I honestly don't understand Microsoft's business strategy here.  They take a billion dollar (est.) hit to repair RRODs in order to regain consumer confidence, but at the very same time they fail to address a new problem that is spreading, fairly systematically, throughout their user base.  I love my 360 and I am a Microsoft fan but at the moment I must confess myself very confused.  If you're willing to spend a billion dollars to address a probelm, why not address ALL problems?  With E3 imminent, Microsoft should be doing everything it can to prevent technical issues from overshadowing its presentation.  My issue was described earlier in this thread so I will not repeat it here.  As I respect Microsoft I am attempting to keep this as civil as I can, but I have a few humble suggestions:

1.)  Acknowledge the problem; Tell us that they're aware of the issue and doing everything they can to fix it.  If days and weeks go by with no official response, it begins to look like a sort of cover-up, and if there is one thing that blogs like, it is a cover-up.

2.)  Extend the new warranty to those affected by this issue; If it does indeed turn out to be systemic then  Microsoft will, rightfully, take a lot of criticsm for failing to address the problem while it had, not only a chance, but a PERFECT opportunity.

3.)  Respect the consumer; Many of us who are having this issue are still Xbox loyalists, a fair number of which have had their consoles since launch (myself included) or shortly thereafter.  The negative symptoms resulting from alienating diehard fans like these will spread.  While brand recommendation rate remains high (I myself have convinced three friends to buy 360s and I know that this is not uncommon), this can change very easily.  The public is fickle and can support you one day, and spit on you the next.  Every effort should be made to please the 360 user base regarding these, apparently, widespread malfunctions.  It helps the fans; it helps the consumers; it helps Microsoft.  In short, and to use an awful cliche, don't bite the hand that feeds you.

4.) Fix the problem; this one essentially goes without saying, but if this issue continues to spread Microsoft will recieve even more negative press, especially considering the fact that it seems to be occuring at around the same time to users who are predominantly out of warranty.  I personally believe this to be a complete coincidence rather than a massive conspiracy, but broken expensive electronic equipment often makes imagination run wild.

   While I'm sure that these have been considered by the good people at Microsoft, they don't appear to be taking hold.  The main point is this: an issue exists, it is not limited to one or two consoles, and you have consumers attempting to recieve a certain error, just so they can get this one fixed without paying an exorbitant amount of money.  It is actually quite ridiculous when you look at it.  Well, theres my two (or four for length) cents.  Do with it what you will...

OK SAME THING HAPPENED TO ME
i just made a thread on it, and i got no replys.. Tried it with diffrent cables started working.. Keep in mind that this has been happening on and off for the last week.. Finally it hasnt turned on for the whole day just white dots...I have audio, tried on 3 diffrent tvs same thing.. Its not the cables there is deffinately something wrong with the video input im getting because the tints change while im playing( from a dark tint to light, to dark etc)  It has nothing to do with forza because it happened when i was playing rainbow 6 vegas, gears of war, and halo 2. There is DEFINATELY a huge problem that needs to be resolved quick because it seems like alsmot everyone has this issue at the SAME TIME!
of course no one on the xbox support line could help so im sending it in sometime this week.. luckily i dont have to pay because mines only a year old but still this is rediculous.. And what is the towel trick(for overheating problems)  i would like to try that.

add me to the list. it happened about a month ago. i was playin cc3 and just started the nod campaign. my tv was showing mostly red and pink on everything then it would go back to normal and then red. so i decided to turn my xbox 360 off and let it cool down even though i had the intercooler hooked up to keep it cool. when i turned it back on whala the hdtv showed no signal but i could hear the xbox 360 intro when you first turn it on. so i called xbox and they told me that my video processor went out and i need to pay 100 and somewhat dollars. this is bull and microsoft needs to get this crapped fixed and not fixed with our money.

Add another one to the list. I was watching a HD DVD the other day when all of a sudden the screen had a greenish hue to it. So I restarted my console. It was fine for a few minutes, then the green hue came back. When I restarted it again I had no picture but still had audio. I still have no picture as we speak.

I too am having this same problem. I first noticed it about 5 days ago when playing Splinter Cell Double Agent. I kept getting a green tint, particularly if I paused the game or looked at the map, which in both cases would bring up a heavily blue screen. It seemed to subside after a few minutes and get back to normal. It kept this up for a few days, and yesterday when I booted it up, nothing, nada, zip!! Just black screen with the white dots. Still get audio, but I wouldn't say that audio alone gives me the full xbox experience.

