Support NeoGAF

[The Elite]

"GRAW bricks 360s!"
"Dead Rising bricks 360s!"
"Lost Planet bricks 360s!"
"Crackdown bricks 360s!"
"GRAW2 bricks 360s!"
"Guitar Hero 2 bricks 360s!"

I'm starting to think it's all just a coincidence and people's 360 are just happening to die when they start new games.

Considering how fast 360s are dying, you are probably right.

 

[Dr_Cogent]

I don't believe this news.

 

[Shnookums]

didn't brick mine

*shrug*

 

[valkillmore]

People don't seem to have any idea what "bricking" is.

"Bricking" implies that some aspect of the system bios or firmware is corrupted, and thus the machine stops turning on ENTIRELY. Software patches have nothing to do with the system firmware. At worst, this patch/update may be causing a corruption in the files cached to the harddrive, and may likely be remedied by deleting and redownloading the file.

it can't suprise you to find out that nobody knows what it is, right? the term is basically synonymous with corrupt files/non-loading or starting systems at this point. the fact that the term has been thrown around so often when talking about malfunctioning 360s telling enough. i mean i wasn't familiar with that description you just gave, and thank you for that, by the way.

reports like this make me VERY wary of buying an Xbox 360.

 

[waxer]

No diferent to clocking a game.

 

[AtomicShroom]

Coincidence. It's like every popular 360 game and every update ever breaks 360's. The truth is: They break by themselves. It just so happened that these people's 360's were on the verge of dying before applying the patch.

 

[godhandiscen]

Everytime I see these threads I feel like my 360 is invincible since none of the things people talk about happen to me. Then I remember everybody in my friends list (almost 30 people from my university which I know in person, and the rest 20+ just random) have a 360 and none of them has had any problem even once. Or else they would have come to us to fix them since we are a group of computer science and computer engineering students (we have opened a couple 360's before for modding purposes). I guess we all are "lucky".

 

[Safe Bet]

"Microsoft just doesn't have the DNA it requires to build quality hardware."

- Peter Moore

 

[Gatecrasher]

I played the updated GHII for about three hours last night and everything was working fine.

 

[maxmars]

"Microsoft just doesn't have the DNA it requires to build quality hardware."

- Peter Moore

Actually the quality of their peripherals has always been outstanding.. It's the 360 to be the unfortunate exception.

 

[Agent Icebeezy]

"Microsoft just doesn't have the DNA it requires to build quality hardware."

- Peter Moore

The first Xbox was built like a tank

 

[Haunted]

The first Xbox was built like a tank

...literally.

 

[shuri]

Games and patches most certainly can brick a system, but not in the way that people complain that they do.

As time goes on, new software pushes the machine harder and in new ways. The fact is that machines which get the red ring were ALWAYS broken. It just took a new programming technique to trip the switch and kill it.
.

Please stop posting in technical threads plskthx

 

[seanoff]

I'm not a great believer in games taking consoles down but I do think they have more problems with the 360 then they are letting on. The official thread here doesn't make good reading.

Could be one or all three of these things

1 small but significant design flaw

2 cheaped out on the parts somewhere

3 cheaped out on the manufacturing

It will come out eventually, MS leak like a sieve.

 

[Safe Bet]

The first Xbox was built like a tank

Which was completely outsourced and therefore a moneypit, correct?

I'm not trying to pick a fight or claim the 360 is built poorly. I'm just trying to throw some of Peter's words back at him.

 

[Finncognito]

...literally.

No, not "literally", because tanks aren't small and plastic.

 

[krypt0nian]

Which was completely outsourced and therefore a moneypit, correct?

I'm not trying to pick a fight or claim the 360 is built poorly. I'm just trying to throw some of Peter's words back at him.

I'm sure he's heartbroken.

 

[automagnus]

"Microsoft just doesn't have the DNA it requires to build quality hardware."

- Peter Moore

It's shame too since all the Microsoft mice, keyboards, controllers, XBOX1, etc are great pieces of hardware but they just can't make a decent 360 manufacturing process.

edit: my friend has gone throw 3 yeah thats right 3 360's bricking on him since launch. Although MS has replaced all of them free of charge because he got the extended warranty.

