Question regarding 360

edited August 2008 in General Chat
I couldn't find anything about this anywhere, so I thought I'd ask here.

Last night, I was twiddling around in the 360 Dashboard, just listening to MP3s and watching the visualizer. I exited the visualizer to change songs, and when I went back to it, there were red vertical lines all over the screen.

I exited the visualizer again, and on the Dashboard, there were two rows of vertical red lines, almost looking like a letterbox. I loaded up a game to see if it was just the dashboard, and the intro videos all looked like they had red outlines. No slowdown, no freezing, just red stuff everywhere. The console wasn't hot, either. So I reset the machine, and the red was gone. I haven't given it an extended test yet, though.

Am I about to RROD, or was that just a fluke?

Comments

  • edited August 2008
    Probably just a fluke from the visualizer. I wouldn't worry too much about it.*

    *doesn't accept the responsibility if your 360 red rings soon. :p
  • edited August 2008
    Hmm... I just finished playing the TFU demo, and whilst doing so, made an interesting discovery when the lines came back. I changed the channel back and forth, and the lines disappeared. So it seems to be a TV problem, not a 360 problem.

    (Which worries me as well, since the TV is 600 bucks, and I'm still paying it off...)
  • edited August 2008
    Does it only happen when playing the 360? Perhaps you could try out the Xbox on another TV just to make sure?
  • edited August 2008
    ShaggE wrote: »
    Hmm... I just finished playing the TFU demo, and whilst doing so, made an interesting discovery when the lines came back. I changed the channel back and forth, and the lines disappeared. So it seems to be a TV problem, not a 360 problem.

    (Which worries me as well, since the TV is 600 bucks, and I'm still paying it off...)

    have you turned off both the tv and 360 for a while 30 mins? checked all video connectors and power cables are in properly.

    i don't know if i like TFU from the demo
  • edited August 2008
    Yeah, I checked all of the cables and whatnot. I'll see if it happens again, then try to replicate it on my old TV. I'll also try watching a DVD and see if I get any lines.

    As for TFU, I loved it. :D
  • edited August 2008
    My brother got a 360 on Christmas, and it bricked the day after.But that's because it was one of the old systems, most likely, but it was supposed to be refurbished.
  • edited August 2008
    Well, it turns out that it IS the 360 doing it. I guess the channel switching was just good timing.

    I'm baffled as to the cause. I'm half-tempted to RROD the console just to get the lines fixed. And if it happens again after that, trade in for a PS3. I may prefer the 360's library and whatnot, but I've heard about how unreliable refurbs are, and you can't quite enjoy the library of games when the console that runs them keeps pulling this shit.

    I mean, you can shoot an NES at point blank with a friggin' handgun and it'll still work. I've treated this thing like royalty, and it still struggles to do what it was made to do.

    I don't take sides in console wars, but when I spend 400 bucks on something, I expect it to work. I'm not quite rolling in money here.

    [/rant]
  • edited August 2008
    ShaggE wrote: »
    And if it happens again after that, trade in for a PS3.

    I don't take sides in console wars.

    Don't get a PS3!!!!!The PS3 is un-holy!!!!!!:rolleyes:
  • edited August 2008
    Don't get a PS3!!!!!The PS3 is un-holy!!!!!!:rolleyes:

    Yeah, the only reasons PS3s don't break is because no-one ever uses them due to the lack of games. *runs*
  • edited August 2008
    Yeah, the only reasons PS3s don't break is because no-one ever uses them due to the lack of games. *runs*

    I'd take the PS3's library over the Wii's library any day of the week.
  • edited August 2008
    ShaggE wrote: »
    Well, it turns out that it IS the 360 doing it. I guess the channel switching was just good timing.

    I'm baffled as to the cause. I'm half-tempted to RROD the console just to get the lines fixed. And if it happens again after that, trade in for a PS3. I may prefer the 360's library and whatnot, but I've heard about how unreliable refurbs are, and you can't quite enjoy the library of games when the console that runs them keeps pulling this shit.

