Recently after performing a hot swap on my xbox I've tried to test some games out on the Xbox to make sure it works correctly, I've noticed it does not. I downloaded the Halo 2 maps and tried to play a few games, and it is very laggy. Not necessarily internet or xbox live lag, but you can tell that it is the console. Also, it will only load about 4 maps, if you get any other maps than those in a matchmaking game it will kick you back out to the main menu. The maps that load are both on the disc and HDD, and the copy of Halo 2 is brand new with no scrathes, it also plays fine in all other xboxes. The xbox is not modded and was restored to factory condition. The disc drive seems to read most everything fine, and the HDD will read and write. The only issue under the dashboard is that things are a little slow, menus in games are slow at times also
Sounds like either a heat issue or the hdd might be on it's way out. I know with some of the xbox's i've modded the stock drives always ran a lil slower (I use 16mb cache hdd's) and all of them were pretty dirty. You have to remember xbox's are like computers which means they'll pick up all the dust, lint, even bugs sometimes so keep them clean. If i were you after i cleaned the xbox i'd throw xbmc on it and monitor the temps. In xbmc you could try to run a video from a networked pc to see if it's the hard drive causing the problem or not. In avalaunch it will show the temps and also show the free available memory. Out of 64mb you should have about half left. Check those temps out and compare them to this My main box runs at about 122F Cpu and 108F GPU (Mobo) Post your results and we'll figure out this issue.
First off, thanks for the reply. I have posted this in other forums and nobody seems to be able to figure it out. I would do as you suggested, however, the Xbox is no longer modded. I restored it to factory condition and reinstalled all of the Xbox live updates as needed. The Xbox was originally mine and ran this way for around a year before I gave up and purchased a 360 along with a new xbox. I then lended the xbox to a friend. He wanted a modded xbox up until just recently, he now wants it unmodded so he can play halo 2 on xbox live. I thought restoring everything back to its factory condition would solve this problem, but it did not. I would say that it could be a heat issue. However, it doesn't start freezing and not loading maps after a while, it does it after it is just turned on. The exhaust fan is louder than it should be and sounds as if the bearings could be going out. There is still normal airflow coming from the fan. I also ran this xbox for about a week with the case off, so that should have helped. It seems to make no difference with or without the case. I do beleive that it could be the HDD. I have an old 40 GB I can use if I need a new one. I have already loaded the necessary files for the xbox on it, and it would be ready to put it, however I do not have the eeprom on my computer so I can not lock the HDD. It is beyond me how I was able to get the xbox running without a copy of the eeprom, but when i preformed the hot swap it worked fine. I used the program that creates a bootdisk and fixes the xbox in dos mode, I can not remember the name. I plugged the HDD back into the xbox before turning it off, I suppose that is what locked it. I am sorry that I can not do any of the things you suggested because it is no longer modded, but when I get some more time I can go back and re-mod it if needed. Do you think I should just try another HDD? Thanks for the help and I hope you can help me solve my problem.
Yeah i would say using a different hdd might solve your problem. Also i thought about it and it could be some corrosion on the board. There are some capacitors that blow and lose their gel after awhile and that could really be anywhere on the board, usually it's up in the front and causes a power issue. Anyway you could have some corrosion and that could be causing a short. Look around on the board and see if you can see any white or green corroded areas. If you find any you can clean them up with some rubbing alcohol. That's all i can think of for now, if you find anything let me know.
I did not get a chance to take the xbox apart today (too busy helping other people with their computers). However, I recall seeing a white bubbled blob on the motherboard near where the HDD connects to the motherboard, I did not know if this was some compound used to attach parts to the motherboard or if something had leaked out, I can take a picture tomorrow if needed, and post it. You mentioned something about a heat issue earlier, I'm just curious, what would cause a heat issue in the xbox. I have heard that the xbox runs at very low temps. The only things I could think of were fans, dust, and thermal compound, along with room temperature. I know for a fact all of those things are fine, with the exception of thermal compound, which I've never heard of anyone changing in an xbox. I thought back to a few years ago, and remembered having problems with the xbox reading games and getting the dirty disk error alot, until I finally had to send it in, I know they sent me my xbox back and not a replacement, and I called to ask what had been replaced, all of which was just a dvd drive. I later talked to some people who thought carrying my xbox around all of the time and using it in the car on roadtrips had damaged it. I realize that was a different issue, but I didn't know if it could have anything to do with my problem now, I also thought maybe carrying it around and using it in the car could have hurt the HDD. Let me know if you want me to post a picture of the place on the motherboard, where I think it could be bad or not. Once again I appreciate all of the help.
