360-related FAQ

[highpass]

Common questions related to the 360's setup and use, from cabling to capture, ought be posted here in hopes of creating some sort of frequently asked questions library. Add your suggestions and we'll add it to this post :)

Cheers.

[Raven11292]

Ok, my xbox is being playout stupid when I try to connect to live?? I've had life for over 8 monthes and then one day my wireless adapter decides that it's not going to work anymore. The usual green circle on the adapter turned red and then I turned my system off and left it off for a day. When I turned it on the next day the circle that usually flashes red or green no longer lights up and when I text xbox live connection it says my adapter is disconnected even though it's plugged in. Any suggestions??

[Khaos]

Whats the best way to capture? I have a Pinnacle USB converter box that I can do a plethora of things with, but when running through that the image looks very downgraded. Any thoughts??

[Led]

Can I use an external hard drive with my xbox 360 as a memory card? Also, is there a good guide for configuring your 360 to connect with your PC?

[Shinobi273]

Can I use an external hard drive with my xbox 360 as a memory card? Also, is there a good guide for configuring your 360 to connect with your PC?

You can't write onto drives you connect to your 360, only 360 memory cards. You can read them however, so you could put all your music, pictures, and videos on tehre and access them from your 360.

[DrH3rbz]

Ok, my xbox is being playout stupid when I try to connect to live?? I've had life for over 8 monthes and then one day my wireless adapter decides that it's not going to work anymore. The usual green circle on the adapter turned red and then I turned my system off and left it off for a day. When I turned it on the next day the circle that usually flashes red or green no longer lights up and when I text xbox live connection it says my adapter is disconnected even though it's plugged in. Any suggestions??

I had a problem sort of simalar to this, I was told that turning the router off and back on would fix the problem (thats if its the same problem) and it has worked fine since.

[Otisbum]

Wanted to ask this since a brief power outage last night caused my 360 to RROD until I restarted it:

If I were to have to send in my 360, would I have to send in the hard drive too, or could I hold onto it and just send the system itself?

[Sanction]

You just send you 360, not the HDD. And a power outtage does that to 360's. We've had construction by my house going on for a while now, and the 'tards who are doing the work usually blow a transformer once a week, giving us a power burp, and giving my 360 the RRoD...but once you power off then on it's fine. So I wouldn't worry. ;)

[Otisbum]

Thanks a ton. That's good to know.


Okay, time for a new question:
When it says "arcade and other Live downloads are linked to your console" does this mean that they will only work offline on the console you downloaded them to?

I'm asking this because when I move out of the house (in the future), I'll be wanting to take the HDD with me. Is it possible to plug the old HDD into a new console and run the games offline, or will I have to either play them online / use the original console?

[eXiled Killah]

Okay, time for a new question:
When it says "arcade and other Live downloads are linked to your console" does this mean that they will only work offline on the console you downloaded them to?

I'm asking this because when I move out of the house (in the future), I'll be wanting to take the HDD with me. Is it possible to plug the old HDD into a new console and run the games offline, or will I have to either play them online / use the original console?

This has been an on going problem with the way Microsoft handles security regarding downloads. They are some how tied to the original box they are downloaded to as well as your tag. Moving just the hard drive to another 360 won't allow you to play offline. When you do this, the arcade games give you trial access only. I've already gone thru this. It's the same when you have to send back your xbox to Microsoft for repair. They rarely ever send you back the same box so when you slap on the old hard drive, unless you're logged in to Live! you don't get access to your downloaded/purchased stuff. It sucks!

[Otisbum]

Wow, that's garbage.

Here's to hoping my current 360 survives long enough for me to keep using on down the line. If it ends up screwing up, I'll just go the full mile and move everything to a larger HDD if/when I get an Elite.

New question: Is there really a limit to how many "free month of Gold" accounts you can create per 360?

EDIT: After researching a bit, it seems that if you delete one of the three Gold accounts (the limit is 3), you can create yet another and it will work.
Can someone confirm the above?

[Sanction]

You get 3 free months of Gold. But they aren't in succession, which blows.

[Otisbum]

Updated my last post. Is it possible to delete one of the free Gold accounts from the 360 and make a fourth one?