    I mean, you can shoot an NES at point blank with a friggin' handgun and it'll still work. I've treated this thing like royalty, and it still struggles to do what it was made to do.

    I don't take sides in console wars, but when I spend 400 bucks on something, I expect it to work. I'm not quite rolling in money here.

    [/rant]

    I wouldn't suggest trading it in if you prefer the 360 and the thing is under warranty. I have a refurb console, and It has run better(quieter) than my old one ever did thanks to a new DVD drive.

    The one thing that is terrible, though, is the either stupidity or terrible english skills of 70% of support staff. It took me a week to get them to swap out my console with a busted GPU, but at least I got a nice working one back. And they automated the transfer of Live licenses to a new console. You have to re-download all your game content and Arcade games, but they'll work offline.

    Phone support sucks, but if you say it red ringed or that you need to send your console in for a refurb, you'll get told either that you can or that you have to pay something like $140 because your system is out of warranty. I actually got the latter the first time, and was able to convince the next rep to take my console. Mneh.
  • edited August 2008
    Yeah, I'm not going to trade in unless this happens again with a refurb, or my warranty runs out and it dies afterwards. No way in hell I'm paying $140 for their mistakes.

    Who knows, I may be able to fix the lines without even having to send it in, but still. I understand that hardware fails, but when the fix is so simple (more ventilation/less shoddy soldering), there's no excuse.
  • GaryGary Telltale Alumni
    edited August 2008
    Console wars: don't push it.

    Thanks!
  • edited August 2008
    Yeah, the console war thingy is pointless and is just somethin' for fanboys to feel better about themselves.
    Best not to get suck into it.

    I have a ps3 and before I got it, I was told by others to get a 360 instead with no real reasoning behind it other than pointless fanboy banter. I went with the playstation regardless because of Metal Gear and my brother has a 360, which I have access to.

    As for your xbox having red lines, you should have that checked since if the warrently for you 360 dies, I am not certain if you can get a refurbed one since I think the extended warrently that all 360 system has is only for RROD.
  • edited August 2008
    Gary wrote: »
    Console wars: don't push it.

    Thanks!
    It's not a console war thing. If ShaggE prefers the 360 game library for any particular reason, then it wouldn't be wise to trade it in for something they may not enjoy as much.

    It'd be the same way vice-versa. If someone prefers the PS3 for some reason, trading it in for a 360 without seeing if they could get it fixed would be unwise.
  • David EDavid E Telltale Alumni
    edited August 2008
    I think Gary was more referring to this type of reply:
    Don't get a PS3!!!!!The PS3 is un-holy!!!!!!:rolleyes:
    Yeah, the only reasons PS3s don't break is because no-one ever uses them due to the lack of games. *runs*
    I'd take the PS3's library over the Wii's library any day of the week.
  • edited August 2008
    To be honest, it's a sad state of affairs when something as simple as an appliance becomes a subject to be handled with kid gloves.

    If I wanted to rant about a microwave dying on me, nobody would say "nay". I'm sure that the Black & Decker fanbase is rather small, or at least docile. One doesn't see too many flame wars about what cooks TV dinners more evenly.

    What am I supposed to do, preface every sentence with "In my sole opinion, with no disrespect to Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft, Apple, The Major League Baseball Association, or the hardworking folks at CNBC..."? Or provide a photograph of me hugging all three major consoles in every post?

    It amazes me that "RROD", "SCEA", and "Wii" have become more volatile than any insult or slur. I've been a gamer all of my life, so it's not new to me, but each generation of consoles seems to make things worse. At this pace, by the time the next gen is out, fanboys will resort to physical violence and riots. Over a machine.

