Electronic frustration! By FACE PLANT FOR LIFE (Read 2,649 times)

[FACE PLANT FOR LIFE]

I don't know how many of you do your own computer hardware work, but I am plagued with my Xbox 360 locking up. I have taken it apart 4 times and applied thermal paste 3 different times, and it still locks up. Gotta hate when you can't find a reason for something.

[richardv]

Ours is a throw away world. Replace it.

[Bashan]

Well I repair and build computers but I'm not familiar with those types of units. Does it have a solid state hard drive or a conventional like a laptop. Does it have an OS? If so there might be a built in diagnostic. Can you download programs to it? There's a program called Speccy that would tell you if it's running hot.

[FACE PLANT FOR LIFE]

May 22, 2014 18:26:23 GMT -6 richardv said:

Ours is a throw away world. Replace it.

Easy for you to say. Try being an 18 year old teenager with no active source of income.

May 22, 2014 19:43:58 GMT -6 Bashan said:

Well I repair and build computers but I'm not familiar with those types of units. Does it have a solid state hard drive or a conventional like a laptop. Does it have an OS? If so there might be a built in diagnostic. Can you download programs to it? There's a program called Speccy that would tell you if it's running hot.

They have a conventional hard drive, but I've already ruled out that being the problem, as Ive removed the hard drive, and it still locks up mid-game. The Xbox 360 runs Microsoft's Xbox 360 dashboard, and it is completely locked down with no sort of internal diagnostics. It cannot diagnose itself, and there are no programs to diagnose it because the Xbox 360 does not allow for programs to be run. The Xbox 360 is a console, not Windows

[Bashan]

Zeus Plant, you're 18?! You look like mid 20's or later! Maybe even 40. har Well is it physically getting hot to the touch? Most computers do an emergency shut down at a certain temp. It would be more the CPU that shuts them down but the HDD will do it to. The other thing that locks or shuts down is the RAM. Being a game I would think it needs a lot of RAM. If the RAM fills they lock. Does it have a RAM chip? Maybe you can upgrade these units with more RAM for the more resource hog games coming out now. Don't you love talking to older people? I'm listening to Slash right now, I'm serious, I grew up in the late 60's....well...I really never grew up

[cyborg]

Don't scare the poor boy stinky ol thing,,,geez you're even creepin me out and i've been married five times i thought i was uncreepable

[Bashan]

Oh you've never been married to me Vespa breath! Wait.....I need to rethink that one...never mind...I need a shower....

[Deleted]

May 22, 2014 19:59:57 GMT -6 FACE PLANT FOR LIFE said:

May 22, 2014 18:26:23 GMT -6 richardv said:

Ours is a throw away world. Replace it.

Easy for you to say. Try being an 18 year old teenager with no active source of income.

May 22, 2014 19:43:58 GMT -6 Bashan said:

Well I repair and build computers but I'm not familiar with those types of units. Does it have a solid state hard drive or a conventional like a laptop. Does it have an OS? If so there might be a built in diagnostic. Can you download programs to it? There's a program called Speccy that would tell you if it's running hot.

They have a conventional hard drive, but I've already ruled out that being the problem, as Ive removed the hard drive, and it still locks up mid-game. The Xbox 360 runs Microsoft's Xbox 360 dashboard, and it is completely locked down with no sort of internal diagnostics. It cannot diagnose itself, and there are no programs to diagnose it because the Xbox 360 does not allow for programs to be run. The Xbox 360 is a console, not Windows

im in your boat. no job as well.

its either getting too hot and locking, or RAM is filled as bashan said. is the cooling fan working?

[FACE PLANT FOR LIFE]

I should probably disclose something about the xbox 360. The motherboard had all it's core components SOLDERED on. It's not like a PC motherboard with interchangeable parts such as GPU and CPU. I do not believe that it is overheating nor is the ram filling up. The freeze will occur even on the main dashboard of the xbox, without any game running. So ram cannot be filled. It also runs very cool on the dashboard but stills locks up. I feel as though I have bad RAM chips in there.

[Deleted]

it could be a file is corrupted in the firmware. its hard to tell and its too bad everything is soldered so itts not realistically replaceable. a ram chip could have an intermittant fault.

[Bashan]

Very true Lantern, most firmware can be updated, did you go to their site and look for BIOS updates or anything like that? Most of them have support if you're a customer, or representing a customer. Rich.

[DrRocco]

My vote is for overheating. Take the board out of the case and hit it with an air compressor. Make sure all the vents in the case are clean, as well as the heat-sinks, fans, and any free space around IC's. If you need to de-solder components to clean them, it's not that hard to do. Once you get it "from the factory" clean, power it up outside of the case and monitor it. Watch the fans run. Feel individual components to check for heat. Also, sniff around in there...that's right...with your nose. More often than not, you can smell the fumes produced from something overheating. I suspect that after a thorough cleaning, you won't have issues. If you continue to have issues after that, I'd suspect some sort of secret Xbox software conflict. On a PC, a driver issue would be my next best guess. I'm sure the Xbox uses drivers or something similar. If it's locked down and you can't tinker with it, sell that sucker on Craiglist for $30...deliver some pizzas...buy a used one on Craigslist for $100.

[Deleted]

second what drRocco said sans the desoldering. unless you are good at desoldering and resoldering, dont take things off. some i/c's will have upwards of 80 pins and if you mess just one connection up its usually done.

blow it out good, make sure the fans up to snuff and your probably good to go as far as heat.

[Bashan]

The capacitors are little barrels that are all over the mobo, look at the top of them, if any of them are discolored, or sunken in, you are toast. Unless you are REALLY good at IDing parts and soldering, it's toast. Even if you replace a capacitor something usally made it blow to begin with...and will again. Rich

[Deleted]

May 22, 2014 21:42:18 GMT -6 Bashan said:

The capacitors are little barrels that are all over the mobo, look at the top of them, if any of them are discolored, or sunken in, you are toast. Unless you are REALLY good at IDing parts and soldering, it's toast. Even if you replace a capacitor something usally made it blow to begin with...and will again. Rich

sometimes you get lucky and they just used borderline temp components and you can replace em. especially caps. they like using ones that are barely good enough for the temp of the area theyre used in. esp. in power supplies