10
Mar

Does Your Xbox 360 Keep Freezing?

Article By Matt. Filed under: Technical Support

The Xbox 360 freezing up is a common problem for console owners when playing games. I’ve had this problem myself in the past, and thought I’d try and help by offering these free tips/guides from my own experiences, as well as providing some information I have found through research.

Below is a list of things to check/try in order to help fix your Xbox 360 freezing problems.

1. Xbox 360 freezing on specific games
This is probably the most obvious tip to check, but when worrying about the fate of your console it can be easy to bypass such things. The first thing to check when your Xbox 360 is freezing up is which game you are playing. Eject the disc and have a look at the back to see if there are any scratches, markings, dirt, or anything else that might be preventing your console from reading it properly.

Once cleaned, re-insert the disc and see how it goes. If the game freezes in the same place/area/timing as previously it could be due to an error on the disc, a glitch, or a corruption in your Xbox 360 cache or game save. There will be more on this later in the article.

If the game freezes in a different area/timing to before, it is time to try another game. I’d try playing about two or three more games to see what happens (to get an average result). If your other games cause your Xbox 360 to freeze then it could be a problem with your console hard drive or overheating. If it is only the first game that caused problems then it could either be a problem with your copy, or an issue with the game that requires for it to be patched. Check online forums (such as the one on xbox.com) to see if other people are experiencing the same issues, otherwise send your game back (stating the issue and how you’ve tried to resolve it) and get a replacement.

2. Is it only freezing online?
This, admittedly, is also another simple yet common thing to check. However, I have added it to this “guide” as I want it to be as helpful as possible to everyone.

If your Xbox 360 is freezing only whilst playing online, then it is most likely down to your Internet connection rather than the console itself. Check that everything is setup correctly and that you are using filters for your broadband connection to prevent it getting affected by the phone line/phone calls. You may also need to check your firewalls and port forwarding settings.

3. Clearing your Xbox 360 Hard Drive cache
I’ve had this problem myself whilst playing Oblivion, although it was not only freezing in some places but also being very unresponsive and really slowing down when trying to talk to NPCs. Anyway, clearing the cache on your Xbox 360 is very safe and does not affect any of your game saves, profiles, demos, videos, etc (although it does delete some downloaded game auto-updates, which will be easy to download again afterwards). It is mainly temporary data that is stored in order to make certain areas of games load faster. These can sometimes corrupt, making your Xbox struggle when trying to read them and eventually just freezing up.

To clear your Xbox 360 cache you need to do the following:

“a. Locate the System section of the Xbox 360 Dashboard. b. Select Memory, select Hard Drive, and then press Y to view the device options screen.c. On the Xbox 360 Controller, press the X button, press the X button again, press the left bumper, press the right bumper, press the X button, and then press the X button again.d. You will be prompted to confirm system maintenance, select Yes by pressing A.”

Source: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/907586/en-us

4. Xbox 360 overheating?
Overheating is unfortunately an extremely common problem. The console’s fans whurr so loudly that you’d think it would be fine, but whilst drowning out a lot of the sound from your games you need to ensure that it is in a well ventilated area. Try to make sure that there is nothing surrounding it and that it is not too close to a heat source.

5. Check your Xbox 360 Hard Drive
Not only can the cache corrupt from time to time, but also the Hard Drive itself. When most Xbox 360s start freezing most people cry out “Red Ring of Death is coming!”. But that’s not always true. This is what the problem was with my console, and I have not yet had the dreaded Red Ring of Death.

I was told by Microsoft technical support to try removing my Xbox 360 hard drive whilst the console was switched off and playing for about a week to see if I was still receiving freezes (as my Xbox was freezing randomly. Sometimes every two minutes, and others only once every 2 hours or so). I managed to purchase a memory card (or memory unit as they like to call it) quite cheaply so I could still play games and earn achievements.

