Zapix

Mid December I got an XBOX 360 for my bday. Went out to ebgames, found a brand new 360 ELITE with Forza 2 and Marvel Ultimate Alliance. Lot#744 which came with the original power supply, not the slightly lower one. After pulling up a flashlight to see the inside and looking over the design of the disc tray, it's definately a Falcon based 360 with the Ben-Q DVD drive.


Supposedly the Falcon systems should eliminate the RRoD problem. If this has been proven or disproven, I don't know, but what I do know is the system is far from flawless.

My first real troubles started with MASS EFFECT which I began playing in early January. A game known to be plagued with "DISC READ ERROR" problems, booting you from the game and essentially losing all of your progress from your last save.

I ran into a DRE error a couple of times on HALO 3, CALL OF DUTY 4, and once on FORZA 2. All these occured after it started with MASS EFFECT. Not saying the game caused this to start happening, just stating the time frame of which it took to begin.

Then there's my favorite of them all.

Ocassionally I run into an error which I chuckle at despite the fact it's a $450 USD game system that should actually work. After inserting a game, I am given a screen which in short says... "The disc you have inserted is an XBOX 360 game disc. Please insert this disc into an XBOX 360 game console to play it." I can't help but think everytime I see this screen, "Really? Well if this isn't an XBOX360 console, WTF IS IT?!?"

A friend recently joking around told me to place it in the PS3 as it plays almost everything. I replied "what if I infect my PS3 with some strange virus that turns my PS3 into a Sony XBOX? I'll get a BSoD (Bluray Screen of Death)"

In the end, the XBOX 360 falcon based systems may or may not have fixed the RRoD problem. With the older systems now flushed out of stores, time will tell. However, the system still has glitches and it's far from being reliable.

I've invested $650 into the XBOX360 which includes the Elite console, wireless adapter, rechargable battery back with a second battery so I can always have 1 good battery, and the need to have LIVE! Gold membership. One would expect when investing that much into it that it would be reliable and function as such!

__________________
PS3: DMC4, Elder Scrolls IV, Enchanted Arms, Genji: DoTB, GR AW2, GT5P, Motorstorm, NG Sigma, Sonic, UT3

X360: CoD4, Forza 2, GTA IV, Halo 3, KUF, Lost Odyssey, Marvel UA, Mass Effect, Naruto: RoTN

PSP: FF, FF Tactics, FF VII: Crisis Core, Wipeout Pure and Pulse

FFXI (Diabolos): Knitemare (75DRG), Gentatsu (75SAM), Kaymin (41RDM)

Norrec

I get the DRE problems all the time.. but I've noticed something, that if I start the system with the disc in the drive, it will eventually give me the error. If I put the disc in after the system starts up, it usually plays fine. It's quite annoying, I agree, but as long as I found one method that generally seems to work, I can handle it. I love my 360, play it all the time, so I overlook it for the most part. I'd like to send it in to get repaired but whenever I've emailed support they've given me the runaround asking me to check all their little fixes (ex: removing the harddrive, etc, the things that they make you check before they'll do anything) and it never gets me anywhere.

I have the older model though, the 20GB white non-HDMI version. It works great for the most part aside from the DREs.

I just looked back and saw that paragraph about the 360 disc loading like a DVD (asking to put the disc in a 360 console when it already is) and I get that rarely too. I can never understand why it randomly does it, unless the same reason that causes the DREs causes the drive to accidently think the game DVD is a DVD video. That's irritating as well but thats a lot less common for me than the DRE issue is.

edit: Also I've never once gotten the dreaded Red Ring... Unless you count the one time I forgot to hook up the AV cable after unpacking it and turning it on. That issue was my own fault and easily fixed. I would hate for my console to brick because of it though.

__________________

Zapix

Yeah, I've found rebooting the xbox tends to fix most DRE problems and it goes away. With Mass Effect, it doesn't go away, and a mild reason I put it away for so long. If it's related to the game, or media they used, I don't know.

I keep my XBOX 360 and PS3 on an open audio rack I bought from WalMart. Last thing I need is a heat soaked system, especially with spring/summer coming up and the usual high humidity here in New England.

I suppose one of the only reasons I haven't contacted Microsoft to complain about my DRE issues is because of the horror stories about ppl getting refurbished systems, etc. I simply fear getting a system back that is not the one I bought. Now that's customer service!

