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[thehornets]

hi, i've just found this site and i hope some one can help. i have a modded box approx 18 months, and some of my back up games freeze after some levels  and now my new game starswars battle front wont even load.
1. do i need to flash my bios, if so how ?
2. or do i need a new chip

thanks.. a sad father who loves his xbox

[Heykrop]

If the console is booting fine and a new original game is failing to load then it is probably a dirty or worn DVD drive.  Try cleaning it.  The other posibility could be that if a backup game is freezing after a while there could be several things.
1. The brand of media it was burnt on mey not be that reliable especially when trying to read from the outer limits of the writeable area.  Possibly try re burning one of the more troublesome games onto another brand of media and see if that helps.  Many people including myself recommend Reitek media either the G03, G04 or G05 versions by them.  
2. Next it could be that a connection for the chip is coming loose after the console warms up. This could be evident if a backup game does not always freeze at the same place but more random. Check from a cold start of the console and see if there is a pattern of how long it has been running before it crashes versus just crashing on a particular game. If this is the case and you did not do the installation then it would be a good idea to have someone experienced with chip installs take a look. The other way to know if it is a problem with a connection to the chip would be if it only happens with the chip ON. If using the console with the chip OFF runs relaible for long periods of time then this could be the one.  If it still fails with the chip OFF then see the next option.
3. The other one could just be plain old over heating.  I believe after the v1.1 consoles M$ removed the heat sync from the MCPX chip.  If the freezing has just started and this is the problem you can fix it by opening the box and give it a good cleaning out. Possibly also add a heat sync to the MCPX or an extra fan. There are a couple of tutorials on how this is done. If it has been going on for some time and is getting progressivly worse then it may be too late as the MCPX will get damaged by prolonged excessive heat. You could still try the fixes but if it is still happening then it may be time to look into a new box.  Or a used one as the 18 month old chip you have will probably not or not easily be compatible with a newer v1.6 box.

Good Luck

This post has been edited by Heykrop: Oct 10 2004, 07:40 PM