Xbox 360 Issues: Who's Affected, and Why?

[Ziyyigo-Tipyigo]

Since this has been an ongoing issue for, oh, years now, I'm not holding my breath on the related bug reports on this forum changing things any time soon.

However, the anecdotes I'm hearing is that not all Xboxes have all problems, suggesting that some or all of the issues can be fixed with a new hard drive, a new Xbox, or both.

So, what problems are you experiencing, and what does your Xbox 360 setup look like?

For the record, the three problems I hear about (and experience) the most are:

Besieged freezing--Participating in events with a lot of character models on your screen (players, monsters, etc.) eventually causes your system to freeze catastrophically. Both video and audio freeze, the controller is unresponsive, and the system must be powered down manually from the console itself.
Zone lags--About ten seconds after changing areas, video (and possibly input) freeze for about three seconds. This happens every time, be it entering Port Jeuno or entering your Mog House.
Disc read errors--Particularly after an "improper shut down" (e.g. Besieged freezing), attempting to start the game results in a "disc unreadable" error, until the HDD's cache has been cleared. Newer game discs seem to be more susceptible than older ones (e.g. I get it more with my WotG expansion disc than my original game disc).


So, which of the above problems do you have, if any? And if you do or don't have problems, what does your Xbox 360 look like? The big questions are:

Is it big or small?

If it's big, does it have an HDMI port?

How big is your hard drive?


Personally, I've got a large Xbox 360, no HDMI port, a 20 GB HDD, and I've had all three problems.

[Harukusan]

I've been playing for about ~7 years now, and I've never run into these problems before. I bet you can guess why. :)

Buy a PC!

Not trying to be rude or mean in any way, but by today's standards (mainly thanks to PS2's "limitations"), a PC capable of running FFXI will be roughly the same cost of a new Xbox (maybe less), and all your problems will vanish. I don't think more changes made by the developers will help the situations you're having trouble with.

[Zumi]

Besieged freezing is just an issue with the xbox version.

I get the zone lag freze every time I zone as well. I think its loading stuff from the HDD to the RAM which causes the pause.

[Ziyyigo-Tipyigo]

Buy a PC!


Besieged freezing is just an issue with the xbox version.

Why in the name of Altana did I think I could get something useful and productive out of this forum?

If anybody needs me, I'll be crying in the corner.

[Juri_Licious]

It's pretty simple, they ported the game over instead of making it directly for Xbox 360.
So, it's not coded as correctly as it should be so it's not optimized.

They would have to use an update patch.

[Skwigelf]

Zone lags--About ten seconds after changing areas, video (and possibly input) freeze for about three seconds. This happens every time, be it entering Port Jeuno or entering your Mog House.

^its infuriating. Me and a few others that play on xbox in our ls all say the same thing. Weird thing is we all noticed our mules dont zone lag whatsoever.

[vyhakeyo]

It's not just Besieged I've ran into that, but also Campaign a few times. I stopped doing Besieged and campaign because of the freezing problem. Maybe a patch can be thought up?

[sc4500]

As a long time xbox live users was on ps2 version then switch to the xbox version on launch ffxi xbox, yea there are some bugs that would be nice they fixed, Here some helpful tips that i have found my self or came across other messages boards on these bugs.
First I Am using a xbox slim with 120g hardrive and almost all bugs still rear there ugly hair. also had 2 other older xboxes that were rrod boxes that had on launch days of xbox 360.

1st. The besieged locked up on me on all 3 xboxes , seems happen after 30 min into besieged so if have not locked up , need go find a safe corner and just sit down, dont touch anything on your xbox contoller or keyboard, try find spot were there no one else fighting.

2nd. campaign and aybessea both will lock up on the slims and older xbox i know on campaign older xboxes never been in aybessea on old xboxes, these lockups seems to happen after in campaing 2 hrs in the same zone while campaigning , aybessea seems happen after 3 hrs in the zone exping while in alliances, Can fixed these locked up by just zoneing out then coming back into the area , resest the locked up timer. In aybessea can see when got 5 min left buy looking on the map and be all pixulated. caught that 2 times. then would lock me few min later. also if see like 3 or 4 other people start dc from lockups on xbox be good time zone out then back in, or log off log back in.