What hacks me off the most is that my xbox is 13 months old.......1 month ou of warranty. And because I don't get red lights, I'm guessing I won't get any of this 3 year warranty goodness, probably not helped by the fact that I don't have a receipt. I tried ringing xbox customer support UK today, but no answer.

I'm tempted to fart around with it to get these red lights. I mean what have I got to lose. How much does a core unit retail for these dayS???

http://forums.xbox.com/13728158/ShowPost.aspx   check out this thread.... I have a whole bunch of people flaming on me because of my veiws that the warranty is not enough and that because of tech issues if we go through 2 replacments then we should get a newly manufactured unit the third time if they say they fixed the issue i think giving the the chance 2x not count the 400 dollar entry fee to the rma process..This is mostly a video card issue which is a major hardware failure but what do you know it is not covered under warranty now????? I question this as it seems to be wide spread me I get scrolling lines that go every which way like I am using an rf cable and I am using an hd tv....I did notice that its is worse in 1080i mode but its accross all video modes and my tv is fine I spent 40 bucks on a new cable only to find its the 360.

why is this topic not on Page One of the forums? I don't want this topic to be pushed over to the side.. this is pretty serious.

GeneralGrey,

Actually, it simply looks like a growing issue because this thread has garnered so much attention because people tend to focus on threads with multiple post counts and post their similar concern there. If you have an issue with your console for this or any of the other concerns that pop up in this forum every once in a while such as "to play this disk place it in an Xbox 360 console", it is always best to contact Xbox Support so that we may assist in resolving the issue. If you decide not to call us just yet, please use the steps in one of the following articles below to resolve your issue as we already have solutions in place to help our customers when they experience any issue with an Xbox 360 console and their AV cable.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/907605/en-us

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/909335/en-us

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/907604/en-us

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/907603/en-us

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/937898/en-us

---

Visit Ask Xbox & Support.xbox.com.
Posts provided "as is" and confer no rights.

Are you kidding me?  Just "looks like" a growing issue?  Ours was less then 7 months old.  We got it for the kids for Christmas 2006.

I love the XBox 360, but I'm not kidding, this response caused me to sell our 350 (not a ton but still) shares of MSFT today.

Between June 22 and July 9 almost 175 posts and over 6000 views on the subject and it doesn't warrant a sticky??

I'm having the same problem.  XBOX's little help site is a bunch of crap, it's basically everything you have already done within 2 minutes of not being able to get it to work.  Thinks for nothing.  I think it's weird that everyone is having the same problem so close together.  I have a launch 360.  Does everyone else have an old 360?  Is this just ware and tear?  I JUST WANT A 360 THAT WORKS!  XBOX has the reliability of a Kia!!!

We also have the same problem here.  We have two 360s, one launch, and one from Nov. 2006.

 

Our launch 360 started displaying what looked almost like "cel shading" (I think someone else said the same thing a couple pages back) two days ago.  We rebooted the console to see if that would fix it, and we got the Black Screen of Death.  We always connect using the component cables, so I tried connecting the cable to our other 360 and it worked just fine (on the same television, with ALL the same settings).  So, looks like it's not the cable.  Just to be sure, we connected 360 #1 (the dead one) to the t.v. using the regular RCA type cables and got the black screen with white dots. Then, we connected it to my LCD using a VGA cable and got the Black Screen of Death.  There is no doubt that this problem has nothing to do with the cables (so the help articles above are no help).

 

We also tried rebooting repeatedly as a lot of other posters say to try, and still nothing.  We removed the HDD and rebooted, and still nothing.  We tried standing it up - nothing. Laying it on its side - still nothing.  We tried switching between HDTV and TV on the cable, and still nothing.  We tried resetting the video to default (holding Y and RT), and guess what? Still nothing but a big Black Screen of Death.

 

I would like to point out though, throughout this whole ordeal, the surround sound still works like a charm.  I guess that's something, at least.

 

Sure, we can still play on the other 360, but that's not much consolation - we need our launch consoled fixed! 

 

There was a time when a certain other of MSFT's products liked to give us the infamous Blue Screen of Death, and we were told, "every computer is a different and there's really nothing we can do about it."  Well, everyone's 360 is the same, and a whole lot of us are having the EXACT same problem all within a very short timeframe.  This is not just a handful of people with similar problems, this is a growing number of people with a very specific problem, with very specific symptoms.  I think it would be negligent on MSFT's part to ignore this.