__________________
PS3: DMC4, Elder Scrolls IV, Enchanted Arms, Genji: DoTB, GR AW2, GT5P, Motorstorm, NG Sigma, Sonic, UT3

X360: CoD4, Forza 2, GTA IV, Halo 3, KUF, Lost Odyssey, Marvel UA, Mass Effect, Naruto: RoTN

PSP: FF, FF Tactics, FF VII: Crisis Core, Wipeout Pure and Pulse

FFXI (Diabolos): Knitemare (75DRG), Gentatsu (75SAM), Kaymin (41RDM)

Norrec

I think if I really have a huge problem with my 360, I might just end up buying a 120gb model if this dies. My PS2 lasted years, but started working 50/50, then pretty much never, and I ended up just buying the new slim model. If I have the money, I'd probably rather just get a new console, despite losing the ability to play my downloaded content offline. A little bit giving into the consumerist environment, but I can live with my box doing what problems it has for now, and when it dies, it dies.

For heat though I have my xbox on a glass stand attached to my desk (all glass surface on a metal frame) so it really does well with not building up heat, and gets plenty of air clearance. 3 well spaced shelves hold my PS2, Wii, and 360 separated well enough so I have no worries on that. Also I'll hopefully have AC setup by summer so that helps a bit.

New England though? Where about generally (to save from sounding like a stalker). I'm currently in the NEK region of Vermont, but hopefully moving towards Boston in a few months.

__________________

Zapix

I think my biggest fear is all the rain we've had. Everything is setup in a large mostly furnished (no actual carpeting is all really) basement room. The other day I went to turn on the TV, and found the floor was not only wet, but slightly flooded, almost like somebody dumped a few gallons of water down on the floor... All around the power cables

I'm actually amazed how cool the XBOX 360 runs though, not sure about the older model, but my falcon never even gets warm. My PS3 can get a little hot on the bottom right side (below the disc drive). Poor cooling on that side. I guess I'm more concerned about my PS3 getting hot during the summer months. I might hook up the cooling fans again. Meh.

Haha, I use "New England" nowadays as a general reference, and besides alot of guys here live in the UK it seems, lol I can attempt to blend in by saying New England Connecticut to be more specific, sort of in the middle of it. New Haven and Hartford both within 30 minutes reach, Boston and NYC both within about a 90 minute radius (on a good day!)

__________________
PS3: DMC4, Elder Scrolls IV, Enchanted Arms, Genji: DoTB, GR AW2, GT5P, Motorstorm, NG Sigma, Sonic, UT3

X360: CoD4, Forza 2, GTA IV, Halo 3, KUF, Lost Odyssey, Marvel UA, Mass Effect, Naruto: RoTN

PSP: FF, FF Tactics, FF VII: Crisis Core, Wipeout Pure and Pulse

FFXI (Diabolos): Knitemare (75DRG), Gentatsu (75SAM), Kaymin (41RDM)

The Benny (Macho)

My basic 20GB model still works after a year of heavy use, though I get a power failure (one red segment) unless I reset the console once as it boots up. I consistently get the disc read error at a specific point in Assassin's Creed and having replaced the game and still getting the error it's likely to be the console at fault rather than the disc, though apparently lots of people get the error at the same exact point in the game, which almost suggests a dodgy batch of discs. I've one more thing to try before I give up on the game (at least until the console has to be repaired/replaced), but it's the only game I've had trouble with.

It does pump out a lot of heat so your model must be much improved in that respect. Overheating was supposed to be part of the problem with the RRoD so it makes sense.

__________________
The poster formerly known as Macho Man!

Zapix

Yeah, the falcon says really cool. I've had times where I've played the system for hours and hours, and go feel the system for heat, and it's cool to the touch. Pretty remarkable!

__________________
PS3: DMC4, Elder Scrolls IV, Enchanted Arms, Genji: DoTB, GR AW2, GT5P, Motorstorm, NG Sigma, Sonic, UT3

X360: CoD4, Forza 2, GTA IV, Halo 3, KUF, Lost Odyssey, Marvel UA, Mass Effect, Naruto: RoTN

PSP: FF, FF Tactics, FF VII: Crisis Core, Wipeout Pure and Pulse

FFXI (Diabolos): Knitemare (75DRG), Gentatsu (75SAM), Kaymin (41RDM)

Zapix

A suggestion that developers should take into consideration when making games for the XBOX 360.


