Technical difficulties and the Xbox 360 seem to be synonymous for some gamers. Microsoft is aware of this and it appears as though the company is working to address the problem.
The Xbox site has an entire quick link page dedicated to addressing the freeze issues many gamers have reported. In fact, the page was updated earlier this month, so it seems as if the folks at Microsoft have acutely felt this issue.
Most recently, gamers who bought 2K Games’ MLB 2K6 for the 360 have been facing lots of issues with freezes. The game, some report, is almost an exercise in futility to play. 2K is working on the issue.
In the meantime, our dedicated 2K Sports QA team has tested and confirmed two work-around methods for those consumers who are experiencing the "freeze" issue:1) Remove or disable the HDD
or,
2) Load three different Xbox 360 games to the main title screen of each game then load Major League Baseball 2K6 on Xbox 360. All three Xbox 360 games must be completely different before loading Major League Baseball 2K6.
While we realize that these measures may seem unconventional, our 2K Sports QA Team has tested both methods and both will remedy issues that are causing the Major League Baseball 2K6 "freeze" issue on the Xbox 360. Again, we truly apologize for any inconvenience to your playing experience.
Please stay tuned for more updates. Thank you for your attention.
The problem, though, doesn’t seem to be isolated to just this title for many players. From Xbox’s site it would appear as if screen freezes go beyond one title. You can find the official troubleshooting information from Microsoft's site.
The Xbox 360’s time as the only next-gen console is starting to run out. Next month, it’s expected Sony and Nintendo will lay out more detailed release plans for their consoles during E3. If these consoles hit the ground running without all the bugs, Microsoft had better have its act together.
In the meantime, those who have the 360 and haven’t had issues continue to say it’s the best thing going in the gaming world. To date, my console hasn’t experienced any problems at all, but we haven’t tried MLB 2K6 on it. Since I can’t seem to wrangle Fight Night Round 3 out of my husband’s hands, it’s not likely our console will ever see that title!
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Matt Paprocki
It's hard to say whos fault this is. In the case of MLB, it's obvious.
But then again, system problems are always overblown, mostly by fanboys on messages boards who don't even own the system. Remember all the PSP dead pixel issues? When was the last time you heard about those? It's not a matter of "working out the kinks." LCD screens always have dead pixels, yet oddly, all of that hype seems to have gone. Odd, no?
2 - Dynamo of Eternia
Well, I have Xbox 360 and have not yet had a problem. The only games that I currently have for it though are Dead or Alive 4 and Perfect Dark Zero.
I'm not saying that these problems do not exist, but I personally haven't experienced them. I hope they resolve it since I don't want to have problems with mine. Thankfully I got an extended warranty with mine, so if I have any problems during the first year, I can get it taken care of.
I wonder how badly this will really effect 360 in the long run. I mean, PS2 has remained the #1 system for its time, and issues with it having disc read errors seem to be pretty wide spread as far as I can tell.
I personally have a PS2 that had this problem (luckily since my fiance and I moved in together and she already had a working PS2, I didn't havde to buy a new one). And through people I've actually met in person (meaning not from stories I've read online), I can probably account for at least 11 other PS2's that have had the disc read errors as well (this includes a case in which someone was on their 4th PS2 because the previous 3 had this problem). And if you go into most any store like Gamestop or EB Games and ask the people that work their about this problem, they will tell you all about it. I've even seen employees of these stores recommend Xbox to customers over PS2 for this very reason.
Yet, somehow, PS2 remains #1.
And in response to Matt Paprocki's post,
I don't personally own a PSP (mainly because its too expensive and there's not enough out for it that I really care about), but I've heard quite a bit about these pixel issues. And, I even heard someone on another message board that I frequent talk about how they were on their 3rd PSP because of various problems they've had with them. Now, this may not mean there is a wide spread problem, but considering Son'y track record here, I wouldn't put it past them.
Now, if there is a widespread problem with 360, I hope they do resolve it and are customer friendly about it. I don't want some kind of widespread, ongoing issue with it. I'm already weary of PS3 since there seems to be a lot of problems with PS2 and PSP. I'm not trying to be some kind of anti-Sony 'fanboy' or anything as I try not to be specifically loyal to a certain brand (I have PS2, Xbox, and Gamecube, amongst many others), but Sony seems to really have a lot of ongoing problems that don't get resolved.
I hope any 360 issues are just with these early models and that they will offer fixes for people having these problems and that future models won't have the problems to start with.
3 - smokeyhoodoo
my 360 froze. that was after playing oblivion for 10 hours though.