3rd. Dirty disk errors can happen to any model of xboxes , seems less frequent with newest disk and slim but still happens, To fixed this you got download a custom music song to your hard drive and play the song while disk load works 100% time or can just use a ipod or any usb custom music player and play a song through the dashboard.

4th. This has happend to a few my friends with old xboxes that have not been repaired from the RROD, Critical faluire when game loads up , you cant move your character with out the game DCing you, and stuck in that one area all time, unless got good friend can get you out that area, Usally this sign that your xbox is about RROD, GM will not warp you, and square and microsoft offers no help , one my buddy spent 3 days on there customer service systems trying get to work, finally he gave me his account info and i was able to get him out the zone. It did again to him and this time he wet towled his xbox got rrod and got fixed never did it again. Out of the 75 plus friends on my xbox live gamertag all played this game only happened to 3 people , so extremly rare.

5th Lag on zones , havent found solution on that , me and my friends believe because xbox live all broadband users , and game accept 56k dial up reason does that. Think it lower are speed each time we zone into the area.

[Ziyyigo-Tipyigo]

First I Am using a xbox slim with 120g hardrive and almost all bugs still rear there ugly hair. also had 2 other older xboxes that were rrod boxes that had on launch days of xbox 360.


Thanks a lot for the info on your experiences on multiple Xbox rigs. I guess all I would have to look forward to with an upgrade is that the frozen video will be through an HDMI port rather than component video. XD

I strongly suspect the reason these things aren't getting fixed is "Xbox Live limitations." Square-Enix is contractually bound to run FFXI on Xbox a certain way (e.g. requiring a disc in the drive, no internet access outside Xbox Live, etc.), so their hands are tied when it comes to trying to fix things that would affect how the game runs on the platform.

I think the ongoing warning to use "/shutdown" rather than the Xbox Guide Button to shut down is an example of this: Microsoft would never allow S-E to alter the function of the Guide Button.

[Chronofantasy]

I do a lot of abyssea exp ptys. I can be perfectly fine for quite a long time if there's just my alliance in the immediate area, but once another ally comes close by and is fighting in the same spot for a while, I can often freeze anytime after 30 mins to 2 hours. I also get some of the other above mentioned issues too while playing on 360. I could play on my laptop but it's not as comfy for me even with a controller since I enjoy laying on my bed while I use a wireless controller to play on a large TV. If I played on a laptop/PC then I might be turned off from FFXI soon into playing, but that's just me. I'm used to playing console games and I enjoy playing console games.

[Kohboy]

I have played on xbox for the last few years, I had a 1st run xbox, for long time and experience a lot more crashing and freezing on it. It died a year ago got a new one (just an arcade) and I noticed it has a lot less issues. But I still crash in besieged. Im sure this is a cashing issue. I big help would be letting the game go 100% hd like most of the DL xbox classic games you can get now. Accessing the disk is one of the problems. But Im not sure SE or MS care. SE still prints the disk now an again but I think the are done supporting it Xbox. A good way to tell this is they have not add any achievements to the game. And there as been no add's or updates form x-box live on the updates to the game. For besieged i find the siting in the corner thing after about 29 min's works. The sound track works for the lock up reboot 100%.

I still love being able to use the xbox sitting on the couch with a wireless keyboard and controller on Large tv.

-Kohboy

[Anethia]

I've experienced the besieged/campaign freeze. That's been an issue since day 1 of the Xbox version. I've experienced it on every model I've owned from the 20gig premium to the 120gig Elite to the 250gig slim. So it not limited to old vs new model systems.

The zone freeze is nothing new either. That may be related to the lag freeze mentioned aboved.

Trying to report it to Microsoft results in "it's SE's problem, not ours". Reporting to SE results in "it's microsofts problem, not ours".

