Background downloading.

[andrewfee]

Well this went down great on GAF, as they weren't able to read past the first sentence here but I'm still going to post it:

There is a new setting in the latest update that most people apparently haven't heard about.

System Blade > Console Settings > Shutdown > Background Downloads



I've noticed that, particularly in the DiRT thread, there's been lots of people saying they've been leaving their system on and going out, or checking on it every so often. I've seen a lot of people on my friends list "away" tonight, who are definitely just leaving their 360 on to download the demo, as it's going slow.

Why waste the electricity to do that? Start the downloads, and if you're not going to play a game or do something else with it, turn the system "off" and it'll go into a low-power mode. You'll hear the fans spinning at a lower speed, and the power light flashes to let you know it's downloading. Once the download is done, the system will turn itself off completely.

Oh, and before anyone asks, it's the Bejeweled theme. (which looks even better with the carbon / glass blades)

Yes, I still had people ask what the theme was too.

[Yoshimax]

They don't deserve to know tbh - I had to talk 3 people through turning it on last night and explaining its use - It's what the cringey 'tard definition was made for !

[bignige]

I normally do this, but for some reason, with Dirt it has a tendancy to cancel the download, resulting in your 360 shutting down.

[Nembot]

I normally do this, but for some reason, with Dirt it has a tendancy to cancel the download, resulting in your 360 shutting down.

I still haven`t got this demo due to it canceling 3 times! I thought that is was because I didn`t have enough space on my HDD but it turns out it was just being a bastard!

[Brats]

I used this to download the Dirt demo last night. Woke up this morning to find the unit switched off and the demo ready to play. It was downloading at a crawl yesterday too.

Nice feature. The only issue is that if you want to properly switch your 360 off (for noise reasons) and aren't bothered about it finishing the download because it's only some trailer you'll watch at some point. However if you switch the unit back on, then switch it off before the dashboard appears, it switches off properly.

I'm amazed at how the GAF posters react to an idea to reduce energy consumption .

[charlesr]

I did that last night and when I came down in the morning, it had reached 51% and had turned itself off.

[PeteJ]

I'm finding taking the console out of low power back to dashboard is very hit and miss, about 50% of the times I've tried it the console has not got passed the boot-up animation. It doesn't hang because the animation continuously plays, but it never brings up the dash either.

[EvilBoris]

If you want to turn off your console without background downloading just use the button on the front of the console.

[PeteJ]

That's not what I mean, I'm trying to turn the console back on, but it doesn't gets passed the bootup animation.

[stainboy]

I did that last night and when I came down in the morning, it had reached 51% and had turned itself off.

I thought mine had done the same thing but turns out my Mum turned it off because the fan was still going. That shouldn't be? It hasn't stayed on before

[ChrisF]

By default the 360 will switch off after 6 (i think) hours of being inactive. I wonder if thats got anything to do with it switching itself off before downloads have finished?

Have to say I spotted that one as I left Viva Pinata going overnight to get a particular achievement and when i woke up next morning my 360 had switched itself off The option to "fix" that is somewhere on the System blade.

[Brats]

If you want to turn off your console without background downloading just use the button on the front of the console.

That doesn't work for me.

[Keith]

Nor me - I don't think it's supposed to though, I'm pretty sure it's supposed to stay on and keep downloading no matter how you switch it off.

It's a little bit fiddly I guess, but for the times when you do want to switch it off altogether you could always disable the option in the dashboard, then switch off?

[merf]

i disabled this after trying it too, whenever powering back on it wouldn't recognise the wireless adaptor in the back so I couldn't log in to XBL.

nice idea but the execution seems a little flakey (on mine anyway).

[JP]

I used it at first but had to disable it as it runs with the same roar that standard downloads do and I really don't trust my 360 enough to leave it running on it's own in case it explodes or something!