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[Gobelet]

Hi,

I just thought about that.

We all know here that the Xbox 360 has a hypervisor. It encrypts/signs every packet travelling from and to every bus on the console (speculation, but I think it's the case).

We saw crashes of Xboxes all around the Internet. Xboxes freezed after a few minutes.

Some people here said that it wasn't heat related, as their Xboxes weren't that hot.

Now, here's what I was thinking...

Did you already had bad RAM modules? I tested one a few days ago. It was defective. I used Memtest86+, and I saw the behaviour of the RAM: you stocked 80 00 00 00, it read back (for example) FF 00 10 00.

Now, we know the hypervisor shut down/freezes the console whenever there are "bad" things coming.

Couldn't it be related? Bad RAM chips, returning slightly modified values, therefore invalid, therefore hanging the console? Defective RAM chips aren't that rare after all, and it could sometimes work, and sometimes not. That would account for the randomness of crashes.

What do you think?

[DaBiscuit]

You are saying that you took the ram out of your 360, and tested it on your PC? If it did turn up as defective, then this could well be a reason why the 360 has such a shaky record for reliability. Since I'm not as technical as some, and I am here mostly just to be fascinated by the work of others, does that mean that the x-box 360 uses industry-standard DIMMs? I thought, judging from the MoBo photos, that it used SMT ram chips, and if so, I'm confused that you could test those with MemTest86.

[Gobelet]

Nah I didn't took the 360 RAM out of the box. Just some RAM module that was laying around at home (in my Media Center actually which crashed pretty badly twice a day).

[DaBiscuit]

QUOTE(Gobelet @ Dec 21 2005, 06:33 PM)

Nah I didn't took the 360 RAM out of the box. Just some RAM module that was laying around at home (in my Media Center actually which crashed pretty badly twice a day).

Oh I see! I beg your pardon. Well, yeah, it sounds to me like you may be onto something, because I have some bad modules in my favourite PC, and it's behaving very erratically. I know just how random the crashes can appear. However, it being Christmas, and all, RAM will have to wait... T_T

[DaBiscuit]

Remember they had to rush the launch, plus idiotic bean-counters are always looking for a way to trim costs and increase profit. The system is already way expensive, so....?

I think they had to cut back to keep the price reasonable, without needing to shave their margins.

[Gobelet]

Or it could be heat related... Heat damages those chips pretty badly (that's what happened to my MCE). You're pushing it a little too far, then it's fooked forever.