 

It's been suggested to me by a friend - who had her 360 die the same way yesterday - that maybe this is a software issue. A lot of people said they were playing Forza 2 and GOW when this happened, and there have been updates to both these games recently.  What if, and this is a big (but not impossible) if, there was malicious/viral code accidentally embedded in one of these updates?  If the systematic symptoms were happening on PCs, that's the first thing people would assume - virus. 

 

I agree, it's highly unlikely that there is a virus causing this problem, but it's also highly unlikely that so many people would encounter the EXACT same problem so close together. 

 

Anyway, that's my 25 cents.. I guess Black is the new Blue.

---

http://angryrobot.ca/

 Airdrop01 wrote:

Between June 22 and July 9 almost 175 posts and over 6000 views on the subject and it doesn't warrant a sticky??

lol i have the msn child account think had over 500 posts way more views and i dont think it was sticky

...sigh...  I've got a blank screen too.

Not a launch 360, but a 5-month post-launch 360.  No problems whatsoever until now.

 Lucky 13 X wrote:

GeneralGrey,

Actually, it simply looks like a growing issue because this thread has garnered so much attention because people tend to focus on threads with multiple post counts and post their similar concern there. If you have an issue with your console for this or any of the other concerns that pop up in this forum every once in a while such as "to play this disk place it in an Xbox 360 console", it is always best to contact Xbox Support so that we may assist in resolving the issue. If you decide not to call us just yet, please use the steps in one of the following articles below to resolve your issue as we already have solutions in place to help our customers when they experience any issue with an Xbox 360 console and their AV cable.

 

I see where you're coming from and have browsed all the articles that you mentioned.  I feel that I should mention that I have tested my console on three different televisions with three different sets of av cables and two seperate hard-drives, all with the same result.  I would normally have contacted support immediately, however this happened the day before a 10-day "vacation" that I am still partaking in and I didn't want a box to arrive with me not home to pick it up.  I have tried to be as respectful as possible given the fact that I have a very expensive piece of hardware that I love dearly sitting unplayable on my shelf; I have not flamed, I have not cussed, I have not been unreasonable. To be issued a response seemingly comparing this issue to placing a disc in the console is borderline insulting to those affected by this problem.  I do, however, appreciate it.  As a Microsoft supporter and shareholder, I simply wanted to express my concerns in a somewhat coherent fashion, rather than launch into an "anti-M$, class-action lawsuit, conspiracy" tirade.

 Lucky 13 X wrote:

GeneralGrey,

Actually, it simply looks like a growing issue because this thread has garnered so much attention because people tend to focus on threads with multiple post counts and post their similar concern there. If you have an issue with your console for this or any of the other concerns that pop up in this forum every once in a while such as "to play this disk place it in an Xbox 360 console", it is always best to contact Xbox Support so that we may assist in resolving the issue. If you decide not to call us just yet, please use the steps in one of the following articles below to resolve your issue as we already have solutions in place to help our customers when they experience any issue with an Xbox 360 console and their AV cable.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/907605/en-us

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/909335/en-us

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/907604/en-us

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/907603/en-us

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/937898/en-us

IT has absolutely nothing to do with the cables because i have tried diffrent cables and the same problem pursues.. It either has to do with another overheating problem or a video card problem...

My symptoms have worsened over the last few days. The video used to come back after a few restarts, but now it can take as many as ten. At first I was getting diagonal purple lines on 720p and white dots/snow on 480i (switched inputs from component to RCA), but now all I get are very faint grey dots in 720p. I am at the point where I need to contact support. I purchased my box in october of 2006, so fortunately, it should still be under the full warrenty. I fear the red lights are not far off.

I'm still trying to figure out how this problem has affected so many people at the same time over such a wide variety of manufacture dates and usage time. Way too much of a coincidence. 

---

'True wisdom consists in knowing that you know nothing'
- Socrates

the thing about this that really steems my bean is that M$ is charging me $110 CDN to fix somthing that i did not make happen, i understand if i have to pay shipping, to me thats fair.

---

 iCaptain wrote:

can only one "tag" be used,

like if someone has T29 will there be other T29s out there?

