Minor 360 dashboard update causing RROD (supposedly)

[Jim Steele]

http://www.electricpig.co.uk/2009/02/05/xbox-360-update-causing-rrod/

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2009/02/06/nxe_patch_rrod/

I'm a bit skeptical that such a tiny fix for a less-than-ubiquitous problem is causing such a critical hardware failure across the board, but it does seem to have affected too many people to be a coincidence.

Now though I'm worried about accepting this "mandatory" update in case it shitbricks mine too. I've never had any problems with my 'box in 12 months, but still.

Has anyone accepted the patch? Any problems at all?

Also, why the hell is an update like this "mandatory"? That's absurd. If it were a PC, would you install patches to fix issues you didn't even have? Most 360s don't even have HDMI ports, and of them, not all of them are being used. Of those, not all of them are using HDMI for audio (I myself use HDMI and optical). Of those, not everyone was getting the sound issues.

Why the hell does EVERYONE need to install this, Microsoft? Assholes.

 

[firehawk12]

I updated and haven't experienced any problems yet.

 

[CommanderTrip]

I patched it a short while ago, and my xbox does seem to be freezing up/lagging a bit recently.....

hasn't RROD yet. I'm hopeful if there is a problem, microsoft will fix it soon.

 

[Mistral]

I patched on Wed night and played COD5 for 4 hours-no issues for me or my buddies. It could depend on which chip set you have, too. Dunno, first I'd heard about it....

 

[Haggis and tatties]

Thank god I have not had the 360 online recently so i have yet to update it, but seeing as I'm letting my gold sub lapse back to silver next month for the foreseeable future I'm not really bothered about connecting to xblive anymore..

 

[MyCylon]

Haven't been online for a while myself which seems to be a good thing.

 

[Twilight]

I updated my 360 yesterday - no issues, everything worked fine afterwards.

I wasn't having the HDMI problem anyway, though, so the update wasn't necessary (but it is mandatory).

disclaimer: okay, I haven't tested *everything* on the 360 post-update. Netflix specifically (which apparently may have issues after the update). I'll check it out. ("everyday" operation - operating the menus, playing a game, etc. worked fine though).

 

[Rii]

Also, why the hell is an update like this "mandatory"? That's absurd. If it were a PC, would you install patches to fix issues you didn't even have? Most 360s don't even have HDMI ports, and of them, not all of them are being used. Of those, not all of them are using HDMI for audio (I myself use HDMI and optical). Of those, not everyone was getting the sound issues.

Why the hell does EVERYONE need to install this, Microsoft? Assholes.

They probably want to maintain a consistent software platform across all machines, makes things easier for both developers and Microsoft themselves. Besides, do you really want to dig through the XBL equivalent of Windows Update?

 

[Arrqh]

Every time there's a patch or a major game release people's 360's die and it's blamed on the patch/game. I think it's more selection bias than anything else.

 

[Jim Steele]

Also, why the hell is an update like this "mandatory"? That's absurd. If it were a PC, would you install patches to fix issues you didn't even have? Most 360s don't even have HDMI ports, and of them, not all of them are being used. Of those, not all of them are using HDMI for audio (I myself use HDMI and optical). Of those, not everyone was getting the sound issues.

Why the hell does EVERYONE need to install this, Microsoft? Assholes.

They probably want to maintain a consistent software platform across all machines, makes things easier for both developers and Microsoft themselves. Besides, do you really want to dig through the XBL equivalent of Windows Update?

True, but the .AAC and .MP4 update was optional, why not this?

Perhaps it's just my PC-maintenence instincts getting the better of me, but I still cannot abide the idea of installing an HDMI fix on a machine that doesn't even have an HDMI port.

I mean, think about it, if there was a BIOS patch for your motherboard that specifically fixed an incompatibility with S3 graphics cards, but you were happily using an Nvidea card, would you install it?

Every time there's a patch or a major game release people's 360's die and it's blamed on the patch/game. I think it's more selection bias than anything else.

That's what I'm thinking. I'm inclined to believe that over the idea that a wee patch can cause a catastrophic hardware fault, but still, the stories I'm reading are worrying.

 

[Sheep]

Every time there's a patch or a major game release people's 360's die and it's blamed on the patch/game. I think it's more selection bias than anything else.

Exactly what I was going to say. In all likelihood, an RROD happening during a patch update is bad timing and a coincidence.

 

[gh4chiefs]

Well I got back into the 360 world a little over a month ago. I got one of the new "Jasper" units. And up until 2 nights ago, I wasn't having any issue and was pretty happy with it. Now since the update, it's locked up on me 2 nights in a row.

Could be a coincidence, could be a bug in Fallout. But I'd been playing Fallout for some time without any issues, but after the update, then the freezes started.

 

[Mistral]

Well I got back into the 360 world a little over a month ago. I got one of the new "Jasper" units. And up until 2 nights ago, I wasn't having any issue and was pretty happy with it. Now since the update, it's locked up on me 2 nights in a row.

Could be a coincidence, could be a bug in Fallout. But I'd been playing Fallout for some time without any issues, but after the update, then the freezes started.

Did you load the Alaskan DLC? I've heard about freezing with that. You should have heard my buddy, Duke, cursing about it the other night...

ed.-went to IGN360 and Team Xbox and couldn't find a word about RRODs caused by patch....

 

[Jim Steele]

Just took the plunge. No RROD (yet... ). Played 15 mins of geometry wars but that's by no means a proper test. I guess an hour or five of Oblivion will put it through its paces.

 

[gh4chiefs]

Did you load the Alaskan DLC? .

No, I didn't download that, I'm just playing the regular game. The first time it happened, was later in the evening after downloading the update. I didn't give it much thought, (afterall 360s do that) but the next day I heard this story about the patch and hardware problems and I thought "Hmm." But again, I didn't really think too much about it.

But now, after the second freeze up in as many nights, I'm a little concerned. Before the update, it ran fine, now it doesn't. I need to put fallout aside and play Gears 2 I guess and see what it does because I have heard complaints about FO being buggy. Although as I said, I had not had any issues with it UNTIL the update.

 

[Jim Steele]

TBH I'd put that down to Bethesda's famous buggy-ass coding rather than the patch, and pure luck that you hadn't had any crashes until now.

 

[gh4chiefs]

Well I hope that's what it is. Just when I was learning to forgive Microsoft for my previous RROD, I start having issues again. But if it's just the game, I guess that's not so bad.

 

[CaptJimboJones]

As has been noted, every single update or popular new game spurs hysterical "OMG IT ROOINED MYXOBOX!!11 RROD@!!!!" complaints. And it's pretty much always just a coincidence - someone happens to get the RROD at the time of the patch or when they start playing a game.

The 360 does indeed have inherent hardware problems that caused RROD issues at an unacceptable level, and Microsoft deserves all the criticism for that. Still, if you're unit is well-venilated and allowed to cool periodically during marathon game sessions, most users won't have any problems.

 

[Captain Shaw]

My brothers xbox which he got for xmas has just got the ring of death he installed the update yesterday.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I installed the patch as soon as it came up, then played Fallout 3 afterwards, and it crashed 3 times in quick succession, in the exact same spot of the game, so I saved it right before that spot and tried again and it went straight past it. So I don't know what to think.