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[s_lipowitz]

Some people say that the 7200RPM drives generate too much heat, to which games freezing and other problems can occur. Although I have my doubts about this, check the temperature inside the case after you notice the game freezing.

Perhaps installing additional ventillation, or using a 5400RPM might help IF in fact this is causing the problem.



[man I need a spell checker on these forums!]

[opjose]

There -IS- another cause for games freezing from the hard drive.

Directory names!

Many games cannot deal with longer directory names or depth and will freeze as a result.

Keep the directory/folder names very short for hard drive based games.

Also try turning off background music.

[s_lipowitz]

QUOTE (opjose @ Oct 17 2002, 07:53 PM)

Also try turning off background music.

                                    You really think so?

I know that doing this will help run games from CDR/CDRW's...

I guess it could help. I mean, the music file is constantly being read, so it would increase HD use, which in turn could increase the amount of heat given off... but I wouldn't think any more then playing the game itself?

Not saying your wrong, just looking at how effective that solution might be in the longrun  

[chris918]

Well, I have been trying everything. I definitely don't have a heat problem. This drive is running cooler than any other drive I have attempted.

As far as the folder names, the games that are freezing actually are games that pretty damn short already.

I appreciate all the help so far, but keep it coming please. I still haven't found the prob yet.

Thanks again

[s_lipowitz]

Freezing games seam to be one of those "grey area" problems.. It's going to be caused by different reasons for everyone, and we'll probably never figure it out 100%

It's plauged consoles since the use of CD type media..

Do a search for "freezing" on the boards and look at the efforts of others. Try all the different suggestions, and if they don't work, just investigate it yourself and see if you can come up with new reasons. If so, post it!

I'm not trying to "shrug off" your question ... it's just that I doubt anyone here will be able to give you a definitive solution. It's trial and error

P.S. If the games freezing are on DVD, then try a new disc/new burning method. Also, try the origional DVD, and see if it exhibits the same issues.

[opjose]

QUOTE (s_lipowitz @ Oct 18 2002, 04:07 PM)

QUOTE (opjose @ Oct 17 2002, 07:53 PM) Also try turning off background music. You really think so? I know that doing this will help run games from CDR/CDRW's... I guess it could help. I mean, the music file is constantly being read, so it would increase HD use, which in turn could increase the amount of heat given off... but I wouldn't think any more then playing the game itself? Not saying your wrong, just looking at how effective that solution might be in the longrun

                                    I've speculated that with SOME Xboxes there are issues (E.G. DMA Xfers, etc), that in turn are exacerbated by heat.

On "normal" xboxes heat doesn't seem to be a big issue at all. These "special" units get hotter than the normal xboxes.

It may be a design flaw, bad or marginal electronics, transistors, etc. etc. causing extra current drain, leading to more heat on the chips.

I have several Xboxes to compare with.

One in particular is prone to freezing. In trying to figure out what was going on, I've run two machines side by side with the covers off running demo loops, etc. on games that I have seen freeze.

Inevitably the one that froze got MUCH hotter than the one that didn't, even though the hardware itself was identical. The major difference was one machine was older than the other, but I don't think this is itself the cause.

I could prevent the freezing by cooling the machine down with a compressed air source. With the air (which is quite cold this way) the freezing problems would disappear completely.

Given that the two machines are so similiar, there really shouldn't be that much difference in their heat output, etc.

I believe the problem to be that some of the boards are a bit questionable in their characteristics. That MS's standards for testing were not very rigorous and they accepted boards that should have really been rejected.

We've seen the same thing with the DVD rom drives haven't we?

Anyway for whatever reason the extra current draw causes them to get hotter, when the controller chip gets warm, the games tend to freeze.

Strangely it's not the CPU which is at fault. (proven with the air stream).

This lead to my original conjecture that maybe the integrated controller was at fault.

I've noted even more freezes during DVD transfers of background music.

Often the freezing co-incided with DVD (or hard disk for that matter) access to read in additional music.

So I tried turning off music on those games that were the worst. And lo and behold it greatly diminished the problem, but it did not altogether eliminate it. But  it did help greatly.

Others reported identical results too.



One last note, the machine that I have that is prone to freezing, also tends to freeze randomly with FTP xfers too. In this case I know it's not a network, Evolution-X, FLASHXP, issue etc.

Even stranger it happens even if the machine is cool.

I've "repasted" this machine which did help, and will probably end up getting one of those external fans for it.

I still think that the game freezing is symptomatic of a "version 1.0" Xbox from MS, which they will only admit to, if you cough up the service contract fee.

(actually the don't really admit to anything, but if you purchase the service contract and complain of freezing they strangely swap out the motherboard and return the unit... heh.)


Many moons ago the 486 motherboards were in the same boat.

[s_lipowitz]

This truely does make me wonder about their QA checks, and what passes and what doesn't.. They seam to be very .... "loose" in comparison to any other company that i've dealth with.

Then again... this is the same company that puts out Windows.. hehe

I have one of the origional xboxes from the day of the launch, and havn't had any problems with freezing or similar issues.. I occasionally suffer from slow transfer speeds, but nothing that makes me stress about it.

I'll letcha know if I ever come across any problems with my "older" xbox .. might help you in your plight to see whats up with your one problem box.