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My Xbox 360 has restart on its own 3 times this past week while i have been in the middle of a race.  Then, while online, i've had it freeze twice (well-vented) and then my friend got the 3 Red Rings earlier this week after playing Forza 2.  Coincidence?  Perhaps, but 900 replies doesn't sound like coincidence...

1. Alabama, USA.

2.  This was my second Xbox 360 to die.  I received this one in March 2006.

3.  About a week before the three red lights, the Xbox 360 progressed from what I thought was a random freeze to freezes just about every race.

4.  No other game has caused problems for this 360.  Though, I do believe a Dream Theater DVD screwed my first one up...maybe.  Or maybe, it's bad quality control and development at Microsoft.

5.  I received the empty box to send it in today.  I did have to pay...like a hundred bucks, but they are extending my warranty.  I'll be glad to be a guinea pig if we figure out what exactly is wrong.

Anyone read the following article;

Repair specialist refuses to take further Xbox 360 consoles

It just amazes me at how many peolpe have posted about problems with their 360's...

1. Where are you from? Oklahoma City, OK
2. How long have you had your 360 before it died? ~ 1 year
3. Short summary or paragraph of problems just before you got the 3 red lights. I actually received the 3 red lights during an update download that popped up as the game was loading up. After that the console started to freeze (giving a full black screen or a screen with 1/2 the pixels enlarged or missing all together) about 10-15 minutes into gameplay.
4. Has your 360 had many problems on other games, aside from Forza? No.
5. Have you sent it in for repair? Did you have to pay? Yes, I sent it about 3 weeks ago. UPS has informed me via phone call that it is on the way back from repairs. Luckily my Xbox was still under warranty otherwise I'd be on the phone griping at Microsoft.

Yes, my 360 got the three red lights while playing Forza and is on its way to the repair center as we speak.  Luckly, I have two 360's so I am still able to play while the other one is getting repaired.  Hope this one doesn't break too :) Here are my answers:

1. Where are you from?
San Diego, CA
2. How long have you had your 360 before it died?
18 Months
3. Short summary or paragraph of problems just before you got the 3 red lights.
Playing Forza when the xbox froze displaying a red "checkerboard" pattern on the screen.  I rebooted the xbox by pressing the button on the front of the console.  It did not start up, giving me three red lights.  I looked up online and followed the instructions to check the power supply and remove/replace the cables.  Doing so allows 360 to boot, but the same thing will happen within 5-30 minutes of playing forza.  Called support and am sending unit in.
4. Has your 360 had many problems on other games, aside from Forza?
Just some occasional lock ups playing Oblivion and Test Drive Unlimited.  Never before has it caused the three red lights though.
5. Have you sent it in for repair? Did you have to pay?
Yes, I just sent it in yesterday.  I was told the charge will be $139.

Jeff
GamerTag: Formula1Racer
Email: anderson_jg@hotmail.com

1. Where are you from? Edmonton Albeta Canada
2. How long have you had your 360 before it died? 3 months after getting a refrubished one  old 360 I had was from launch date
3. Short summary or paragraph of problems just before you got the 3 red lights.
forze and just died
4. Has your 360 had many problems on other games, aside from Forza? no its a refubished on I had for 3 months
5. Have you sent it in for repair? sent it in yesterday
Did you have to pay? I have retailer warranty and I don't have to pay anything other then $39.99 for some "FEE"

1. Columbus, Ohio USA

2. September 2007

3. Playing Forza 2, system froze with weird graphics in parts of the image. Restarted and it started going into the dashboard, froze again, screen went blank with weird sound coming out of the speakers, and then the 3 red rings from then on.

4. System locked up a couple of times playing Gears of War in muliplayer ONLY. Never a problem with any other game.

5. Sent the system for repair. Still under warranty.

1. Where are you from? Manchester UK
2. How long have you had your 360 before it died? Approx 12 months (it was a replacement for my launch console)
3. Short summary or paragraph of problems just before you got the 3 red lights.
Playing Forza 2 and god all kinds of flashing artifacts on the screen as a race was about to start. Having O/C'ed a few gfx cards in my time I knew straight away it had overeated (though it stands in the open on the table, horizontal, with a USB cooler) so switched off the box asap. It never came back on again without 3 red lights. I bought a new 360 (being just out of warranty) and you shall see what happened to that in my next post....
4. Has your 360 had many problems on other games, aside from Forza? None whatsoever.... not one single crash, freeze or disc error in the 12 months I owned it.
5. Have you sent it in for repair? Had to buy a new one.... see next post!
Did you have to pay? Had to buy a new one.... see next post!

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http://tf.erzz.com
Gaming rants of epic proportions!

