Monday, February 21, 2011

Hook, Line and Sinker

Once again my Xbox 360 is having problems reading game disks. I have to wonder if it's another "RRoD" faulty construction or too much dog hair getting in the machine. With this last one I've been taking precautions with the dog hair. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be working.

On lunch today I decided I really needed to smash some heads in and tried to get my 360 to play something . . . anything. Unfortunately it didn't matter what disk I put in the drive it wasn't going to play it. I haven't been on my 360 in awhile because of this problem and now when I need it, my system fails me.

I was going to just turn everything off and find something else to do for the few minutes I had left. But I was mad . . . and bound and determined to play on my 360. So I pulled up my Arcade games and started Puzzle Quest 2. (The arcade games now seem to be the only thing I can play on this machine any more.)

I've been getting really pissed off with Puzzle Quest 2 because every room I go into has 2-3 enemies that I've got to face just for me to get to the door on the other side of the room. At which point when I go through the door I'll need to battle 3-4 more enemies to get to yet another door. It's getting tedious and boring whereas I found the first one fun and exciting.

I only had time for a couple of battles (enough to get me into the next room) and then I'd have to go back to work. During the last battle when I was even more tired and grumpy with the game and my system then when I started, a miracle happened.

I got an achievement.

I got the OMGHAX for 20pts for matching 8 gems in a row on any battle mode. I've tried for this achievement several times and had given up with ever getting it legitimately. There are several other achievements that I know I'll have to boost or coerce a friend into helping me out so I'm not really expecting to get them. Besides getting an achievement for completing the game I figured I was maxed out on achievements for that game. Then I heard that magical little bleep and the pop up showed on my screen.

Damn.

Just when I was ready to throw in the towel with Microsoft and Xbox gaming in general I had to go and get an achievement that I've worked hard for but never gotten. Until now. Dangle that carrot in front of my face and there's just enough there that coming back and playing something else now excites me again.

So I did it again. Get so pissed off with Microsoft and their crappy machines and threaten to leave, then get one small reward for "good behavior" and I'm back to wanting to play the games. I fall for this pattern every time. Hook. Line. And Sinker. Will the cycle ever end? Will I find another way to play online with my friends without all the headache and hassle that Microsoft creates? And if not, do I get a new system with Kinect so I'll have something else from Microsoft that will break down?

8 comments:

Zak said...

I'm looking into buying a new xbox with connect. I seen one at Costco for less than 400.00 and thats with 250GB memory. Most that I see are 4GB. My cousin said he got his for 259 at JC Penny which I think is BS. thats like 100 bucks less. I haven't had a chance to go and look.

Helll Weasell said...

Have you ever tried using a DVD cleaner kit?

Pengwenn said...

I don't think it's the disks but stuff (namely dog hair) getting into the machine. I pulled out my "backup" and I'm using that right now. But how long will that last? Oh, and disks play fine on dain's machine.

Helll Weasell said...

I don't mean cleaning the discs themselves. I mean cleaning the DVD player. There are lens cleaning kits available. Check it out.

Pengwenn said...

I will. Dain suggested a computer vacuum to get a little hose in there to suck things out.

Today at lunch I played and was fine. When I was done I tried to download a couple of arcade games and my machine (backup) was making very weird noises. I wonder if this is a hard drive problem.

I know I'm having another problem in that I don't always get the pop ups when people come online if I'm playing a disk game. It's annoying to be in a room with people and hear "look Sand Dog is online" but nothing comes up on my screen. Also my friend's list sometimes gets "frozen" when I start a disk game. Two hours later it can show the same friends playing the same games when some of them might have actually jumped off line already. I've tried deleting and redownloading my profile but that hasn't helped.

Mobeye said...

That sucks, I've lost count of the xbox's I have been through. Last time I cracked one open and cleaned the lense with a cotton bud, worked ok for a while too.

Pengwenn said...

I'm out of warranty now (except for RRoD) so I might crack it open and clean things out that way. What could it hurt?

Mobeye said...

Go for it, there are plenty of videos on you tube walking you through what to do