
For at least one gamer, the otherwise disappointing Chromehounds turned out to be a killer app -- as in it killed his 360:
I know you have covered the freezing in chromehounds, but I have something new. Not only did chromehounds freeze my box, but after i kept on trying to play it, i had to turn the box off, and then when i turned it back on there were three red lights in the ring of power (positions 1, 3, 4 while vertical). Turns out i cant play my 360 even with the game out, or with any other games.
Coincidence? Hopefully. I shudder to ask if this has happened to anybody else.
[Thanks Tim]





Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-30-2006 @ 2:14PM
Mtt16690 said...
This happened to me. It (the 360) was fine, I was on Oblvion, and the Demo finished, so I went to play it, the 360 crashed and it hasn't worked since!
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7-30-2006 @ 2:16PM
xMDKx x36Ox said...
OMG you got the ring of death
well you need to get it replaced and it will probably take about a month or longer
i knew there was something wrong with that game so i didnt play it and now i hear all these reports about everyone getting screwed either with freezing or breaking out right and need for a new console.
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7-30-2006 @ 2:20PM
Tim Sonderman said...
I would get it replaced right away, but I'm a high-schooler and the warranty is already expired so I don't know if i have the money to right now.
(note: I am the victim in the story)
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7-30-2006 @ 2:25PM
KingOfGods said...
I think it was more of an underlying hardware issue that just wasn't apparent before or he never paid any attention to. I think eventually the box would have given him the red lights and playing Chrome Hounds brought the problem out.
I know someone whose box was fine (although it did freeze every now and then) until he installed final fantasy XI then it continuously froze after 2 days so he had to send it in.
Most likely a coincidence.
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7-30-2006 @ 2:32PM
puh_fifer said...
I call coincidence, but I still think the warranty is too short. Also, the frequency of 360's taking a shit is too high. As someone who had to wait 3 weeks for a replacement, just to have that break, I feel your pain.
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7-30-2006 @ 2:59PM
Ficklecriminal said...
Yeah, but not everyone who's 360 works fine makes posts about it...it is just expected for them...however those who troll these message boards and have had a 360 crap out on them will def. post and complain about it. The result? We read about all the horror stories and nearly none of the normal stories. My 360 has worked fine since purchase (knock on wood. ;))
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7-30-2006 @ 3:34PM
Wayne Ancell said...
My 360 just died last week playing Frogger....go figure. I did by the extra coverage from Microsoft though. Not too pleased as they shipped the box for me to send out for repair 3 day select and it is going back to them that way too plus the return trip back once they fix or replace it. That is 9 days alone in shipping time which blocks chunks. Most plans I have gotten for equipment usually ship using overnight. Hopefully it will be back before Dead Rising comes out.
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7-30-2006 @ 3:52PM
Moab Bomb said...
I have a game center using nine 360s and 8 of the original Xboxen (originally 16 originals). We have never had a black unit fail (a few dvd drives died, certainly) to the point where it had to be sent back. 4 of our 9 360s have had to be sent back, with turnaround time ranging from 1 week to 3 weeks. 3 of the failed 360s were from the Zero Hour Launch event. I sure as hell hope Microsoft has the bugs worked out-my livelihood kind of depends on it.
Chromehounds is most likely NOT the culprit.
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7-30-2006 @ 4:16PM
Brian said...
Only 9 days - you are lucky I am on day 14 and STILL waiting for UPS to collect my xbox360. Microsoft support don't seem to care and what can I say about UPS that would be printable.
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7-30-2006 @ 7:21PM
xINTENSORx said...
OMG.... THE GAME DID NOT KILL YOUR XBOX 360 GAMES JUST DON'T KILL YOU JUST HAVE HAD A BAD XBOX 360
IT'S NOT THE GAME IT'S YOU XBOX
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7-30-2006 @ 8:15PM
Adam said...
This happened to me too with Chromehounds. I chocked it up to coincidence; was really glad that I bought the extended warranty with Best Buy.
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7-30-2006 @ 9:37PM
BovineDeath said...
A game cannot cause hardware problems. And for the record, Chromehounds is a brilliant game online, the single player is basically training for Live! play. There are a couple of bad bugs, but at least rent this game and give it a go. Once you join a squad and start playing online, you'll have a blast.
