will prey kill your xbox 360?
July 19th, 2006 comments (72) stumble it! digg it! by: technabob
Since buying my Xbox 360 console back on launch day in November 2005, I’ve been one of the fortunate 360 owners to never have a problem with overheating, disc scratches or freezes. My console is in a wide-open, well-ventilated area and had always behaved well. I’ve played just about every game, demo and Live Arcade title to date.
Then, I bought the new FPS, Prey, and everything changed.
Within the first hour of play, the game froze twice. I figured that it was a software glitch. Then, the third time it froze, I got the Red Rings of Doom. I removed the hard drive, cleared its cache, rebooted, and managed to get about 2 more minutes of use before I got the Red Rings again. After a couple of hours, I tried again, and other games seemed fine for the 30 minutes or so that I played. Then I decided to try Prey again, BOOM, 10 seconds into the game HARD FREEZE, and now I can’t get the 360 to play anything for more than about 30 seconds before I get the Red Rings.
Did Prey kill my 360? Is this an indication that 2nd Generation 360 games which are pushing the CPU & GPU will create a whole new outbreak of system deaths?
Please comment if you’ve had any similar experiences.
filed under: video games
July 19th, 2006 comments (72): stumble it! digg it! by: technabob
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I hope not. I have one of the systems that came out on lauch day as well and haven’t had a problem yet.
Haven’t tried out Prey yet though. The only game that I’ve heard people were have problems with lately, was Chromehounds.
Guess you’ll have to check the various 360 message boards and see if anyone else has had your problem.
Hey, this seems very odd, the problem only seems to persist when your playing prey ? I would try another copy of the game … It’s unlikely that the game is pushing the processors to that degree. but confused about this i am.
I’ve played through it on both dificulty levels and haven’t had any problems with it. But I got my 360 in mid 2006. I did have Quake 4 lock up a few times but no red lights.
Let this be a lesson to everybody, ALWAYS get a warrenty if your getting a system from the first batch.
Hmmm …. My XBox 360 was freezing when i started to play Perfect Dark right away when i have bought it ha ha ….. Well,comparing to the old XBox behaviour who did the same i think i have to live whit these bad manors!.
No the game didnt freeze as i was thinking after i have read this article.It played wery good instead and thats just great!.
I got my 1st 360 on 21 dec 2005, it worked well for 5 months, then 3 red lights. code error 0102. Memmory failure.
My second brand new 360 I brought on in mid june 2006, it ran for 4 day. Now no red lights. powers on but freezes at the start up.
Phone M$ support, after more than 10 hours of tellephone calls, just no luck of helping me. I will sent it back to the store I brought it from in germany, cause I live in Namibia. In the meantime I am still waiting for my third 360 to arrive. Hope this one last longer, cause it is really now getting an very expensive hobby with no support for me.
Got my Xbox 360 in July 2006, played over 160 hours of Oblivion, several hours of other games, and 26 hours of Chromehounds… No problems at all.
Got PREY. Big mistake… First loading screen, game crashed… End of the first level, the game crashed again.
I managed to get about four solid hours out of PREY without problems, and it suddenly crashes again…
I am returning PREY and letting them know what has happened to my system.
So far I have not had the red lights of death… but every game that I have randomly locks up randomly during gameplay now… Its also having startup issues, lockups on the Xbox 360 logo, and on the Xbox dashboard… about a 75-25 ratio on startups… 75 percent being the bad startups, and lockups before my game even loads. HMMMM
Ever had to reboot your console over 20 times just to play your game? Thats frikkin rediculous… then the game crash randomly after you get it to work? That is inexcuseable…
However… the red lights…… That makes me wonder……
Yeah… I ended up buying a new 360 core system and swapping out the drive from my premium system. I went ahead and invested the $15 for a Nyko Intercooler this time, and immediately sold my copy of Prey too. I have no interest in turning my 360 into a doorstop again.
I just bought Madden 07 and my console did the same thing as yours did with Prey. 3 lights of death and the secondary error code 0102. However I seem to have found a low-tech way of solving the problem as my xb 360 seems to be working fine now. I have this pretty powerful fan in my apartment and is what I did was put the XB up against the fan rotating it every minute or so on each of the vents on the outer case. I didn’t notice an overheating issue but this seemed to work. I played for about 7 hours striaight today with Madden 07 (the same game the started this whole debacle) with no problems. Hope this helps.