At this point I blame both parties. Microsoft for crappy hardware that can't handle the massive flow of network info, resulting in memory leaks. SE for being lazy and not adding the proper filters to prevent the network overflow that causes the memory leaks.

In other words: the PS2 version has filters that only allow so much data to be processed at one time and keeps new data in limbo until the old info has been purged from the memory. Without those built in filters in the game PS2 would crash more often than the Xbox. The Xbox version doesn't have that same type of filtering and allows new data in before the old data has a chance to purge. This results in information overload and the system stops responding.

A lot of of computers run into this problem if you try to open too many programs at once. Sometimes the system goes "ugh! Too much, too fast /wheeze" and freezes up or lags down really badly until it can purge enough data to become functional again.

[Randwolf]

I've been playing for about ~7 years now, and I've never run into these problems before. I bet you can guess why. :)

Buy a PC!
Your contribution is worthless.

I bought a 360 because of FFXI and the better graphics. I had the Besieged problems and moved to a PC because it was pissing me off. But, the OP has a genuine question that deserves a genuine answer.

p.s. - I find it interesting that in another thread you complain that someone didn't read your thread before replying. Apparently, though, it must be okay to read the thread and ignore what it actually said/asked.

[chubrocka]

I didnt find this thread before but i made a new one about a new issue after latest updates

[Zatias]

Been affected on all 3 of my Xboxes, the first 2 are broken and sitting somewhere in microsoft's new stock.

Have had all of the above mentioned problems. 24G harddrive and play in HD on an HDTV (obviously) but this is only the way it is presented, it doesn't affect how it runs ; ;

Also they need to fix the "Until the issue is addressed" popup before you press the Play button in the menu. It hasn't been addressed and will never be fixed XD

[Luso]

I noticed that I had to download a new update via Live when starting up XI on the 360. Anyone know what that does? It's separate from the actual game in that it's not downloaded via POL or XI.

My issue with the 360 has only been the zone lag some people experience. Other than that, I don't have a problem with anything else. I use my brother's Slim with a 250 GB hard disk. I think it was the Arcade version or whatever it's called that had 4 GB of flash memory already in.

[Korpg]

If anything, I would wager a guess as to the people who are having XBOX 360 issues.....

....are people who play on XBOX 360s.......

[Covenant]

Two things I can think of...mind you I'm not computer literate. First, for some inexplicable reason XBOx require all games to run on the system at all times. Even when you "load" the game to the HDD as with FFXI or other games, players are required to keep disc in system. I'm guessing this is a go-between to defend against hacking.

Second, I think there is a serious "cache" issue with XBOx. When full will not clean itself while you play causing a freeze.

The only thing that help I find is during "big fights" with many things spamming moves is to go into configuration and eliminate most chat texts. Also, eliminate nearly ALL battle effects and weather effects. This will fee up some of the xboxs resources. Finally, "turn" away from onscreen visual displays of large grouping. Basically, turn the INGAMe camera so that at most you avatar and 1 mob is on screen( or minimum amount of people/mobs.

Stay far, far away from mobs that cast/spam AoE moves. Nothings worst than an avatar grouping all casting BP/BW together with avatars floating around or being summoned.

[Rosina]

I'm a long time 360 player only issue I've had are the "clean disc" error after d/c or turning it off. Simple fix is to play music on the 360 and it skips it.

With the freezes, i noticed it is from the amount of gb you have on your hdd. I had freeze issues with the 80 gb one. But now I have the 120 gb one. And haven't had much issue.

I hope this helps.

[Octaviane]

All my friends who play on X-Box experience all the problems listed above. They couldn't do Beseiged even back when it was cool to do it. Freezing, lag, disconnects are common. They seem to be even worse than PS2 issues.

My guess is that as soon as a Mod sees this thread it will get moved to Tech Support, like every other report regarding PS2/PS3 issues and ignored.

