Back in September of 2007, shortly before the release of
Halo 3, I finally took the plunge and bought an Xbox 360. I did my research, though. I had heard of the rampant failures of launch 360s, and I wanted to do everything I could to prevent it. I wanted to make sure I got a 360 with the Falcon chipset, with a 65 nm CPU. And since they had just come out, I went out of my way to find a 360 with it.
I had heard that the Jasper chipset was in the works, that made the CPU
and the GPU are shrunken down to 65 nm. But I didn't want to wait. So I grabbed a 360 Pro with HDMI out, and it has been making me happy for a year and a half now. Certainly, I have had a
fear in the back of my mind the whole time, but I have taken care of my 360, kept it in a well-ventilated area, and even adorned it with a custom faceplate so it is too happy to act up.
My fears elevated a week or two ago when
Necros's Gmail status message mentioned having gotten the red ring. I blooped him about it, apparently he also made sure to buy a Falcon 360, and his crapped out. A few days ago while playing the underappreciated
EndWar, my 360 froze up. I held my breath, as I always do, as I restarted it and it worked fine. Not ten minutes into playing some more, it froze again. For the past two days now, I have been able to turn it on, and play for five or so minutes before having it freeze.
It's a frustrating place to be in, because after reading around the Internet, I had determined that it was coming. Classic symptoms showed up, constant freezing accompanied by a weird short static sound, and no help by clearing my hard drive's cache. But for two days, all my 360 would do is boot up and freeze. It wasn't until this morning that it started freezing mere
seconds after turning it on. I figured this was it. I stressed it. I turned it on and off over and over. I would rather have the red rings and be able to send it in for repair than have a 360 that freezes constantly.
And then it happened. The Red Ring of Death. Jeff from
Earthbound has never looked so unhappy. I'll be calling Microsoft this afternoon. So now, I am wondering if maybe I should have held out for the Jasper chipset. But then, will we be hearing similar stories a year from now about Jasper?
This sounds like my system. I bought it about the same time. Mine is the Halo 3 edition in Gunmetal Green. I'm sure that doesn't make a difference. Is there a way to determine what I've got inside?
So sorry for your loss. My sincerest condolences.
I believe all of the Halo 3 systems had Falcon chipsets, yes. Given the proximity of Necros and my purchases and our 360s crapping out, it's almost like these things are on a timer. I really hope yours doesn't go though. What will we do if both of our 360s are dead?
Poor Jeff :(
Oh man, oh man, oh man. I'm freaking out that my 360 is going to go the way of the Dodo bird. Maybe we could all buy PS3's?
@Dexter:
Get it fixed and play just the exclusives for it and ignore everything. Play multi-platform releases on your other system or play the Wii.
I've found if I barely play my 360 it doesn't RROD.
FALCOOOOOON PUUUUUUUNCH
sorry that's all I can contribute to this, but what's up with the Earthbound 360? Is that custom?
I bet the Jasper units are going to be RRoD/E74 prone too... I'm not putting faith in hoping a 4th wave of system parts are going to be any more reliable than the first 3.
Otherwise, yeah do what Yojimbo said, cuz its what I do too. Exclusives and heavy multiplayer games go to my 360, just about everything else goes to my PS3.
It sucks Dexter. It really does. I could never play the 360 because of said fear.
Dude, sorry.
By the way. That earthbound faceplate is WIN!
Dexter, is there a way to check if your system has the Falcon chipset? I bought my system in December 2007 and my system has stuttered a few times lately, so think mine might be on the way out too.
well that sucks, sorry to hear that man. I was hoping to hold out for Jasper, but there weren't any when my first one E79'd.
You are caring me. I too have the halo 3 diarrhea green version with falcon.
I use it heavily since a ps3 is hard to find for free.
I read a blog by Qraze and started to vacuum at the vent ports, I assume its the only thing keeping it alive.
And I dont have a warranty either.... will I have to drop $100???
FUCK.
*scaring
Goddammit, we we're just talking about this the other day, Dexter. I did the exact the same thing as you: I bought my 360 about a year and a half ago and made sure to get the Falcon chipset with the HDMI out. This is disturbing news... I'm no longer safe.
Awesome faceplate btw. I need a faceplate; my 360 is currently the proud owner of a Destructoid sticker... and some dust.
@Diverse: Yeah, it's custom. I commissioned it from free_touch.
@Y0j1mb0: The problem I have now is that almost all of my games are for the 360. I can't abandon it now. Plus, my PSN friend list is sadly barren. Perhaps I should get single player games on the PS3 from now on, but I really do prefer playing on my 360. When it plays. Unlike right now.