Mine did the same thing, I bought my 360 on release day and haven’t had a problem yet but all of a sudden I put in prey, get the red rings of doom, and now my 360 has a tendency to freeze… if only I could turn back the hands of time, I wouldn’t have tried that game
Error 0102 is caused when the GPU gets to hot and the solder points on either the GPU, RAM, or Soutbridge get micro cracks. Microsoft cheaped out with the cooling on the GPU and they don’t monitor the tempiture on it. If you look inside the rear grill u can see that when the CPU heats up the CPU fan speeds up but the GPU on doesn’t. This cause the metal to expand and micro cracks form. The game it’s self doesn’t kill your xbox it’s just pushing your system to hard and there not enough cooling power. If you go to youtube and search up Modfreaks theres a video made by the guy who discovered this showing how to fix it. 99% of people who have done it have fixed them xbox360, but dude to crappy cooling it often happens again. So if you upgrade the thermo paste and fans, or doing the 12volt fan mod it should be good. of course this requires opening the case and voiding your warrenty but if your warrentys up give it a try. you got nothing to loose. if you really need to get onto your xbox 360 turn it on and let it run for about 10 minutes to let it warm up then restart the x360 and give it a try.
I have the game Prey, and it worked fine a few hours into the game. I dont have any probs with the machine, i think, but the game freezes everytime in loading screen making it impossible for me to play. Sometimes i get pass the load screen but it freezes next time its time to load. I dont know why, its just silly it happens.
XBOX 360 is so far a disapointment. I barely dare touching the machine! If I could return the machine i would and save the money for the PS3.
Prey killed mine too! Just like you said, everything was fine until i played Prey on it. Then several frozens later? it now does not even start? Red lights right away.
I ngot madden 07 then a couple of days it was fine the n suddenly the th8ing just styopped playing. I was so maD now i cant even get the thing to start.or even get to the xbox menu.
Same here i had my xbox 360 been working fine then the other day i got marvel ultimate alliance and i got the rings of doom with the error code 0102.
I really wish i could find out what happened to tommy…. you know …. saving his gilrfriend and all….but MICROLOST doesnt love me….crying now…
oh crap, it’s true! I bought one of the first 360’s in Oz about a year ago, and bought prey yesterday… couldn’t even get to the first stage. when i first put prey in, it performed an ‘update’ b4 it could load the game. when it got to the loading screen before the fist stage, it just locked up – no gameplay, no cutting back to menu, nothing. even tried another copy – nothing again. Now Call of Duty 2 is doing it halfway thru – I just wanna play a game, dammit! (sob)
Just got the xbox 360 and rented Prey. Powered on and playing for less than 40 minutes. After dropping off a hanging bridge in the first stage the game starts a loading screen for some transitional play and the load screen starts strobing like a rapid flash camera and you can tell there is some frame overlay causing this confusion and then it beomes unresponsive and next shows a basic “loading” screen with the Prey logo and it is completely froze up. Happens at this point consistently. No red rings though. Also just froze up in Dead or Alive 4 after a match. I have been hoping prior to purchasing that this game systems was going to be solid, but this doesn’t bode well for a new system one year after launch. Maybe two years in the market and with some PS3 competition will force MS to get the bugs out.
As much as I love Gears of War on the 360, I must say that I’ve had at least 4 or 5 “dirty disc” errors, and my friends have reported similar issues.
I’m on my second 360, and have a PS3 now and a Wii on the way. So far, I’ve had NO freezes on the PS3, with about 8 hours of play (Resistance:Fall of Man). Amazingly, the PS3 actually feels barely warm after a session, and it makes less noise than the 360, and has no external power supply. While the 360 clearly has superior software (dashboard & Xbox Live), and a much bigger game library so far, I think the PS3 could give Microsoft a run for their money in a year or so.
Prey is a total nightmare. Nothing but screen freezes, after about 3-4 hours of game play. Other games would lock up as well after playing Prey. I got in contact with Microsoft. The Xbox 360 rep had me do a system cache clear by loading Oblivion and pressing the “a” button while it loads. In addition, go to system, memory, press “y”…then press X, X, LB, RB, X, X. Do this at your own risk, but my system has played correctly since (OK it did lock up once, but for the most part no errors).