1. Where are you from? Manchester UK
2. How long have you had your 360 before it died? 4 days
3. Short summary or paragraph of problems just before you got the 3 red lights.
Was in the paint shop of forza 2 and admiring my work when the thing simply shut itself off. I left it for 20 minutes (fearful of overheating) and tried switching it on again. It worked OK and I played some FIFA 2007 on it for an hour and a half with no issue. So I tried forza again.... played for 30 minutes in career mode and then bam! Exact same artifacts as my previous post (mid race this time) and low and behold 3 red lights......
4. Has your 360 had many problems on other games, aside from Forza? Only owned this THIRD xbox for 4 days!!!
5. Have you sent it in for repair? Not yet
Did you have to pay? They will have to wring the blood from my very body before they get another penny out of me ever!!!!

Let me say something more, this box (i am talking all of them since my launch one died) should not be overheating. I hate being too warm, thus our house's A/C is set permanently to 19 degrees C. It sits with literally metres of free space all around it, it lays horizontal, is never moved, has any dust blown from the vents weekly if not daily, and is possibly the best looked after 360 in the world.
I was a skeptic for every other claim of dying xboxes being 'the exception rater than the rule' until I got forza 2. I am about to be on my 3rd xbox in as many weeks since I bought the game. To deny there is a problem (whether it be T10 or MS hardware) is to treat your (Previously) loyal customers with UTTER CONTEMPT.

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http://tf.erzz.com
Gaming rants of epic proportions!

1. Where are you from?
    Iowa, USA

2. How long have you had your 360 before it died?
    Begining of 2007

3. Short summary or paragraph of problems just before you got the 3 red lights.
    Forza started to freeze then the system start to freeze.  Happened about every 5 min. then started to happen right after I turned the system on.

4. Has your 360 had many problems on other games, aside from Forza?
    Never

5. Have you sent it in for repair? Did you have to pay?
    In the process of sending it in.  MS said it would be 100% free.

1.California
2.8months
3.alot of frezzing and suddenly the screens goes green
4.no other problem with it at all actually i was suprise that it got the 3 red light
5.Sent it in for repair i didn't have to pay it was still under warranty

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Get your own Gamercard Sig.

1. Newport News, VA
2. 14 months
**Addition from Microsoft: Power Conditioner
3. Very slow startup and random freezing.
4. A few on other games, but Forza freezes every day, literally.
5. Nope, had to wrap a towel around my $400 console and overheat it again to put the solder in flex so that it would reconnect on it's own.  Lucky . . . this time.

1.  Walla Walla, WA
2.  The first one died 4 months after buying it and the second one died about 9 months later.
3.  It started freezing up and I was getting a disk read error.
4.  No problem with games.
5.  No, but I bought the extended warrenty.

Well, I actually made a post yesterday on the thread that got deleted. Thanks for starting this thread, it's pertinent to the post I made yesterday. In addition to the questions above, I would love for people to post what date their 360 was manufactured, and/or what model it is - Core, Premium  or Elite unit.

Have Elite versions of the Xbox360 experienced the 3 ring of death problem?

Thanks!

conker:

Well, I actually made a post yesterday on the thread that got deleted. Thanks for starting this thread, it's pertinent to the post I made yesterday. In addition to the questions above, I would love for people to post what date their 360 was manufactured, and/or what model it is - Core, Premium  or Elite unit.

Have Elite versions of the Xbox360 experienced the 3 ring of death problem?

Thanks!

Good suggestion, I've added this to the "questionnaire". Thank you.

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*// Venom Stealth Force /-\ VSForce.net \\*

1. Melbourne, Australia.
2a. 6 months.
2b. Manufacturer date: 2006.09.23 Premium model
3. Game had been freezing randomly for about a week. Then after one freeze it wouldn't restart, It just showed the 3 red lights and a black screen.
4. A few games freeze very occationally, but are fine after a restart. But this only ever happened maybe twice in 6 months.
5. The retailer says I have to deal direct with Microsoft. The contact number for them isn't working atm. I think I have to call back between 8am-8pm Mon-Fri. Then there's the wait while they try to fix what is obviously a wide spread problem. At least 2 other people in my club have had this same problem. Sh*ts me to tears.
Nice innitiative on the thread BTW. I'll try to remember to post the outcome. And no, I won't stop playing Forza!

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VeNoM SHoT:

Funny that you and the other people defending Turn 10 and whatever else.... your doubt... are still too ignorant to see the point of this thread. All the information I'm asking is all I feel is necessary at this point. The purpose of this thread is to get numbers. If you had any kind of sense at all you would know right off the top that 1) Not everyone has access to the internet 2) Not everyone knows about the Forza site, even less about the Forums, 3) Not everyone is aware of this specific thread within the forums.

I'm positive that if there were huge banners and advertisements on every site on the internet, every newspaper, every billboard in the city, AND if you didnt have to register to view/post in this thread, you would start to see those hundreds of people.

I'm well aware that other games potentially break the 360, which is why i SPECIFICALLY ask in question 4. "4. Has your 360 had many problems on other games, aside from Forza?"