 ProFeXionnnn wrote:

 Lucky 13 X wrote:

GeneralGrey,

Actually, it simply looks like a growing issue because this thread has garnered so much attention because people tend to focus on threads with multiple post counts and post their similar concern there. If you have an issue with your console for this or any of the other concerns that pop up in this forum every once in a while such as "to play this disk place it in an Xbox 360 console", it is always best to contact Xbox Support so that we may assist in resolving the issue. If you decide not to call us just yet, please use the steps in one of the following articles below to resolve your issue as we already have solutions in place to help our customers when they experience any issue with an Xbox 360 console and their AV cable.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/907605/en-us

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/909335/en-us

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/907604/en-us

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/907603/en-us

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/937898/en-us

IT has absolutely nothing to do with the cables because i have tried diffrent cables and the same problem pursues.. It either has to do with another overheating problem or a video card problem...

Then go ahead and give Xbox Support a call so we can look into your issue further and see if a repair is warranted.

And since it is becoming apparent that you guys would like to discuss the issue freely, I will go ahead and move this thread to the Xbox 360 Discussion forum. I have provided the steps that should allow you to resolve the concerns you are having, but if the information provided is not successful in resolving your issue(s) then please give Xbox Support a call for more help. In the US and Canada, the phone number is 1-800-469-9269.

---

Visit Ask Xbox & Support.xbox.com.
Posts provided "as is" and confer no rights.

 GeneralGrey wrote:

 Lucky 13 X wrote:

GeneralGrey,

Actually, it simply looks like a growing issue because this thread has garnered so much attention because people tend to focus on threads with multiple post counts and post their similar concern there. If you have an issue with your console for this or any of the other concerns that pop up in this forum every once in a while such as "to play this disk place it in an Xbox 360 console", it is always best to contact Xbox Support so that we may assist in resolving the issue. If you decide not to call us just yet, please use the steps in one of the following articles below to resolve your issue as we already have solutions in place to help our customers when they experience any issue with an Xbox 360 console and their AV cable.

 

I see where you're coming from and have browsed all the articles that you mentioned.  I feel that I should mention that I have tested my console on three different televisions with three different sets of av cables and two seperate hard-drives, all with the same result.  I would normally have contacted support immediately, however this happened the day before a 10-day "vacation" that I am still partaking in and I didn't want a box to arrive with me not home to pick it up.  I have tried to be as respectful as possible given the fact that I have a very expensive piece of hardware that I love dearly sitting unplayable on my shelf; I have not flamed, I have not cussed, I have not been unreasonable. To be issued a response seemingly comparing this issue to placing a disc in the console is borderline insulting to those affected by this problem.  I do, however, appreciate it.  As a Microsoft supporter and shareholder, I simply wanted to express my concerns in a somewhat coherent fashion, rather than launch into an "anti-M$, class-action lawsuit, conspiracy" tirade.

And I appreciate that. I've moved the topic from the Technical Issues so you and others can express your concerns more freely without the need for constant moderation of your posts.

---

Visit Ask Xbox & Support.xbox.com.
Posts provided "as is" and confer no rights.

GigerHR wrote:

"It's been suggested to me by a friend - who had her 360 die the same way yesterday - that maybe this is a software issue. A lot of people said they were playing Forza 2 and GOW when this happened, and there have been updates to both these games recently."

 

I have never played Forza 2 and still have this problem, but I play GOW regularly. I agree that given the wide variety of manufacture dates and usage time, this almost simultaneous failure must be linked to a specific event, such as a software update. I doubt that there was any malicious intent, but maybe a software update has unintentially overloaded the video card.

Does everybody here who has had this problem play GOW? Can we systematicaly determine when this occurred? My first full video failure occurred on  June 23, but I noticed ghosting/discoloration approximately 1 week before. This would coincide closely with the June 14 GOW update. Is there someone who has this problem who did not download this update? Can we eliminate this as a potential cause.

 

---

'True wisdom consists in knowing that you know nothing'
- Socrates

I did not download the June 14th GoW update, and nor have I ever played Forza 2.

I have GOW, but haven't had it in the console since probably February.  We've had mostly Forza 2 in there over the past month.

And it is really frustrating when calling and the tech on the phone is going through a flowchart for things that most folks have already done ten times at minimum.  "check the power supply."  "is the HD/TV switch in the right spot?"  "did you check other connections on your TV" etc.

I know they have to ask that stuff, but sheesh, you'd think that there'd be an internal memo/alert saying "ATTN TECHS:  There is a rash of a new sort of problem.  Be advised that the syptoms are x."

