All I want to do is play Beautiful Katamari

November 12, 2007 3:47 PM

Does anybody have any idea why an Xbox 360 would all of a sudden stop recognizing Xbox 360 games, thereby rendering it a useless chunk of white plastic?

Yesterday the damn thing worked just fine. Halo 3 was played, a good time was had by all. Today I went out and actually bought my VERY OWN GAME - first one ever - because the men in my house are having such a fine time with the new machine. Did I mention it's new? Just bought it on the first of this month, and up to this point, worked like a charm. Until today. Now it won't play Xbox 360 games, but mysteriously, will still play regular old Xbox games. I've already called Microsoft and spoken to one of their friendly reps, who is sending out a box for me to ship my brand new machine to the Xbox hospital. But I'm trouble shooting in the meantime. What gives? The dude at Microsoft had never heard of this before.

posted by msali to sports, hobbies, & recreation (10 comments total)

Whenever my Xbox would freak out, I would unplug the power cable out of the back of the machine and let it sit for like, half an hour. Then it would magically start working again.
posted by phaedon at 3:55 PM on November 12, 2007

I am wondering what region your 360 and the game you got are. You might want to che the regions. If they don't match, that could be it.
posted by slavlin at 4:17 PM on November 12, 2007

The guy at MS may have been being careful to be surprised.

There are rumours that the Xbox 360 has failure rates of up to 30%.

That's probably high, but the warranty changes and what not indicate a seriously high failure rate.
posted by sien at 4:38 PM on November 12, 2007

If you bought it on the first of the month, return it and get another one.


Going against what sien said, I've had two 360's bought in the beginning of 2006 that are running strong. (knock on wood). One of them has been running almost 24/7 as a media center extender.
posted by mphuie at 5:01 PM on November 12, 2007

Yeah, I would just return it to where you bought it, and get a new one. XBOX360's have a notoriously high fail rate.
posted by graventy at 5:47 PM on November 12, 2007

Phaedon, per your suggestion, I unplugged the game for a half hour, no dice.
Mphuie, already called the Gamestop where I purchased the system, they won't take it back. Indeed, the information packet that came with the game itself said not to return it to the retailer in the event of a problem.
Slavin, game system vs. games purchased are not causing any issues as far as zone differences are concerned. Both the system and all games have been purchased in the US of A.
As for your snarky suggestion Phaedon of trying to regain my life, I'm just gonna ignore you, 'cuz I was brought up to be a lady.
posted by msali at 6:11 PM on November 12, 2007

Really helpful answer there, phaedon. Pure class.

I'd follow everyone else's advice and exchange your xbox for another one.
posted by malaprohibita at 6:14 PM on November 12, 2007

Really helpful answer there, phaedon. Pure class.

Actually, mal, phaedon's answer was completely reasonable. For many processor-driven electronic devices, a complete power-down/power-up forces a total system reboot, rather than a quick "reset".
posted by SPrintF at 8:08 PM on November 12, 2007

Thee 360 has a history of overheating that can only be cured by unplugging it for a while. This resets a couple of things internally. Phaedon's answer was correct, but I say we bring out the pitchforks and torches anyway.
posted by iamabot at 7:16 AM on November 13, 2007

I believe Phaedon had a second comment that was deleted.

Regardless, dont feel bad about shipping it to MS. Ive read they are adding beefier heatsinks to 360s that come in for service. So you might get back a machine that works better than ever.
posted by damn dirty ape at 8:35 AM on November 13, 2007