Dave
I had my 360 from launch day been fine no freezes no red lights nothing untill i played rainbow 6 lv freezes then i get the error 0102 ,really really anoyed to say the least just out off warrenty im in 2 minds to buy another or wait for the ps3 in march [uk] .just very poor quality from ms,,,,,,,,
Viva Pinata killed mine I think. I played for 30 minutes and frozen screen. It seemed harmless enough. So I kept playing for about 2 weeks. Then Gears of War freezes 30 minutes in.
Viva in about 5 minutes, DOA4 in about 2, it’s terrible.
I’m out of warranty too, and this is a replacement console microsoft sent me.
That sucks. As much as the 360 is the most well-rounded of the current gen consoles, Microsoft really needs to rethink the cooling design of the system and release a new version of the console. Here’s my wish list:
1) Fix the freaking overheating issues (my PS3 has none of these problems, and the power supply is built-in!)
2) Fix the noisy fans and DVD drive (again the PS3 is whisper quiet)
3) Replace the DVD drive with an HD-DVD drive (or offer it as an option)
4) Replace the anemic 20GB hard drive with a 250GB hard drive, so we can actually download content from the Marketplace and keep it
5) Do all that and keep the price at $399 or less, and I’ll re-up for sure
Ok – less than a week ago, I finally upgraded the xbox to a 360. I’ve played Gears of War completely through a couple of times, Sonic, Arcade games, and a few others with no glitches or issues at all. Yesterday I tried to play Prey and as soon as you get past the opening bar sequence, it locks up tight as a drum. I’ve tried cleaning the disc, it locks up in the same place every time. I still haven’t had a problem with any other game. It doesnt seem to be related to overheating or any other issues – its definately related to the game Prey.
Hey, I just read about this rather silly fix for 360 overheating:
http://thexboxdomain.net/2007/01/15/the-towel-trick-fixes-360s/
Supposedly, if you wrap a towel around your overheated 360 immediately after the red rings of doom, wait about 10 minutes, then go back to the 360, it will work again. I’m assuming this just has something to do with the towel absorbing some of the excess case heat, but it’s still pretty funny.
Dude the same thing happened to my xbox 360 I was playing Raw VS smack down 07 and the same thing happend
I got my 360 fairly recently, started out with Oblivion, which never really gave me any problems whatsoever. Just a few days ago, i got Prey as a present, and in single player mode im up to the 4th level or so, and have not seen any glitches whatsoever. However, when i play online, almost every time i get this horrible glitch, where when i try the move, the screen flickers, and my character just goes back and forth, and i have no control over
him, thus rendering online play useless. 1) Does prey really screw up the 360 permanetly, for other games? Because its such an expensive system, which i got for my bday, i dont want to ruin it. even though it has yet to freeze on me or anything like, i do get the really bad online glitches 2) if its okay to keep playing this game, is there a way to get rid of this godawful glitch? thnx in advance to anyone that can help me with these questions
R63 VEGAS HAS BEEN FREEZING DURING ONLINE PLAY. DOES ANYONE ELSE HAVE THIS PROBLEM? SOMETIMES IT WILL WORK FOR HOURS, AND SOMETIMES IT WILL FREEZE ON EVERY BOARD. ALWAYS COMES BACK ON WHEN YOU RESTART. FYI THIS IS A REPLACEMENT UNIT
DUde my 360 is freezing ever 10 min i need help!
Just loaded Prey on my so far perfect XBox 360, 2months old. Red rings of death an now no boot.
Any ideas?
Bummer. Chances are you’ll need to send it into Microsoft for a replacement. Once you start getting those red rings, it usually means something’s started to go bad. If I were you, I’d contact Microsoft at (800) 4MY-XBOX and do an exchange.
I put a movie into my 360 yesterday…. It locked up and I got a solid red ring.. No flashing. I cant find anything about it and Microsoft wont return my calls or emails. I am lost on what to do?
When you say “Microsoft won’t return my calls,” don’t you speak with a representative when you call the 800 number? They usually make arrangements right then and there to do an exchange.
I’ve never heard of the solid red ring though. Were you able to eject the disk, or is it jammed in there?