4 - Dynamo of Eternia
"my 360 froze. that was after playing oblivion for 10 hours though."
Has it frozen at all since that time and become a reoccuring issue? I'm just curious if you have had any problems where now it freezes right after you turn on the game or anything.
A game freezing once after 10 hours of play doesn't worry me as much as a game freezing constantly and randomly after a small amount of play time.
I'm just trying to get an idea of what I should watch out for with my 360.
5 - anonymous
mine freezes when i go to sleep. In elder scrolls of oblivion
6 - spcmanspliff
My 360 froze while playing Tiger. So I took it back to Target for a replacement as soon as they got some in. I also bought Madden 06 and G.R.A.W while I was there. Then the new one froze while playing Madden, so I tried Tiger and that froze too. I called Customer Support and they told me to make sure it was the system and not the hard drive, so I played Madden and G.R.A.W without the hard drive attached and both froze again within minutes. I was forced to send it in (MS paid for all shipping) so they can replace the DVD drive. I'm 7 days into a "10 day or less" policy. Hoping this cures my problem.....???
7 - Even André Fiskvik
The people telling that their Xbox 360 has gone foobar must be much more than "fanboys" as you are suggesting.
Just go take a look at Microsoft's Xbox 360 hardware forum, there are _plenty_ of ppl having this problem, and several threads has been created. Microsoft has also deleted one of the threads that was over 60 pages long from people feeling the pain of the dreaded three lights, and what not else.
My own 360 went foobar last week as well, started with locking up in Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter. Then the problem became more permanent, looked up in boot, dashboard etc.
I returned it, got it back in 8 days (which is good), only to find out that GRAW now crashed _every_ time I go to the multiplayer section. I'm investigating the problem, but haven't found any solutions as of yet. Have tried creating new profiles, disconecting harddrive, using only memorycard, clearing cache and so on to no good.
I hope I can manage to fix it this time without shipping it in for repair. Microsoft should just send you a new one when you have these problems, because there are a _lot_ of people having them too. I talked to the UPS guy as well, and he said they are taking in Xbox 360 guys for return all the time...
8 - Bob
When i try to load oblivion it freezes literally 1 second after its done loading. no matter how many times i try to load it after turning off my xbox, it freezes after 1 second. I am really frustrated.
9 - Rob_Aussie
My 360 freezes while playing Oblivion at the Shrine of Clavicus Vile. Upon completing the quest (retrieving the Umbra sword) and returning it to the shrine the game freezes after roughly 5 secs upon the dialogue ending. There are a number of ways doing the quest and I've tried them all but it's like frigging clockwork dialogue ends I walk away and it freezes. I can do the quest and get the sword but I can't return it to the shrine. I checked with a mate who has it and he has the exact same problem, so I'm guessing this problem isn't with the hardware. If anyone else is experienceing this problem or has any insite into this problem (maybe there's a patch fix... I'm not sure because I'm not on Live) Some feedback would be appreciated.
K thnx
Rob from Australia
10 - Ken Edwards
There is a patch coming for the PC and 360. My question to you is: Why would you give away the Umbra sword?
Also, have you gone to the elderscrolls.com forums?
11 - Rob_Aussie
You don't have to give him the Umbra Sword but you still have to talk to him to complete the quest. And to get the quest for the last shrine you have to complete all the previous shrines.
And yeah i went to the elderscrolls.com forums and had a browse through but couldn't find anything similar to my problem. I tried to create a new thread but every freaking name I tried when I registered was taken so I just gave up in the end.
12 - anotherangry
yeah i get the same result with clavicus vile shrine it freaking sucks i think it has to do with that damn dog statue being taken out and appearing on the shrine next to that annoying little daedra prince vile hope there is a fix 123 hours is too much of my life to not let it piss me off
13 - NomadicGod
Yeah I have the exact same problem.
I just kept the dog thingy and the sword.
14 - brad
My 360 freezes all the time. Mainly on oblivion. I have had problems with other games too. Such as nfs most wanted and call of duty 2.
I have dead or alive and it works great... so does ghost recon. I had no problems out of gun, perfect dark zero, condemned, fight night, and a few others. I think it could be something with the emulators or the disks. I regret getting an xbox 360... should have just waited for the ps3.
15 - Pyro XXX
My 360 freezes also. I've had it for not even 24 hours and yet my Gothem Racing, Ghost Recon and my NBA 06 all freeze. I made sure it was properally ventilated but still the problem persists. So what do we do about this? I should have waited for the PS3 is my opinion!
