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Xbox 360 Troubles Part II

So, I tried all of their suggestions and I still saw Oblivion freeze on me.  It took it a while but after not responding to anything for a couple of minutes, it came up with a dirty disc error.  Now, I've seen this error before and with brand new games so I highly doubt its the disc that's bad.  I replied to XBox support again with the latest details and I got the following back.

First, this issue occurs because the Xbox console cannot read the disc correctly. This issue may occur if any one of the following conditions is true:

. The disc is dirty or damaged 

. The disc is from a different country or region than the console 

. Non-disc issues 

Here are some things that you can do to try to fix your concern or to determine what caused it. If you cannot fix the issue yourself, please contact Xbox Customer Support. To do this, please visit the following Microsoft Web site: http://www.xbox.com/support/contact 

Determine whether the disc is dirty or damaged

Discs that are smudged, scratched or otherwise damaged cannot be read by the Xbox 360 console. You will want to examine the disc to see whether it has smudges, scratches, or other damage. To do this, follow these steps:

1.  Examine the disc for dirt or damage:

a.  Pick up the disc by its edges. Do not touch the top or the bottom surface. 

b.  Examine the shiny side of the disc to make sure that the disc is clean and has no damage.

Note: Scratches that follow the curve of the disc are very damaging and prevent a disc from being read. If you see that your disc has even one of these types of scratches, the disc is damaged, and you will no longer be able to play it. If this is the case, see step 4. 

2.  If the disc is dirty, clean the disc by hand:

a.  Use a soft, clean, dry, chemical-free cloth to clean the disc. 

b.  Lightly wipe from the center of the disc outward. 

3.  After cleaning the disc, try to load it in the Xbox 360 console. If the disc still won't load or you receive the same error message, the disc is damaged, and you will no longer be able to play it. If this is the case, see step 4. 

4.  If the disc is damaged, do one of the following:

. If you think that the disc was already damaged when you bought it, try to exchange it. 

. If you have a damaged Microsoft Xbox 360 game disc and would like to order a new one, please visit the following Web site:

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/systemuse/xbox360/gameplay/discreplacement-program.htm  

. If the game is a non-Microsoft Xbox 360 game disc and was damaged because of misuse of some type, such as not storing the disc properly in its case, the only thing you can do is buy a new one. 

. If you feel that the disc was damaged by the Xbox 360 console in some way, please contact Xbox Customer Support. To do this, please visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.xbox.com/support/contact  

Determine whether the game disc and the console are from the same country or region

Game discs and consoles are made for specific countries and regions. If you try to play a game disc that is made for a specific country or region on a console that is made for another country or region, the game disc will not play.

For example, if you purchase an Xbox 360 console in North America, your region is North America. Therefore, you cannot play game discs that are sold in Europe or in Asia on this console. Similarly, an Xbox 360 console that is sold in Europe can only play game discs that are sold in Europe, and an Xbox 360 console that is sold in Asia can only play game discs that are sold in Asia.

To see whether this issue occurs because the country or the region of the game disc and the console do not match, look on the back of the game package. Look for one of the following codes:

. NTSC: North America and South America (United States, Canada, Mexico, Chile, and Brazil) 

. NTSC-J: Asia (Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan) 

. PAL: Europe, South Africa, India, Australia, and New Zealand 

If your game disc code does not match the region where you bought the console, you will not be able to play the game disc.

Non-disc issues

There is a chance that the issue is not with the disc but with the Xbox 360 console. To check this, try the following steps:

1.  Turn the console off, and then turn the console on again. Then, try to load the disc again. 

2.  Try playing the disc on another console if you have access to one. Or if the disc is a CD or a DVD, try the disc on another device, such as a CD player, DVD player, or a computer equipped to play CDs or DVDs, to see if that other device can read the disc. 

3.  If the disc is a recordable CD (CD-R), try a different CD-R disc from that set. Or try a CD-R disc from a different manufacturer. 

4.  Try playing other games to determine whether the problem occurs with all the games that you have or only with this one. 

