My xbox 360 wont show a picture but it has sound (by 188 users)

Yea sane thing ive been trying to fix it for a while the reset thing withe pressing the y button and the right trigger dosent work... Ive left my xbox on for a hour and turned it off and still dosent work. Ill try the towel trick next but if that dosent work IT HAMMER TIME =P

I recently got a black screen with white dots on it. Im thinking about using the towel trick because it's out of warrenty. Anyone know what hardware is causing the problem? I think it's probably the motherboard or video card.

HEY PEOPLE!!
i had this problem and commented on this website recently,

my 360 was out of warranty but i still sent it back (not wanting to do the "towel trick") and the fixed it for me FOC

i suggest you try the same

good luck - i know that microsoft can be jerks and this may not be the same for everyone

if its any help they replaced the motherboard and DVD Drive

I had the same exact problem then it Occured to me. Is my HD switch on? The answer was yes and i was playing on a non HD TV. It may or may not be your problem but check that before you kill your xbox with the towel thing.

Wrap the 360 in a 100% cotton towel. Place it on a hardclean surface...then take a Sledge Hammer and beat the crap out of it...Place in box, take a piece of blank paper...put your hand in the birdie position and trace your hand on the paper...place the paper in the box with the Xbox and send to Microsoft.

You could try this, dont think that the towel thing you are all on about is any good: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/911059

I would not recommend the towel trick. Too much heat is not a good thing for the 360. You can fry other components doing this. Clean everything you can, wires, connections. If your warrenty is out. Open it up and try to find an area that solder is lose or not connected. Check the gpu/motherboard connection, that seems to be the most errors i have gotten. (twice). there are ways to find out which error you have if you have the flashing lights after the picture goes out. just search it here.

I have seen the no video problem with several consoles that friends have given me and every time it was remedied by an X-clamp replacement (the BGA solder balls on the GPU have cracked and broken loose due to the motherboard warping from excessive heat). This involves replacing the heat sink mounts with screws and washers that apply downward pressure on the heat sinks to re-connect the broken solder balls of the GPU. That is why the towel trick works for a short while, the broken solder balls re-attach themselves just barely but not very well.

This process is not for the faint of heart as it involves COMPLETELY disassembling your Xbox. Xbox-scene has many good tutorials that detail this process. Llamma also has a good tutorial at this link:

http://www.llamma.com/xbox360/repair/ring_of_light_x-clamp_fix.htm

If you are brave enough to go this far you may also want to make some cooling modifications to help the airflow increase over the GPU heatsink. RJBTech has a good article on this at this link:

http://rbjtech.bulldoghome.com/pages/rbjtech_bulldoghome_com/Xbox360.htm

He is one of the innovators in the Xbox 360 repair scene and has some good tutorials as well.

There of course are other things that can cause the no video problem but more often than not the GPU overheating and breaking its solder balls is the cause. Yes, the new units are SLIGHTLY more reliable with the added GPU heat sink but if you nose around the xbox-scene forums you will find that they are failing in the same manner as the earlier xbox 360 units, just not as high a percentage of them.

The new GPU heat sink just moves heat from the area of the GPU and passes it right through the CPU heat sink so the problem of too much heat in that small box has not been fixed. Only a die shrink in the GPU and CPUs will alleviate that problem (or increase the fan speed to increase the exhaust, but that also increases noise greatly).

Good luck,

Hoyt

no picture on tv and the illumination ring around the on/off button is flashing i dont know the problem is please HELP

my xbox had been on for about an hour just playing music while i was surfing the web, well i poped in a movie and i noticed before it started that my resolution started to degrade a little and i didnt think anything of it....its a MS product...**** happens...so i watched my movie and i still had weird lines degrading my video quality so i cut it off and rebooted and i got a blip on a blank screen and no video but i got full sound...i got no blinking lights on the front, just notmal bootup with no video. so i figured my tv just messed up again cuz i just got it out of the shop and tested it and it worked perfectly...tried my xbox again and again and on another tv still nothing. called xbox support at 12:57 est thinking maybe i can grab a rep before they close at 1:00 est and at 1:01 they just said call back tommorow and hung up....my warranty shouldnt be up yet so ill try later

i was playing yesterday on cod4 and then the tv started turning different colors then it turned orange. i reseted my 360 and then white dots going diagnally threwout the screen. i tried another tv but nothing. Microsoft better fix this problem out or im going to sew them then take all of there money. you guys should do that 2. i might do the towel trick didn't do that yet but i will try. better work................. ahhhhhhhhhhhhh

if i use the towel trick and it doesent work can that mean that it can get more broken while doing the towel trick

I got it.....It was a dahh for! After 2 mos.down i finally just started cleaning everything. I don't play on my t.v., But on my computer monitor. The a/v cables were clogged from the continous connecting and disconnecting. I used some alchol and an old toothbrush, poking the holes aggresively and lo'l and behold a picture. Believe you, me ....I am underestimating how pissed I was when I found out it was that simple little thing.

I just tried the towel trick and it worker after just about 8 min my xbox got hot as hell which kind of worries me in the long run but hey instant fix

I also have an xbox 360 that went from having a video image to not having one within one sitting. I was playing assasin's creed and mass effect, during my mass effect game the system's resolution started to actually get darker and the color depth faded as well ( as if it was in safe mode ) , after rebooting no video at all. Removed all cables and hard drive. Re-connected and tried rebooting several times no luck, eventually on 4th reboot got red ring of death. That's 3 red flashing lights starting at the 1 position, and also in the 3rd and 4th position. If I removed the video cable if gives me a FULL 4 flashing red (AV issue), and then back to the ring of death (1,3,4).