    I mean, I feel stupid just ranting like this over something as asinine as fanboyism. That's got to say something for how ridiculous fanboyism itself is.
    But it's no different than when people are at each other's throats over religion or politics. People can't stand the thought of other people being different from them. And I can honestly say that there is nothing in this world that angers me more than seeing countless people that are so desperate to feel superior that they will dedicate their lives to finding new things to be pissed off about. One day it's consoles. The next day it's religion. After that, politics. Then, other cultures. An endless game of "Pass the Insecurity and Blame".

    And the icing on this particular cake? No matter how much anybody tries to get these people to see things from a logical perspective and realize that opinions and free thought are not a crime, they simply WILL NOT LISTEN. Because if they did that, then who would they have to blame things on? Why, they'd have to better themselves! We can't have that, now can we?

    What a time we live in. My apologies to any children I may have in the future. This proverbial staircase only goes down.

    You know what? I don't know what my point is. I just started with a little two-paragraph rant on fanboys, and it snowballed. I'm done. Do with this post as you please. It doesn't even belong on this forum, let alone this thread. Lock, delete, leave open, whatever.

    I don't even know what I'm angry about, or why it came out here and now.
  • edited August 2008
    ShaggE wrote: »
    To be honest, it's a sad state of affairs when something as simple as an appliance becomes a subject to be handled with kid gloves.

    If I wanted to rant about a microwave dying on me, nobody would say "nay". I'm sure that the Black & Decker fanbase is rather small, or at least docile. One doesn't see too many flame wars about what cooks TV dinners more evenly.

    What am I supposed to do, preface every sentence with "In my sole opinion, with no disrespect to Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft, Apple, The Major League Baseball Association, or the hardworking folks at CNBC..."? Or provide a photograph of me hugging all three major consoles in every post?

    It amazes me that "RROD", "SCEA", and "Wii" have become more volatile than any insult or slur. I've been a gamer all of my life, so it's not new to me, but each generation of consoles seems to make things worse. At this pace, by the time the next gen is out, fanboys will resort to physical violence and riots. Over a machine.

    I mean, I feel stupid just ranting like this over something as asinine as fanboyism. That's got to say something for how ridiculous fanboyism itself is.
    But it's no different than when people are at each other's throats over religion or politics. People can't stand the thought of other people being different from them. And I can honestly say that there is nothing in this world that angers me more than seeing countless people that are so desperate to feel superior that they will dedicate their lives to finding new things to be pissed off about. One day it's consoles. The next day it's religion. After that, politics. Then, other cultures. An endless game of "Pass the Insecurity and Blame".

    And the icing on this particular cake? No matter how much anybody tries to get these people to see things from a logical perspective and realize that opinions and free thought are not a crime, they simply WILL NOT LISTEN. Because if they did that, then who would they have to blame things on? Why, they'd have to better themselves! We can't have that, now can we?

    What a time we live in. My apologies to any children I may have in the future. This proverbial staircase only goes down.

    You know what? I don't know what my point is. I just started with a little two-paragraph rant on fanboys, and it snowballed. I'm done. Do with this post as you please. It doesn't even belong on this forum, let alone this thread. Lock, delete, leave open, whatever.

    I don't even know what I'm angry about, or why it came out here and now.

    Sorry, didn't mean to start a console war. Especially since I have all three. I just found it ironic that nintendo fans were making fun of a console for it's third party games. I like nintendo but that is definitely not their strong suit. So this is an apology to everybody.
  • edited August 2008
    That wasn't directed at you. I just kind of went on a huge tangent there. I shouldn't have even posted that, but by the time I was done I was just livid at everything and nothing in particular, and I wasn't even thinking about it.
  • edited August 2008
    ShaggE wrote: »
    That wasn't directed at you. I just kind of went on a huge tangent there. I shouldn't have even posted that, but by the time I was done I was just livid at everything and nothing in particular, and I wasn't even thinking about it.

