CONight's PS3 & 360 Known Hardware Issues Thread (Read before reporting WWE 2k14 Problems)

[CONight]

Since WWE 2K14's release, I've noticed a trend amongst both PS3 and Xbox 360 users reporting issues with the game that are possibly related to some known hardware issues with the various models of PS3s and Xbox 360s, at least in part. I'm not writing off game issues as being due to your game console simply not working properly. There are certainly some problems that can be blamed solely on the game itself regardless of what system model you are using.

 

In the future, if you want to report problems with the game, please specify which console & model you are using.

 

In this thread I'm going to cover the key known issues with each model of both PS3 & Xbox 360, (I already covered PS3 models in another thread, but I'll paste that information into this thread so that everything is in one convenient location.

 

Playstation 3 Models:

 

Firstly, there are a few different phat models:

 

1. Phats: The original fully backwards compatable phat PS3s with actual PS2 chips on the system's board, the phats that did backwards compatability via software rather than real chips, and iirc there were later phats that couldn't play PS2 games at all. As you are probably well aware, the phat PS3s had problems overheating and sustaining a YLOD. Having those extra PS2 chips certainly didn't help keep the boards cool, but they were hardly the reason for the YLODs. Recently, there has been a known issue with older "phat" Xbox 360s booting up rather slowly (I have one of those models.) From what I understand, this is due to the age of these systems, and the degradation of the boards/chips over the course of the ~8 years the system has been around. Well, those old phat PS3s degrade too. I'm not aware of the PS3s having as much problems as the old 360s though. If you haven't sustained a YLOD yet, you're probably fine.

 

2. Slims: None of these have any PS2 backwards compatability, unless you count the PS2 games you can download from PSN. These are honestly the most stable models. Better ventilation, no additional chips generating extra heat, and I think the main PS3 chips they improved the methodology of keeping them reasonably cool. My slim's fan is certainly louder than my old phat's fan ever was.

 

3. Super slims: Oh boy, where do I begin. They decided to use the over 15 yr old drive design of the original playstation, in having a top opening tray--only this one is cheaper. It has a barely held in place sliding top door. Bluray lasers are very sensitive and easier to damage than CD/DVD lasers. This is why a proper bluray drive cleaner doesn't have the little brush thingy you normally find on a CD/DVD cleaner. Cutting corners on the way you keep that laser covered is a very stupid design choice. The overall casing is very cheap, and connector ports are noticeably loose. The best example of this is to examine where the power cord plugs into the back of the console. Try to gently wiggle it a little and you'll see how loose it is. Avoid these models like the plague, if Sony offers you one to replace an older model that goes down, DO NOT accept. Tell them you want a regular slim, they most likely won't be able to provide you with a phat. I have heard of other PS3 owners going through this, and they were able to convince Sony to give them a regular slim. Any reports of performance issues with these models would really not surprising. If outer components are any indication, I can easily see chips, heatsinks, & etc. not being seated properly and/or an inferior board design all the way around. They might not overheat, mostly due to the system not having much in the way of an outer layer to impede heat from escaping the system, so I guess there's that.

 

Xbox 360 models:

 

1. White "Arcade" Phats - These are the original lower end, sometimes sans harddrive, standard issue Xbox 360 systems. Most noteably, these models were BY FAR the most likely to experience a Red Ring of Death. I had one of these models originally, and it RRoDed. I took the opportunity to open it up and see what was going on inside. I won't get into all the technical details, but suffice it to say it was not very well designed. Some design mistakes were so obvious that even a novice engineer would know enough NOT to do.

 

2. Black "Elite" Phats - The ones available at launch aren't much different from the white ones. After all the RRoDs, the black systems were redesigned a bit inside to not overheat so much. Eventually Microsoft stopped putting memory module slots in these models, (the ones on the front below the DVD drive), since by that point it was safe to say everyone had harddrives.

Recently a new problem has been reported with many phat 360 models. Due to degradation of the boards, many phats are now abnormally slow to boot up to the dashboard. I currently have an elite phat, and mine is experiencing this problem. This can be fixed by basically modding the system. Anyone experiencing this issue could also have some loading/freezing issues with WWE 2k14.

