She arrived yesterday, and what a quiet console! Compared to my old Core, that sounded like a jet engine, the new Elite is whisper quiet, and puts out 80% less heat!

I can play games without my headphones on, and not annoy the girls! I used to have to turn the TV up, and it annoyed them! It’s a shame, the new boards should have been the ones at launch in 2005, it’s taken them 3 revisions, including the Opus, which was used in RRoD replacement  consoles, that still RRoD’ed!

Still doesn’t stop me being a 360 fan, my SONY crap needed more repairs, and never lasted as long as my Microsoft consoles. I’ve also still got the Microsoft warranty of 5 years if I need it (and don’t mod it!)

My 360 gave up again yesterday, and then came back again…. then died again. And then came back again!

So, I’ve preserved her precious last breaths, god bless her, and bought myself an Elite, hopefully with the new Jasper board. It’s the new 65nm die revision, with the extra 256MB Hynix RAM for the NXE updates. The GPU’s been revised too, for less heat, so (less chance of, NOT NO CHANCE like some are saying) of a RRoD.

If I do decide to mod, I’ll probably use my BenQ drive from my old Xbox (that’s if the Elite doesn’t have one), so it’s an easy firmware dump, key extract, inject into hacked, reflash job. Piece o’ cake!

I just can’t understand why they’re STILL USING electrolytic cans in the new boards. Solid state Jap cans are all the rage now, and are much less prone to drying out, or bursting. PC mothrboards have been using them for a while, and I personally replace electro with solid in any repairs I do.

I’ve posted quite a few videos on TideLog of the silly twits that try to dodge automatic bollards, and have laughed at the ensuing damage. Today Rikky and I fell foul of one of these nasty things, except in this case it wasn’t us trying to dodge it, it was faulty. Her vehicles have sensors on the front subframes for these bollards, on the B7RLE we were driving today it is under the front bumper, below where the towing socket is.

I popped along with her to London, and on the way back we came through a bus only lane. The bollard lowered, and just as Rikky was driving up to it, it popped back up again, and we slammed into it, at about 10Mph.

It forced all the front of the bus inwards, cracking the windscreen, firing the airbag, and trapping Rikky in the cab, as the cab door lock bar is mounted to part of the dash supported by the front impact crossmember. I had to forcefully remove the cab door frame with the acrylic shield in to get her out, as the driver’s side window wasn’t big enough for her to get through.

The front of the bus looks worse, it’s going to be out of action for months. The problem is we don’t actually know if London Council are to blame, or if it was our sensor at fault. We’ve sent it away for testing, so cannot do anything else until the results come back. The police made records, and the Council. The Council guy who came out to us did mention the same bollard has done this before….

I wasn’t hurt, neither was Riksy, the airbag stopped her from being injured, the only injured victim is the bus, the poor thing. It still drives, but the steering seems a bit stiff. We had her towed back to be safe. She’s out of action now until the test result on the sensor, then the insurance claim can start, and she’ll have to go back to Volvo and Wright for repair.

I’ll never laugh at another bollard again. These things are vicious, and are designed to withstand ram attacks in a vehicle (even legitimate vehicles when the bollard has a fault), even a 12 ton bus, the bugger that got us has just a bit of scuffing on it.

Check the video I posted back in 2007, HERE. It’s scary stuff.

I have a feeling bollards are going to make me nervous from now on..

Today was rather good. I went along on route practise, with Rikku’s comms-operator-turned-driver Cassie Heathfield, she’s just passed her PSV test, after being Matsuki’s 3rd Comms operator for nearly two years. I had nothing better to do, other than worry (what?!?) whether my Xbox was going to die (see, it’s silly!!), so I popped along to see how Cass did. She’s a good driver, at only 23 she’s done well.

I only wish my Kassie was as good, the last time I took her to the track in a bus for a mess around she kept taking corners too short, as though she’s in a car. The racing line is wider in a bus, and is mainly on the outside of corners, rather than inside out. She also kept hitting kerbs on bus stop practises! Kassie’s great in a car, she’s had years of driving high performance cars, like her Subaru, but big vehicles leaves her with a lot to be desired. Mind you, she has never driven a bus before, nor is qualified to, so I can’t criticize her, my sweet lil sugarlump.