A week passed and my Xbox 360 didn’t freeze once! I was over the moon. After calling Microsoft technical support again they suggested that I transfer all my data to my memory unit and formatted the Hard Drive (you can do this by connecting the hard drive whilst the console is switched off and then turning it on and going to the system menu). After the formatting I had to re-download all my Xbox DLC which was a little frustrating, but I didn’t need to pay for any of it again as it keeps track of your downloads/purchases on your account.

Other Tips
1. I’ve read that using a circuit breaker can cause problems with the Xbox 360 console. Apparently that big ugly grey box attached to the console’s plug has one already built in, and adding it to a circuit breaker can limit the amount of power being sent to your Xbox.

2. I think that all Xbox 360s come with a 3 year warranty. If none of my tips have helped you at all, try giving Microsoft technical support a call and arrange for them to take a look at your console.

3. Don’t open up your Xbox 360 and try to rectify the problem yourself. This can/will void your warranty. Whilst it hurts to be without your console for a week, it’s better to let Microsoft take care of it so that you are covered for the future as well.

Please let me know if this has helped any of you. I am always interested in visitor feedback to understand what people like about this blog. Please also feel free to submit your own tips on fixing Xbox 360 freezing problems.

Tags: Xbox 360

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Comments...

57 Responses to “Does Your Xbox 360 Keep Freezing?”

Anonymous
February 24th, 2010 at 6:19 pm

why does my xbox 360 freeze when i turn it on about 5 seconds after :S ive never had ring of death :S
Anonymous
March 3rd, 2010 at 3:02 pm

One thing I found is if you take your xbox outside and use a compresure to blow out dust helps with some overheating problems
amillie
March 12th, 2010 at 10:18 pm

My xbox is being glitchy when i play halo odst online and when i try to play it it works for a few minutes then it gets glitchy and i die randomly i can play the game but its really slow and i cant see anyone and i checked my xbox live connection and all the bars were full so idk why its doing that
PLEASE help if you have any idea why its doing that and how i can fix it:)
amillie
March 12th, 2010 at 10:20 pm

and i can play everything else like forge and custom games just not xbox live
bladess222
March 16th, 2010 at 1:53 am

for the red ring of death try the towel trick for a temperary 1 week fix. or you can take the entire thing apart and on the bottom of the mother board there are 4 squares with bandaide looking stickers on them take them off and take 8 penneis and wrap 2 pennies inside some electrical tape until you have 4 of them and take some type off electrical or plastic glue and place them where the bandaides used to be. let dry. put back together and your red ring of death has magically disapeared
Yousef
March 17th, 2010 at 1:10 am

I've taken apart my xbox many times fixing the red ring on it and others. As of late I've just kept it open and pointed a fan at it and its worked. I recently moved my xbox from my cool basement to my warm room and now. Now I get the freezing issue. I've tried pushing the 4 pin black box in and it only made my xbox think it was verticle. I plugged into wall socket. I re-applied thermal paste. I tightened the screws a little more. I unplugged the console when it froze instead of turning the power off. I've tried the penny heatsinks. I've tried clearing the cache on the HDD. None have worked. I have reason to believe it is overheating because when I don't have the fan on it freezes very quickly. When I do I can play for 30 mins or so. When I first brought it into my room the cpu heatsink was getting extremely hot even with the fan on and would freeze after a couple minutes. Now the cpu heatsink doesn't get hot (with the fan on) but still freezes. I was seriously looking for liquid cooling solutions and using heat pumps and researched non stop for a couple days on the cheapest method to do so. I have found that I can spend a bit over $100 and a bit of work to liquid cool my xbox. Then I found this hoping for a solution. I was geeked but unfortunately none of the said solutions worked. Anyone else think its a heat issue?
Byron Wilson
March 22nd, 2010 at 10:59 pm

I just formatted my hard drive and it started working great again. I have an Elite Console with 120 Gb Hard drive :]
D
March 29th, 2010 at 10:32 pm

