My broken Xbox 360 history

It’s not that I don’t have games to play, it’s just that I’m having a hard time playing them. Maybe someone can tell me if the original Saint’s Row on the Xbox 360 was a particularly buggy game? I’ve been trying to get caught up on ‘games I should’ve played” lately, and picked up the Saint’s Row Double Pack. Since then, I’ve grabbed some other games from years past, like last year’s Batman: Arkham City, another game from the era of the original PlayStation, and an NES game… I’ve got lots of things to catch up on – but for some reason the original Saint’s Row keeps locking up my Xbox. The background audio keeps playing, the video freezes, the whole thing just locks.

I’m starting to fear the worst, because this isn’t the first game this has happened on, it’s just the most recent, and most frequent. I thought these “slim” Xbox 360’s were supposed to alleviate the pain? My original 20GB Xbox 360 had to be sent in for a Red Ring failure. My replacement unit is still trucking along, although it has a lot of disc read errors – it went to a friend when I picked up a 120GB black Elite unit. The Elite was having lots of disc read errors when I sold it (with full disclosures to the buyer of potential repair being needed down the road) and picked up an Xbox 360 “S” unit last year. And I’m beginning to think this unit is going to have to go in for a little servicing.

Now, one of the biggest reasons I’m not totally losing my mind over this latest problem is that it has been hot lately. Even with my AC unit about 5 feet from my 360 (not blowing directly on it, but they’re in the same room!), I have a hard time keeping it in the 70’s. Perhaps the 360 is just getting a bit too warm. It should have lots of room to breathe, but it’s just keeps locking up on me. If the problems continue once I’m playing a different game and we’re back in to some reasonable temperatures, then I’ll be a bit more worried. But for now, I’m just hoping I’m not a 5th time victim of some kind of problem in the long relationship I’ve had with my Xbox 360. I still love the thing, but keeping it has become a labor of love.

I’m sure some PS3 lover out there wants to rub this in my face, but remember that my Fat PS3 bit the dust by freezing up (not a “YLOD” or anything else, it just froze), and my second one mostly collects dust while I watch the occasional BluRay on it (serioysly, I own about 10 BluRay movies and 2 PS3 games – I have more PS1 games to play on the thing!). Call me a “fanboy” if you want, but the Xbox brand will always have a spot in my home. I just genuinely love the Xbox Live service… and the controller.

Now, if you want to put Xbox Live and a few Halo games on a PlayStation, we’ll talk!