) Dead mobo
4) Damaged optical drive

I'd try playing something relatively small (size wise) and see if that stuffs up. If it doesn't, then there's probably something wrong with a bit high up in the RAM.


However, the best bet to solve 2, 3 and 4 is a new console. They don't make them so they can be upgraded.

 

[freakydan]

That's where the albeit... comes into play!

Anything happen to it at your friends?

Exposure to.. well.. anything?

Absolutely nothing happened at my friends house. Ran perfectly, it was across the room from any liquids. The only thing I can think of is I might not have let it cool down enough before packing it up. My friend had to leave in a hurry, so I packed everything up pretty quickly.

 

[Asuka Soryu]

This sounds like the work of Ghosts. I think you know who to call.

 

[freakydan]

I would reckon that it's something with the motherboard or RAM, if not that huge ass excuse for a power supply. Have you tried playing one of the arcade games on your hdd to see if it locks up on them?

I don't have any arcade games on my XBox. It hasn't been hooked up to Live in over a year.

 

[Trucken]

Try plugging it in to another poweroutlet and see if it works. My xbox died a few months back and refused to even start after a powersurge, but when I changed to another outlet it worked like a charm. I could even switch back after that.

Might work...

 

[freakydan]

Try plugging it in to another poweroutlet and see if it works. My xbox died a few months back and refused to even start after a powersurge, but when I changed to another outlet it worked like a charm. I could even switch back after that.

Might work...

That didn't do it. It keeps doing the exact same thing. Thanks for the tip, though.