Ok, i just moved my Xbox360 downstairs where my router is to get live. I went to sign up for xbox live and everything went okay. But, when i got to the section where i accept the terms of use, when i hit accept, it freezes. I dont know what the problem is. Its not over heated, and my internet connection is fine. I think it might be the t.v., but im not sure. IF anyone knows what this problem is, or has seen a link about this problem that has been fixed, please tell me.
D
March 29th, 2010 at 10:48 pm

nevermind it decided t wor now. =)
w1ck3d Soft
April 3rd, 2010 at 6:31 pm

i found out that havif your console standing straight up will also make your game freeze, i had mine laying flat until i had to make room for my controller charging station, first day i used it standing up it started freezing, did some research on google but nothing seemed to work after it hit me and went to lay it down again and no freezes. i guess the game disk does not read right when standing up compared to console sitting on its side..
Anonymous
April 3rd, 2010 at 6:55 pm

Someone help, it freezes when i turn it on like 30 seconds after and i dont have enough time to click on anything without it freezing up but when i take my hard drive off, it works fine…i cant go with the memory card cause i have no money what so ever so am i screwed or do i have a way out of this????????
Anonymous
April 5th, 2010 at 2:43 am

My FIFA 10 freezes at the saem time always ….
what do i do .. plzz help meee ….
i cleared the cache n stuff
now wat ..
still freezes
Anonymous
April 8th, 2010 at 4:35 am

Ive had this same problem. it freezes with or without the HD and also have pushed that black box in and have also tried laying it down on its side or standing up. nomatter what the xbox keeps freezing about 5 mins of any game. I havent tried applying more thermal paste or the penny trick yet due to not having any Thermal paste to use. This is one of the original 360's with the 20gb hd
Anonymous
April 8th, 2010 at 9:03 am

ok, this is weird, my plays games normal, never ever freezes or slows down on me, now when i go to play any videos, whether its downloaded or streamed, it freezes for a second, then kicks me back and gives me an error screen sayin error occured during playback, it downloads movies at regular speed so i know its not my net, n like i said, movies already downloaded just wont play, cant preview anything, can stream anything, cant watch anything i paid for…i tried the coolin and cleaning thing, my xbox 360 elite is fairly new, like 6 months, never dropped, moved, never banged or anything, anything like this ever happened to any of you before
Anonymous
April 11th, 2010 at 4:55 am

Careful were screws go because they are different alloys so mark them somehow
Anonymous
April 11th, 2010 at 6:26 pm

hi my 360 keeps on freezing on any game i play and like the screen frezzes but i still hear the sound and my controler vibrates so pls help me
patrick
April 16th, 2010 at 3:51 am

okay my Xbox freezes on any new game I get. Fyi i do move my xbox from my room to my living room to play on my bigger tv and souround sound. So far Ive tryed every thing my warrenty is out of date, My power supply is alwayes out in the open. Alse Ive tryed playing with out it with the hard drive it still fezzes. I have no idea what to do Now. I can get to the dashboard just fine and play the arcade games with out it freezing aloung with dvds ect. Its just the new games i get the games Have no scratches ive tacken them back and got differnt one and still freezes even shoock my xbox (bad idea) nothing rattling inside. An Im realy thinking about takeing to a repair shop. so befor I do Id like some help.
patrick
April 16th, 2010 at 3:56 am

also I can hear the background music and when i press the dash board button Ill hear it pop up but nothing shows
Anonymous
April 16th, 2010 at 7:34 am

My xbox had started freezing yesterday and my xbox was not hot at all. Today I tried playing it with my friend. It still kept freezing but one time when I turned it on I had the three red rings of death. Me and my friend fiddled around with the power supply and plugs for a while and then the red rings went away but it still froze. After my friend had gone I tried moving the plugs around and turned it on again and now the TV wasn't showing any picture. I tried it on another TV and still the same problem! I downloaded a trailer yesterday and it started freezing that night so it might be the trailer I downloaded but I don't know how to delete it because I can't see what I'm doing. I can's send it back to Microsoft because I don't have the red rings but other wise I don't know how to fix it. I do have that rattling sound though but I don't think its worth opening up my xbox and that not being the problem. Does anyone know what is wrong or at least how to delete that trailer on my xbox?
Enarcade
April 17th, 2010 at 5:19 pm