Lady bus drivers, they’re cute! A cute lady who can handle big machines gets my admiration, anytime!

I used a heatgun to heat the heatsinks up really hot. This is NOT something everyone should try, as the air from a heatgun is very dry, and can cause dry joints, so should not be done directly at the chips themselves, or for long periods, as the temperature is a lot hotter than a hairdryer. I use it as a very controlled last ditch attempt before properly vacuum reworking and replacing chips. I then ran the console without the fans connected, until it shut down, and then let her cool.

She’s been fine ever since, and has been run for about 7 hours following the repair, with cool off powerdown sessions in between. Fingers crossed! And no towel tricks or RRoD “FIX” kits in sight! LoL, who needs “bedroom experts” with the wrong tools and skills, such as *cough* Mark Pickavance *cough*?

Hehe I don’t *think* I’m good, I KNOW it! LoL As my Saints Row chick says!

Update 29th Jan: 24 hours runtime, still going! She’s been warmed up, powered up and down several times today, and she’s a darn fighter, a lot more than Greg’s ever was…

I’ve used the image (for the good it did, if anything) and it all went fine. Everything’s still the same as ever, just a minor version number change. What a waste of waiting over a week for! Anyway, for anyone that wants it, I have it here on TideLog, so you don’t have to grovel to Clevo or Novatech.

First though, my disclaimer:

WARNING!

-  Please keep in mind that this disc/ISO should never be used in a PC or notebook for which it was not intended – doing so may render the PC/notebook in question unusable.

-  Please do not interrupt the update process (by resetting/switching the PC/notebook off or removing the disc, etc) once it has begun – doing so may render your motherboard unusable

-  Please do not update your BIOS with any suspect item plugged into your computer (such as suspect RAM).  If you are updating your BIOS to gain support for a new processor (CPU) then do not do the update with the new CPU installed – it  must be done with a CPU already supported by the existing BIOS.

-  Flashing your BIOS is done at your own risk – should anything go wrong then you are responsible for the results.

-  Do not update your BIOS unless there is a good reason (for the above reason).

So, you’ve been warned. I’m experienced at all manner of BIOS tasks, including modification, flashing, desoldering for bad flash recovery & resoldering, so bear that in mind. Of course, if you do brick your laptop, you’re free to send it to me for repair, but I charge £60 for the whole recovery task.

-= This update is for the M670SU with nVidia GeForce 8400M Graphics ONLY!!! =- There’s an update for the Hitachi H8 controller too, flash this AFTER the main update.

Click HERE to download the ZIP file.

I don’t know how much longer she’s gonna keep fighting back, because the tearing has just come back:

She’s been one heck of a good console, and this is the first time anything like this has happened to me. I’ve seen it at work many times, and never thought it’d happen to me, not after so long, but it has. I suppose I’ll get myself a nice new Elite, mod it, and not go on Live, so that if I ever need to go on Live, once a method that works to stop you getting banned comes, I’ll use it, because the Stealth firmware let me down the first time I used it, and I no longer trust it as far as its so called “Live Stealth” is concerned.

It’s looking snowy for my chick in Saints Row 2, she looks a bit snowed up!

As long as I don’t turn it off, it’ll stay running, it’s just, well, snowy!

After 3 solid loyal years, I think my Core 360 is about to die. I’ve just been playing Forza 3, whizzing my 680hp Viper SRT-10 round Suzuka Circuit, and the telltale black and white tearlines have appeared on the picture. Exactly the same sysmptoms as my friend Greg, 2 days later, the E74 error occurred, and never again did his console play another game.

So I’ve unplugged it, and will let it cool, see what happens. In the meantime, I’ve got two options, the Easy one, and the Techie one:

The Easy method:

Go out and buy a brand new gorgeous Elite, with new motherboard, less heat.

Or:

The Techie method:

Rework my Core with NEW CPU & GPU chips, replacing the solder balls with lead ones. I use more heat than the factories, so I know it will last longer.

And before you geeks kick in, NO I WON’T use your foolish Towel or X-Clamp fixes!

