понедельник, 30 июня 2008 г.

Getting Xbox 360 Support

One of the greatest things about technology and gaming is that with the Xbox you are going to be able to access the Xbox 360 support that you need. You will be able to get this support any time that you need it, and use it answer questions or to help you solve problems.

What Is It

The Xbox 360 support is a support system that is intended to help people with the various things that might go wrong, or the things that they have to deal with when it comes to their Xbox. There are people who work for the Xbox 360 support who understand the console, the accessories, and how everything works. With the Xbox 360 support you will be able to get your questions answered and talk to someone if your system is not working right. They will also be able to talk you through operating your system or doing things that you do not understand. If something is wrong with your system, the Xbox 360 support is going to be able to help you make sure that you get a repair or replacement.

How To Access It

There are several ways that you can access the Xbox 360 support. Often, this is something that is easy to do because there are many ways to do it. The first thing that you can do is call. You will be able to call the Xbox 360 support and to talk to the person who is in charge of it. That way, you can get an actual and live person to listen to you and to help you understand what you might have questions about.

You can also go online to visit the Xbox 360 support. This might be more helpful because this way you can search through lots of information that might be able to answer your questions. This is something that you can do on your own, without having to wait. You can also access the Xbox 360 support online through the actual Xbox 360 if you have the online subscription. Basically, with the Xbox 360 support, you will be able to contact them in the way that benefits you the most and this will be something that you can do quite easily. With the Xbox 360 support, you will be able to talk to someone no matter what your problem is, and you will find that you are able to get answers to your Xbox questions by doing this.

Driving Hard with the Xbox 360 Steering Wheel

Every video game system comes with a unique, complete controller. This controller quickly becomes an icon of the company, and its capable of being used with any game, for any purpose, whether it be shooting, flying, running or even drying. But some video games can be better appreciated with a more realistic approach to playing. Since the beginning of video game systems, companies have offered accessory controllers, from guns to joysticks to the ever-popular steering wheel. The Xbox 360 steering wheel is the latest edition to a long line of Xbox controllers, and it offers some unique features that make it an important purchase for any fan of Xbox 360 racing games.

Staying Close to Home

There are numerous companies that specialize in designing controllers for video games. These third-party controllers are often endorsed by the parent companies who do not want to spend the time or money on researching and constructing their own specialized controllers; instead, they endorse these outside products for use with their games. Microsoft, however, refused to bring any other company into the mix, and built its own Xbox 360 steering wheel from the ground up.

The Xbox 360 steering wheel is wireless, or at least mostly wireless. Like the console’s other controllers, the racing wheel does not plug into the system; however, it does require wires to use the foot pedal, and it most be plugged into a wall socket if gamers want to utilize the rumble and feedback packs. In every other aspect, however, the Xbox 360 steering wheel lives up to its hyped-up expectations, and for hardcore racers, it is well-worth the $149.99 price tag. The wheel also comes with a copy of a video game complete with the set-up drivers necessary to make the peripheral compatible.

The Xbox 360 steering wheel is comprised of two many pieces: a steering wheel with a dashboard and a set of pedals, including a gas pedal and a brake pedal. The controller itself is sleek, and comes complete with water-resistant rubberized grips on both the wheel and the pedals. The wheel is eight inches in diameter and has a 240-degree turning radius. It also includes all of the necessary buttons on the normal Xbox 360 controller needed to navigate menus and perform in-game functions not related to driving. The rumble pack allows the user to experience realistic driving; if he or she drives over sand or crashes into a wall, the wheel shakes. Feedback and resistance is also accurately replicated; the wheel becomes harder to turn in skids or at high speeds. Microsoft intends to keep the Xbox 360 steering wheel in mind with every future racing simulation release, so that every game will be compatible with the wheel, making the initial financial investment a smart investment.

