Broken 360?

Hi there. The xbox 360 suffers from overheating, and different symptoms can be seen after the board has 'warped', from overheating.

Basically, the video processor chip and/of the video memory chips gets disconnected from the main board from overheating. The behavior of the console can be many things, from the '3 Rings of Death' which consists of the console not even starting up with the 3 front lights flashing, to occasional freezing, lockups, video artifacts and lines.

You might notice a difference in the console's behavior depending on the actual temperature of it. If it freezes on each startup, even on a 'cold' boot, the board is probably bad enough now.

If you're really out of luck with getting MS to replace it, you might try the 'towel' method. It's still better than using the xbox as a doorstop.

I won't be describing this technique here as it's a bit weird, but you can find it on xbox-scene.com forums, searching for 'towel' might get you some tutorial on it. It basically consists of blocking both the air intake and exhaust of the console, which makes the internal temperature so high it actually 'reflows' the connection between the graphics processor and the board. That worked for a few guys it seems, but it's far from a 'by the book' technique, to say the least. :)

Hope that helps, cheebster.