The sad thing is that SE continues to collect money from everyone regardless of platform used to play and refuses to acknowledge the problems. Perhaps a new PC is the answer, but not everyone can afford to go that route. If there is no solution SE, you just really need to say so. People will be a lot less upset if you're upfront about it. You will undoubtably lose some players, but, with the influx of new players, I don't think it will make that much of a difference to your bottom line.

[Zatias]

Each platform has its own problems.

360's are listed here.
PS2 is outdated and everyone wants SE to stop supporting it...
PC makes my back and shoulders hurt.

;)

Edit: doesn't have anything to do with this, but as soon as I click the thread open, the first words I see: Is it big or small?

Please excuse my bad sense of humor.

[Knives]

I believe this is worth noting...

I've played the game on all three systems, and have experimented with the post-zone lag quite a bit as well. Some players say that their mules are not affected by the post-zone lag, but that their main characters always are.

I think it has to do with Mog Lockers and other certain inventory options. When a character loads into a new zone, it takes the server time to process that your character has all of those items- both on the person and in the mog house. Mules do not often have access to mog lockers or other large stocks of inventory, so they are seemingly immune to the effects of the post-zone lag spike, atleast until the player bites the bullet and quests enough to attain mog locker storage.

I'm not 100% on this, but everything I've tested over the years points to it. I honestly wonder if the situation could be fixed by solely making it so players cannot see their Mog Safe or Mog Locker contents while outside of the Mog House. The lag spike honestly is the bigger issue to me, than looking for items I can't actually pull out from storage.

[davidpeter]

im a newb player, but have a question. since switching to square enix account i cant find where to dl wotg or for that matter anything on my xbox 360. can anyone assist with proper info?

[Alpheus]

im a newb player, but have a question. since switching to square enix account i cant find where to dl wotg or for that matter anything on my xbox 360. can anyone assist with proper info?

i assume you would have to buy it from SE via their website on your PC web browser. Although that is only if you lack a registration code. If you need the actual Install data then you need to hunt down a FFXI Ultimate Collection for teh 360 that includes WotG and do a fresh install from that disc onto your 360.

granted i started out with a 360 disc that had everything up to WotG so idk if you absolutely need to do a clean install (uninstall what you have then install everything using that Ultimate Collection disc) or if you can simply install what is not present on your 360 by loading up POL with the Ultimate Collection disc.

[Inafking]

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Amd Phenom Ii X2 545 3.1ghz Processor
2gb Ddr2 Single Memory Chip Pc2 5300
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Dvd-Rw Drive House Brand
Atx Midtower Size Case With Power Supply

http://www.ascendtech.us

Crashbox was never meant to work right. It was specificly left faulty so that people would send it back to MS and buy another one in the meantime. It's just junk hardware made by a junk company.

[magnuss]

i get the freeze in besiege about 50% of the time i go in there. Always have the issue zoning in and out as well. We have these issues on 3 different style xboxes (older 360 with first generation HDMI, a FFX111 special edition, and a kinect style. I gave up on besieged about a year ago and just recently started doing it again. It needs to be fixed

[Zatias]

I believe this is worth noting...

I've played the game on all three systems, and have experimented with the post-zone lag quite a bit as well. Some players say that their mules are not affected by the post-zone lag, but that their main characters always are.

I think it has to do with Mog Lockers and other certain inventory options. When a character loads into a new zone, it takes the server time to process that your character has all of those items- both on the person and in the mog house. Mules do not often have access to mog lockers or other large stocks of inventory, so they are seemingly immune to the effects of the post-zone lag spike, atleast until the player bites the bullet and quests enough to attain mog locker storage.

Also, whenever a "new" item loads into the pool, or inventory, you will experience a .5 second or less "lag" in which the screen briefly freezes. This is a small version of all your items loading into your inventory/sack/satchel at once when you zone.

I use this brief screen freeze as an indicator that something I don't have has dropped into the pool (or inventory, if solo) before I actually check it. It's always been this way for me.

[Riggs]

[I] Weird thing is we all noticed our mules dont zone lag whatsoever.

Sounds like as others have said the delay is redrawing your main char because off all the gear etc. do you still lag on your main if you take your armor off before zoning?