The worst is the acting as if this is just one or two isolated incidents.  Look at the timing and you'd think it had to be update or software related, but who knows.  I didn't design or build the thing and I have no way of knowing what gets downloaded to it automatically, etc.

So I called Microsoft about this roughly a week ago or so and told them what happened. They told me to buy new AV Cables.. so I did. And that was a big waste of $45. So I called customer support again and waited 1-2hrs for a guy to tell me it was going to cost $99.. knowing that I already spent $45 on the AV Cables.. I was a little bitter and upset. I told him I wasn't willing to get it repaired now and that was that.

So then I call back two days ago.. and the agent hooks me up to the supervisor. The supervisor takes down my cell # and says that some guy higher up than him will call me in 24-48 hours. Note that I didn't complain at all during this phone call, and I just wanted my 360 repaired even if I had to sacrifice the $99 (even though it's not my fault it broke). 48 hours later, in typical customer support fashion, no phone call. So here I am waiting, and I don't know exactly what is going on. This is my 3rd broken 360 and I just want it fixed. What exactly is this higher up guy going to tell me? That I have to pay $99 to get it fixed? I'm confused and I just want my 360 to work.

oh how fun, i just had the same problem. i bought my xbox 4 months after launch and have not had a single problem until now, audio but no video, just a black screen. recent games are lego star wars 2, samurai warriors, and forza2.

Maybe the MS guys have been playing too much Lego Star Wars II so they're trying Jedi mind tricks....

"Problem?  There's no problem.  The large number of posters at the same time with the same problem just makes it seem as if there's a problem.  You don't need more information.  Move along."

Lucky 13,

Actually, it is a growing issue as there are many users reporting the same symptoms.

The symptoms summarized:  I had my console up and working for many months or years. I was playing a game and started having some sort of video errors.  I power cycled my console to try to clean things up.  Now, I don't have any video output by the console at all.

I have an ICS degree from one of the top 5 engineering schools in the country and have been working with hardware and software for over 20 years.  I  did work with MS customer support, tried a couple of cables, 2 HD TV's, 1 HD cable, 1 Composite connection, and 1 VGA cable, and an LCD computer monitor.  In all cases, no video was output by the 360 console.  The console is back in for repair. 

The knowledge base articles discuss basic connectivity (is the tv on the right setting, is the cable plugged into the proper connector on the back of the TV, and how to reset the video settings on the 360 console via the controller). 

Since every post I've read is from users reporting that everything was working just fine until they started getting video errors, power cycled the console, and then got no video, troubleshooting the connectivity really is rudimentary.  The knowledge base articles would be great if you were trying to hook up your console for the first time.  Unfortunatley, the reset video procedure doesn't work for this failure (I know, I  tried it as have others who have reported this issue).

We either have to assume that everyoen reporting this can't figure out how to turn their tv's on (even though they were using the console successfully when the first symptoms arrived), or there is a hardware/firmware issue here.  I'd bet on a video card failure but one can never rule out softtware.  Many of the recipients of this failure are not as fortunate as I am with an extended warranty and are upset as Microsoft has admitted they have issues but as of yet do not seem to be acknowledging all of them.  Surely MS monitors their own board and will take notice of this issue.  It's simply not a bunch of clueless users who don't know how to connect their consoles to their TV's or turn their TV's onto the poper input.

 

Respectfully

Same problem here!!!  I've gone through two consoles in less than two years and they're telling me that this time it's out of warranty.  So much for "we hear you and we're doing something about it".  Can someone please explain this to me.  Microsoft is saying, if you have a console that's out of warranty and you experience three flashing red lights we will repair it free of charge and you will now have a three year warranty.  Which is great!!  However, if your console is out of warranty and lets say you have a video card failure (which seems to be a popular problem now days), well then sorry about your luck.  That will cost you originally $140 now $99 and you will only have a one year warranty.  Can't figure out how they can offer different warranties for the same product.  I did find out that if you complain about it you get a discount.  In my case the Level 1 agent offered a 25% discount, not good enough.  I was transferred to a supervisor and was offered 50% off.  I guess that's better than nothing, but as far as I'm concerned, the right thing for Microsoft  to do would be to extend the warranties on ALL consoles!!  This will definately affect future purchases.

it seems like everyone seems to be having the same problem at the same time. I bought mine july of 06 so maybe there is a problem with the systems in the summer of 06.  Anyone else buy it in the summmer of 06??