Beating the Big Freeze (XBOX 360 maitenence)

**Monk** · 07-26-2009, 06:36

Originally Posted by Sigurd

I noticed this thread and remembered something from an ancient XboX360 vs PS3 thread.

This is a XboX360 mod you can do to get a better XBox360. The way to do it

Very interesting to be sure, but i'm surprised by how pricey it is (actually I'm not when I think about it). Amazon has them from $114 - $240 which is quite the dent in the wallet for me right now.

I might've gone that route had I; 1. known of it and 2. had $200 to spend on this particular problem, but that's really why I cracked this thing open in the first place. I didn't have that kind of cash to throw around.

edit: One month and zero freezes later, I dunno. I'm still riding pretty high on self-satisfaction.

**Monk** · 08-10-2009, 03:17

Second month update:

Heat problems are still non-existent but I was starting to get random freezes. These freezes came in places like simply loading a game, switching to a new map or just using the guide button on the controller while in-game. At first I thought "Hm, maybe my hard work didnt last?" but that clearly wasn't the case. After one freeze in particular I had the peice of mind to feel both top and bottom of my console and it was cool to the touch. If not heat, then what?

A solution presented itself while I was, of all things, looking for some info on Mass Effect 2 over at the bioware forums. While browsing I stumbled upon a way to clear out the 360's hard drive cache. The post in question claimed it helped fix a horrible screen freeze problem. Color me intrigued, I thought.

Go to System Settings, and then Memory. Highlight your hard drive then hit Y, this will bring up device options. Then hit X, X, LB, RB, X, X.* A box should pop-up asking you if you want to perform maintenance on your hard drive, answer yes. Your cache will be flushed and you'll be ready to go. It won't take long and you won't lose any important data so fear not.

Strange thing? The freezes have, once more, disappeared altogether. I can't reproduce the freezes doing the thins tht caused them. Nor can.. well anything at all really. If you're having some freeze ups but heat isn't your problem, give this a try. Who knows it might help, though like all caches I suspect it'll need cleaned out periodically.

*Honestly how in the world is the average user supposed to figure this out? I wonder if it's in the documentation?

**lars573** · 08-12-2009, 05:54

How much does M$ charge for labour? Due to not having time to get the repair order out the door my warrenty is now expired. Lacking a credit card I now can't get it fixed. My lil'bro does have one and thus could. Knowing how much it would cost.

Also you can clear the cache on boot up by pressing one of the letter buttons when XBOX appears.

**Fragony** · 08-12-2009, 08:40

Originally Posted by lars573

How much does M$ charge for labour?

It's free, service is excellent.

**Lemur** · 08-18-2009, 17:44

A sobering statistic: Xbox 360 failure rate is 54.2%.

[A]ccording to their survey, in which over 5,000 console owners participated, the Xbox 360's current failure rate due to the Red Ring of Death, E74 or other hardware failure is 54.2 percent. They also calculated the relative death toll for PS3s due to the Yellow Light of Death (10.3 percent) and Wiis, due to ... well, we're not actually sure what color the Wii's light turns to upon its demise (6.8 percent). [...]

[The] 54.2 percent Xbox 360 failure rate sounds awfully low. Had the survey's participants been comprised entirely of Joystiq staffers, it would have been a bone-chilling 100 percent.

**Monk** · 10-16-2009, 21:11

Freezes were at an all time low, I don't think I ever completely beat the freeze, but one lock-up every two or three weeks was something I could live with. And then... disaster.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

The single red light, the dreaded E74 error indicating a general hardware failure. With a bit of troubleshooting i'd discovered the DVD-drive is the culprit, refusing to read certain disks out of my library (while others either have display issues or work just fine). After a bit of tinkering the red light disappeared as mysteriously as it had arrived. I've been unable to replicate it since then no matter what I do or what game i load up with, and all display errors are gone just the same.

Strange happenings to be sure.