5.  If you have a Hard Disk Drive (HDD) unit or Memory unit (MU) attached to the console, turn the console off and remove the HDD unit and any attached MU, then switch on your console and try the disc again. If this seems to resolve the issue, turn off your console, attach the HDD and MU again, and then delete any saved games for the game that is causing problems.

I'll go through their steps again but I think I'll end up calling them so I can stop getting these canned responses whenever they key on a particular issue I'm having and not seeing the other surrounding issues.

Vista Media Center & Hauppauge HVR-1250

It took me a couple of days but I finally figured out the key to getting my Hauppauge HVR-1250 TV tuner to work properly with Windows Media Center.

First off, I'm running Vista Ultimate x64.  I am also using the beta drivers for the card.  I knew that the card worked since I could get video in the horrible WinTV application.  Media Center was almost working since I could get the audio but no video.  I tried some other applications (SageTV, BeyondTV) and they could not pull in video as well.  After a couple days of trying different combinations of things, I looked in the Media Center event log and found this:

Media Center is unable to communicate with the TV tuner Hauppauge WinTV 885 BDA Tuner/Demod. See ErrorCode 0x80004005 for more information.

I tried searching Google for some results on this and it eventually lead me to a post that said you need to have the SoftPVR software installed as well (along with the SoftMCE software) to trick Media Center in to playing video.

So, in order to get my tuner working with Media Center I had to additionally install:
- SoftPVR
- SoftMCE

Both of these will be in the driver package you download from Hauppauge.

Now, I'm off to reinstall Vista x32 since ClearQAM does not work with Vista x64 and Media Center.  After all, this is the primary reason why I bought the damn thing.

Xbox 360 Troubles Return

Earlier this year I got the dreaded Red Ring of Death (RRoD) on my Xbox 360.  I sent it in for repairs and I was pleased with the service and got my Xbox back and it has happy...for a while.  Since I got it back, it's been problematic.

Now, the system is prone to random freezing and not booting up properly. It's usually the first time I turn on the Xbox for the day that it will not boot up.  The power light comes on but none of the quadrants light up and I do not get the Xbox POST screen.  I turn it off and back on and it's good to go, unless I start to play something for a while.  Bioshock, Oblivion, MLB 2K8 and NCAA Football 09 have all frozen in the middle of the game numerous times.  Sometimes, it'll be a dirty disc error, other times it'll just completely freeze up.  The CD drive spins down and then I just know that the game is going to freeze.  The frustrating part of all this is that I've only got an explicit error message once (E74).

The other day I finally decided to e-mail Xbox support regarding this since it gotten to the point where it's happening more often.  I gave them the same story as above and they replied with the following:

I understand that you see one quadrant of the Ring of Light flashes red and you receive the following error message: E74. System Error. Contact Xbox Customer Support on your 360. I apologize for any inconvenience.

This behavior occurs when the Xbox 360 console experiences a hardware failure.

Here are some steps that you can use to try to resolve the issue.

1.  Turn off the console, disconnect all the cables, and then reconnect all the cables. Turn the console back on. 

2.  Turn off the console, and then disconnect any accessories that are connected. For example, disconnect any Xbox 360 controllers, Xbox 360 Memory Units, and the Xbox 360 Hard Drive. With the accessories disconnected, restart the console to see whether the problem still occurs. This can help you determine whether the console or an accessory is experiencing the problem. 

3.  If you continue to experience this problem, contact Xbox Customer Service.

 It's like they didn't read all the details I sent to them.  I'll jump through their hoops but I don't think there's any problems with any of the accessories or cables.  I'm thinking this is a problem with "ANA"/"HANA" chip.  We'll see what happens but I really hope that they'll cover this under the RRoD warranty since the repairs they did earlier in the year only seemed to fix part of the problem.  Oh yeah, of course my console is out of warranty so if I don't get it repaired at no cost then it'll be $100 to get it repaired or I'll just live with the annoyance of the system freezing on me.

Anyone else got any similar stories or experiences with their Xbox?