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[Xbox-Scene]

Guitar Hero II or it's new patch possibly bricking 360's Posted by HSDEMONZ | April 15 12:37 EST | News Category: Xbox360

Saw this on the XBOX.com forums this morning, over 100 posts from gamers complaining that GHII, or it's new patch has wrecked havoc on thier consoles, bricking some, while making other unstable. I have tried all of the rest of my games, and GHII is the only one freezing! I cannot finish a song (haven't even finished one yet), without either the screen during all weird and freezing, or the screen going completely black (xbox still on) and being frozen. ... Just got it today, played it for no more then 30 minutes with a total of 4 freeze ups. The 5th one.. red circle of death.  It is now dead.  What a joke.  I've played GOW for hours on end, probably the longest being 7 hours straight, play GH for 30 minutes and it kills my box. ... Yeah I'd agree it obviously doesn't happen to everyone, in fact I have a few buddies that play it non-stop without issues.  However having said that, there is enough evidence on this forum alone to convince me that there is an issue with it, and maybe it only shows itself on certain models of 360, built before a certain date or something... no idea.  All I know is it ran great before this game, and now... well my 360 makes a nice doorstop. ... "I love my 360. It's been a dear friend of mine ever since I bought it (on launchday). I've never had any problems with it. Vel, today I decided to get my hands on Guitar Hero II for the 360... Big mistake! My 360 is now officially dead.. After playing GHII for almost 4 hours, the game froze. Not a big deal I thought. I rebooted the console, and "badabing"!... the dreadful three red lights stared at my face. NOOOOOO! Now my 360 won't even boot into the dashboard anymore. I've tried disconnectiong every cable, controller and the hard-drive, but to no use. It usually freezes seconds after I turn it on, and when I try again, the three red lights appear. Why did this have to happen?! I'm so angry right now, and surely wish I'd never bought that piece of crap Guitar Hero II! Be warned everyone... There has to something seriously wrong the 360 version GHII. Maybe older 360 consoles are having trouble with the guitar controller, and therefore screws up the entire console? I don't know. Keep in mind, that 360's, like any hardware will not last forever. Every time MS releases a dash update, we see some 360's "die" and everyone blames the update. Every time we see a particular game get an update or new maps etc, we see more consoles "die" and everyone blames the new updates. I don't know anyone who has had a problem with their GHII, or recent issues with their 360 after having started playing GHII. So, if you fear the Game or the update is the "culprit" of these 360 death's consider waiting for more info to get posted. - HSD News-Source: XBOX.com forums

[Darkjasper]

A faulty wammy bar now the game is killing consoles. Sounds like a conspiracy.

Not going to be picking this game up for a while.  

[sicknasty413]

Mines working fine.

I have guitar 95065.

Updated with the patch last night.

Beat 10 songs on hard and 1 song on expert. Go me!

[PuckX]

"Keep in mind, that 360's, like any hardware will not last forever. Every time MS releases a dash update, we see some 360's "die" and everyone blames the update. Every time we see a particular game get an update or new maps etc, we see more consoles "die" and everyone blames the new updates"

Come on do you seriously believe that any 360 has been out long enough to start dying due to old age of hardware! I almost spit out my breakfast after reading that statement.

I will agree however, that people are too quick to blame the updates, and we never hear the full story on how their 360 was treated, but dude seriously the 360 needs to be out a couple more years before they fall under the hardware will not last forever statement.

As far as the GHII issues is concerned, I doubt an update to the game software is bricking the systems, however, it is a curious series of events that I will be watching closely.

[ILLusions0fGrander]

well.. i have an empty  box on its way here to get a new 360 anyways (1 month before warranty ends and im getting some lockups),  so im going to update and see what happens.

[simond10]

QUOTE(simond10 @ Apr 15 2007, 05:28 PM)

This has just happened to me on PGR3, ive played this game for HOURS on end before.

I loaded it up as usual, it logged me out of xbox live for no reason, i dropped back to the dashboard and tested my connection.. alls fine so i logged back in.

Loaded pgr3 again, and it logged me out again! then crashed!

I rebooted my system and BAM! 3 red lights!

Switched the comsole off, disconnected all the cables and left it for about half an hour.

Tried to switch the console on again, started to boot but crashed on the xbox logo.

Switched the xbox off and tried again 10 minutes later, booted up fine and tried pgr3 again, loaded a goham heros race and crashed almost immidiatley after starting the race. Black Screen! GAH!

Restarted the console and loaded up F.E.A.R instead seemed to be working fine, played for about 30 mins then ejected the disc, instead of going back to the dashboard i was greeted with the black scrren again. WTF?!

Crap, just froze playing the Monster Madness demo, got 3 red lights on restart, waited a few mins and restarted now all seems fine on the dashboard at the moment.

Also did'nt there used to be an 'edit post' button on these forums?

[openxdkman]

Need to monitor CPU and GPU temperatures.
Too bad official dashboard doesn't do that...
Without temperature stats the -always- premature death of this console will always remain a mystery...

[BRD]

I had a first run 360, it ran fine for a year.  Then it shit the bed a few minutes after a Saints' Row update last November.  MS replaced my system for free with one that was manufactured in 2006.  I'm gonna backup my 360 hard drive now, then update, and see how it goes.

