Red Octane 'looking into' Guitar Hero II patch problems

by Ludwig Kietzmann on Apr 16th 2007 9:54PM

"We're aware of the problem and we're looking into it." So says RedOctane in response to complaints of a Guitar Hero II patch leaving Xbox 360s paralyzed by the dreaded red ring of death. A string of users have posted their tales of woe on the official Xbox forums, noting post-patch game freezes, startup glitches and eventual system lockups. The patch was initially issued to correct unresponsive whammy bars in some guitar controllers.

Though Red Octane doesn't divulge to Eurogamer just exactly what "we're looking into it" entails, there's little hope that a further software patch could repair completely inoperative consoles. There's also no direct evidence to suggest that the patch itself is causing the Xbox 360 hardware to malfunction. The operating system might be fooled into thinking there is, however, which isn't much better than a physical malfunction. This occurrence is awfully similar to what transpires whenever a new Xbox 360 game is released -- is software causing a new problem, or is it letting you know that you had a rotten system to begin with?

We'll let you know as soon as RedOctane or Microsoft comment further.

Source

Tags: Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero 2, Guitar Hero II, GuitarHero, GuitarHero2, GuitarHeroIi, Harmonix, Microsoft, Music, Patch, RedOctane, Rock, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (44)

Jeez..what happened to consoles being a simple plug-n-play gaming experience?

At this rate, I might as well go back to PC gaming

I thought Guitar Hero II killed my 360 a while back but some not-so-nice people on youtube convinced me that GHII had nothing to do with it... maybe they were wrong.

Guitar Hero II Didn't Kill my 360 or Did It?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WntxY-yBeEI

i have gotten the three rings of death 3 times since the patch twice turning on the 360 and once cahanging disc's and the tray stopped half way and had to force it shut and nothing was in its way. i don't want to ggive my 360 to M$ to get it fixed since the HALO 3 BETA is coming and 2 new maps for HALO 2

Those are good points, in that 2nd paragraph. I can't imagine that a patch would render a machine useless. But we may consider that it could make the machine THINK it's useless. Which would seem to indicate that there could be a fix. Assuming the patch doesn't erase the hard drive, assuming the 360 doesn't have some massive glitch whereby hardware can be rendered non-operable through software, there should be a way to "back-out" of these red-ring issues seemingly caused by just a patch.

Would be very curious to see what Microsoft says about this.

Since the Xbox360 is not Windows, it's not like there's a literal billion lines of code to go through. Their techs should know the system enough that they can step through this patch, and see what exactly is causing the red-ring problem.

Or, then again, maybe it just triggers this death in systems that may have been prone to it anyway, sorta like giving LSD to a person with formerly supressed or hidden multiple-personality disorders can trigger a full blown paranoiac attack.

Pirates wear patches for night vision.

lol. Yes! I love it!

"Pirates wear patches for night vision."
Lol, well played hvnlysoldr.

Not to sound like the typical MS basher or anything, but they really just don't make reliable software.
I have discovered this more than ever when getting a new media center PC and trying to use my 360 as an extender. about 3 times the extender software stopped connecting to my PC, so i went through the reconnect process and it works again... until i do a mandatory system restart and my WMCPC stops playing TV completely and i get a myriad of error messages.
It's happened 3 times, a different problem each time, and it's taken about 3-4 hours to fix each time(the most recent one, last night)

Of all the companies in the world, i think microsoft has the hardest time making their own products work together.
After all of that, i wouldn't be one bit surprised if the hardware code could be effected to the point where the system thinks it has a critical error, which the 360's OS should be secure enough that that could never happen.

Whats this I hear about Quality Control slowing the release of XBLA titles?

I need to get my hands on a X360 dev kit. Make a bad game, and send an untested patch that contains exploits that would be usuable for the homebrew community to thrive on!

This is what happens when rushed hardware, rushed software, and rushed peripherals have a picnic together.

Well, Red Octane essentially issued "updated drivers" for the guitar. You most certainly can temporarily kill a PC with a bad driver, so it's theoretically possible to brick a 360 with bad drivers.

Where's your Xbox 360 System Restore Disk? Oh wait, that's what MS uses when we keep sending our systems back to them to get "fixed"... ;)

So if I pull the hdd out of my 360 until they make another patch I should be ok? No hdd = no patch right?

This sucks...I just bought GH2 online on Friday and it is being delivered tomorrow. Now I am afraid to play a game I paid $80 for. Gonna have to hold off on playing it until this situation is figured out. Very disappointing...but at least I didn't brick my console.

Otter - you can always choose to not update the game when it asks you.

I was gonna buy this, later this week. I guess I'm gonna hold off until all this gets squared away.

