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Kane Knight
01-05-2007, 11:29 AM
I'ma just repost what I wrote on GameFAQs. So if this seems familiar to anyone who actually posts there, apologies. But I'm not retyping it.

Okay, so I bought an S-Video cable for my 360, because I don't have Hi Definition, and S-Vid is generally at least marginally better. I plug it in. No picutre (Sound is still on). I return it, thinking that it is defective.

I get a second one. No picture. Still have sound. Return it, hoping it's not a problem for which I need to send the system back.

Third time. No picture. This time, I really check all the connections, and if I wiggle the connector that goes to the 360, I get picture. The problem is, this only works as a temporary solution. The picture will go away again, and I will have to physically manipulate the plug to get picture again.

I just spent 90 minutes on a phone call where the support person kept trying to tell me my problem was fixed because I now had picture. She didn't seem to understand that I had picture when I first called in, but would lose the picture quite often. I ran through the same steps thee times, and she was even baffled when I asked if she could transfer me to someone else. It took a couple minutes just to get through the spelling of my last name (which, for anyone keeping score, is 5 letters long).

In the process, she would often tell me to do things without explaining how. When I asked how, she would be lost, or sometimes give me the wrong explanation (She explained how to return the picture to its default settings wrong, without me even asking how to do it). Many of these steps were repeated multiple times (Go into your video settings was the most popular).

This may literally be the worst tech support call I have EVER made. It was incredibly frustrating.

Please tell me this is not a common thing. I got my 360 at Christmas time, and would hate to think that if I need it serviced again, I will have to deal with this kind of patent incompetence.

Boomer
01-05-2007, 04:03 PM
I have never trusted tech support for almost anything. In recent memory, my only good experience with tech support occurred from Newegg, who upgraded my shipping for free because my package had been sent over the 48 business hour mark. I have never sent something in to get serviced, and to be completely honest, I would only trust myself to handle things like that. I know that is what a warranty is for, but I've always found it easier to try and deal with things on my own terms. I know not all things are fixable by users, but things like opening your PS2 to clean the laser or installing a replacement CD tray when my PS2 tray broke was always easy enough for me to understand and fix on my own.

But for something like that, I don't see how you could fix that yourself. So putting your trust into shitty tech support is frequently the only option.

Bad Company
01-05-2007, 04:37 PM
Reminds me of that dilbert when he calls tech support to tell them the problem, and then in the last frame he's lying on a couch doing nothing saying "Yeah, I'm turning my modem on and off again now"

lol Dilbert, you kill me.

Kane Knight
01-05-2007, 04:58 PM
BC, that's more or less what I ended up doing.

Kane Knight
01-05-2007, 05:02 PM
I have never trusted tech support for almost anything. In recent memory, my only good experience with tech support occurred from Newegg, who upgraded my shipping for free because my package had been sent over the 48 business hour mark. I have never sent something in to get serviced, and to be completely honest, I would only trust myself to handle things like that. I know that is what a warranty is for, but I've always found it easier to try and deal with things on my own terms. I know not all things are fixable by users, but things like opening your PS2 to clean the laser or installing a replacement CD tray when my PS2 tray broke was always easy enough for me to understand and fix on my own.

But for something like that, I don't see how you could fix that yourself. So putting your trust into shitty tech support is frequently the only option.

The thing that annoys me is I only call when it's something I can't handle myself. I explain to them the problem, and they want to walk me through all these stupid steps I already did. It's like, honestly. If it was "rebooting the modem," I would have done it already.

I once had this problem with Dell. I had actually isolated the problem, but couldn't fix it. Yeah.

Disturbed316
01-05-2007, 06:37 PM
Did you flick the switch from HDTV to TV? (If it has one, if not, I cannot help any longer)

Kane Knight
01-05-2007, 07:23 PM
There is no switch on the S-Vid version of the cable.

The problem is with the physical connection, and on the 360s end or the exchanges in cables would have changed it. The odds of even two cables having the same flaw are slim.

Basically, as I spent years of school learning to troubleshoot electronics, not to mention was paid to do it, I know how to apply logic to even unfamiliar equipment. I wouldn't even begin to pretend to know what the guts of a 360 should look like, but I can figure out that it's not the cable or my TV through logic.

I honestly think that it's just a simple loose connector, and I could probably fix it, but I don't want to open up my 360 on a guess and risk voiding my warranty if something else goes down. Not worth it.

Boomer
01-05-2007, 10:18 PM
I'm looking at a PDF of the manual for the cable, and the troubleshooting section basically ends up telling you to make sure "your TV is on".

So you've tried another cable with success before I imagine? I figure you have seen this 360 work with another cable at some point. Because I've opened up my 360, and I'm not sure I've seen a video connector that could be loose. But I could be totally wrong.

Kane Knight
01-06-2007, 12:35 PM
Yeah, I got asked several times if my TV was on.

It was. I was getting audio through the speakers.

And if I had success with a previous cable, I wouldn't suspect the system itself. I'd suspect the cable. the problem being, the cable was replaced twice, with equally poor success.

Basically, there is something that prevents a tight secure connection with the cable, or there is a loose/misplaced (By misplaced, I mean improperly lined up to mesh with the cable or something at another point) connection/pin/wire within the system that's causing it. Otherwise, I wouldn't have the same problem with 3 different cables (Ex post Facto note: I tried my original RCA cable and wiggled it and got the same result, so now the number's up to 4). Again, this is a guess, but it's a good guess and I'm having trouble imagining any other solution aside from "These cables are utter shite." And I'm hard pressed to believe that there's a run on bad cables over two cable types that hasn't been mentioned anywhere else yet.

YOUR Hero
01-06-2007, 10:18 PM
Not too sure I would have put up with so much bullshit for a marginally better picture. An AV picture's quality is very good to begin with.

Kane Knight
01-06-2007, 11:34 PM
Had I gone back to my AV cable (And I can tell the difference, and would rather deal with the better picture), I simply would have discovered the problem slightly later. In fact, I had the problem once, but had no idea it was the problem once (It's a hidnsight thing now that I've dealt with it).

Basically, I'd have to put up with it at some point if I wanted picture, period.

Xero
01-07-2007, 12:00 AM
Well, if you're getting it with both the A/V and S-Video cables I would bet it's the 360's output itself.