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[RiPpN-N-TrIppN]

ok ive had the box for about 6 months now
works great never had a problem with it
all i have done to it is flash the drive and install whisper fans
but all of a sudden it has started to freeze up on me
even when just at the dash within about 1-2min it just freezes up some times it will just freeze
other times it will freeze and a weird pattern goes accross the screen ?
ill take some pics of the screen lata on 2night
its not going to any error screens and theres no ROD
so i think its something to do with the GPU any one have a problem like this b4 and does any one have a solution
thanks
Rip

[andaval]

Exactly the same symptoms as mine.  Mine was completely stock, so I sent it back under the newly extended warranty.  I am curious as to what exactly went bad all of the sudden.

[macrohard360]

QUOTE(RiPpN-N-TrIppN @ Jan 10 2007, 04:47 AM)

ok ive had the box for about 6 months now
works great never had a problem with it
all i have done to it is flash the drive and install whisper fans
but all of a sudden it has started to freeze up on me
even when just at the dash within about 1-2min it just freezes up some times it will just freeze
other times it will freeze and a weird pattern goes accross the screen ?
ill take some pics of the screen lata on 2night
its not going to any error screens and theres no ROD
so i think its something to do with the GPU any one have a problem like this b4 and does any one have a solution
thanks
Rip

did you install yesterdays Live update?

[UNLTD76]

QUOTE(andaval @ Jan 9 2007, 11:51 PM)

Exactly the same symptoms as mine.  Mine was completely stock, so I sent it back under the newly extended warranty.  I am curious as to what exactly went bad all of the sudden.

I had the exact same problems, I sent it back in and now I am waiting on it to get back. I haven't even had it a year got it in Feb 06 sent it back Dec 06.I have not heard anything from them as to what the problem is or what it is they are going to do. They took their time and made the first one right, they rushed this one and thats why we are all here in this forum. I am glad I didn't see this (forum) before I brought it.

[macrohard360]

Im crossing my fingers my 360 holds out till the new version comes out.  Then ill sell my current one on ebay and buy the hopefully more reliable 360.  Some say  the new 65nm CPU wont even make much of a difference on temperature anyway. Lets hope thats not the case.  

[Dano2k0]

Oh hold on a minute, aren't you the guy that mouthed on in 360 case modding about how stupid and pointless watercooling was, because if the 360 is looked after properly you'll never experience overheat problems? like keeping it in a well ventilated area will prevent issues? yeah yeah i remember it all too well  

Oh and what about the 360 stock cooling is good enough and all the people with issues are idiots for not looking after their stuff properly?

It sure sounds to me like your having issues with your GPU, it could easily be a dry joint your experiencing when it gets warm on the BGA joints, the heatgun fix may very well fix it. Or possibly, which is very likely as the 360 does actually work, then dies i'd guess your probably experiencing overheating issues, which still will be on the GPU i'd guess.

Ive seen far too many overheating 360's that freeze, so maybe after all the watercooling of the 360 is becoming something that is actually required? Who knows, you take your choice and run with it, however it does seem AS5 and new fans help pro-long the lifetime, but still aren't just quite good enough.

[Safrole]

Shim the heatsink(s) to increase pressure on the chips.  If this "fixes" your problem, then great, but it will obviate the problem to which Dano alluded, that you have a crack in one of your balls.  (BGA, that is.)  Maybe shims (toothpicks) last for a long time, but only a heatgun (at reflow temperature) would address the underlying problem.

[RiPpN-N-TrIppN]

QUOTE(Dano2k0 @ Jan 10 2007, 04:59 PM)

Oh hold on a minute, aren't you the guy that mouthed on in 360 case modding about how stupid and pointless watercooling was, because if the 360 is looked after properly you'll never experience overheat problems? like keeping it in a well ventilated area will prevent issues? yeah yeah i remember it all too well  

Oh and what about the 360 stock cooling is good enough and all the people with issues are idiots for not looking after their stuff properly?

It sure sounds to me like your having issues with your GPU, it could easily be a dry joint your experiencing when it gets warm on the BGA joints, the heatgun fix may very well fix it. Or possibly, which is very likely as the 360 does actually work, then dies i'd guess your probably experiencing overheating issues, which still will be on the GPU i'd guess.