 

[Eric WK]

Ok, I'm not downloading this patch. Thanks for the heads up.

Same.

 

[HocusPocus]

Got the patch and no problems for me. Played Guitar Hero 2 for about an hour last night after I got it and another hour this morning.

 

[TobitheCat]

Nintendo Wiis and PS3s are made in China as well...

They're made in the good part of China where white collar men work 20 hours a week assembling them by hand and then go to play golf (or whatever Chinese folks do after work) afterward.

Thus the excellent craftsman ship of the PS3 and Wii.

 

[Safe Bet]

I'm sure he's heartbroken.

I'm sure he's not since Heart Removal is the first step required in becoming a Microsoft employee.

 

[Madman]

"GRAW bricks 360s!"
"Dead Rising bricks 360s!"
"Lost Planet bricks 360s!"
"Crackdown bricks 360s!"
"GRAW2 bricks 360s!"
"Guitar Hero 2 bricks 360s!"

I'm starting to think it's all just a coincidence and people's 360 are just happening to die when they start new games.

I can say that a friend of mine bought it, and is having major locking up problems. Time to tell him the news...

 

[Vicious]

Played the game for a couple hours last night after DLing the patch and have had no problems. I didn't even need the patch since my guitar worked fine in the first place.

 

[watership]

Read the thread at xbox.com bud, this is not isolated.

Also, you must not frequent the hardware discussion boards there; updates to all sorts of games have been bricking 360s for a LONG time now.

Posts on a message board is exactly what isolated means to me.

 

[Mojovonio]

i'm really not surprised.

 

[koam]

Throw in the towel, it's all over

 

[krypt0nian]

I heard the GH2 update gives you rectal cancer too. Spread the word.

 

[plagiarize]

It's shame too since all the Microsoft mice, keyboards, controllers, XBOX1, etc are great pieces of hardware but they just can't make a decent 360 manufacturing process.

edit: my friend has gone throw 3 yeah thats right 3 360's bricking on him since launch. Although MS has replaced all of them free of charge because he got the extended warranty.

i can't help but think that with all these people going through numerous 360s that part of the problem is environmental. not that these people are to blame, but that the 360 doesn't do well in environments that other consoles do.

mine sits out on a piece of glass with plenty of ventilation and it's a launch model and i've never had problems with it. my brother in laws died in his room that is a lot warmer than mine, but he's never had problems with his other consoles.

i just think perhaps the tolerance on it isn't as good as many other consoles... because it seems like people who have one break often have another break, or you have one and it doesn't break ever.

 

[Speevy]

Microsoft will recall the 360, Sony will discontinue the PS3, and Nintendo will win.

 

[FLEABttn]

i can't help but think that with all these people going through numerous 360s that part of the problem is environmental. not that these people are to blame, but that the 360 doesn't do well in environments that other consoles do...i just think perhaps the tolerance on it isn't as good as many other consoles...

Which would be caused by...shitty hardware/manufacturing.

 

[Speevy]

I see an opportunity!

Contest: Can you rock your 360 into hardware failure?

 

[Norml]

Its seems like there is a brick code hidden in updates. Not cool.

 

[The Faceless Master]

The first Xbox was built like a tank

except for those faulty fire hazard foxlink power supplies

 

[Lo-Volt]

Throw in the towel, it's all over

:lol

 

[Robobandit]

Played for hours after getting the patch. No issues here

 

[Mojovonio]

do you guys ever wonder what the peopel covering the vocals for these tracks look like?

the guy in Monkey Wrench sounds so much like Dave Grohl, I'd imagine him looking like him.

 

[soul creator]

Throw in the towel, it's all over

"clever girl"

Spoiler

you're probably not a girl but you get the point

 

[soul creator]

do you guys ever wonder what the peopel covering the vocals for these tracks look like?

the guy in Monkey Wrench sounds so much like Dave Grohl, I'd imagine him looking like him.

there's a behind the scenes video you can buy in the in-game store...it shows a few of the people vocalists for the game. Don't remember if the monkey wrench guy was shown though.

 

[BboyDubC]

do you guys ever wonder what the peopel covering the vocals for these tracks look like?

the guy in Monkey Wrench sounds so much like Dave Grohl, I'd imagine him looking like him.

