Is my Xbox 360 on the brink of death?

[TheGodBen]

I was playing Red Dead Redemption on my Xbox 360 yesterday trying to get a few simple achievements before moving on to Alan Wake, and while I was in the middle of trying to beat someone up in every saloon in the game, the graphics went all funky. Things became pixelated, the colours reverted back to the PS1 era and there was some interlacing issues. The overall effect was to make the game look like a painting, which was kinda cool for a few minutes, but it gets old fast, especially when you can't tell the difference between a rock and a buffalo.

So I turned the machine off, did some other stuff for a while and came back to it later that night. The game was fine for ten minutes before it happened again. I went out into the dashboard but the problem remained. I turned it off and on again, but the problem was still there. I had been using it on component cables running at 1080p (which I know isn't technically correct, but it worked) so I tried switching over to 1080i, and for some reason the image doubled and stacked. I tried dropping down to 720, and the screen went completely black. I went down to 480 and used the composite cable, but it said there was no signal. (And yes, I flicked the switch to transmit in SD.)

I'm guessing that either the cable is faulty or the GPU has overheated and is on its death throes, and knowing my luck it will probably be the latter. I'm going to try and borrow a cable from someone to test that out, but judging by the way the signal is acting differently for the four different settings I have a bad feeling it's going to be the GPU. And my 3-year warranty ran out in February.

Has anybody had something like this happen with their 360? Will giving it a good kick fix it?

 

[PKerr]

Yep, sounds like the E74 error coming on.
E74 is covered under the 3 year warranty.

Are you sure yours ran out?

 

[TheGodBen]

Yeah, I bought my first one back in February 2007. I got the RROD back in May 2008 and was sent back a different refurbished model that has been running fine ever since. I was thinking of getting an Elite once the warranty ran out so that I could use the HDMI port, but I decided to hold out and see whether the rumours of a new slim model being released with Natal are true. It seems like I should have just bought a new one and traded this one in while I had the chance.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

Yeah you would have been better ditching the old HDMI less models, very unreliable buggers those models, i want through 4 refurbished before i just said enough was enough and bought a HDMI 60gig model.

You could just contact MS and tell them its suffering from intermittent 3 RROD after its been on for a hour, they don't really bother to test then now, they just get these machines, replace the innards or just send out another working refurbished model, and ship them a quick a possible....you certainly got nothing to lose and everything to gain .....and it wont cost you anything to try either.

 

[firehawk12]

Yeah, you might as well wait and see what they announce on Monday. I've heard that the 3 year warranty is "renewed" when you get a new unit, but I have no idea if that's true or not though.

 

[Skywalker]

That sounds exactly like what happened to me when I got an E74 error a couple months ago. If you send it back, I hope you get a new one quicklike.

 

[TheGodBen]

The thing is, if they do announce a new slim 360 on Monday it probably wont go on sale until September at the earliest, and I can't see myself waiting that long to buy a new one. Besides, they only just sorted out the overheating issues with the console, I fear that if they slim it down they'll just break it again. Yes, I know that that's unlikely, they'll be damn sure that this issue doesn't happen to them again, but at least with a "Jasper" console I can have some extra peace of mind.

You could just contact MS and tell them its suffering from intermittent 3 RROD after its been on for a hour, they don't really bother to test then now, they just get these machines, replace the innards or just send out another working refurbished model, and ship them a quick a possible....you certainly got nothing to lose and everything to gain .....and it wont cost you anything to try either.

I'll give it a shot at any rate. I've heard that they still service the people that bought consoles at launch as a goodwill gesture, so there's always some hope. Even if they did repair it, I'd probably just trade it in for a new Elite at any rate for a number of reasons. And now that you can transfer saves onto a regular USB stick I wont have to worry about buying their stupid transfer kit.

 

[Teelie]

You have a 360, it's always on the verge of death. Sadly I'm waiting for mine to fry before I get a newer version.

 

[Sheep]

The graphical issues you described happened to my friend when we were playing co-op Gears of War 2 and his 360 crapped out completely not long after that. Sorry, but I think you're SOL.

 

[Mistral]

Yep, sounds like the E74 error coming on.
E74 is covered under the 3 year warranty.

Are you sure yours ran out?

E74 covered outside the 3 yr warranty.

 

[gh4chiefs]

You have a 360, it's always on the verge of death.

I shouldn't laugh (I have a 360 myself) but I have to admit that made me chuckle.

 

[Timby]

My 360 Elite is about a month away from getting out of the three-year warranty. Am I a bad person for trying to run it into the ground?

 

[Teelie]

You have a 360, it's always on the verge of death.

I shouldn't laugh (I have a 360 myself) but I have to admit that made me chuckle.

If you have one that's roughly 2-3 years or older (ie; shitty model) then it's true. I'm going to let mine fry then replace it with one that's less likely to fry.

 

[gh4chiefs]

You have a 360, it's always on the verge of death.

I shouldn't laugh (I have a 360 myself) but I have to admit that made me chuckle.

If you have one that's roughly 2-3 years or older (ie; shitty model) then it's true. I'm going to let mine fry then replace it with one that's less likely to fry.

Well I have one of the so-called "Jasper" models so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. But everytime I game with it, I can't help but wonder "Is this the day it dies?".

I had a launch model that worked perfectly and I used to hear all the stories about people being on their 5th Xbox, blah, blah, blah and I was always like "Yeah right." Until . . . that day it finally happened to me. This was before the 3 year warranty so I ended up buying an arcade model as a replacement. It later went dead too.

So it's always an adventure with the 360. Maybe that supposed to be part of the fun. "Let's spin the wheel of Xbox 360 fate to see what happens today!"