Ive seen far too many overheating 360's that freeze, so maybe after all the watercooling of the 360 is becoming something that is actually required? Who knows, you take your choice and run with it, however it does seem AS5 and new fans help pro-long the lifetime, but still aren't just quite good enough.

haha i knew that was coming
i still dont think this is heat related tho the box never ran hot i wouldn't even say it ran warm and it worked perfectly for months then over the space of one night it just dies
sounds like just another shitty product from M$
so yeh last night i go to turn on my box and it now doesnt even boot up
and i have changed my ROL to a single colour so i dont have any error leds im thinkin about just grabbing some std 3mm leds and just riggin them up so i can atleast find out what error its throwing at me
coz atm when i turn on my box the fans spin the box sounds like its booting up like normal but nothing is shown on screen and only the centre led is lit on the ROL due to the lack of the error code leds
hopefully i get this POS working again other wise im just gonna sell it in peices and wait for the new version to come out with the HDMI
Rip

[Dano2k0]

Haha yeah, if i hadn't thought of it, i'm sure very soon someone else would have fetched it up  

Anyway, i'd be pretty confident in thinking your 360 does indeed have a dry joint under one of the BGA components, more than likely the GPU as its a common issue.

You say the heat out the back never got that hot, is that a good or bad thing? personally, as i and everyone else raves on about how much heat it produces, i'd say if yours isn't quite producing it, then its bad, simply because it will be producing the same heat as everyone elses, but obviously in some way isn't getting rid of all the heat like ours.

I'd guess it has something to do with the crappy heatsink MS decided to use on the GPU, in my opinion it is way under specked, and their thermal paste sure doesn't help matters.

This is why watercooling is such a good idea, you can effectively install a waterblock on the GPU and remove the heat away from it, right outside the case where you want it, the problem is, you can't really fit a somewhat decent heatsink to the GPU as the DVD drive is in the way, the original is complete cheap alloy, which is rubbish for a component of this spec, better yet it doesn't even have a copper insert to at least try and help duct the heat from the chip to the heatsink, then it stands about 1cm tall and has one crappy way of removing the heat from it. Obviously they couldn't do much more with it, but lets face it, the whole design is CRAP! Watercooling works so well due to the design of the console as the DVD drive is just in the way too much to do anything else, so basically replacing the stock heatsink isn't such an option.

Now while i could agree watercooling may seem a little overkill, the 360 turns out some serious heat, so much the stock cooling just isn't up to the job unless you live at the north pole, and play it outside all day, so really your not left with much more of an option other than to watercool, which beats having multiple dead 360's on your hands.

I personally wouldn't attempt to clamp down the heatsink on the GPU more than it already is, if you get the error back that points towards it, heat gun it, make sure you do a good job to reflow the solder well, this may very well fix your issue, then take good care of it, as it'll probably never last the same over again.


Good luck

[drastic]

it's interesting


seems more than a few people are having their GPU solder contacts crap out after this update...


JUST a coincidence? did the update change something with the fan speed maybe?

the timing is just weird

[Safrole]

It's human nature to look for correlation when presented with negative events.  I would posit that the same number of machines are dying at any given time, but any death within a few days of an update creates a mental correlation, whether there really was one or not.

Same thing with game updates, or even simply playing a game.  "Gears of war is more graphically intense, therefore the extra heat it created pushed my box over the edge."  Could be, but I think it's more rooted in the human tendency toward superstition.

[wap32]

QUOTE(Safrole @ Jan 12 2007, 04:00 PM)

It's human nature to look for correlation when presented with negative events.  I would posit that the same number of machines are dying at any given time, but any death within a few days of an update creates a mental correlation, whether there really was one or not.

Same thing with game updates, or even simply playing a game.  "Gears of war is more graphically intense, therefore the extra heat it created pushed my box over the edge."  Could be, but I think it's more rooted in the human tendency toward superstition.

I don't know if it's that simple...  

I had the same problem, my 360 had been fine since it came and all of a sudden, today, it started freaking out, same green checkerboard pattern other people are experiencing, and on reboot, red lights, wait a while, it boots, freezes again, reboot, red lights, and so on...

I didn't even remotely think about the update, the first thing that crossed my mind was a thermal problem, but when I was going to post a thread about it I noticed there were already a few, and the symptoms match the ones other people are experiencing and that was all after the update...

I'm starting to thing if this is really just a coincidence  

[BCfosheezy]

Try something for me.... Apply a heatsink to your ana chip. (the one under the shroud, right behind the gpu. Make sure the shroud is going to fit after you fit the heatsink.

[wap32]

QUOTE(BCfosheezy @ Jan 12 2007, 08:44 PM)

Try something for me.... Apply a heatsink to your ana chip. (the one under the shroud, right behind the gpu. Make sure the shroud is going to fit after you fit the heatsink.

that was one of the first things I thought about...corrupted video...scaler problems, but ana isn't even remotely hot, just mildly warm  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)

other thing that could be causing corrupted video would be video memory, but usually there are a lot of video artifacts and it just doesn't freeze like that  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sleep.gif)

maybe my gpu is crapping out...for the moment tho, the crashing seems to have stopped

still, I'll keep my eye on cheap heatguns  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[jabroniekilla]

for those getting red lights, what are you getting for secondary codes?