Xbox Repair Guide In Case of Power Outage

Turning off your Xbox while it is running, whether playing a DVD, streaming music from your ipod or in the middle of a game you will definitely have problems when you turn your console on again. You might say, but why would I ever do that? Well there are a number of things that could happen that would lead to this situation. For times like this you can use a simple Xbox repair guide.

First of all power outages are completely out of our control and unpredictable. If a power outage happened while your Xbox was turned on then there is a possibility that when you switch it back on there will be the flashing three red lights from the power button, which means an internal error. So what do you do? Do you send your Xbox in for repairs or is there an at home Xbox repair guide in such a situation?

What to Do

When this happens you may be able to fix your Xbox by yourself. First up don’t attempt to open up your console, that’s never a good idea. That’s better left to the professionals. This Xbox repair guide is only meant for some basic repairs and nothing that requires you to get in there with a screwdriver.

In the situation described, where your Xbox has been turned off while in the middle of operation, there is a trick you can pull to fix things. First go to the System Blade and look for Initial Setup. Initial Setup will run your Xbox the same way it did when you first got your Xbox.

Before you get any further with this Xbox repair guide make sure that you detach any memory unit and HDD. Leaving a memory unit or HDD in may result in all your saved games disappearing for good. Think of this as a way of reformatting, the same way you might reformat your computer or thumb drive. Once you have selected the Initial Setup your console will perform the necessary reformatting.

Your Xbox will probably then prompt you to insert a HDD or memory unit, don’t do this yet. When you don’t accept this action you will go to the default Dashboard screen. Now try and sync your controller to the console. If you can do this then the problem is most probably fixed. Shut down your Xbox and when you turn it on again it should be good as new. So simple, this Xbox repair guide is not fail safe but try it before you call in for a repair.

вторник, 24 июня 2008 г.

Pre-ordering with Xbox 360 Release Date

With so many great new game titles constantly being released for Microsoft's Xbox 360, gamers are constantly being bombarded with new games to choose from. Project release dates have long been used for movies and books to build anticipation and give consumers time to pre-order these types of media (or the tickets to watch them). When shoppers wait until after the game has been released, the game might be sold out for weeks or months, especially for a heavily anticipated title. To make sure that you have the best chance to pick up these titles as soon as they come out, check out Xbox 360 release dates.

Where to Find

Xbox 360 release dates are prone to sudden change with no guarantee that the proposed date will in fact be the final one. Bugs and vulnerabilities can pop up at any time, throwing a wrench in the entire process. Take for example Valve's Half Life 2 (originally for the PC), which would become one of the highest rated and best selling games of all time. This game had its source code stolen, so Valve pushed the game back months so that it could be patched and fixed so that it was not vulnerable to pirates and hackers, making the end game much more successful as a result. Just because Xbox 360 release dates are prone to change doesn't mean that they can't be used as a rough estimate of the game's release. In fact, most Xbox 360 release dates only ever change by a few weeks or a month or two at most.

Most people learn about new games in magazines and online, and these Xbox 360 release dates are readily available for a negligible to nonexistent fee, although cable and satellite television is beginning to offer programming that offers release dates in addition to reviews and previews. Not only will you get fairly accurate release dates, but you'll also get almost every single released game reviewed and other forms of entertainment related to the industry. For example on television, there are now tournament programs showcasing the best game tournaments covering a wide range of game genres and consoles.

Xbox 360 release dates give anyone a good forecast of the following months in games, and hardcore gamers can get an idea of when popular titles will be released even a year or more down the road. Packaged with reviews and other forms of entertainment, these handy snippets of information are prone to change due to new bugs popping up with the game. To learn when games in development will be sold in stores, check out Xbox 360 release dates.