I thought it was kind of hilarious that people were claiming Red Octane was acknowledging the patch had problems by saying they had heard about people with issues and were looking into it.

Seems hardly an admission of a problem.

More likely it's the same post-patch hysteria that sweeps the Internet whenever any game, PC or console, releases a patch. OMG - they killed my video card! They nerfed Rogues! They gave me herpes!

OK, maybe not that last one.

I was going to get this next week, So with all of this crap going on should i just wait till GH3 Comes out later this year with the wireless controller! I have never played this game before! let me know what you people think!?

I'm interested in who the blame falls on. It's one thing for MS to brick their own console but to have another company able to do it through a game is pretty incredible and shitty I might add. It'll be interesting to see all the fingers getting pointed.

PS. To all the shotty 360 comments. I don't know anyone or heard of any bricked consoles and there are a lot of my classmates with them so I don't think the system is that shitty, more like it was an isolated batch that keeps getting circulated.

Well, the patch helped my whammy bar problems. But it has one weird side-effect. When I load the game, it always wants me to sign in, even if I'm already signed in. Then, when I go to sign in, I can't choose the profile, all the buttons by the Xbox button lock up. So, I have to use that button to get back to the main menu, click on sign in again, and then everything works fine.

Bizarre.

AFter the 3 out of 4 Units did not work (Didn't open the 4th to get a full refund)

As much as I want GH2 for 360.....no way I am touching it with a 10 foot poll until they have worked out all the issues.

What a fiasco.

I'm amazed there aren't more conmplaints about the STAR POWER Activator.....which was more unresponsive than the whammy in the 3 models I tested.

Trying to activate it required short of of banging the guitar on a table (which while rockstar like....probably not what the company is going for).

yup. this happend to me. I got about three notes into my first song after downloading this patch and suddenly my Xbox froze. I thought, okay this has happend to me a couple times before, I just have to turn off my console and fire it back up. I did this, but this time it froze during the 360 start up animation. that's when I thought, oh shit... what's going on here. So I turn my console off again and wait a couple minutes. I turn it back on... and sure enough, Red Ring Of Death!! I called MS and explained it to them, but they said they haven't heard anything about Guitar Hero causing the "3 flashing red lights," then told me my only option was to pony up the $140 to get it fixed!! reading this post makes me even more pissed to find out that I'm not the only one that this happend to, and that I was right about it being the damn patch that caused it!! I hope they figure this shit out soon so I can hopfully get a refund on my "fix."

John: "Since the Xbox360 is not Windows, it's not like there's a literal billion lines of code to go through. Their techs should know the system enough that they can step through this patch, and see what exactly is causing the red-ring problem."

You did hear about the HD player add on? That alone has over a 4.7 million lines of code.

I don't see why so many people love the 360 when shit like this just keeps happening. Sorry, but this just doesn't happen with other consoles. I'd rather pay $600 for a console I don't have to worry if it's going to brick or not when it updates and pay $140 to fix one time (god forbid it happens again and again, like it seems to), or $299 for one that just a ton of fun.

I really do like the games to 360 offers but with stuff like this I'm literally afraid to buy one.

~

I feel sorry for these folks. The patch for Test Drive: Unlimited ringed my 360 last fall. That's the problem with hardware revisions & constantly evolving software - it is too easy to toast a driver along the way.

JET

My system got bricked by GH2, but before the guitar controller patch. I downloaded a few of the song packs released last wednesday, started up GH, as soon as I started into a song the thing froze up. I powered it off and back on and sure enough three red lights. $140 bucks and no 360 for three weeks. Thanks red octane.

Who knew hooking up a fake toy guitar to a console would do so much harm?

Good grief. Every day there's a new annoucement that basically boils down to the fact that the 360 is a buggy piece of sh*t. I think the Yugo was a more reliable piece of technology than the 360.

I'd be afraid to even have a 360 in my home. The damn thing would probably cause a house fire or explode.

I think Microsoft intentionally designed the 360 to be a piece of sh*t to destroy the used console market. Who in their right mind would buy a used 360?

And people wonder why I typically leave the 360 out of my network. When I play or DL games online, I plug directly into my router. This way, if I just want to play, I don't get reminders of patches and each time a patch comes out, I give it a few days to find out what it breaks. After having finally beaten Freebrid on Medium (Yes, I suck... I know) on my third attempt last night, I am soooo relieved I didn't download the patch. I can ill afford to go onto my sixth 360. At that point, it really would be too far.

Am I the only one who sees this as a good thing? They're preventing you from being ripped off completely with the bullshit $6.25 1 good/2 shit song packs.

Who's looking forward to the spring dashboard update?

