360's freezing/overheating

[swaaye]

This is not common for launches lol. My launch Gamecube, Xbox, and N64 are all good to go today. Though I know Xbox had problems with the drive, but not mine.... Actually my 1991 SNES is running great, and my redesign NES works flawlessly.

If they are locking up because of heat, those chips must be damn close to their limits. Not a good idea for a unit that could be used in pretty extreme variations of environments. I think it's probably more serious than heat.

 

[valioso]

i played last night.. and I didnt notice it making noise. And I was playing at 1am with the tv sound very low because everyone was already in bed.

 

[London Geezer]

Well you have to think that there are, say, tens of people complaining out of a million or so. Not a lot in my opinion, even if they get into the hundreds.

Early hardware always has issues, people should just use their brain and stop buying new and unproven tech on launch day.

I mean, Democoder complaining about not being able to put his hands on one and at the same time telling us there are no games he'd want to play on it... So why rush and get one?! Wait, you get better hardware, the games you want, and possibly better prices!!!

I guess logic is too much to ask for when it comes to new toys for boys.

 

[swaaye]

Early hardware always has issues, people should just use their brain and stop buying new and unproven tech on launch day.

Sorry I'm pretty sure this is some instinctual thing that could not possibly be stopped without some sort of human genetic engineering. I gotta say I'm baffled over it myself considering that the launch titles aren't exactly mind-blowing. It seems like people just want the hardware real bad.

You are probably right about it being the vocal minority, but I don't remember hearing anything this extreme with other console launches....

 

[London Geezer]

Sorry I'm pretty sure this is some instinctual thing that could not possibly be stopped without some sort of human genetic engineering. I gotta say I'm baffled over it myself considering that the launch titles aren't exactly mind-blowing. It seems like people just want the hardware real bad.

You are probably right about it being the vocal minority, but I don't remember hearing anything this extreme with other console launches....

Well i remember very well all the horror stories about PS2 drives failing or scratching discs, thousands of PS1 and PS2 been sent back because they didn't work at all, Xbox hard drive failures...
So many things...

It was soooo much easier when consoles had no moving parts like the Genesis or the SNES. I think my Genesis still works flawlessly, more than 10 years later. Can't say that of any other thing i've had apart from TV's and such.

 

[bouy]

I read somewhere to give the back of the Xbox at least 6 inches of space behind it where the fans are. I was kinda desperate and did that. Before I had it on my computer table with the wall three inches behind it.

It seems to be working now, played for an hour and so far no problems. I was really anxious when I got the same part of PDZ where it froze. But I made it to the second level without issues.

Kinda weird, perhaps that fan stand could be a good investment after all?

 

[swaaye]

If you are having ANY lock ups you had better return it. They should be TOTALLY stable or else you are just biding time until it dies, or you get stuck with some half functional machine.

 

[AlphaWolf]

Oh, and one other thing.

The fans are loud as hell. Really annoying.

Heh I have heard this from a few places, but if I turn on my ps2 I can't hear my 360 over it. /shrug

oh and I Played Kameo for 3 hours, never had any lock up issues, but its in a well ventilated cool place.

 

[Deepak]

According to "Joystiq"

Where is my beloved DC in that list?

 

[Guden Oden]

Early hardware always has issues

Not Nintendo.

Never heard of an unreliable Nintendo product, even on launch day. While I don't want to make any kind of big deal out of this, but it is slightly worrying when there's a whole bunch of people posting on the net of unstable or even dead 360s so soon after launch. Assuming these reports aren't fabrications, it might speak of a relatively widespread problem, meaning (since we have no way to find out the proportion of dead/unstable machines vs. fully functioning), that the total affected number of units might be anything from hundreds to several thousand.

I don't think it'll be a big deal in the long run, but it'll surely annoy those people affected by it. Unpacking an expensive toy and have it stop responding and begin blinking red LEDs at the buyer within a matter of hours is not good from a PR POV.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Aren't there always the occassionally busted hardware? No matter what you buy, TV, VCR, console, every once in a while there's a duffer, and you take it back and get a replacement. It's only news because they're new, but I guess there's thousands of busted consoles the rest of the time that don't get a mention because they're no longer news-worthy items.

 

[Guden Oden]

Aren't there always the occassionally busted hardware?

Of course there is, and usually due to anything from screwups during assembly or faulty components used to shipping damage, but this time the pattern seems remarkably consistent with the same two or three symptoms repeating themselves over and over (though heat might be the true cause of all of them). The blinking red LEDs has certainly cropped up a number of times already.

 

[Solzhenitsyn]

If I had to judge solely from the forums ive seen today defective 360s would seem to be the norm rather than the exception. I realize im biased by the fact that online forums and blogs werent as popular and pervasive back when older consoles launched, and thats going to make things seem far far worse now.

Im sure most people are happily playing away on their new hardware untroubled by and ignorant of the molten venom being hurled around cyberspace. But the reports certainly make me feel like the hardware released today is a bit flaky. This is exacerbated by the paucity of units available.

Im not hating on MS, in fact ive had my share of bad hardware: My launch Dreamcast served me well without problem, but it was apparently slightly "off-spec" and would not play Phantasy Star Online. Sega refused to fix the problem and I never spent another penny on that console. My PS2 suffered from the dreaded "DISC READ ERROR" which I was able to work around for months by of all things flipping the ps2 upside-down. Champions of Norrath however would not work period, but Sony at least fixed it and got the machine back to me in a week. My best friend had the dvd drive die on his XBOX, and bit the bullet and bought another one.

in all these cases though, the hardware functioned perfectly at launch and only developed faults (some of them relatively minor) at least a year later. Its a little worrying that there is so much consternation not weeks or days after the 360 launch but after only a few hours.

 

[weaksauce]

well at least you don't get the blue screen of death

You get the black screen instead.
http://www.xbox-scene.com/xbox1data/sep/EEFEkAEFAkTlDmtsQO.php

 

[PARANOiA]

Where is my beloved DC in that list?

Indeed... I loved my DC but it was a loud bastard, especially during disc reads.

 

[Sis]

In terms of loudness, can anyone guess as to what other noises makes the equivalent noise as the 360?

A microwave, maybe? The thing is scary loud. Though I think a large part of the sound is the DVD spinning, not just the fans. It's only loud when you're playing a game off the disc. Otherwise, it's quiet.

I wonder how the PS3 tackles this problem...

Probably by being loud.

.Sis

 

[PC-Engine]

Indeed... I loved my DC but it was a loud bastard, especially during disc reads.

Hehe that's the irony. A very loud disc drive. They could've easily solved that noise with a linear servo sled motor instead of the worm gear.

 

[_leech_]

Not Nintendo.

Never heard of an unreliable Nintendo product, even on launch day.

You've never blown air into an NES cart? Common

 

[bouy]

I remember rubbing a bit of spit on the NES cartridge connectors did the trick for the later years of its life.

 

[_phil_]

so ,the dev DID use the 3 cores .That's the good news.Else ,if it's overheating with only one core in action,future looks bad for firstgen hardware...