Coming to Terms with the Xbox 360 Red Ring of Death

There is nothing worse than purchasing an expensive, high-tech piece of equipment, only to have it break. While the advancements in computers and video game systems have been astounding over the past decade, with progress comes risk. These machines, processing graphics, sound and memory at speeds unimaginable a few years ago, overheat easily, and can lost forever in their thought processes. The Xbox 360, one of the most-hyped video game systems of the latest generation, suffers from numerous hard drive failures, so numerous in fact that it has its own built-in warning system. The Xbox 360 red ring of death is a group of lights on the front of the machine that indicate various problems: when the normally green lights turn red, the user knows there is a serious issue, one that may not be resolved.

Deciphering the Codes

The Xbox 360 red ring of death is divided into four quadrants; consequently, there is meaning behind the various patterns of red and green lights. For example, a general hardware failure will turn every light except the first quadrant red, while if the system is overheating, the second quadrant will remain green. If every quadrant except the third is blinking red, this is once again a hardware problem. If the entire Xbox 360 red ring of death is blinking angrily, the user should be happy: it simply means the AV cable is not inserted properly and needs to be clicked back into place.

Users should know the various meanings behind the Xbox 360 red ring of death for a few reasons. Firstly, some of the problems are easily fixed and do not require shipping the game system to a repair center. No video game user wants to part with his or her system, unable to know whether or not it will ever be returned. Secondly, if the user does need to contact customer support, the representative will need to know exactly what the Xbox 360 red ring of death looks like in order to offer advice and suggestions. The repair process for an Xbox 360 red ring of death is lengthy and complicated; the problem must be identified and logged, and an empty box must be sent to the user’s home. Depending on the issue, the damaged parts will be packaged and shipped back to the repair center. Then the user has to sit and wait until the repaired system, or a new system altogether, is sent.

The Xbox 360 red ring of death is useful, if not a little depressing. A built-in indication system of hardware failure at first appears a little like a warning to not buy the system; however, the Xbox 360 itself, like most new electronics, simply has a few bugs to work out. Later releases of the system will undoubtedly experience the Xbox 360 red ring of death less frequently, and users will not need to live in fear. However, it is still advisable to purchase an extended warranty. The free 90-day variety will rarely cover any problems that arise, and when the extended warranty is one-tenth of the price of a replacement system, it is a smart choice.

The Most Common Xbox 360 Problems

The Xbox 360 is Microsoft’s latest product for the video game console, and is now one of the most widely loved consoles in the world. People all around the world own the Xbox 360, but it is important to understand that there are certain Xbox 360 problems that any owner and even potential owner should be aware of.

What are the Problems?

There are a few Xbox 360 problems that are known at this time, some which even render it unusable. Because of this the console has received somewhat of a bad reputation since its release in 2005, namely through articles that have portrayed and focused on the console’s poor reliability and high failure rates.

One of the first Xbox 360 problems occurred in the early months after the launch, and involved an overheating of the console. For one, the game console heats up very quickly during use and so over an extended period of time, the temperature inside reaches very high levels due to an insufficient cooling. Because of this, users should either make sure to turn the system off in reasonable intervals in order to keep it from getting too hot.

The issue of scratched disks was another of the first Xbox 360 problems to arise, and this problem also occurred within only a few months after the console’s release. The matter was investigated and what was found was that that the console lacks a mechanism to secure the disc solidly in place. As a result when a user is operating the console the disc inside can be damaged with even a small tilt or move of the console.

These Xbox 360 problems are very important to be aware of especially if you have not purchased the system yet but are considering it, because they may make you have a change of heart. The general feeling however is that these problems are not overshadowing the high quality of the system and the versatility and variety that it offers.

There are definitely many advantages offered by the Xbox 360 as well as unique features that you are not able to find with any other system.

Fixing Your System

If you do decide to purchase the Xbox 360 and end up experiencing any of the aforementioned problems, then there are ways to get it fixed. There are some reputable and reliable companies available that can help remove scratches on discs, repair systems that have shut down due to overheating, and so on, for a certain price of course.

среда, 18 июня 2008 г.