Call MS said it was out of warranty, as is my older unit that has a busted DVD rom, yes I have two of them. I have already had to replace one. So I am taking my working DVD rom out of my busted unit , and putting into my working unit. Hopefully this will solve my issue. My suggestion is to try and make sure all is connected, clean pins etc. But don't mess with it too much things like the towel trick are temporary fixes. If you are in warranty send it in, it's free. If you are out of warranty and you are capable of servicing electronics it's just a few beads of solder, near the back where the AV comes into the MB.

And for all those replacing DVD roms it's a Serial ATA DVD rom, can be replaced with any model.

Hope this helps.

Of and if you get the red lights, that means the Video or GPU is shot. No video no games I am afraid.

Good luck!

Same thing too, I did the towel trick and now I have sound and video. Tried on Oct 13th.

I had the same problem with mine.I just moved mine,but there may be a diferant problem.It mite be your tv, or your wire that plugs in the tv.try these first and if that do'nt work it's your 360.


from:clintman

A Solution...........................This is for everyone and anyone who waited countless hours for a system that would later or working on them. The Solution that i am about to tell you is totally illegal, but it works... Trust Me..... Me along with many other of my friends with faulty XBox360s have done this.... Well first this, solution requires several steps... 1. you need money for a xbox 360 arcade console (Obviously because its the cheapest one)... and dont worry....you'll get every nickel back :)...... 2. (Tools) you'll need a minature flat head screw driver along with a Torx Head scew driver...(its the one with a 6 point star shaped head) 3.(Instruction) this is perhaps the most important step of all... because it requires the dissembly of your system and for those who dont know how to... here is a web site that gives you detailed instructions on how to take your 360 apart (http://www.xbox-accessories.com/instructions/disassemble360.html) trust me, its not that hard 4. (Prey) I would suggest picking the least tech savy store such as wall mart or target were i would get the system.... 5. (The good ol switcher rue) Once have both systems in front of you, there are several things that you need to be aware of... there are four stickers and three of witch contain bar cods which identifies each xbox; one is in the front by the usb ports. the other one is in the back (DO NOT PEEL THIS ONE) the whole plastic panel is going to be sent back the retailer... The third sticker is inside.... you'll see it on the aluminum panel as you open it.... the last one is located in the front after removing the face plate (this is a tamper prof sticker and i suggest letting it slide of when you separate the two main white pieces) all three stickers with the bar codes need to be with the one console that is going to be returned...... all you need to is switch the your console with the brand new one (if the new one has HDMI ports and yours doesnt, dont worry... they wont even notice the difference between the old version and the new version.....
6. Return it...... the only thing that they will mostly look at is the bar code in the back and the rest of the merchandice in the box

I know this seems like alot of work but it isnt and it saves you money in the end with a brand new updated 360 Enjoy :)

if it is really cold in the room will it effect the 360

Wrack it hard with a sledgehammer, worked for me :)

I had the same problem with mine.I just moved mine,but there may be a diferant problem.It mite be your tv, or your wire that plugs in the tv.try these first and if that do'nt work it's your 360.


from:Joke-O

I had the same problem with my 360, so i took all my games and controllers and traded them and bought myself a PS3 alot better quality product and its gonna kick the 360's *** by the end of this year.

wrap it with a towel for 20 minutes let it cool off, **** works like a charm

You could try this, dont think that the towel thing you are all on about: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/911059

 I WAS PLAYING PGR4 ONLINE AND THEN MY STUPID X-BOX CHANGED DIFFERENT COLORS OF RED AND GREEN AND WENT BLANK EXEPT FOR GREEN DOTS ON MY SCREEN GOING DIAGANALLY. IT WASN'T ANY OF THE CORDS OR TV. WARRENTY IS UP...SOOO... I'LL GUESS I'LL HAVE TO DO THE TOWEL TRICK...HUH I HOPE IT DOESN'T MESS IT UP MORE...WELL HERE I GO... 

had this problem earlier with MASS EFFECT. awsome game but i think it was killing my 360. i fixed it by dusting it off and the area around (the cabinent around was really dusty) then warming it up a bit (cuz it was way too cold in my room) with the towel trick [just 3mins]. afterwards i was able to play all of my older games just fine except mass effect as it still does that at some point.

i have an older hdtv, no 1080p; now i think mass effect[no autosave] that i had just happens to output 1080p sometime during gameplay from component because if i eject it, the screen goes back to normal. at first i had it on autosave, which probably saved the settings that 1080p setting. therefore i just exchanged it for something else and so far my 360 is working like before.

Hey I have the same problem and it isnt the tv or the cable, its the stupid system and maybe the towel trick might actually work on the system to fix it.

Just sent my 2nd console off for repair after the RROD, after waiting 2 weeks i got sent another (now my 3rd) which i received 2day! :)
Opened the box....... played for 1 hr and then the picture went completely, i can still hear the sound. I tried it on other TV's with different cables. Phoned Xbox, its a problem with the hardware, got to send it in for repair..... AGAIN!
It seems that alot of people seem to be experiencing the same problem, thanks Mr Gates for charging me a fortune for faulty goods (which are not suitable for the consumer market) and making my life a hassle! Forget the S**tbox it's not worth a penny

use this product to clean ur lines. ensure to wipe down the excess..
trichloroethylene. aka "trike"..we use it all the time in our aircraft avianoics
its aviation tech's 409.. if that dont work... solution11 will do.

is ther a switch on your cable try change the switch possotion