I’m having a similar problem but i dont think it’s prey related. I do own prey but I wasn’t playing it when the console screwed up. I’m getting error code 0102. WHAT THE HELL? I paid $400 for this system and over $200 in games just for this shit to break on me? That pisses me off.
hey bro it wasnt the game its some kind of pain in the ass error i think its over heating what u gotta do its disconected for about 5 min then it may work but it can happen to u again, right now mine its dead too, my advice to u is take it where u bouth it, it could me a short contact or a union between contacte becouse of the overheating n after u fix it u gotta buy a extra fan they sell them over amazon good luck fellow gamer….
Talkalikathis
i know what wrong some problem with the X clips easy to fix just gotta ad pressure…:)
Talkalikathis
Just got the game the other day for a bargain and it ’s killing alright.
Played WWE Smackdown vs RAW before even starting prey for hours on end. Then after inserting prey updating.. everything worked fine.. then I got locked in graphic on level 3 or so and tried to reload a old save… xbox frooze… restarted the game same thing, tried RAW vs smackdown.. Same thing.. I get a whole bunch of greenish triangles (graphical artefacts) all over and it hangs… Tried some other games and they work or so it seems… but The only thing that’s changed is prey and its update.
Here’s irony for you…
http://www.qj.net/Human-Head-Studios-damaged-in-fire/pg/49/aid/90107
Perhaps they were playing their own game?
Hi, I had a similar problem with my xbox 360 but luckily I found a great solution and I was able to fix this problem.
Here is the solution for the red light error
good luck
Well believe me Prey has something to do with it. When my first xbox360 got the 3 red lights it was because of Prey(evil game). I got to a point where I was on this planet and when I finally got to a door the game froze and I got the lights, could not even turn it on for 15 seconds. The second time my xbox360 got the lights was again at the same place? rofl, piece of shit game.
i have the red rings of doom and i havent even played prey. I dont want to open my xbox and use the hot air gun icase it damages my system. any thought on how to fix it. If you do please email me at admin@henryjsaunders.com
Hmm I had the exact same thing with Saints Row … I’m waiting for a new bawx from MS
Dang man Dang i really need some help good help i JUST got 0102 system error on my 360 no warning except freezing u c what happened was that crap G.R.A.W 2 demo was freezing alot and so now i got red ring 3 of them and if i tell my dad im dead freakin screwed so my best bet is fixing it on my own somehow WITHOUT sending my console in 4 repairs so ever since then precisely 3 days ago i think posssibly 4 ive been at it trying 2 find a cure on the web but thats not as easy as it sounds i tried sending an email 2 ms but they still havent said a word 2 days ago so i go 2 my last hope the REAL verdict the people people who know what im talkin about so im turning towards u guys i need help will u help? towel glitch how long does that last? well ummm no thanks i REALLY dont wanna do THAT i tried the t-shirt 1 that just helps 4 1 day and i dont wanna keep doing that cause i dont wanna burn somethin out also how long would that work i mean 4 the t-shirt 1 all u have 2 do is get a t-shirt obviously and hold it on the back of the console vents 4 5min then it should overheat because it traps all the heat inside warming everything up and expanding that plate thing inside so it will touch the other 1 so how many times can u do that? and im NOT taking apart my console so can some kind soul out there help me? please i appreciate all the postings and info tryin 2 help so thanks hope th e t-shirt thing helped and i sure hope u can thanks F.Y.I im NOT sending it in so dont mention that thanks
yoboyjayjay28@yahoo.com is my email i hope u guys check this often like the bottom lol
Other than sending it in, the only real permanent solution is a new 360. I never did manage to get my old 360 to work properly after the red rings of doom, and I ended up buying a new one.
You can try adding a fan like the Nyko Intercooler, and that might help IF the console is working at present, and occasionally crapping out.
Today might be your lucky day at Microsoft….
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/petermooreletter.htm
Sounds like they’re extending the warranty to 3-years for any consoles that has three flashing red lights.
i know but im really trying 2 avoid that any further tips?
Did you try to add a fan like the Nyko Intercooler?
no i heard that 1 melts on and messes up your console because all of the electricity isnt spreading because its draining some of the 360’s power so i was considering the vertical stand
There were some rare reports where intercoolers might have caused “arcing” problems at the power adapter, but most people who’ve used them reported positive results. A directly attached fan like that is most likely to decrease temperature.
I know you don’t want to send your console to Microsoft, but I really think that’s your best bet if you want the problem cured.