Where to go for the Lowest Xbox 360 Prices

Of course whenever you are purchasing anything you want to pay the lowest possible price, without compromising any quality of course. The Xbox is one of the most recently released video game consoles from Microsoft, and can easily be considered as one of the most popular games in the world. It is a video game that is all about a new generation of extreme fun.

There are actually a few different versions of the Xbox 360 that are presently available, including the Xbox 360 Arcade and the Xbox 360 Core.

Find the Best Xbox 360 Prices

The Xbox 360 is a great game, but of course you want to save as much money as possible and this means taking the time to decide which companies offer the lowest Xbox 360 prices. Best Buy is one great option here and definitely one of the best places to go if you are looking for the most affordable Xbox 360 prices.

They are one of the world’s fastest growing specialty retailers of consumer electronics, personal computers and entertainment software. They offer all of their products at discounted prices to ensure that you are always getting the best deal.

Another company worth checking out for the lowest Xbox 360 prices is Shop Bot. They are a leading price comparison site that attracts tens of thousands of customers on a daily basis. They always make sure to offer the lowest possible price on all of their products and they commit to offering the largest choice of businesses and products supported by a trusted and quality service.

They are an online company that offers fantastic Xbox 360 prices and so as long as you have access to a computer and the Internet you will be able to take advantage of their fantastic deals. They are an effective and easy way to shop online and there is even actually a precise search facility offered here which allows customers to find the specific products and businesses that they are looking for, quickly and easily.

By finding the lowest Xbox 360 prices you will be saving money, and this can be handy, because then you can use this extra money to buy Xbox games or accessories. The Xbox is one of the most popular and widely loved video games in the world and it is really no wonder. For the video game enthusiast in your life it will definitely be a worthwhile buy, and make the receiver one happy camper.

A Great Bundle with the Xbox 360 Premium

Coming in two different configurations, the Xbox 360 is one of the best selling home entertainment consoles in the market today. The basic version serves many people well, giving them basic functionality such as the ability to play some of the most popular games on the market and wireless capabilities. However, many people would prefer to have advanced features to allow them to do more with their console. For a slightly higher price tag, you can have an Xbox 360 Premium which comes bundled with lots of great enhancements and features.

Headsets and Hard Drives

The Xbox 360 Premium comes with many enhancements and bundled accessories over the standard edition. Perhaps the biggest improvement that many gamers enjoy is the inclusion of an internal hard drive so that they can store data files natively on their Xbox 360 console. With this hard drive, you can acquire downloadable content which improves and expands existing games while giving you more accessibility to patches and updates. However, you can also buy an external hard drive for your Xbox 360 Premium for additional storage space, but it's unlikely that you'll ever need one.

Also, the Xbox 360 Premium comes with a headset, so you can jump right onto Microsoft's popular online service, Xbox Live (which comes with a free silver membership!), and start chatting with players around the world. This headset is one of the most popular on the market and will serve you well as you jump into the Xbox 360's lively online environment. However, the Xbox 360 Premium comes with several additional benefits beyond all of this. You'll also get a network cable to hook your Xbox 360 console up to your modem or router and cables to transmit an HD signal to your television. Not only that, but the Xbox 360 Premium also comes with backwards compatibility, so you'll be able to play over 300 original Xbox titles on your Xbox 360.

With all of these additional benefits, the Xbox 360 Premium bundles enough accessories, equipment, and additional functionality to make it so that you would actually save money by buying the bundle instead of buying a standard Xbox 360, which would not even come with backwards compatibility. However by spending a little more, you get an internal hard drive, headset, network cable, HD cables, and backwards compatibility. With all of these great features and additions, most people have shown that they prefer the Xbox 360 Premium to its lightweight cousin.