16 - Dolla Bill
Yeah, wait for a PS3, cuz that won't have any problems either... NOT! (and yeah, I would be twice as peeved when that thing freezes after spending a BMW Z Series Payment on the system alone)
Anyway, my 'problem' is that it takes forever to load any section of the imperial city. I own the PC version, and the 360 version. I've had 1 lockup, and I get kind of frustrated waiting for the thing to freakin' load.
My PC version is 10 X's worse. It crashes every time I hit the main menu. It crashes when I quit the game, it freezes up a lot, and compared to the 360 version, runs like poo. (My PC is admittedly older than the 360 however.)
It's most likely a problem with the coding, and will be addressed in the patch hopefully. The problems are not 360's alone.
17 - truckmcgee
Just had GRAW freeze in multiplayer last night, now reading up here. First time for that problem so hopefully its not reacurring. Havent had any problems with Oblivion yet...
18 - PointmanXB
Hi everyone. I have exactly the same problem with Oblivion, as soon as I give the Umbra sword and the dialog from daedra ends give it or take a few seconds and WHAM!!!! the world stands still. So my guess is that it's a coding thing since alot of us have the same problem. It has nothing to do with Live since I'm 24/7 connected and it hasn't made any difference. By the way I just cheched on XBOX Marketplace for a patch but as of today nothing yet.
Concerning the speed, there's a litle trick that can speed loading times. Turn on your XBOX360 press and keep pressed any of the four buttons (I press A usually) until the BETHESDA logo goes away (I usually release it on the 2nd BETHESDA logo). Truth is you can see 'some' loading speed improvement but not much.
I totally agree with you that after spending so MANY MANY hours of playing, having 426 saved games and feeling you're on the way of completion to get a freeze of this kind, it simply !sucks!
Do any of u ppl know if there's a release date for the X360 patch???
The best I can think of till they get out with a patch is to continue the other quests and let this one for when the patch comes out
19 - oobee-dooby-scooby-doo-benubi
The only info I have to add about Oblivion freezing after giving the Umbra sword to the Vile shrine is the problem, as far as I can tell, is after you give the sword up and get the mask, the dog statue thing in your inventory is supposed to say something and the game freezes because of this.
I know this because after giving the sword up, I knew the game was going to freeze so I tried to fast travel away from the shrine and hope it didn't freeze. I fast traveled to the Imperial City docks, and the dog started to talk but only after a few words the game froze anyway. So I figured the audio for the dog was corrupt or something. Is there someway to bypass the audio, maybe if I fast travel again after the dog starts talking but before the game freezes?
20 - Trent
Ok well I can confirm that fast travelling doesnt work, I just fast travelled 6 times after giving back the sword, and soon as I gave it a few seconds it froze. I even tried turning of autosave because.. well Im not sure why I did.
So yeah... they be best bringing out a patch very soon because Ive done everything else and I dont feel like leaving these last 2 quests undone.
21 - Trent
Ok! This works:
As soon as you give back the sword fast travel once to Imperial Waterfront and dont move! Let the dog speak, and right before it finishes speaking, fast travel again, I chose Arcane Uni but that doesnt matter, and bam! you can keep playing and quest solved.
22 - John
ok ive had this same problem with that shrine quest unfortunately i saved after giving the sword to the shrine and then it froze so i loaded agian and then tried to fast travel to get away from the shrine so it auto saved so im pretty screwed unless there is some way that i can bypass the audio.. i would try and fast travel before the dog stops talking but it freezes at the exact time the dog starts talking
23 - Casual Gamer
Ok....u know I was gonna buy a the 360 in a few days, but I think ill just wait for Wii, or until MS gets all this issues worked out....
hoping 6 months is good enough
24 - Ken Edwards
Casual Gamer - That is such a shame, and your loss. Matt and I have not had any major issues. The only problem Matt has had is with the headset. For some reason he goes through them like water. But our systems run just great.
There are already a lot of great games for the 360, and the Christmas lineup is gonna be great.
Sure, the Wii will most likely be the console to have when it ships, but you will simply not get the games on it that the 360 has.
25 - Ken Edwards
John - I assume you don't have multiple save files? Using one or two save files is just suicide, I don't care what the game is. The hard drive is big enough, I have well over 100 Oblivion save files for these types of reasons.
Oh and Casual Gamer - these issues are not Microsofts to fix. There are a bunch of glitches and bungs in Oblivion, and Bethesda is readying a patch. It will first be released for the PC, and then on Xbox Live.
Until then we just have to live with the Oblivion issues. And from my experience, with more than 200 hrs. into the game, I have not had any show stoppers.