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7-30-2006 @ 10:24PM
MK84 said...
Interesting... the same happened to me with ChromeHounds. I've never had any problems with other games.
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7-30-2006 @ 11:37PM
djphatjive said...
Weird. I have never had my Xbox 360 do anything wrong. I have had it sence 12/20/05. I installed it and havent touched it sence. I mean I play it like 3 hours a day. But I have not moved it from its spot. I think people here think the xbox is a freaking GameBoy or PSP and move it all the time and stuff gets loose. STOP TOUCHING IT. Its a freaking computer. A console, it is not a laptop or Gameboy or PSP or anything that should move from upright to flat to your brothers room to downstairs to your friends house. Thats why it breaks. STOP MOVING IT!!!! You know you do it. Don't even tell me you don't.
Hell my xbox still looks new and my games look new. I can tell how people treat there Xbox's because of the used games I buy at gamestop. There cases are all beat up, look like they were ran over. I mean what the hell are you doing with the cases? Probably the same thing you do to your 360. Throw it into your backpack and take it over to your moms boysriends trailer to hook up to his 13 inch tv. My game cases are clean brand new. STOP MOVING THOSE TOO!!!!!!
There I'm done!
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7-31-2006 @ 9:11AM
T3chnic133 said...
While it may be coincidence that some of the consoles are dying when a new software element is introduced there does seem to be a growing number of coincidences. Before everyone gets all hostile and we start throwing posts back and forth. Let us say for the sake of argument that certain games and/or updates come with software updates to the console. Such as those found with the PSP, as is my understanding and can be completely wrong. Nevertheless, if that is true than it could be said that the software updates don’t take to certain sets of hardware as they should. Because there is documented proof that all 360s are not created equally [http://www.xbox360fanboy.com/2006/03/11/germans-foiled-again/]. Now, while these are minor discrepancies and can solely pertain to the heatsyncs it can not rule out that there could be other minor variances in the hardware. It’s nothing as major as different GPUs or whatever else but the possibility is there.
Personally, I got my unit launch and I had my unit die after the dashboard update, and just like djphatjive I didn’t move the unit at all. I didn’t even touch the thing and just operated it via the remote and controller. I did have to pay to get it replaced costed about $150[cdn] and a week but they said it would be about 10 business days.
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8-01-2006 @ 12:50PM
Brian said...
Holy Shoot! This happened last night with Prey for me. I played the demo before with no problems. Deleted the Demo and bought the game. Upon selecting new game. It locked up and wouldn't shut down. I used the media remote to turn the system off. Then it wouldn't turn on with the media remote. I used the power button on the console and I got the same lights 1,3,4. I ejected Prey and rebooted. Went into the memory manager of the harddrive and deleted the partial save it made. Rebooted, put the game back in and it worked. Scared the crap out of me.
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8-01-2006 @ 4:07PM
DjDATZ said...
this also happened to me with fifa 2006 (the newer one)...i called them tuesday night...weds morning my box showed up...i packed up my console...sent it off thurs night as the last shipment...friday morning i got an email from them saying my console was recieved...friday afternoon i got an email saying it was repaired and shipped...and monday morning the console was at my door...had this not hit a weekend it wud have been a 5 day turn-around time...except for the cost...the service was phenominal...
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8-01-2006 @ 10:55PM
Jim said...
I bought my Xbox360 on Jan 1 2006. I have never had a single problem. I keep the console and power supply well ventilated and have never had any problems freezing. Sure enough, I put Chromehounds in it last Saturday night and it freezes up on me during the first opening scene. I turn the console off and back on again resulting in a similar freeze up. This time after I turn it off and back on again I get the 3 red lights. After unplugging everything and replugging it back, nothing works. I'm stuck with the 3 red lights and a fried 360. All I'm saying is that I have a perfectly good working 360 without ever having any problems and then I put Chromehounds in it and now it is fried. Well I guess I'm stuck paying $130 just so I can finish Oblivian.
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8-02-2006 @ 7:36PM
scolly said...
ofcourse software can trigger a hardware fault.
If for example the graphics chip is prone to overheating games that offload a lot work to GPU are likely to cause the chip to overheat
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