Powering Up with the Xbox 360 Power Supply

With great power comes, well, great power. Most gamers probably never think about how much electricity their video game consoles eat up, but on average, some systems require more wattage than any other electronics in the living room. The Xbox 360 especially requires substantial power, more than twice that of the original Xbox and other consoles on the market. In order to fuel such a hunger for electricity, the Xbox 360 power supply is huge, and is the butt of many jokes. The Xbox 360 power supply is so large in fact that many gamers own multiple AC adapters to leave at different houses just so they do not have to carry it around. However, with so much power in such a condensed space, it is no wonder that the Xbox 360 suffers from many power-related issues.

Troubleshooting the Xbox 360

The Xbox 360, a relatively new video game console, has already racked up numerous complaints. It is frequently plagued with problems, from general hardware failures to overheating. A lot of these problems, however, can be pinpointed to the power supply. Put bluntly, the Xbox 360 power supply overheats a lot, especially when it is hidden beneath shelves, in cabinets or on carpets. With such a large frame and such a large current, the AC adapter needs to breathe; it needs to be exposed to fresh air in order to cool down. Some gamers even hang their AC adapters on strings, exposing them to air on all sides. As ridiculous as this image is, many players contest that their Xbox 360 systems no longer freeze every 20 minutes; instead, they can play happily for hours without experiencing any overheating.

Many third-party companies have sought to introduce an Xbox 360 power supply less prone to overheating. Modeling the units after PC equipment, many of these AC adapters come with built-in fans. However, these supplies have proven even less reliable than the official Microsoft versions, although Microsoft claims they are developing a better, more resilient Xbox 360 power supply. Many gamers have taken the issue into their own hands, especially when their AC adapters burn out and they are required to purchase new ones. By modifying existing PC power units and other technical equipment, they have literally constructed, from scratch, supplies that appear to work better than the originals. While there is always a risk in modifying the Xbox 360, including the loss of the warranty, desperate times call for desperate measures, and many players refuse to suffer through interrupted game play anymore due to the poorly-designed Xbox 360 power supply.

суббота, 14 июня 2008 г.

Essential Xbox 360 Parts

The hardware segment of Xbox 360 involves various parts, including both internal components and external kits or accessories. The internal parts of Xbox 360 are together known as console. In this article, let us have some idea about few essential Xbox 360 parts. Here we go.

Central Processing Unit

Quite obviously, this is one of the most important parts of Xbox 360. The Central Processing Unit or CPU is referred to as Xenon at Microsoft. In IBM, it is known as Waternoose. The CPU consists of ROM storing which is used to decrypt the data of the game.

Graphics Processing Unit

The Graphics Processing Unit or GPU is one of the integral and essential parts of Xbox 360. For the first time, the GPU was designed by NVIDIA. Comprised of two distinct silicon dies, GPU houses 500 MHz clock-speed for each of the 90 nm chipset attached with the system.

Memory

Essentially the console consists of GDDR3 RAM with 512 MB capabilities, as offered by either Samsung or Qimonda. Its transmission rate is 1.4GHz and available on 128-bit bus. With the help of uniform memory architecture, the entire memory is shared between CPU and GPU.

System Bandwidth

The Xbox 360 is capable to offer an extensive range of system bandwidth. This high range of bandwidth is essentially required for the purpose of z-buffering, anti-aliasing and alpha blending, the three most fundamental criterion needed to render high quality graphics.

Audio

The games designed to play on Xbox 360 usually support 5.1 Dolby Digital Sound format. The console is solely dependent on 256 audio channels in addition to 320 autonomous decompression channels. The audio parts of Xbox 360 support 32-bit processing and 16-bit surrounding sound.

Video

The core packages as well as premium packages built prior to 2007 do not house any digital video output attached with it. In such products, VGA or component video is responsible for producing HD-quality output. At present, console hardware is able to offer support to an extensive range of HDTV and SDTV resolutions.

Storage

The Premium version of Xbox 360 hosts removable 20GB Hard Disk (HDD). However, it is not a mandatory feature for many standard games expect games like Football Manager 2006. The Elite version of Xbox 360 houses 120GB Hard Disk.