The XBOX 360 as discussed is a glitchy gaming console known to have an FBI most wanted criminal profile sized list of problems.

Aside from the Red Ring of Death errors, I would say the seemingly most common are "DISC UNREADABLE" "DISC READ ERROR" problems that attack the user like spam mail. These errors like a windows program cause the game to exit out and find yourself on the desktop (or 'Dashboard' in this case). This can be more than an inconvenience for any gamer where you've been playing for a decent amount of time (say about an hour) and suddenly the system goes into shock and you're prompted with a screen that might as well say "Game Over!" or "Microsoft just pwned your game!"

So, I bring this to attention because I was playing LOST ODYSSEY yesterday and got slammed with "Disc Unreadable" . Nothing like spending time and time again repeating the same task. I nearly almost turned the system off just to not have the desire to hope it would RRoD on me so I could call Microsoft's customer service and give them some well deserved hate spam. These errors are no stranger to the XBOX 360 either, so what gives?

So, here's my solution!

The games that seem to error the most seem to be disc intensive. MASS EFFECT and LOST ODYSSEY fall into this genre like they're the mascots for it. If it's a disc intensive error problem, then there three solutions that come to mind!

A.) Microsoft makes a firmware patch for the system to try again, or offer the option to try and read the disc again. Disc intensive games are bound to run into errors just on mistake at some point, but there appears to be zero error correction or attempt to reread it. Also a drive that has read errors at such a high rate, I question if there's something deeper to this than just error correction, or maybe there really is zero software/hardware error correction, in which case it's like a first generation portable CD players. Even motionless music would skip.

B.) Software developers allow saving at all times or add more save points for a higher frequency to run into them. LOST ODYSSEY fails here easily. You can get caught up in a dungeon for a good while before ever seeing another save point. Or the save point before a boss, you defeat the boss, you're forcefully moved on without a chance to save, and bang! The system has a stroke, and you're doing it all over again.

C.) OK, so the system has a problem reading the discs. Hate to suggest this, but about how an "install" option much like those found on some PS3 games. An install option would make so much sense for disc intensive games such as LOST ODYSSEY and MASS EFFECT, eliminating not only the chance for disc read errors, but killing the "loading" screens down to a minimum. The 120gb harddrive on the elite is hardly going to fill up fast enough for me to care, and where the 360 is concerned, I'd rather burn up my harddrive space than be frustrated with hardware that just doesn't function.




Honestly, I'm so frustrated with the system that I will never buy a multiplatform game for the 360, and I will be buying games with much hesitation when I do.

Somebody, either Microsoft of the developers need to pay attention to these problems, because it is going to be a long term kill factor for the 360 now that the PS3 is gaining strong momentum.

__________________
PS3: DMC4, Elder Scrolls IV, Enchanted Arms, Genji: DoTB, GR AW2, GT5P, Motorstorm, NG Sigma, Sonic, UT3

X360: CoD4, Forza 2, GTA IV, Halo 3, KUF, Lost Odyssey, Marvel UA, Mass Effect, Naruto: RoTN

PSP: FF, FF Tactics, FF VII: Crisis Core, Wipeout Pure and Pulse

FFXI (Diabolos): Knitemare (75DRG), Gentatsu (75SAM), Kaymin (41RDM)

The Benny (Macho)

It's a hard problem to reproduce though. My 360 gets a disc read error without fail whenever I try to enter Acre in Assassin's Creed and the disc I had before that kept crashing in the kingdom area, but for most people it isn't a problem. Likewise, my Mass Effect has been flawless while you've had many errors. So telling Microsoft the game is unreadable doesn't help much, because it's entirely possible they could test it on all their machines and have no errors.

It definitely shouldn't boot you automatically to the dashboard though, an option to try and read the disc again would likely reduce the problem by a massive amount.

The install option is a sensible idea, with the only real problem being that there are a lot of systems with 20GB drives (mine included) and some without a hard drive at all. Developers can't make any assumptions about a hard drive being present so they would still have to code it entirely to be able to run on a Core system.

__________________
The poster formerly known as Macho Man!