    I'm not angry at you I agree, but I sort of started it.
  • edited August 2008
    Eh, no harm done. Just not a good day here. Time to boot up some SOF2 and take it all out on a rival clan, I guess. :p
  • edited August 2008
    ShaggE wrote: »
    And the icing on this particular cake? No matter how much anybody tries to get these people to see things from a logical perspective and realize that opinions and free thought are not a crime, they simply WILL NOT LISTEN.

    QFT.
    It's not even just console wars. It's everything. Absolutely everything.
    It's one of those things that just can't be done. Fanboys will never shut the hell up. No matter how much you try to make them see logic and reason, they never will.
    It's kind of sad when you think about it.
  • edited August 2008
    David E wrote: »
    I think Gary was more referring to this type of reply: Don't get a PS3!!!The PS3 is un-holy!!!!
    Yeah, the only reason the PS3 always works is it has no good games.*runs*
    I would take the PS3's library over the wii's any day

    When I said the PS3 was un-holy, I was joking because the post before it specifically said that it didn't participate in console wars.
  • edited August 2008
    While we're talking about the 360 (and an attempt to swing away from console wars), have you guys seen the new redesigned controller? I personally hardly ever use the d-pad while playing, and if I do then I find nothing wrong with it, so it'd be pointless for me to buy this new controller since I use it for PC gaming only.
  • edited August 2008
    Well, that's that. E74 error. Not covered under the extended warranty.
  • edited August 2008
    I wonder if any 360 games actually use the d-pad for movement?Usually it's just for a weapon or ability switch or something.
  • edited August 2008
    While we're talking about the 360 (and an attempt to swing away from console wars), have you guys seen the new redesigned controller? I personally hardly ever use the d-pad while playing, and if I do then I find nothing wrong with it, so it'd be pointless for me to buy this new controller since I use it for PC gaming only.

    It's actually just a limited edition controller, for Europe, for some FIFA game's promotion or something.
    ShaggE wrote: »
    Well, that's that. E74 error. Not covered under the extended warranty.

    How long ago did you buy it, I guess? No chance of a retailer warranty, huh? Did you get an E74 error screen? That error usually gives a screen.
    I wonder if any 360 games actually use the d-pad for movement?Usually it's just for a weapon or ability switch or something.

    A lot of XBLA games can use the D-Pad for movement. A D-Pad is usually FAR better and far more concise than an analog stick in games like Frogger. But the Xbox's gimped D-Pad really only makes it good for weapons hotkeys.
  • edited August 2008
    I guess I couldn't judge the D-pad since the only Xbox 360 games i've played were FPSs.Oh, and I played castlevania:Symphony of the Night on it too.Since when I started gaming in the N64 era, there were already analog sticks available on most consoles then.So that's probably why I prefer an analog stick for movement.
  • edited August 2008
    How long ago did you buy it, I guess? No chance of a retailer warranty, huh? Did you get an E74 error screen? That error usually gives a screen.

    13 months ago. Yep, exactly one month after the regular warranty ran out, it died. Amazing luck, eh?

    And yeah, I got the screen.

    I'm going to overheat it tomorrow, in an attempt to get RROD. Because there is no way in hell I'm paying almost 200 bucks for their mistake.
  • edited August 2008
    ShaggE wrote: »
    13 months ago. Yep, exactly one month after the regular warranty ran out, it died. Amazing luck, eh?

    And yeah, I got the screen.

    I'm going to overheat it tomorrow, in an attempt to get RROD. Because there is no way in hell I'm paying almost 200 bucks for their mistake.
    Wait man,
    I know a guy whos 360, like, the sound and everything worked, but the picture was gone, so he tried to over heat it... but the idiot forgot to take out the hard drive! so he fried that too. He got another 360, but he had to redo all his games
  • edited August 2008
    Don't worry, I know to take the drive out first. :p
  • edited August 2008
    Update again: Tried the towel trick. It did absolutely nothing other than make the box amazingly hot and loud for a few minutes.

