OverHeating problems!

[Di5coDonk3y]

Im having overheating problems and im in need of help and advice!
It all started yesterday after playing on my new game Madden 07, after 10 mins of playing the 360 crashed giving me me 2 red lights, i Googled the problem cause i was un-aware of what the lights ment, and in my search i found out that some certain game's can trigger off overheating.... No1 i prey, and No2 is Madden 07....... Has anyone ever heard of this?
I thiught it would of just been a 1 off, but it seems to happen often now even with a different game, i read that once you get the 2 red light's it will keep happening! Is this true?
Also i read that it's not your 360 overheating but the power supply, is this true cause ive just falked out a tenner for a cooling fan, if it is the power supply how come i haven't moved it since i brought the 360 at launch.
Is this all down for playing a unlucky game, or it's just my time for the dreaded lights of DOOM!!!
Any help or info how to keep my 360 from overheating would be most welcome, Ive not yet received my cooling fan so don't know yet if that will make a difference.

[HPLovecraft]

You could try suspending your power-brick off the floor as this will help dissipate the heat. The simplest way is to support both ends off the ground using 2 small and sturdy boxes or bricks (so that the power-brick forms a kind of bridge). You could (in combination with the above) use a small desk-top fan to blow air directly on the power-brick.

Also, make sure you plug the power-brick directly into the wall socket - and not into a power strip or multisocket adaptor. I've heard that doing this alone has solved power-brick related problems for people, unlikely as it may sound.

Of course these measures may only work if it is the power-brick overheating and not the 360 itself. I take it you have the 360 in a well vented area ? If it's in a cabinet with other electrical equipment make sure it's below them ('cos of heat rising) and definitely not sat on top of eg. your DVD player etc. Basically give it plenty of room to breathe. (sorry if this sounds obvious and patronising but I'm not sure how you have it set up).

If you have a friend with a 360 and you suspect your power-brick to be dodgy try it on his machine and see if it does the same.

However, according to MS info the 2 red lights are associated with an internal overheat of the console itself - the power-brick isn't mentioned at all, but the above is all sound advice so give it a try anyway.

[sterob70]

gi to your local pc World and get a laptop cooler

that keeps it cool

[Di5coDonk3y]

It's just happened again, and i felt all over the 360 and the power pack and neither are what i would say hot! power pack is slightly warm, and 360 is slightly warm but is blowing warm air out the back, is this normal? I would try the fan trick but my 360 is set up in the front room and my missies think's it looks a mess with a desktop fan sitting by my T.V pointing at 360. Ive just brought a 360 cooler which sits on the back of your 360. But not yet come though post. As for the power pack being in a place where it would get hot, it's been in the same spot for a year and half.
I keep reading on some site's forums that a game can trigger off these faults in a 360 and Madden 07 on a launch 360 is one of them. along with Prey, is this true? To me it does seem odd that after playing 20 mins on Madden which i just brought my 360 overheats, ok seems fair just the once with all the hot weather and stuff, but it's happening alot now, maybe it has triggered somthing and swiches off when not hot?
Look out PS3, i could be coming your way soon.

[HPLovecraft]

The games you mention do push the cpu and gpu quite hard so this could be the root cause of the problem. Here are some things you could try:

Firstly make sure you have the latest dashboard update installed then:

1. Get out your vacuum cleaner and a small brush and give all the ventilation grills a good clean and suck to remove any dust/debris that may have accumulated.

2. Clear the hard-disk cache via the dashboard - goto system/memory then highlight the hard-drive and press 'Y' followed by X,X,leftbumper,rightbumper,X,X and cofirm if asked to do so. This will perform maintanence on the HD and clear the cache. NOTE: you will lose any software updates you may have done via live and will have to re-download them.

2. Now try a session of prey and see what happens. It sounds weird but doing the above has helped some people who experience freezing/crashing issues - I know that it's 2 red lights (overheating) in your case but give it a try anyway. If the problem persists then power down the box for 30 mins and then try playing one of your other games to check if the problem is now confined to prey or really has 'spread' to your other games.

3. If the game you try works flawlessly then I'd say prey is definitely causing your 360 or the power-brick to overheat due to its demanding nature. It wouldn't matter if your 360 or power-brick hasn't moved in ages or not because other games haven't pushed the system as hard before. You can maybe verify this, and isolate the cause to the 360 or power-brick by at least using a fan to do some diagnosis. Your Missus will have to put up with a fan for an hour or so - come on this is your 360 we're talking about ! Try the fan on the 360 first whilst playing prey, and if neccessary any other game that is now giving you trouble, and see if it is any more stable. If it is then you know it's the 360 overheating. If this fails try the powerbrick.

If the above shows that it is the 360 overheating then hopefully your cooler (when it arrives) will sort the problem out. Even if the above doesn't work the cooler may still solve the problem since it will provide much more efficient cooling than just a blowing fan.

If you can't pin it down and the cooler fails to help then you may have to send your box for repair. You can pay MS £85 or go to an independant electronics company like:

http://www.gtelectronics.co.uk/xbox360.htm

who charge £50 for overheating repair.

I wish you luck!

[Beardo]

That's a great post Lovecraft, I hope to not need it in the future(!) but appreciate you sharing what you know.

[Di5coDonk3y]

Thanxs for all that info lovecraft, as ive been exploring the web for a solution to this little disco show on my 360, Ive come across a little trick people have been talking about alot on this problem, which is standing your power pack on the edge's of a shoebox. I thought i'd give this a go and created box, when arranging it to put the power pack on i had a little glance at the hole's on the power pack where you pug in the wire which go's to the plug socket, and to my horror there was dust hang out of most of the hole's and quickly made a dash to the cupboard and got the hover to work on it, also cleaning my 360 grills (which i do quite alot anyway).
Anyway ive just turned off my 360 after 2 and a half hours of play with no problems, which is good cause the last 2 day's since it's started it lasted no more than 45mins.

So a quick fix (touch wood) is hover your 360 and power pack if having heating problems.

[HPLovecraft]

Thanks for the appreciation guys and thats Great News!

I'm glad to hear it and I hope it puts your problems to rest once and for all.

Thats cheered me up and it's not even my 360!

[flownswift]

Lovecraft, charge him the £80 repair fee, like microsoft would.... ;-)

[apollo2974]

Just read your post here Funky, and I'm definately not rubbin it in, but i've spent quite a few hours on Madden 07, and i've not had that problem before..! Not really sure, but i don't think The Harrier has either...!