A couple of NTSC 360 technical questions guys.....

[Spatial]

Well Unfortunately the x360 that I got from VG+ suffers from the infamous freezing issue. I'm waiting to hear from Sidney how to proceed now.

Out of curiosity, what happened with this in the end?

[chipsgravy]

Well the offer I got was to return it at my cost. They would check it over and then charge me another ?50.00 to ship another X360 back to me. They don't make much on consoles so I guess it's fair enough. But I didn't want to take the risk of spending another ?100 on an X360 that may suffer the same problems. So I have kept it for now and will probably get a pal console to accompany it once the inevitable price drop happens.

t's really quite annoying as I knew of the frezing issue but had thought that I would be ok 6/7 months down the line from launch. Have Microsoft done nothing to rectify this?

Anyway I haven't spent much time with it as I am awaiting thr arrival of NCAA07. Which shipped out earlier this week. I will report back on my "issues" when that arrives. I have still to take it online to get the firmware updates, maybe that will ease it?

[Spatial]

Have you tried speaking to Microsoft to see if they'll take a look at it?

[chipsgravy]

I didn't think they would do anything as its a USA console. But I guess its worth the price of a phonecall to find out.

Thanks for the suggestion. I will report back.

[fahrenheit]

If you hit the wall with MS and can't get them to look at it, then it would be worth you opening the case and going to town on the heatsinks on the CPU and GPU with some better thermal material than the stock stuff (you don't have a warranty to void anyways).

This has been successful with people with the same symptoms as you. If its a thermal issue, then its something you can at least improve on, if not solve.

[tom-nook]

fahrenheit, is this something an electronics 'novice' could do & does it involve any soldering or just applying some kind of thermal 'paste' to the components?

chipsgravy, have you tried the usual things like making sure the console/ psu are well ventilated etc. (i.e. not stuck in a closed hi-fi cabinet)? Don't know if a dodgy psu could lead to freezing or not but it may be worth trying your Jap PSU to see if that makes any difference.

The MS warranty states that it's only valid within the US or Canada. You could always say you bought it whilst living in Canada but have sinced moved back home. They may be more willing to help if they don't think it's a grey import.

Oh, and if they ask it's probably best to say you've been using it with a UK 360 PSU. The warranty specifically states you'll not be covered if you've been using it with any non-MS produced equipment.

Hope things work out ok!

[fahrenheit]

http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=522113
http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=467045

Involves no soldering. A novice could do it, but applying thermal paste can be a bit of an artform and the more applications you do, the better you get at it. Definitely suppliment this with a good guide to thermal paste applications.

[tom-nook]

Yeah that doesn't look too bad at all. Thanks for the info fahrenheit

As you say applying the paste looks to be the trickiest part. Sounds like you need to make sure you only apply a very small amount!!! Definitely something I'll consider doing if my US 360 starts playing up as it's out of it's warranty period.

I suppose if chipsgravy didn't want to open his 360 up something like the Nyko Intercooler might also help keep the temperature down? Not sure if it'd be quite as effective as the paste as it's only external cooling but it seems to have worked for a few people.

[fahrenheit]

Yeah, tiny amount of paste needed, otherwise it becomes counter-productive.

The Nyko cooler is a gimmick and could actually cause more problems than solve as fans sandwiched ontop of each other in close proximity like that causes turbulance that could even send hot air back into the case.

[MarKg69]

I got my ntsc 360 from VG+ and after a month I got the freezing issue. I didnt contact VG+ but phoned MS support direct and after many calls to them to clarify that I had an ntsc console and not a PAL console and couple of weeks waiting, they sent me a replacement ntsc console.

BTW I see a few of you guys in this thread have NCAA 07, I just got my my copy today, so if want to play a few games online my GT is MarKg69.

I have also heard that the netcode in NCAA makes games with people in the US lag fests, as it was with Madden.