UPDATE: She’s had it. The E74 error is now displaying, in all its multilanguage non-glory, on my Toshiba 42″ plasma:

It’s just a single segment flashing, but, who cares, an E74 is an E74 nonetheless, and it’s the GPU that’s ill:

Seeing as I’ve got nothing really to lose, as my console’s modded anyway, I’m gonna heat her up, nice and hot, to see if I can prolong the life a little longer, I want to get to Level 30 driver skill on Forza 3, and I’m at 27!

Update 2: She’s BACK again! But, for how long?!? She’s a fighter, that’s for sure!

I’ve finally got the BIOS update for the M670SU, as a CD image. I haven’t used it yet, so won’t post it here yet, and when I do there’ll be a big disclaimer, I cannot accept responsibility if you do it wrong. I’m experienced in BIOS flashing and recovery, including desoldering SST & Winbond chips to dump in a Willem programmer, and restoring BIOS code, so if I mess up or some freak of technology happens, I know how to put it right.

Also, I’ve been doing a bit of digging about my VT-x issue, and apparently Microsoft have DROPPED the Virtualization requirement. It was mandatory, but now isn’t, so we’ll have to wait for the rollout of the new software. I’m glad in a way, because quite a few Intel machines either don’t support VT-x in the CPU, or have it Locked OFF in the BIOS, as in my case. AMD, however, have a policy where it is available and switched ON across ALL of their range. I’m not really a fan of AMD, but that is a good move by them.

I’ll try the update, and report back..

Rikku phoned earlier this afternoon. She’d finished work earlier than expected, and Jill was still at her Aunty Sandra’s until 6pm. She offered to meet at the training pitch, for some one on one training, to see how my back had healed. I’ve kinda missed football with the weather being so snowy over the past month, so I was up for it!

So, I got all my new kit on, and headed over to the training pitch. Rikky was waiting in the changing room, already changed. She looked rather ravishing with her new hair colour, it matches her team shirt, which is red with black stripes down the shoulders and arms. She loved my new kit, and was rather surprised when she asked whose colours it was based on, and I told her my old secondary school. “You really suit it, you look nice!” “The pitch is wet, sloppier than I thought, but who cares, let’s go! Take it easy, and if you get ANY pain, shout and I’ll stop training.” She explained that it was just me and her because she felt I’d be under pressure if the other girls were there, as she’s seen how I get stuck in, and I could do myself damage.

We did some goal shot tactics, with her in goal and me coming in from different angles. She’s really good, and anticipated a few of my fool tactics, letting in only 3 of 12 shots at goal from me! Then we practised passing tactics, with her passing to me, and then me passing to her, from different angles. Following this we did some light tackling practise, she was very very gentle, and I made sure to fall by rolling on my side where possible. The muddy grass helped soften falls. We finished by doing some general dribbling, practising dribbling in slaloms round cones.

My new football boots are really good, they’re lightweight, and give me excellent ball control. My skills have actually improved since I got them, both in the one Sunday training match with the team that I’ve used them in, and my practise kickabouts in the garden. It’s good that I’ve got big feet too, I’m a men’s size 11, so there’s a lot of foot to use for passing and catching passes with the side of my foot, it dawned on me while Riksy was passing to me, she’s only a ladies size 7.

Kassie doesn’t really like me putting stud holes in the garden though (or ruining the grass when it’s muddy!). Her response the first time I came downstairs in my kit is, “Do you HAVE to wear your boots?”. I had to explain to her that my boots are lighter than my trainers, and are designed for ball control. Since the match when she joined us, she now knows. We have a pretty big garden, so she’s designated me my own area of the garden for football, that I can ruin as much as I want!

I enjoyed this unexpected training session, it’s always nice to be trained footie by Rikky. She’s been playing football for 7 years, after moving from Rounders and Netball. I just wished I’d asked her to train me when she was running Woodhill LFC, their training pitch was bigger, and I’d have more experience at football by now! I enjoyed watching her and the Woodhill ladies playing though, and went to several matches. Rikku reckons it was because I fancied her team captain, Lisa, but there were other reasons! I suppose I didn’t ask her because computers took over, and I never actually thought how nice being trained footie by girls really can be….

My back seems to be fine, I didn’t get any pain. My neck is still iffy, I think I strained a tendon or muscle, as it locks up, and hurts sometimes, it did it during warmup, so I need to keep an eye on it.