Thanks for this it helped me a couple of times but it still happens and now the red rings are coming so i guess i might have to send it away soon .
B-ri
April 30th, 2010 at 2:53 pm

i had the same problem but i fixed it the ghetto way by taking a coleman airmattress blower and i put it up to all of the holes and mad dust came out. i guess it worked since there arent any more problems
Anonymous
April 30th, 2010 at 8:08 pm

My xbox only freezes after it says that my account has signed in, any ideas on whats wrong? ive already tried deleting my gamer profile and then recovering it again but it just freezes again as it downloads. i'm really stuck here so if anyone could give me a hand that would be great.
Anonymous
May 3rd, 2010 at 7:58 pm

It froze loads and loads, than came up with 1 red ring and E74 error. Than came up fine worked for 20 mins and froze. Now it doesn't freeze, but when I play red alert it comes up with fatal error, and wot let me play through a game.
Anonymous
May 6th, 2010 at 12:23 am

I've been trying to download the Halo Reach Multiplayer BETA and at about 60-99 percent it freezes. Earlier it got to 100 then it immediately said "Unable to download content" and then the screen froze…:( I really want to play it…
Anonymous
May 8th, 2010 at 7:03 am

I'm having a similar problem, except it freezes for a variety of games, none of which have scratches/any damage at all on the disk. The games will actually run but at a random point in the game, it will freeze.

For example, in halo 3 I can play a custom game and end it normally. It actually worked the same way for theatre once, but froze another time, so my guess would be it is occuring at intervals where the CPU is being most used.

A side note though: I was capable of downloading a full video game trailer and playing the trailer without a freeze, so I think the problem may be related to the disk drive as many have said.
Anonymous
May 15th, 2010 at 2:43 pm

my freezes even though iv never had the rrod it started after oklahoma had tht huge break out of tornadoes and we lost power
jacob w anderson
May 21st, 2010 at 5:45 am

i need help… my 360 had the ring of death the 3 rings only then it went a way haven had problems with that for 2 months but know just recently ive been having problems it freezing after 2-5 mins into every game i have plz help me.

thank u

jake a
anonymous
June 1st, 2010 at 5:28 pm

I got a e71 error and then it went away and a week later i got the 3 rrod with an error of 0102 (E18 error). I opened up my xbox and reapplied thermal paste on the cpu and gpu. It worked when playing fifa for 30 mins however afterwards when playing gow2 online it froze. As it was forzen, i tried turning my xbox 360 off from the switch and immediately got the 3rrod with the error code 0001 (E01). Now whenever i turn it on it freezes after playing online for 15 – 20 mins or so. I can also hear that the fans speed up quite a bit and the xbox gets quite noisy. I think it may be a overheating issue?
John
June 4th, 2010 at 11:17 pm

My xbox 360 elite now crashes on any game, and sometimes randomly through videos. The only reason I bought the expensive elite was because they claimed the red ring overheat issues were fixed. but apparently they are NOT. shitty Microsoft cutting corners to cheaply mass produce 360’s
Carlos
June 13th, 2010 at 10:10 pm

mine kept freezing and the screen would mess up as it froze, did that for a couple days and i would just turn it off and restart it…it froze again so i turned it off and attempted to restart it only to get the red rings…does that mean that my xbox is done for or can i still let it cool for a few days. cuz i had it next to other heat sources and it was plugged into a circuit breaker. is it done for or can i still just give it a rest?
Dylan
June 15th, 2010 at 5:53 pm

Thanks, this article was hugely helpful in speeding up the time it takes oblivion to load, not to mention i saw a few tips that could be helpful in the future. Great article!
Annoymous
June 16th, 2010 at 7:48 am

I know another way, PUT YOUR OLD XBOX IN THE BIN AND GET THE NEW ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Josh
June 25th, 2010 at 8:49 pm

