I was unfortunately hit by this updated patch that was supposed to fix sound issues over HDMI.
I switched on my XBox on Friday morning (6-Feb) as I wanted to download the Resi Evil 5 demo while I was at work.
I try to connect onto live, and it tells me there is a mandatory update to be downloaded. I select No, I will update the update later. But then I cannot log into Live to download the RE5 demo. So I thought screw it....decided to wait to download the update.
The update took about 15 minutes to download and 2 restarts of the box. Once it was downloaded Live finally logged in. I thought everything was fine. I went to download the RE5 demo. Started downloading, turned off the TV and left the machine to download the demo. (I have left my XBox on many times before during the day to download stuff off XBL.)
Came back home at 6pm and the box was still on and was still busy downloading the demo, I think it was at 90%, so I just left it to finish downloading. But noticed something strange at that point. I wanted to download a few more demos and arcade trials, but certain things were missing from the menu. Spotlight, Video Marketplace and Game Marketplace were missing. I thought nothing of it and decided to rather leave the demo to finish downloading and come back later.
Came back later and the demo has finished downloading. I decide to restart the box so that I can download more stuff off XBL. I switch it off, and switch it on again, and nothing. No lights, no RRoD, no picture on the screen. Switch if off again and pull out the plug at the wall, and put it back in again, and power it on. I see lights, it's starts and logs into XBL. I think nothing of it and continue to download some other videos and trial arcade games.
Later in the evening, I decide to stop the downloading on the XBox as I wanted to download other stuff on my computer, so I go to turn off the XBox. Left it off the whole night and only on Sunday evening decided to switch it on again to check out the RE5 demo.
Switch it on, log into XBL, start up the RE5 demo and it starts. I get to the menu and "Start new game"....and it freezes. Leave it for a minute or 2, then decide to switch off. Switch it back on again.....RRoD. Unplug from the wall, leave it for 5 minutes, switch it back on again....RRoD.
I have disconnected everything from the box and left it unplugged since Sunday evening. I'm tempted to try start it up again.
I've had my XBox since December 2006, so I still got another year left on the warranty. I've never had a problem with the box once, until I downloaded that damn update.
At first I thought it was finally time that it gave in and died. But then researched online...and found out that many other people were having the exact same problem that after the update, their boxes bomb out.\
So yeah, that's my experience with the latest Microsoft update.
I still need to phone MS to get a reference number, and then follow the warranty swap out procedure. But I phone MiD and they still have no stock of XBox's yet. Some people have been waiting since before November for their swap out warranty boxes. So I'm not sure when MiD will be getting new stock.
I was hoping if I left the box turned off, until Microsoft release a new patch to fix the broken XBoxes, that I could get it fixed that way.
BTW, Microsoft have pulled the patch already, so they known it's a problem. This was supposed to fix a problem with sound issues over HDMI. My XBox doesn't even have HDMI. Yet, this patch was mandatory.
I've read this problem is not happening with all XBoxes. Some are new (Elite and Jaspers), some are old (Xenon and Falcon's). So it looks complete random, but lots of people are having the same problem after the 2.0.7363.0 patch.
http://gamer.blorge.com/2009/02/06/xbox-360-rrod-returns-with-update-issue-getting-out-of-hand/
http://www.fudzilla.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=11911&Itemid=1
http://xbox360.gamespy.com/articles/952/952341p1.html
http://forums.xbox.com/25603474/ShowPost.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_360_System_Software
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_360_technical_problems#.22New_Xbox_Experience.22_update_issues