Stress testing a used xbox 360

[Generic Eric]

So the family that watches our kids had an xbox 360 that was freezing up on them...no error, it would just stop working.  They hadn't used it in over a year.   Since it wasn't getting any use I offered to take it off his hands.

So it had been in their basement for awhile and I picked it up today.  There were some cables that were still connected, so I took them all apart, blew in the av-connectors "NES-style" and powered it on.  After about 40 minutes its working fine.    I haven't been able to reproduce any error yet. 

My question...
Is leaving it on and idle as effective as playing a game to determine if the video is going to freeze up?

[Donkbaca]

No, you have to play a game, the problem could be with  the optical drive


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[Generic Eric]

Well I played the full demo of Shadow Complex and 2 rounds of Pac-Man C.E.

I'm downloading the Forza 3 demo now.  I guess I'll see.

[Donkbaca]

You need to play a disc

[Generic Eric]

Ok.  

So I played some Soul Caliber 2 for about 10 minutes.  Its an xbox game, so something is being emulated to play it.   Is it by-passing something that would fail when I played a normal 360 game?

Any suggestions on how long to play?  

[GibsonRiddler]

Most of the problems with the first couple of generations of 360's were poor design and heat related. When played for long periods of time, heat would build up and cause the solder to come loose on the boards thus red ring of death. M$ somewhat fixed the problems with newer versions of hardware but video problems started happening. Since then they have redesigned the whole system with the slim model.
Gears of War 2 or Halo 3 would be your best options for testing. They were heavy on disc loading and FMV throughout the games.
There was never a set time period for the system to quit working it just happens. I had one system fry out on me when I turned it on.
Good Luck

[ark_ader]

I wonder if an easier solution would be to encase the xbox360 main board in oil and have the drives above it.

How much is a small fish tank these days which would fit it and maybe mod it for effect?

http://www.pugetsystems.com/submerged.php

[kalars123]

a submerged 360 is an interesting idea, it will certainly remove any heat issue's, but one thing you have remember is that once it's in the oil, it's pretty much permanent, you clean it off easily. i think with some work and some good art direction it could be really cool.


would be a good starting reference