OT: NCAA 13 on 360 Freezing

Submitted by JeepinBen on

Hey guys, quick question. My copy of NCAA 13 arrived yesterday (thanks to MaizenBlue13 for the rosters, I like them) and things were going great until I got to week 2 in the season vs. Air Force. First time in the game froze in the 2nd quarter. Audio stopped, screen froze on 1 shot, and controller stopped working. Hitting the power button on the Xbox instantly turned it off. Tried it a couple more times and the gameplay wouldn't even load. It froze during the game-loading screen. Same scenario.

I have a bought-from-a-store Xbox that's < 3 years old (so it should be under warranty.) I did get my first "red ring" with it this past week, 1 red light, E68, which it told me was a power supply error. Sure enough, the LED on the power block was yellow. Unplugged it all, plugged it back in, LED is green and no red ringing since.

Is this an Xbox issue that I get a hold of Microsoft for? A game issue? Haven't tried any other games yet, but I figured the board might have some experience with issues like this.

Thanks in advance.

Darth Wolverine

July 13th, 2012 at 11:51 AM ^

I should have my game at my door today when I get home (I tracked the package and it's currently in my city, but whether or not I get it today remains to be seen). I'm going to play up to the point the OP did to see if that happens. I really hope it doesn't obviously.

1464

July 13th, 2012 at 8:53 AM ^

I haven't really played video games for a few years, but when I did, some games were worse for me than others.  Before my Xbox took a dive on me, Madden was very bad about freezing on my Xbox.  I think it is an Xbox issue, but it may be more prevalant in some games, and less so in others.

Mr. Yost

July 13th, 2012 at 8:55 AM ^

Make sure your Xbox has properly ventiliation...if you're going to be playing for long hours at a time, I'd put a small fan on it (make sure you don't get some huge monsoon blaster that knocks over the Xbox while you're playing).

As Xbox's get older the internal fans get weaker and really run out and they overheat which is one reason for red rings, especially red rings that go away.

As for the game freezing, I'd hold on to that receipt and take it back and exchange it if it keeps happening. Also make sure you're on the lookout for updates and patches. Typically the first month after NCAA (and Madden) is released there are a number of automatic downloads to fix errors.

Frito Bandito

July 13th, 2012 at 8:56 AM ^

How the hell do you get a 3 year warranty on an xbox?? I've got two 360s and one is from 06. If you don't have a warranty take it apart and clean all of the dust out of it. Sounds like it's over-heating. Probably not the game, although my copy freezes when i'm supersiming the rest of a game when i'm up by 35 in the 3rd... Madden and Ncaa have done this for years. Nothing is more frustrating when you play a game almost all the way through and then it freezes at the end. I just love restarting the console and redoing the whole game.. Nice job EA

JeepinBen

July 13th, 2012 at 9:02 AM ^

I'm hoping it's a patch issue with EA. And I don't remember exactly when I got this Xbox (I bought an old one for cheap and had an EE at my old company fix it for me... but that got old so I bought one in a store) or what the warranty was on it. I'll have to look into it. If it's up I have no problem cleaning out the internals myself.

Silly Goose

July 13th, 2012 at 8:57 AM ^

With older 360's, don't plug them into a power strip, plug them directly into the wall. It's a small thing, but a lot of people have found that helps with avoiding RRoD.

thisisme08

July 13th, 2012 at 11:12 AM ^

huh never heard of this before.  My 2 RROD(s) occured in a well ventilated area/plugged into wall, since then I've replaced the latest RROD with a refurb unit thats been in the same spot/plugged into a power strip for the past 2 years and havent had a glitch yet.  Though thats probably because this latest unit uses the Jasper chip which IIRC is not quite as powerful as the OG chips in my 1st xbox.   

Jmilan

July 13th, 2012 at 9:02 AM ^

I haven't had any problems and in fact my online dynasty advances faster than ever with 13. Try a different game and see if you are having the same problem that might be a good indicator.

Edit: you could also try the same game on a different Xbox or hard drive.

An Angelo's Addict

July 13th, 2012 at 10:41 AM ^

my last year's copy on the ps3 would freeze every now and then but usually when I was playing online games. I have already had a couple freezes in the loading screen with online play for the '13 version. I believe they come out with patches a few weeks after release to get rid of bugs though

pasadenablue

July 13th, 2012 at 12:56 PM ^

one surefire recommendation to improve your gameplay experience:

if you have room on your xbox hd, install the game to the hd.  most of the perf issues with the xbox come from overheating (which in turn often comes from having to spin the disc a lot). if you install the game, the disc will still have to be inside, but it'll be a lot less work for the machine (as access from a hd is much more efficient than access from a disc).

Jehu the Damaja

July 13th, 2012 at 2:28 PM ^

Try installing it on your hard drive first. My NCAA 12 was doing the same thing and it got scratched to shit after about 2 weeks of playing without ever removing it from my xbox. I installed it and never had a problem with it since.

JeepinBen

July 13th, 2012 at 7:37 PM ^

Installed onto hard drive (Really, 7 GB?) and still froze. Tried another game and it worked just fine. 

Anyone know when EA will release and update?

MaizeNBlueAboveALL

July 14th, 2012 at 5:30 PM ^

The SAME EXACT thing happend to me! I got it from Amazon, returned it and got my new one friday and just tried it and froze again week two. I made it to the end of the 1st quarter the first time I played AF but then it freezes at the loading screen. I am on my second copy and I am pissed..

Mkaras24

July 18th, 2012 at 9:27 AM ^

Ok so I had the same exact problem while trying to play AF, I finally gave up and just advanced through the week. The following week against UMASS I had no problems at all. Now it's freezing before the Norte dame game. This sucks. Lemme know if you figure anything out.

ixcuincle

July 18th, 2012 at 11:29 AM ^

Damn bugs. Am very interested in getting this game, but the freezing issues scare me away. I guess I better wait until all the issues are resolved.