My Xbox 360 keeps freezing whilst i am playing online clubs on fifa 10 i have i tried another copy of the game but it is still doing it any suggestions?
zenny
July 14th, 2010 at 11:00 pm

when i go to play mlb 2k10 it freezes just before it gets to the main menu. i played it fine for today in the morning and nothing went wrong.
max
July 30th, 2010 at 12:12 pm

try vacuuming out any dust in there. Gently. It worked for me, on a 3 year old machine
ryan
August 1st, 2010 at 8:31 pm

help! my xbox 360 keeps on freezing on random play sometimes every minute then sometimes every 5 minutes sometimes an error page pops up and 1 red light appers i already did that cache thing i layed it side ways plzz help me
Juan Hernandez
August 7th, 2010 at 3:47 am

my 360 freezez everytime i play darksiders and darkvoid and saints row 2 but not when i play red dead redemption or fifa 2010 world cup any tips PLZ!!!!!!
xzxz
August 8th, 2010 at 8:40 pm

Mine froze today while I was playing Conan.. I will NEVER again buy Micro$OFT SHI@!
Vincent
September 1st, 2010 at 3:55 am

i play lost odyssey on disc two and freezes after i fight kakanas or it pops up with disc unreadable. i dont live have and i finished the game 3 times. last playthrough it froze at the point but i fought him in the least turns and it was fine. the disc looks better than first one but it will freeze. can someone help me?
Mr. Black
September 26th, 2010 at 3:57 pm

Ok first off i fix these for a living i make alot of money doing too. The 360 was a design flaw altogether the xclamps are the main problem for 99% of all 360 failures and then its the low voltage fans . So u fix this by junking the xclamps and replacing them with screws (find a you tube video) make sure u use Artic silver paste if u cheap out or use that shitty ceramic white paste your a dumbass and your shit will just break again !! Ok so now when you put it back together u use some blue loctite on the screws and tighten the shit out of them that way they wont come loose and fuck your system up . Now on to the fans find the 12v fan mod on you tube and do that . then put it back together and turn it on and start playing your 360
Isaac
October 2nd, 2010 at 5:27 pm

My xbox is running REALLY SLOW. It takes like 5 minutes just to load the dashboard and when try moving from slide to slide it also goes slow. when I try playing games it also runs slow and contantly freezes. But there are some days that it runs just fine. I also took my hard drive out to see if the xbox did the same thing, but it runs perfectly without the hard drive. I also tried putting my hard drive on my brother’s xbox and still continuos with the same problem. So I’m thinking that there is something wrong with my hard drive or my power thing……really need help with this
oh I don’t know if it matters or not but I have the first xbox still the one with the 60gb hard drive
JohnSmithy
October 3rd, 2010 at 11:17 pm

omg thank you. im in a dorm room and ive had problems where my xbox will freeze only on certain games at certain points but what didnt make sence to me was that I could open the dashboard. turns out that i was plugged into a power strip/ cercuit breaker thing. so i plugged my xbox directly into the wall and now I can play my games without problems. thanks. must have been a cheapo power strip or something.
Dan B
October 31st, 2010 at 2:30 pm

I got Fallout New Vegas 3 days ago, its been working fine, and i take good care of my discs. Despite the little lag now and then, the games been fine, up until on my save point, whenever I load, i am automaticaly in conversation with someone, and when the conversation ends, it freezes in the EXACT SAME SPOT!
It will not, even after 6 goes, play, it freezes, and after about 2 mins, it ejects. I blow, de- dust the disc and never hold the disc, i hold it on the outside and the ring, but it never fails to freeze in that EXACT SAME SPOT! It has 1 tiny, teeny little scracth, caused, most likely, by the xbobx laser.
My Xbox is lying down, could that be a problem?
PLEASE HELP!!!
Mad Consumer
November 13th, 2010 at 5:28 pm

Had ten 360’s so far..No JOke. My son’s is going out again by freezing up around ten to 30 mins, depends on the game. The major problem is that xbox games are compressed too much and causes too much stress on the roms. They have used about 6 different roms in this system alone to try and fix this. The only way for them to properly fix this problem is to use Blu Ray lol Be funny to see them go to sony for help!! All jokes aside, I am going to take this system to gamestop while it still looks good enough to trade, they refurbish them before they sell anyways. I bought a PS3 for myself, My son now wants one, its a shame..We really loved xbox…Just doesnt seem like they care for their customers.
Moshyjoshy
December 6th, 2010 at 4:42 pm

