X360: HDD or something else?

[PineyCreek]

Booted up my Xbox 360 S for the first time in...like a year or two.  Of course it had to update.  I noticed however that it was slow.  Dog slow.  The update download froze several times.  Checked my network, all good there, wired connection, can get too Xbox Live.  Turning off Pi-hole did nothing.  I tested also with manually configuring the DNS to Google/OpenDNS.

 

After a couple cancellations and about five reboots and the occasional "unable to download" error, the multiple updates downloaded and installed.  I go to play a disc-based game, but I have installed the disc to the hard drive (disc checks only, otherwise uses HDD access).  I load the game, it freezes after the intro.  I reboot, it gets to the menu, I try to load a game (Mass Effect 2), it says it can't find installed DLC that the saved game depends on.  I redownload and install the DLC (that is already there) and attempt to run again.  Same issue.  I delete and then reinstall the disc to the HDD.  It loads, with DLC and works.

 

Next day, I try to load a saved game.  Same DLC missing error.  I try signing out and back in, etc. No difference.  I delete and reinstall the disc again, it works.

 

I'll note if I just attempt to launch the game from the initial menu (which seems to point at a disc launch, not HDD) it still occasionally throws the same DLC missing error.  I'm uncertain if the X360 tries to check the HDD to see if the game was already installed there or if it just ignores the install and uses the disc in those cases.

 

Now I'm noting that certain thumbnails aren't loading up, the system is still kind of slower than I expect it to be.  The system however has never thrown a hard drive error code.

 

System also drops Xbox live connection after a few minutes of a game being in a paused state.

 

What do you think?  Hard drive seems to be the easy thing to blame, but X360s (even the newer models) have a history of issues.

 

Other possble troubleshooting I could try:

1) Other games (disc-based or HDD-based downloads)

2) Redo initial system setup.

3) Delete the installed copied entirely to see if the behavior is any better launching from disc only

4) OEM HDD replacement (they're relatively cheap from Amazon)

 

I will note that in researching, this DLC missing error has come up several times in search results with the Xbox One and Steam versions as well, and in those cases it seemed to be a network issue.  I've tried applying similar workarounds (removing DNS changes, signing in and out of Xbox Live, signing in and out of the secondary server crap (Cerberus Networks) for ME2), no difference in behavior.  So far the only thing that I've tried that works is deleting and then installing the disc to the HDD.

[PlayStation 2]

A couple of weeks ago, my Xbox 360 had to update and it was rather slow despite the hard drive being in good shape. Could be network-related things, but if you can spring for a new hard drive, at the very least, you could boil that out of the equation if that's not what's causing it.

[PineyCreek]

3 hours ago, handymanshandle said:

A couple of weeks ago, my Xbox 360 had to update and it was rather slow despite the hard drive being in good shape. Could be network-related things, but if you can spring for a new hard drive, at the very least, you could boil that out of the equation if that's not what's causing it.

Think I'll probably just do that...I reinstalled the game again and played for a couple of hours, but this time I kept running into some really weird bugs that I had never seen.  I might try a couple more games to see what the behavior is, but it's either the hard drive or the entire unit.

[PineyCreek]

So, a fair number of things happen which allow me the freedom to achieve some form of completeness in regards to testing this problem, but I'd like others' opinions.

 

A former coworker graciously sent me another Xbox 360 S console.

 

I, being vain, wish to try and save my current console regardless, as it was a particular limited edition model.

 

So the problem is that the console is somewhat glitchy, mostly when hard drive loads are required (though it seems to not have an issue loading or saving save games for the current game I'm playing).  There are also occasional sound glitches and odd graphical glitches on rare occasions, so while I think the hard drive is still an issue, there may be more to it.  To reiterate prior information, loading a game from disc seems to work without issue, but loading from the hard drive (disc installed to HDD) does not work more than once after deleting and re-installing.

 

So here's my plan.  Please tell me if you think I'm covering everything.

1) Pull the HDD from my current X360 and put in the donor console.  Test gameplay and loading games from HDD (without reinstalling or other modification).

2a) If the issue follows the HDD, then the issue is likely pinpointed.  Go to step 3.

2b) If the issue does not follow the HDD, the issue is likely to be with the mainboard or components on the mainboard.  Perhaps I could migrate the mainboard from the donor console to the current console's shell so I can keep the superfluous value of the limited edition console.  Alternatively, I send it in to MS for repair and pay a stupid amount of money.  End troubleshooting.

3) Attempt to copy files from old HDD to donor HDD (using Xbox360 transfer kit).

4) Use formatting/setup tools to wipe old drive and attempt Xbox360 system reinitialization.

5a) If 4 is successful, copy files back to drive and test.

5b) If 4 is not successful, either use donor drive as main console drive or replace HDD.

 

What do you think?

[Ertman]

1) Doesnt Xbox 360 limit running games on different consoles than to where its been installed.

[PineyCreek]

15 hours ago, Ertman said:

1) Doesnt Xbox 360 limit running games on different consoles than to where its been installed.

Even if you install to HDD, it still performs a disc check.  I think also that certain items may not always be copied to HDD and are still accessed from disc.  I would have the disc of the game I was testing in the donor console at the time.

[Ertman]

On 5/14/2020 at 10:57 PM, PineyCreek said:

Even if you install to HDD, it still performs a disc check.  I think also that certain items may not always be copied to HDD and are still accessed from disc.  I would have the disc of the game I was testing in the donor console at the time.

I meant if you installed it on the HDD on one machine, it will give you an error about using that installed game on another, regardless of whether or not you have the disc in the machine for the disc check.

 

I am not 100% certain whether this error will happen every time, as I have only ran into this using an external drive while trying to get AC4 to install to a drive as the disc was being difficult on one machine and not the other..

[PineyCreek]

2 hours ago, Ertman said:

I meant if you installed it on the HDD on one machine, it will give you an error about using that installed game on another, regardless of whether or not you have the disc in the machine for the disc check.

 

I am not 100% certain whether this error will happen every time, as I have only ran into this using an external drive while trying to get AC4 to install to a drive as the disc was being difficult on one machine and not the other..

Ah, interesting.  I hope to test it soon, so I'll let you know.  Even though I've been through a couple of X360 consoles, I've never dealt with game or HDD transfers on the original or S model.

[Kawaii Koneko]

Sounds like a hard drive issue to me based on experience with my X. Constant update issues, no ability to get around some of them, games locking up, not installing, or not even transferring to another drive, etc. I couldn't even get through an area in Quantum Break without it locking up. This was on a system that wasn't even a few days old so I just sent it back to Amazon and they sent me a replacement.

 

I seem to be having similar issues again. Two out of the last three updates have failed but this time I was manually able to do it. Rise of the Tomb Raider kept freezing on a very specific part when I turned the camera around to look at a water fall. I've had intermittent freezes and crashes over the past couple months (with games that I've never had issues with in the past) and I hear odd noises coming from it. Good thing I purchased the extended warranty. I need to send it in but since all my saves are in the cloud, losing data isn't a concern so I've been procrastinating lol.