So, for anyone who has yet to experience the 3 Red Lights, for those who have yet to freeze in Forza, congratulations, you're lucky. This thread is for people who have a broken 360, as it states in the topic, due to Forza. And the aforementioned question 4 is there to try to further determine that it is an issue with Forza.

Please continue on with this thread, as I will be calling to talk to reps at Microsoft on Monday. If necessary, everyone on here can be contacted by email, or private message, to get any more information. Until then, the 5 questions will do.

The more we have here, obviously, the better.

If the purpose of this thread is to get numbers, look at some that are readily available on the forums. 

1. Of all the forums for FM2 on the site, the trouble shooting forum ranks 5th for threads and 7th for posts. 
2. The sum total of posts to the forums for FM2 is just over 300K.  The number of posts in the trouble shooting forum is just over 4K.  That's 1.3% of all posts. 
3. The total number of forum users is just over 60K (check my research process by clicking the 'view all users' link in the shortcuts at the main forum page and them put in empty search criteria), yet the number of people actually responding to this and other crashing threads is certainly less than 300 and probably less than 100.   Or less than 0.5% of all users on the forum (being charitable with 300 respondents).

All of the above would lead most people to believe that the number of people having crashing issues are in the minority.  It might even be a smaller number than the Xbox360 failure percentage. 

Beyond that the discussion of Forza breaking Xboxes is inane.  Games don't break consoles anymore than highways break cars (or vice versa).  It's entropy.  Do you blame the street you are driving on when your car engine takes dump? 

Supposing that a game could break a console, if it could, don't you think it would be taking down a whole lot more than .5-1.3%? 

By the way, you don't have to register to view these forums.  The earlier thread about crashing had something like 40K views after the post got DIGGed.  If the thread had that many views, and Forza2 was killing 360s like Sam Fisher drops terrorists, why weren't there thousands of people chiming in? 

It's obvious that some amount of people are having a common problem, but it's not a conspiracy.

1. Where are you from? UK
2.a. How long have you had your 360 before it died? Since launch, NEVER had any problems before Forza 2.
2.b. Do you know the Manufacture Date and/or Model? (ex. Core, Premium, Elite) Core, Launch model
3. Short summary or paragraph of problems just before you got the 3 red lights.
After about a week playing Forza 2, the game would sometimes hang (with a beep sound) or turn into a green screen with lines or have the 3 red lights on startup. The problems mentioned are intermittent.
4. Has your 360 had many problems on other games, aside from Forza? No
5. Have you sent it in for repair? Did you have to pay? Not yet

(Response to SMOKEondHORIZON)

The specific forum you're mentioning with the 40K views was made exclusive to registered members only late last night, after most of those views had been counted from outside visitors. Shortly after that, they just took it down/deleted it alltogether.

I understand your point and agree about the numbers, but if it was all about the numbers, this wouldnt be such a big deal, and Forza wouldn't have deleted that thread. Either way, this thread is here as a means of research, since people are claiming Forza is in no was related to Xbox 360 crashes; I'm not saying it's the only reason the system ever breaks, nor that other games haven't crashed it, but as this research is continuing to show, Forza is one of the only games for these people reporting in, that has caused problems and crashed their system, regardless if it was less than a week old, or a year and a half...

Yes games can break consoles; Forza is pushing 360 beyond its limits and causing an internal hardware issue that other games are not causing. To go with your car comparison, highways with potholes and uneven surface can pop tires and eventually lead to cars crashing, just as 18 wheelers and heavy vehicles can put wear on the highways... But every case is different. In this case, we have a game that has caused systems to break within a week. Do I know exactly why? No, because I'm not the one doing repairs on them.... For now, only those people know what hardware issue Forza is causing.

Going back to cars, lets consider the 360 Games as different drivers behind the wheel... Some drivers stay between 1,000 and 3,000 RPM, some can go up to 8,000. The one going to 8,000 RPM, driving at 200MPH all the time, will most likely damage the car a lot faster than the driver going 65 MPH. Now when that car breaks, some will say its the car's fault for being able to rev that high, or for allowing people to floor the accellerator pedal, or for not having a sturdy engine... Some will say the driver should have had common sense, or learned how to use manual shifting, or went to driving school. No offense, just explaining what's going on here..

By the way, thank you for keeping your comment professional. (No sarcasm)

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*// Venom Stealth Force /-\ VSForce.net \\*

1. I'm from Staten Island, NY

2a. I've had my 360 for 1 year and a month

2b. It's a premium system from 2006

3. I started up Forza 2 and went to the Forza motorsport TV section. The 360 froze, made a screeching noise then...3 Red rings.

4. Aside for it being noisy as hell, I've had no issues with the 360, maybe a crash or 2..

5. With it being out of warantee I'd have to pay MS. Good thing I got a 2 year extended from the place that I bought it from (Best Buy).

Even with all of this I find it unlikely that software is damaging our consoles.. That being said, it's truly a shame that the 360 is such a shoddy piece of hardware. I'll be damned if I pay them 140 bucks to fix my 360. I've only had it for a year and it dies?