360 Screen Flicker

[JonathonWally]

So, before I send my 360 of to MS to get it fixed, I thought I'd ask you guys about it first.


Out of the blue, the other day, my 360 started flickering while I was playing. At first nothing too much, just a bit every once in a while during a long session, 2 hours.

But now, it's almost constant, it's too the point where I can't play any games because it's way too much.

When I say flicker, I mean that the screen cuts out and the TV flashes it's native "no signal" thing.

I'd tried different HDMI cables, tinkering with 360's output settings, tinkering with the TV's display settings, nothing.

Since it's getting worse by the day, I have a feeling the graphics chips is just slowly melting.

Anyone got any different ideas?

The TV doesn't do this with any of the other HDMI devices connected, PS3 or TIVO.

 

[firehawk12]

If it's a GPU problem, you should see artifacts on the screen typically. Maybe it's a problem with the actual connections on your system?

 

[Capt. Vulcan]

Does the system still appear to be responsive? Can you still hear things going on when you try to do stuff in the game? You can always try to go back to component or s-video to see if it still happens, to make sure it's not just an hdmi port problem. On my system right now my graphics chip is in the process of dying so I do end up with artifacts like firehawk says, but eventually the system just freezes. Sometimes it freezes whatever is on the screen, other times it just goes to a red, green, or blue screen and the system stops responding. Now it just stops at the xbox logo and refuses to go any further.

 

[Sparky]

How many HDMI ports do you have on the TV? Are your HDMI devices connected directly to the TV or through an AV Receiver or switcher? have you tried switching the other HDMI devices (PS3/Tivo) to the HDMI port that the 360 is using?

As Capt. Vulcan mentioned above try using whatever other connections you have RCA/VGA/Component etc.

 

[JonathonWally]

How many HDMI ports do you have on the TV? Are your HDMI devices connected directly to the TV or through an AV Receiver or switcher? have you tried switching the other HDMI devices (PS3/Tivo) to the HDMI port that the 360 is using?

As Capt. Vulcan mentioned above try using whatever other connections you have RCA/VGA/Component etc.

TV has 3 HDMI ports, connected directly to the TV, I've swapped them all around the PS3 and Tivo still work fine, 360 flickers no matter the wire or the port.

 

[Capt. Vulcan]

How many HDMI ports do you have on the TV? Are your HDMI devices connected directly to the TV or through an AV Receiver or switcher? have you tried switching the other HDMI devices (PS3/Tivo) to the HDMI port that the 360 is using?

As Capt. Vulcan mentioned above try using whatever other connections you have RCA/VGA/Component etc.

TV has 3 HDMI ports, connected directly to the TV, I've swapped them all around the PS3 and Tivo still work fine, 360 flickers no matter the wire or the port.

Have you tried connecting the xbox using the component or RCA cables?

 

[firehawk12]

Yeah, if it works with the composite/component cable, then it must have something to do with the connection.

 

[TheBrew]

Shit, it's contagious. I just got my first red ring.

 

[firehawk12]

Hey, just in time for the Slim. It's all part of their plan!

 

[TheBrew]

I couldn't find a Gamestop with a slim to save my life. I called 20 stores in the DC metro area. I was able to get ~200 for my old one and a few games (I used the towel trick to get it back up and running). I am tempted to get a 120g Elite with Forza 3 and ODST for $250 since I haven't played those two games. I'll be going from a 20g, so it will be a nice jump either way.

Any suggestions?

 

[TheGodBen]

I couldn't find a Gamestop with a slim to save my life. I called 20 stores in the DC metro area. I was able to get ~200 for my old one and a few games (I used the towel trick to get it back up and running). I am tempted to get a 120g Elite with Forza 3 and ODST for $250 since I haven't played those two games. I'll be going from a 20g, so it will be a nice jump either way.

Any suggestions?

I bought a slim yesterday as my old console crapped out on me last month and I decided to hold off until the slim was released in Europe. Compared to the original it is insanely quiet and it looks nice and shiny, so if you can get the slim then I would recommend it. One bad thing about the slim is that it only comes with a composite cable, so you'll need to buy a hdmi cable if you don't have one already.

 

[Capt. Vulcan]

I couldn't find a Gamestop with a slim to save my life. I called 20 stores in the DC metro area. I was able to get ~200 for my old one and a few games (I used the towel trick to get it back up and running). I am tempted to get a 120g Elite with Forza 3 and ODST for $250 since I haven't played those two games. I'll be going from a 20g, so it will be a nice jump either way.

Any suggestions?

http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?sduid=0&t=2132346

There's currently a 30% Bing cash back for all of Overstock.com, and people have been using it for Xboxes. Unfortunately they're currently out of stock, but people are reporting that a couple will show up for sale every once in awhile.

If you haven't heard of Bing Cash Back, it's basically a program by microsoft to bribe you in to using Bing instead of google or Yahoo. You open an account and when you buy something, the % money shows up in the Bing Cash Back account after it's verified as a valid purchase. After a certain amount of time you're allowed to cash it in and they send you a check. I've done it before and it works. Actually so many people are using it that they're finally putting an end to it pretty soon. It was pretty crazy for awhile because they'd sometimes do double days, so a store with a 25% cash back would jump to 50%, and unlike other deals it stacked on top of store discounts. People were getting 2k wristwatches for like 500 bucks.


Good luck!

 

[TheBrew]

Thanks, but the problem is that I have a Gamestop Giftcard so I am forced to go through them.

 

[TheBrew]

I managed to get an Elite with 2 controllers for $200; I would call that a win.

 

[JonathonWally]

Seems to be doing ok with the component cables for the time being.