    There's got to be a way to make this thing give a true RROD without voiding the warranty. Any ideas?
  • edited August 2008
    Crab hammer?
  • edited August 2008
    Heh, sadly, I think that's in the fine print.

    Ah yes, here it is:

    "Let it be known far and wide: The "X" Box Three Hundred and Sixty shall not cover malicious acts with a hammer, be it ball-peen or crab. Failure to heed this warning shall result in a vicious flaying of the offender's skin at the Towne Square, followed by pie."
  • edited August 2008
    ShaggE wrote: »
    Heh, sadly, I think that's in the fine print.

    Ah yes, here it is:

    "Let it be known far and wide: The "X" Box Three Hundred and Sixty shall not cover malicious acts with a hammer, be it ball-peen or crab. Failure to heed this warning shall result in a vicious flaying of the offender's skin at the Towne Square, followed by pie."

    umm........machete?
  • edited August 2008
    Okay, I want a general consensus here. You know what happened so far: E74 error, one month out of warranty, pissed-off ShaggE, yadda yadda.

    And I'm sure you've surmised why I'm pissed off: It's a hardware failure caused by faulty design, just like the RROD, and so I shouldn't have to pay them for repairs.

    So, I want an opinion here.
    Should I give MS the 90 bucks (no small shillings in my situation) to just get this over with and get my console working again in time for the fall game rush?
    Or do I keep trying to RROD it and/or keep trying to fight this charge, at the risk of greatly extending my 360's downtime?

    Obviously MS isn't going to back down. But I wouldn't be the first to get out of this mess either. On one hand, if I pay them the money, I'll have been screwed over and I risk having to go through this again when the refurb inevitably dies.

    On the other hand, the chances of fighting this are almost nil, and I'm still getting screwed out of console use.

    So, I just want some different points of view here. What do I do?
  • edited August 2008
    just send your 360 in, all they do see what went wrong, then they just send you a new one.
    "so what went wrong with this one bob?"
    "I dunno. It looks like he tried to overheat it alot, then he got mad, so he hit with a machete."
    "Ohh! thats what that slash is! I thought it got attacked by an alien, then they baby alien inside him slashed his/her way out!"
  • edited August 2008
    Biscuit is right. Just send your machine since you ahve nothing to lose. When my sibling's 360 went RROD, he sent his console to MS to see if it can be fixed. He got another system, which has not went red ring yet. The thing was that we had the nyko addon on the first system, which MS claims to be one of the reasons to cause the failure through damagin the inside. Forunately, the addon didnt messed up the 360 since if it was the source of the RROD, we would not get a refurb 360.
  • edited August 2008
    ShaggE wrote: »
    Okay, I want a general consensus here. You know what happened so far: E74 error, one month out of warranty, pissed-off ShaggE, yadda yadda.

    And I'm sure you've surmised why I'm pissed off: It's a hardware failure caused by faulty design, just like the RROD, and so I shouldn't have to pay them for repairs.

    So, I want an opinion here.
    Should I give MS the 90 bucks (no small shillings in my situation) to just get this over with and get my console working again in time for the fall game rush?
    Or do I keep trying to RROD it and/or keep trying to fight this charge, at the risk of greatly extending my 360's downtime?

    Obviously MS isn't going to back down. But I wouldn't be the first to get out of this mess either. On one hand, if I pay them the money, I'll have been screwed over and I risk having to go through this again when the refurb inevitably dies.

    On the other hand, the chances of fighting this are almost nil, and I'm still getting screwed out of console use.

    So, I just want some different points of view here. What do I do?

    My sibling had gone through the same things you are feeling right now. He even wanted to trade his 360 after it was refurb for a ps3 since he said that ms can't make consoles w/o having issues; before the 360, he had the xbox system, which unforunately was one of the models that had the faulty power supply or wire? that causes the system to stop workin. It died on us. I told him not to trade in since I already have a playstation3 and it would absurd to have two ps3s especially how none of us restricts the other in doing the other systems.
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