Wow. I'm glad I opted to skip this game until the price comes down. Why pay $90 for a buggy game when I can wait and get a finished one for less?

I'll keep messing around with Frets On Fire until they fix things at Red Octane.

This is bad. Very bad. I'd like to play this game but I won't. It scares me. My 360 is still under warranty (sorta) but I don't want a dead console. I'm very careful with it.

Patched without problems. Condolences to those who are having troubles, but...none here, on a day-one launch system. They're not all ticking time bombs the way the comments roll would suggest.

@8: The game was delayed for the controllers, which took time to manufacture; that's the opposite of a rush. The guitar controllers are fine. This is a software problem.

Yes, a few isolated problems amplified on the internet to look like the world is crumbling. This is why we love the internet.

Did anyone try to remove all updates through the systems blade????

...I'm nervous. haha

@Sheppy, 5 360s!??!?!?! What's wrong with you? At what point will you stop?

My son's 360 has been working fine for over a year until I bought him GH2. Within 3 days he had the red ring and I never even patched it. 360 is going to MS for fixing today and I'm returning the game back to Circuit City.

Gotta say,
I've had the game since its launch day, no sign of red rings, lock ups, or anything else...just been having way to much fun on it...long sessions, no overheating probs,
though,...no I have not downloaded that update, not touching it till I hear something from Red Octain.
I Hope they sort this crap out for you guy's because when it's working, it's AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm one of those with the red rings of death since installing the patch. Perhaps the patch actually triggers a fault rather than causes it?

Just bought guitar hero II yesterday and unfortunately i installed the update. The rings of death showed up and i cant do anything on the console. I strongly recommend not to installed that patch. my 360 is dead and being shipped back to Microsoft. For people not under warranty repairs costs are up to 100 sum dollars. There better be a *^!@ing recall or repair reimbursement.

I opted to do this instead of downloading the update, for my whammy. This has worked for me, so far. Well, there still a tiiiny bit of lag at times but nowhere as bad as it was originally.

http://www.allaboutthegames.net/feature_story.php?article_id=7714

What I suggest doing is plugging the guitar into your PC. Let it install the drivers, might have let it go through the windows update portion of it.

Go into Game Controllers in Control Panel and cailbrate the controller. (When the case is open) turn the whammy's pot to where the X-axis is a full bar when its not pressed down. It'll be a slight turn clockwise. Tighten down the screws and test it to make sure the bar is full at first, then lowers down completely when the whammy is pressed.

This is what I have done and until the whole issue is addressed with the patch, I'm not going to download it. I don't care if it has to sign me out because of it. I just wish I knew where the tilt sensor is so to adjust is so it doesn't go off at the slightest tilt.

I am now an owner of 2 dead XBOX 360 consoles and I am fully confident they were killed by Guitar Hero II.

My first XBOX 360 Platinum was about 8 months old and even though it died directly after Guitar Hero II was introduced to it, I gave benefit of the doubt.

I purchased a XBOX 360 Elite 5 days ago (May 1st, 2007) with the intention of selling my old Platinum system once I received a warranty replacement from my local retailer.

The Elite worked fine for 3 days as I kept GH2 away from it. Then after calling Activision I was reassured that the GHII was not of any danger to the console. I put GH2 in the Elite and within 2 days, it is dead with the ring of death (3 flashing red lights). I am 100% convinced.

My son just told me a couple days ago that his XBOX 360 was flashing red lights and would not boot up. Upon digging into it I discovered that this was a total system failure. Now I just asked him, after reading all of this if he had installed the Guitar Hero II patch. YES!!! He installed the Guitar Hero II patch a few days ago...same story as everyone else. (So...to sum it up: after installing the Guitar Hero II patch his system is now bricked. Special Note: He did add that the system required him to install it twice...as if the first install hadn't happened at all.)

I purchased the game a while back, but never updated it, unless the initial update on the disc was it. Mine played fine for a few days (long enuf to beat on expert). I played off and on for a few weeks, then it started the freezing problem, so I don't play in case it red-lights. I don't have Live and didn't download any update. Perhaps my disc had teh update? or it's not an update problem, but the update could have accelerated it for some ppl.

Mine bricked this evening. I too am convienced it's GH2. It had been freezing up on and off for a few days. Decided to try it again tonight and the game froze with a ZZT noise and the console was brocked after that.

My XBOX 360 has been a wonderful device till I put GH2 on it. I will never buy a product from Red octane again. it's not worth risking my $400 game machine. Imagine if this had been the PS3. Peoples $800 machines getting bricked.

Avoid this game, it does have great game play, but it's just not worth it to risk your XBOX getting destroyed.

Red Octane 'looking into' Guitar Hero II patch problems

Reader Comments (44)

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