Attachment to Accessories

The in-built 100BASE-TX Ethernet port is designed to attach accessories to the console system. Apart from that, Xbox 360 also houses a maximum of four wireless connectors which help to attach racing wheel to the system. Additionally, connection to Xbox Live can be made using wireless network adapter, although this is an optional feature.

Better Stability with Xbox 360 Mods

Microsoft's Xbox 360 has been groundbreaking in several ways. First, it has shattered sales charts and is the most popular game console today. It has the most popular games out of any next generation console, and it's the first console to have native support for wireless controllers. Xbox Live is a great online service that allows gamers worldwide to set up matches together and communicate instantly. However, what more is out there to get the Xbox 360 even better than it already is? How can gamers improve near perfection? With Xbox 360 mods (modifications), gamers can install a plethora of handy little tools and enhancements to personalize and improve their gaming experience.

Backups and Firmware

Xbox 360 mods encompass many different modifications which can be performed on an Xbox 360. One of the more popular tools to use is something called “firmware flashing,” which basically rewrites how the Xbox 360 architecture works. This can be used to improve the speed and stability of any Xbox 360 and open up its accessibility to more options. However, some Xbox 360 mods can be mistaken for malicious changes by the integrated Xbox Live anti-cheating software, so you'll have to do firmware flashing at your own risk, and it's not officially supported by Microsoft.

However, many people simply use Xbox 360 mods to backup their integrated hard drives and game discs so that if something should go wrong with the ones they have, they'll have a backup and won't lose hundreds of dollars worth of media. Not only that, but having a backup allows gamers to get back up and playing in an hour or two instead of days or weeks, and they'll have all of their saved information instead of having to start fresh from scratch.

Xbox 360 mods are very easy to install, and thousands of like minded gamers out there have banded together in a community effort to write intuitive tutorials to help newcomers to modifications out. They'll walk gamers step-by-step through the installation and patching process, so it doesn't require any foreknowledge of the process to install. Also, these mods are freely available online, so all anyone has to do is type in a search engine, and dozens of results will pop up to lead gamers to modification sites with the downloads and accompanying tutorials. In fact, many sites even include community forums so users can get help from other gamers if they run into trouble. To improve the stability and performance of their consoles, gamers should check out Xbox 360 mods.

The Popular Xbox 360 Live And What It Offers Players

The world of gaming is one that is not only profitable, but filled with experienced players that have a huge impact on the industry. Since many of these players have been playing video games their entire lives, they can be a very critical market for the gaming industry.

Microsoft is the company that manufactures the Xbox 360. This gaming system is the end product of years of working on an in home gaming system that would be in direct competition to the Sony Playstation.

On the original Xbox gaming console, Microsoft was able to design a way to save the game without a memory card. This small difference was something that gamers were pleased with and even Playstation added it to its systems too.

In order to compete in the very competitive market of gaming systems, Microsoft has had to look at what gamers are interested in and how to bring it to them. One such avenue is by offering games that only can be played on the Xbox. This has helped carve out an exclusive market for Xbox in regards to specific games including the Halo series.

Another route that has been traveled is by offering their players the ability to play "live" with others. This is the capability of offering Xbox 360 live to players that want to challenge themselves by playing with others around the world.

Xbox 360 Live: How It Works

For true gamers, challenging yourself against the best players around is one of the best tests of your capabilities. Xbox 360 live gives that opportunity to its players. The set up is easy, by hooking up to the internet a player than has access to playing others around the world. The Xbox 360 live system has a broadband access built right into the system allowing for a quick hookup.

Many players connect with their friends and then take on teams from other countries or states. Players enjoy the benefits of advanced play and don't even have to leave their homes! This is a great way for players to improve their games and learn from other players.

The Xbox 360 live system is a vision that Microsoft has had for a long time. Being able to incorporate games and players from varying parts of the world allows for everyone to become involved with the gaming world. The Xbox 360 live system will continue to improve and gamers will enjoy the benefits offered by this console system.