@Icarus, there are ways that involve opening up your 360, but I think if you have an HDMI port on your 360, and you bought it in December 2007, then you've got the Falcon chipset. I could be wrong.
Hmmm, I will keep an eye on it then, although I don't think there is much I could do either way. Anyways, sorry that your system died, but hopefully it will be fixed quickly.
Sorry for your loss :(
That faceplate is awesome though!
Just goes to show that you cannot trust Microsoft when they say they fixed the problem, after which they further fix the problem. I'll make due, since I always have a giant backlog of games that reach back several years ago, but I feel cut off in the meantime.
@ Icarus
If you have a lot number of 734 or higher and a manufacturing date from around the beginning of September and forward, than you have a Falcon. Anything earlier is a Zephyr (Elite chip) or a Xenon (original chip). I think you can find this on the box, but I remember when I was looking for mine around the end of October '07, Microsoft had actually printed up additional labels without a lot number and started pasting them over the original box labels, presumably to keep people from only buying those systems and leaving the rest.
@ Yojimbo
I just can't. I know it's probably safer to buy my games on PS3, but the whole system of Live, achievements, a consistent gamercard, and all my Xbox Live friends, plus a preference for the 360 controller, means that I buy every multi-platform game for 360. Now I just hope they refund me a month of Live for the time my system will be gone.
The RRoD comes from terrible Motherboard design. Untill they fix that, which would require a whole redesign of the MoBo. So RRoD will never go away completely.
They can probably reduce the incidence rate, but all 360s will have this sword of damocles hanging over them.
This is why I'm afraid to play DVDs on my Xbox. I know it's a 'when' not an 'if'.
@Necros
Well as it turns out my 360 doesn't have an HDMI port (I never noticed because I don't have an HD TV) and the manufacturing date was actually back in 2006, which means I probably have the original chipset. My parents were the ones who picked it up, so there wasn't much I could have done even if I had known that at the time. I guess I should be glad it lasted this long.
You know, I would have bought a 360 if it wasn't for the RRoD.
Sorry to hear the news dude. I give you my condolences.
I want that faceplate!
Also, sorry..
:(
If you guys really want a sweet faceplate, hit up free_touch for one. He does fantastic work at totally reasonable prices.
Poor dex :(, I know how it feels.
I want that faceplate! Where did you get that from?
:( Welcome to the Club, you can get your shirt here: http://www.splitreason.com/productdetail.php?id=468
[img]=http://www.splitreason.com/Product_Images/aaba5c94b460.jpg[img]
DAMN BBcode!!!
[img]=http://www.splitreason.com/Product_Images/aaba5c94b460.jpg[/img]
Nevermind, I give up :'(
that's a load of suck!
Ugh, I also waited to get the Falcon chipset (Halo 3 edition like Kyle). This news depresses me to no end :(
Being on 360 number 5 has kinda scared me away from it, I've been playing my PS2 mostly and occasionally buying a killer app here and there but for the most part I've all but abandoned my 360.
That is the best faceplate ever conceived.
This shit scares me to no end. I make a concerted effort not to touch my 360 too much when I deal with it so it lives another day. Its a sensitive fellow.
My condolences. At least its not an e74. I hear that is the new rrod.
Awesome faceplate, Dex. Sorry for your loss.
But I guess this means the problem with the 360 is coming from elsewhere besides a simple chip overheating. It really should have been something they fixed years ago when the problem first started by doing one thing in particular: providing the 360 with a much bigger heat sink to draw heat away from the motherboard, which is causing all these problems in the first place. Why they refuse to even acknowledge this is a possible fix when modders have proven it works well is beyond me.
Sorry to hear it, man.
But regarding the comments from you and Necros: I (begrudgingly) give props to Microsoft. They've managed to create a system around the Xbox 360 that's so well-designed that it keeps gamers coming back, even after multiple RRODs. I literally cannot fathom that (Achievements? Really?), but then, I've never owned a 360 (and I don't really care about Trophies). If it were me, though, I'd definitely switch over to the PS3. I'm pretty sure my PSN friends list has over 50 people on it...
Samit: It's because they replace it for free!
I'm on my third 360. The first one I got had a ridiculous amount of disc-reading errors on day one, and I got a new one from Circuit City (RIP). The second one got the errors a few months in, and I sent it in and got a new one. This current one is doing the same exact thing, to the point where I have to install games if I want to play them. I might have to get a fourth.