360s conking out after Guitar Hero II patch

360 News | Ring of death sightings reported.

From bad, to a bit better, to even worse than in the first place - that pretty much describes the debacle surrounding the faulty guitar whammy bars in the Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero II.

The story so far, for those who may have missed it: at the start of this month, RedOctane released Guitar Hero II on the Xbox 360, and everybody - us included - thought it was Really Ace. However, there was a fly in the ointment - a number of the X-plorer guitar peripherals that shipped with the game suffered from non-responsive whammy bars. To its credit, RedOctane swiftly rode to the rescue, armed with a downloadable software patch which would ease all our whammy worries. Indeed, a number of our own readers reported that the patch was a success.

Crisis averted? Well, not quite. Now the patch is released, a number of users on both the Xbox.com and Guitar Hero forums are complaining that the new update is causing their systems to freeze, with some machines even suffering from the fatal ring of death, a symptom which effectively "bricks" the console. Oo-er. RedOctane has kept its comments on the bricked consoles to a minimum for now, simply telling Eurogamer that it was, "aware of the problem and looking into it."

More as it breaks.

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18 Comments

slimmerthanshady

5 years ago

Wouldn't be suprised. I heard some reports of this happening after the Gears of War patch was released. Microsoft need to get their act together, fix the problem, stop production of faulty consoles, and release consoles with the solution.

Karai Pantsu

5 years ago

Chris-Leigh wrote

More as it breaks.

I see what you did there...

So what are the details here, is this just happening to people while playing sometime after downloading he patch? Or is it immediately after, or what? I think that I'll put my GH2 playing on hold until I can be sure I won't break my fragile little games machine.
This is pretty piss poor - someone needs ot pull their **** thumb out and fix whatever is causing this.

TheAnswer

5 years ago

Well makes me glad I never got GH2 for the 360

ret the roman

5 years ago

Im glad im not opening GH2 till a good patch comes along.

GroovySamurai

5 years ago

Yikes! This aint good! But I havent had any freezes or errors since I installed the patch and the whammy bar has totally been fixed. So looks like im safe.... right?

El Taco

5 years ago

I don't see how fixing a whammy ba results in your 360 dieing, it's pretty weird. (I'm glad I didn't get GH2 on 360...)

ittekimasu

5 years ago

Some things should never leave the PlayStation maybe >.>

But still, odd that a patch could bring out the Red Ring of DEATHHH

Anyway hope it gets fixed soon, Still looking forward to that band game netherless.

RhysDeschain

5 years ago

LOL.... ahhh the fantastic wizards at M$ once again show they can't make something stable to save their grandmothers. I know it's a RedOctane patch, but man. It's like the 360 was made in Kazakhstan or something.

I traded in my copy of GH2 on my PS2 when I bought my PS3, thinking I'd just pick up GH2 on 360 when it was cheaper (thrashed the hell out of my PS2 version anyways), but hmmm. I think I'll wait a while and see what happens.

B3NBO

5 years ago

Mine has been fine and I downloaded the patch?? I got a lucky 360 i think.. never had 1 problem.

BluntNate

5 years ago

Now I know why they chose that industrial design for the xbox360... you know the one that they said they chose because it gives the impression of an "inhale" - it's because the damn thing is so freakin fragile you have to hold your breath anytime you turn it on, or patch it, or play it, or look at it while facing east on a Tuesday in fear of the "ring of death".
At least the only problem I've ever had with *ANY* Nintendo console in my entire 28 years on the planet is to have to blow into the end of a NES cart. LOL.

slapshakle

5 years ago

No ring of death for me... yet. Im not worried though.

Capoeira

5 years ago

Well isn't this fresh. I want to buy the game, but it seems Microsoft are doing a decent job of convincing me to stay away. First the microtransaction debacle, and now this. My purchase of this game is now on an indefinite hold. Get your act together Microsoft

tootie_kicks

5 years ago

If RedOctane were aware of the problem, then why did they release the patch in the first place if they knew it was going to birck city?!?

Souless

5 years ago

I have to say it, Microsoft and the 360 are just unreliable. You dont know what will happen, and that person who commented on the design of the 360 being of the inhale, because it is so fragile it made me laugh.

Reminded me of that simpsons ep, where Mr burns went for treatment and had every disease. But nothing effected him because they were all trying to take effect at once and evrything cancelled it self out, but they were still there and even a slight breeze could kill him. Thats the feeling i get with the 360, so many problems within the hardware that even a simple patch can set it off to die.

My opinion, i dont expect every one to agree, but those people with 360's who had theirs die on them i find would agree.

Also on the same persons comment, the only machines i have had problems with are Xbox and Xbox360's. I had 3 first Xbox's untill i got one that worked and i refuse to do the same with the 360. They are just so unreliable.

Like i said my op.

Blunt Nate is the person, i agree.

Vervain

5 years ago

Okay well I have now decided against buying this game even though a couple of days ago when they released the patch I decided to buy it. Make the game work darnit! If worst comes to worst I guess I'll just get the PS2 version though as the extra content was the only reason why I wanted the 360 one specifically and as it's so expensive it isn't a huge plus anymore.

Dutch Rootsman

5 years ago

I'm definitely not updating now! I'll cop lower scores if it means my Xbox survives.

Jaws

5 years ago

Pretty bold of RedOctane to be admitting to knowing about this problem. Im sure not so many people who own 360s and suffered the Red Ring of DEATH would be too happy to hear their "meh" followup response.

It will be interesting to see if the so called 360 Elite is as fragile contrary to MS' claims.

Ive got to say that when I used to work for a certain games company, we'd get about 10 defective Xbox 360s getting returned every week.

My advice? If you really want one..? Make sure that the place you get it from offers an extended warranty and the most important part is to actually buy the extended damn warranty. Cover your ass. Its that simple.

Souless

5 years ago

S.Jaworski wrote

Pretty bold of RedOctane to be admitting to knowing about this problem. Im sure not so many people who own 360s and suffered the Red Ring of DEATH would be too happy to hear their "meh" followup response.

It will be interesting to see if the so called 360 Elite is as fragile contrary to MS' claims.
Ive got to say that when I used to work for a certain games company, we'd get about 10 defective Xbox 360s getting returned every week.

My advice? If you really want one..? Make sure that the place you get it from offers an extended warranty and the most important part is to actually buy the extended damn warranty. Cover your ass. Its that simple.

I heard that the same tech inside the currewnt 360's will appear in the elites making them exacatly the same. Though i may be wrong, i havent heard of any changes.

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