[Sanction]

Nope. The accounts are registered with the console. So, to my knowledge, deleting them wouldn't do anything.

I've tried doing it before, doesn't work. :P

[Otisbum]

Weird. I've seen some people say they've done it and it works. :(

[Red Flag]

Question:

I heard on other sites that if you lie and say that your Hexic got deleted, and you call up MS to send you the code to re-download, will they sometimes give you 800 free MS points to download something else, if they are too lazy to get the code for you?

[Otisbum]

I'd think it would be the same difficulty for them to either give you a code for the game or a code for the points. So it's most likely just a rumor.
Plus it'd be too easy to cheat the system and get free points that way.

[TheColdWolf]

If i made a new profile and its a gold and i use the content i brought for marvel and Guitar Hero 3 still? Even if i deleted the account that i brought it with off my Hardrive?

[jimbonoel]

What does 1 red light mean?? I just got it and I was just wondering what that meant.

[Otisbum]

http://www.xbox360achievements.org/forum/showthread.php?t=6259
Hardware failure. Restarting it should help.

[theconodontuk]

I used to connect my arcade system via HDMI but I no longer have a HDready TV, so I went back to the cable originally packaged with the box - a 3 cable AV (audiol/r and video) however, the xbox doesnt even boot properly and I get no audio or video output - it doesn't recognise the existance of the wireless controller. All in all my gaming experience is FUBAR. Anyone seen this before or will I have to resort to contactin M$?

[LFC2K6]

I used to connect my arcade system via HDMI but I no longer have a HDready TV, so I went back to the cable originally packaged with the box - a 3 cable AV (audiol/r and video) however, the xbox doesnt even boot properly and I get no audio or video output - it doesn't recognise the existance of the wireless controller. All in all my gaming experience is FUBAR. Anyone seen this before or will I have to resort to contactin M$?

Incase the problem is still on going, did you change your output settings back down from HD? i.e. I imagine you were set at 1080i/p, if you didnt then change it back to 480p before changing to the new cable you would have the problem you are describing. If you have a friend or neighbour who will let you borrow their TV for a few seconds, plug your HDMI/Component cable in turn on the box, and change the settings to 480p. Hope this helps.

[GottiMafia]

i was looking to buy an HDMI Cable for my 360, but on the website it says the cable can only be used for HDMI ready 360's. How do i know if my 360 is HDMI ready? I got mine in April of 06 it was the 20GB Premium at the time.

[mistical]

i was looking to buy an HDMI Cable for my 360, but on the website it says the cable can only be used for HDMI ready 360's. How do i know if my 360 is HDMI ready? I got mine in April of 06 it was the 20GB Premium at the time.
If you have an HDMI hook up in the back, you can use HDMI and get your HDMI cable.

But since you bought yours in April '06, it doesn't have HDMI. It wasn't till July 2007 that Xbox 360's started using HDMI (which they should of had all along).

If you had HDMI, the back of your Xbox 360 would look like this:
http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/bto/20070809/360_hdmi_540x405.jpg

[GottiMafia]

If you have an HDMI hook up in the back, you can use HDMI and get your HDMI cable.

But since you bought yours in April '06, it doesn't have HDMI. It wasn't till July 2007 that Xbox 360's started using HDMI (which they should of had all along).

If you had HDMI, the back of your Xbox 360 would look like this:
http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/bto/20070809/360_hdmi_540x405.jpg
Thanks alot and i just found out that MadCatz made a converter for the older 360's in order to hook up an hdmi cable.

[mistical]

Thanks alot and i just found out that MadCatz made a converter for the older 360's in order to hook up an hdmi cable.
Just to let you know, it won't give you true HDMI quality.

That said, it is a waste of money in my honest opinion. You are probably better off selling your Xbox 360 and getting either a new or used one with HDMI than waste money on this. Totally up to you in the end on what you decide. I don't find it worth the $90 (unless price has changed in the past few months) to not get true HDMI where component looks just as good as HDMI.

[kentarulez]

Where do you put an external Harddrive? I don't wanna try and then end up breaking my 360 installing the Harddrive. Also can you buy seperate warrenties anywhere, as I think my mother threw mine away.