I got Dead Rising 2 and it just stalls when its loading.
Then Skate 2 wouldn’t work either, but I got further on in the game, it stalled in gameplay.
Then my mate gave me Read Dead Redemption, and it loads until a certain point then it just sends me back to the dashboard. When at the Dashboard, nothing happens.
Could I just be in need of a new Xbox? >,<
Jamii
January 3rd, 2011 at 5:16 pm

does anyone know how to undo an auto save on a game due to this particular save being corupt but the auto save before it being fine?
Jamii
January 3rd, 2011 at 5:24 pm

btw thats for fallout new vegas my xbox is fine with every other save and i have no other freezing but on fallout new vegas
Luke
March 6th, 2011 at 6:21 pm

I turn my xbox 360 on and when it says xbox at the start it just freezes I have just made it start working from the red ring of death
jack
March 9th, 2011 at 10:40 pm

played cod black ops four about a month all ok then i put my xbox up right and it keeped freezeing so i put it back down flat and all was ok but then i went on the zombie map on balck ops and it keeped frezzing so i restarted the xbox 360 all was ok played the same map and i got to the same place on the map and it keeps freezeing about 40mins into the game but if i go and play campain i can play that four 2 hours with out it frezzing once so i dont know if it is something to do with the disk or the xbox but need to know so i can take the game back to the shop and get it fixed. but i dont went to hav to pay out four a repair and maybe a new disk has enyone got eny ideas on how to fix it.
pat
March 13th, 2011 at 3:57 am

mine froze the other day playing nhl 11, i tried call of duty black ops and it froze too. they always freeze right when your about to play. i then put in call of duty modern warfare two and it got the rrod bottom right. with E71. but thats the only game that says E71 nd gives the rrod. ive tried everything ive heard of any other ideas. i currently dont have it hooked up to a ethernet cable so no online stuff or updates.
Brock
March 16th, 2011 at 10:45 pm

This took care of the problem thank you it was overheating and i had to clear the cache. Simple problems but i was hella overthinking it and now it’s fine. Thanks again
Jen
March 26th, 2011 at 6:37 pm

my xbox keeps freezing within like 5 seconds of being turned on, I’ve taken it apart and gave it a blow job with compressed air and it still is freezing no matter what game, even on the xbox screen. There are no red lights and I don’t know what to do. Someone help me please!!!
dowww
April 30th, 2011 at 12:17 am

I did every thing it said to do…but now when i turn off my xbox the green light turns off but is still running for about 5 or 10 seconds and right before it turnes off the green light flashes once and turns off…..i think it also did it earlier today…….im gettin worried any suggestions?
Nathan
August 16th, 2011 at 1:35 pm

Thank you sincerely for this guide I have gone through tree xbox’s in the last month (all used and without warranty) and this has finally revealed that the freezing problem was with my hard drive.
Anthony
August 20th, 2011 at 9:23 pm

Everytime I’m playing Oblivion, my xbox freezes during important parts of the game! It’s killin me! I thought it was the disc, so i took it to a local shop that repairs the disc, almost 100%.. I came home, same day, i purchased Shivering Isles… I turned it on, 30minutes into playing, the game froze up again! i tried 3 times, and samething happened.. Help Me!
Joshua
September 1st, 2011 at 5:56 am

Thanks, the issue for me was the surge protector!
Anonymous
September 2nd, 2011 at 12:30 am

My Xbox 360 has been doing the same thing! Its not a problem with the hard drive, because i took it out and still froze! We purchased Guitar Hero 5 about a month ago, and that disc was corrupt. And i had been DYING to get Guitar Hero 2. So we ordered it from Amazon. After i get it i put it in, try to play the first song in career mode, and the screen just freezes. Then the audio just repeats itself, like a scratched record. Then the audio goes BLANK! Why does it ALWAYS happen to new games i get??!! Please reply.