[HSDEMONZ]

QUOTE(PuckX @ Apr 15 2007, 10:27 AM)

Come on do you seriously believe that any 360 has been out long enough to start dying due to old age of hardware! I almost spit out my breakfast after reading that statement.

I stand by my comment. I fully believe that the warranty period is as long as we can expect hardware these days to last. the days of buying a piece of electronics and watching it last 10 years is over. I remember buying my original VHS and BETA machines, and watched them work long and hard under shitty conditions for 5, 10, and more years.

these days.. brand name electonics just aren't doing that anymore. People are far more likely to buy hardware today, and replace it in 2 year due to failure or wanting the latest greatest. Manufacturers no longer strive to make quality components that stand the test of time.

Especially stuff branded with the MS or Xbox logo. that's not to say we shouldn't want, or expect our stuff to last longer. I do. but, given what we've seen, and the half assed qc and manufacturing we're seeing, I don't expect 360's (or other game consoles for that matter) to last 3 or more years anymore. This stuff simply isn't built to last. Whether that is to planned obsolescence or to just shotty hardware and manufacturing.. I do not know.

This is by no means limited to the MS/Xbox camp. We all have stories of friends who owned, 2, 3 or more PS2's due to dying lasers, etc.

It's just no longer really reasonable to expect that the hardware we buy, will last much longer than the warranty anymore. It's a shame those extended warranties stores try to sell us sometimes aren't worth the paper they are written on, as we sure can use those extra years.

To tell the truth.. my LIVE 360 unit.. which is my second.. (first one died, sure enough.. just as the original warranty ended) I doubt will last long into 2008. If it does, I'll actually consider myself fortunate. I don't abuse the hardware, and in fact maintain and keep my hardware in better conditions and environments than most that surf these boards. It doesn't change the fact I have little faith in any modern day 360, PS3 surviving much past it's first or second birthday.

QUOTE(simond10 @ Apr 15 2007, 11:16 AM)

Also did'nt there used to be an 'edit post' button on these forums?

You have 10-15 minutes from the time you submit a post to go back and edit it. After that, it's committed. Necessary evil due to user abuse on this site.

QUOTE(blankaz @ Apr 15 2007, 11:40 AM)

Hey guys why does it seems to me that latly many guys get 0102 errors(3 RED LIGHTS/3RLD)??
or maybe it always been this way ?
i had this error too about a week ago but seems like i fixed it at last even though i thought it was impossible

Sorry to hear that, but I doubt your "fix" will last long. If the box is in warranty, get it replaced asap. 1-800-4-my-xbox

[jamie123]

no hardware lasts forever, but 360 sure does have a short lifespan, i'm already on my second..while i've had a used xbox for the past years, and it's never failed on me (well, modded shit has, but not stock-loaded m$ stuff)

[bucko]

Well here in the UK the weather is getting pretty hot. Maybe that has something to do with it? I think these people are looking to blame someone just to get some money by suing or something.

[MeanMF]

You see this kind of BS in the forums for every game and after every patch or update.  Xbox 360 hardware sucks and always has.  People just like to blame whatever game they're playing or the last update that was installed when theirs dies.

[petegas]

I just updated (launch hardware) console and played a few songs and had no issues.  I'll be curious to see if anything develops out of this.

[Tony42077]

QUOTE(HSDEMONZ @ Apr 15 2007, 06:45 PM)

these days.. brand name electonics just aren't doing that anymore. People are far more likely to buy hardware today, and replace it in 2 year due to failure or wanting the latest greatest. Manufacturers no longer strive to make quality components that stand the test of time.

Especially stuff branded with the MS or Xbox logo. that's not to say we shouldn't want, or expect our stuff to last longer. I do. but, given what we've seen, and the half assed qc and manufacturing we're seeing, I don't expect 360's (or other game consoles for that matter) to last 3 or more years anymore. This stuff simply isn't built to last. Whether that is to planned obsolescence or to just shotty hardware and manufacturing.. I do not know.

That sounds like the same montra that Chrysler used back in the 80s. "People want a new car every 5 years, so we'll make the cars last 5 years." One thing that I do know, is that 360s don't last nearly as long as the original Xbox. I've modded over 80 Xbox1s and all but 3 (ver1.0 PS problems) of them are still running fine (aside from a DVD drive problem here and there). Of the 15 Xbox360s that I have I have first-hand knowledge of, 4 of them had to be sent back for the 3 rings of death. The parts that they use are either of less quality, or the nature of the part allows for a higher failure rate.

I have no doubt that most of people's problems are from heat issues. All of my friends that stand their 360s up vertically have yet to have any problems, while all of the '3rod' 360s sat horizontally.

Hopefully the new smaller CPUs will cut down on the number of hardware failure rates, because the current rate is unacceptable. 3-5% my ass. If every 360 out there was played for an average of 2 hours a day, we would be seeing numbers closer to 15-20%. Overall, I would have to say that MS has made more lemons with the 360 than any other hardware they've produced.

With all of that being said, you shouldn't have to baby a game system to keep it running longer than a year.

[Tony42077]

QUOTE(bucko @ Apr 15 2007, 06:57 PM)

Well here in the UK the weather is getting pretty hot. Maybe that has something to do with it? I think these people are looking to blame someone just to get some money by suing or something.

No, there just mad because their 360 is a flawed piece of shit. When your's craps out after the year warranty (if it already hasn't) you can blame the game that is in the DVD drive.