There's a bonus video, and they actually show the guy covering monkey wrench, along with a lot of other people doing the covers. You can buy it from the in-game store.

 

[Core407]

Doesn't every major game ever "brick 360s"? If it sells well, the inevitable reports of bricking can't be far behind.

This problem seems exclusive to the 360 community.

 

[jedimike]

I don't understand why people wouldn't downoad the patch... I DID download it and my whammy bar works MUCH better. I was actually going to take my guitar apart and fix it, but now I don't have to


I'm one of those who bleieve the patch itself can't hurt your console.

 

[InterMoniker]

People don't seem to have any idea what "bricking" is.

"Bricking" implies that some aspect of the system bios or firmware is corrupted, and thus the machine stops turning on ENTIRELY. Software patches have nothing to do with the system firmware. At worst, this patch/update may be causing a corruption in the files cached to the harddrive, and may likely be remedied by deleting and redownloading the file.

Well if you can't get your 360 back on how are you going to delete and redownloading the file?

This problem seems exclusive to the 360 community.

:lol

Can't wait 'till the billions of "Halo 3 bricked my console!!" posts.

........................... it'll happen but "the console will die on it's own not from the game"

 

[tempestb]

It's not a hardware failure. Some of the 360's from a certain manufacturing line have a memory leak that corrupts the flash RAM. When the patches happen (For any game, not just Guitar Hero) certain 360's risk reaching some sort of threshhold in their flash RAM which causes it to corrupt. In some cases, some folks can continue to use their 360 for awhile, until they hit that memory address and then it dies again.

Microsoft takes the systems back, sends you a refurb, and reflashes the RAM in the old console and sends those back out as well.

This is why some folks get bricked systems 2, 3, 4 times in a row, because they continue to run the same programs on the machines, which causes the flash ram to corrupt.

Although, obviously, in some cases it is an actual hardware component failure. But by and large, the issue is the flash ram getting corrupted.

K

 

[Manp]

 

[gcfan2k5]

It's not a hardware failure. Some of the 360's from a certain manufacturing line have a memory leak that corrupts the flash RAM. When the patches happen (For any game, not just Guitar Hero) certain 360's risk reaching some sort of threshhold in their flash RAM which causes it to corrupt. In some cases, some folks can continue to use their 360 for awhile, until they hit that memory address and then it dies again.

Microsoft takes the systems back, sends you a refurb, and reflashes the RAM in the old console and sends those back out as well.

This is why some folks get bricked systems 2, 3, 4 times in a row, because they continue to run the same programs on the machines, which causes the flash ram to corrupt.

Although, obviously, in some cases it is an actual hardware component failure. But by and large, the issue is the flash ram getting corrupted.

K

Game updates are stored on the harddrive in the games profile, not in the flash rom, the 360 dashboard itself is in flash rom, which is where dashboard updates go but GAME updates are stored in some of the reserved harddrive space.

 

[Insane Metal]

:lol

 

[SpacLock]

"GRAW bricks 360s!"
"Dead Rising bricks 360s!"
"Lost Planet bricks 360s!"
"Crackdown bricks 360s!"
"GRAW2 bricks 360s!"
"Guitar Hero 2 bricks 360s!"

I'm starting to think it's all just a coincidence and people's 360 are just happening to die when they start new games.

That's what i think too.

 

[Norml]

:lol Thats awesome ,Time magazine cover:lol

 

[gohepcat]

It's not a hardware failure. Some of the 360's from a certain manufacturing line have a memory leak that corrupts the flash RAM. When the patches happen (For any game, not just Guitar Hero) certain 360's risk reaching some sort of threshhold in their flash RAM which causes it to corrupt. In some cases, some folks can continue to use their 360 for awhile, until they hit that memory address and then it dies again.

Microsoft takes the systems back, sends you a refurb, and reflashes the RAM in the old console and sends those back out as well.

This is why some folks get bricked systems 2, 3, 4 times in a row, because they continue to run the same programs on the machines, which causes the flash ram to corrupt.

Although, obviously, in some cases it is an actual hardware component failure. But by and large, the issue is the flash ram getting corrupted.

K

Ohh boy.... It's interesting that people are posting these random things. It's like looking into the mind of a crazy person.