Melted Processing Chips are pretty

So, yesterday I was forced to go buy another XBox. I must say that I'm not too excited about it, but secretly I'm okay with it.

I've always wanted the XBox 360 Elite model and yesterday I was finally "able" to buy one. It all started with Grand Theft Auto IV and a simple phone call from BH. I was playing GTA IV when my iPhone rang. I saw that it was BH and figured I'd answer, but first, I paused my game. The phone conversation was not long, long enough to decide that we would kill bitches in Halo 3 later that day. Upon returning to GTA IV, I notice a few fuzzy, faint vertical lines statically located on the left side of my screen. They weren't terrible enough to effect gameplay or anything, but figuring it wasn't a good thing, I saved and powered down the box.

After a few minutes of rest, I flipped the switched back on only to be greeted with XBox Hardware System Error code "E 74". For those who don't know about the MANY error codes an XBox can throw at you, "E 74" is the error code for an A/V Cable failure. Not too terrible as cables aren't that expensive. Well, I dug a little deeper into the internetz and was able to find the "E 74" is also the error code for a video processing chip malfunction. HOT DAMN!!! I can has fucked up gaming system plx?!?

Thoroughly pissed and concerned, as well as noticing that my XBox is no longer under warranty, I took apart the fucker myself to take a gander. Looking inside, I see this shiny display of magical colors. Checking against schematics and plans from XBox modding sites, I soon realize that the pile of melted whatever (silicon maybe?) is the video chip.

Now, I work at a job that uses LOTS of surface mount chip components and we do testing on those boards and chips at 170*C. 170 FUCKING DEGREES CELSIUS!! Nothing melts and we have a 96% success rate of solder not melting, meaning that after the test, nothing is fucked up. Also on a side note, I keep a 14" box fan constantly blowing on my system at all times while it's powered up. "Fresh" air is constantly being blown right onto and over the system to keep it nice, cool, and happy. So, for a chip of the much importance to the system to melt, with a fan blowing right on the system, is no less than down right impressive.

So, in the end, I of course had to buy another system and eagerly sought out the Elite bundle. The 120GB HDD is a massive upgrade to the standard 20GB HDD and is easy to transfer data between the two with Microsoft's free Data Transfer kit. I'm also pleased that none of my Arcade games fucked up with the serial number switch.

In the end it worked out okay. I got two "free" games in the Elite bundle, Kung Fu Panda and Lego Indiana Jones. Both of which are actually pretty fun. Plus, I got everything hooked up in time to talk to people.... SP, you are teh awesomeness!!

Currently Listening to:
Tool - The Pot
Deftones - Change (In The House of Flies)

To the guy who banned me...

So yesterday I decided that while I was packing to go away from my extremely boring life of work for a bit of vacation during the Thanksgiving season, I wanted to play some XBox Live.  I turned on my 360 and went about cleaning up some while the system loaded and logged me in at the home screen.

I get into a party with some friends and decided to kick it old school with some Burnout Revenge, because Burnout Paradise sucks ass - whole other story.  Come to find out, good buddy Val bought a used copy of the game and the fuck ups at GameStop put Paradise in her Revenge case.  As I said, Paradise blows, so she was very pissed and decided to go back to GameStop and yell at some fools.

I decided to watch some Netflix over Live while I waited for her to get back so I could squash her like racing bug that she is (<3's)

In the middle of watching The Office, I get a message telling me to log back into Live to continue watching my show. I try to log back, it fails, I try again, it fails again. So I go back to the dashboard and try again. This time when I try, I get an error that tells me that I have been banned until thanksgiving Day.

WTF!?!  I haven't played an intense multi player game in 3 days, how can I get banned for a CoC violation?  So I called the XBox Live support and confirmed that they are all legally retarded in 17 countries.  The guy was no help because "apparently" Micro$oft doesn't post the specific violation you have committed.  So, I have been banned and don't know why, but then I got to thinking.

After a phone conversation with Val, we came to the conclusion that it must have been that little shit head fucker we met during a Texas Hold 'em poker game a few days earlier.  This kid was going "All In" on every hand and I said something about it.  Turns out, he had some anger issues and apparently went and told everyone on his friends list to file a complaint against me.  If indeed he did, congratulations guy, you succeeded.

So, according to M$, you can be banned for almost any reason while logged into XBox Live, at any time.  If anyone has any kind of hatred towards you, you run the risk of banishment.  While its only 3 days, and I'm takign vacation so I couldn't play anyways, it's not totally crippling.

Oh, and don't have conversation with broke people.