 

***Harddrive note for all phats: At first glance, you'd think those pricey official phat model Xbox 360 harddrives are proprietary drives. They're not. They're actually your typical 3.5" laptop harddrive in an oversized proprietary enclosure. You can take apart the unit you attach to the end of your 360 and just put a much cheaper laptop drive from Best Buy or Newegg inside. The only thing is that the hard drive has to be formatted specifically for xbox 360. This can be done via your PC, but I'm not going to get into that process in this thread.

 

3. Black/Halo/Star Wars/etc. Slim: I cannot stress this enough--DO NOT play this model standing upright. Don't play ANY xbox 360 model upright really, but the slims are especially BAD upright. Why? The problem is the lousy DVD drives they put in these models. They can't hold the discs properly--at all. Many people have had game discs scratched to oblivion by just bumping these models. Even If you carefully shift the system from upright to flat or vice versa--with a disc in the drive it WILL damage the disc. The phat models don't exactly hold discs that great either, but they do a far better job than slim drives.

 

If you are using a slim and experiencing issues with WWE 2k14, make sure your disc hasn't been damaged by your console, and make sure you're laying the system flat while playing the game.

 

It's also impossible for slims to experience a Red Ring of Death. This is merely a technicality, because Microsoft designed the slims to NOT display a red ring when it overheats. They decided to use a different warning display.

 

***Slim harddrives: For one thing, some slims as well as very late model phats have 4GB of internal storage built in. This is NOT the harddrive they come with, it's a separate internal storage device. It's easier to add a harddrive to a slim, you can just insert a typical 3.5" laptop harddrive into the harddrive slot of the console. It connects directly to the connector inside the slot. Of course, you will still have to format it for Xbox 360 on your PC. You can also just rip the harddrive out of the oversized phat 360 harddrive enclosure and connect it directly inside the slim. The "proprietary" harddrives Microsoft makes for slims are also just regular 3.5" drives in enclosures, but these ones have the drives sticking out of the end of the enclosure that connects inside the slim's harddrive slot.

 

3. The new Xbox One style 360s: For whatever reason, Microsoft decided to unveil a brand new model of Xbox 360 at the very same E3 that they debuted the Xbox One. This new model has a very similar design to the look of the Xbox One console. As of now I have had no experience with this model, so I can't tell you much. Considering how late this model was released, I rather doubt very many people on these forums, if any at all, have this model. As far as I can tell it appears to be very similar in architecture to the slim models. Perhaps if nothing else they put a proper DVD drive in these.

 

Final Note For Both Platforms--Saves/Storage:

One last thing that everyone needs to understand is that there are many different capacity drives for all these models in both platforms. Furthermore, your save data for WWE 2k14 requires far more storage space than saves for games in most other genres. If there is a problem with your storage device, you're going to notice it in WWE 2k14 before you will notice it in any of those other games. This is especially true when doing a lot of stuff with CAWs and other created content. If you have replaced your PS3 or Xbox 360 harddrive with a standard 3.5" harddrive you bought cheap at Best Buy or Newegg, (which I personally have done myself), remember that laptop harddrives are NOT all created equal. Some manufacturers are known to suck, and even though they're all SATA drives, access spead/RPMs can still vary--significantly. Official drives used by both platforms are generally the same RPM and only from a select few manufacturers that Sony or Microsoft has decided to partner with. (My official Xbox 360 harddrive is a fujitsu drive, for example.)

 

 

I'll probably add more material to this thread as I come across anything else of note. Remember though, if you're having problems, please tell us what model and what type of storage device you're using. It does make a difference!

[sephstorm]

Any info on using SSD's in Xbox's? Also, you are aware of some issues, would you care to mention the solutions in this thread?

[The Real J.J. Jones]

Gta V broke my old XBox White, so any questions you have about the brand new xboxOne style Xbox, just ask me

[sephstorm]

Sorry, i'll be moving to PS4, done with MS's BS.

[sephstorm]

Here is a list of issues, not clear on system. If the problems are mainly with the 360 i'd probably consider getting a PS3 or PS4, but it doesnt seem clear which issues are on which consoles.

 

 

This thread breaks it down by system:

 

 

[CONight]

Ehm, sephstorm your list of issues seems to be gone. If there was something the mods had issue with and removed, you can PM me instead of reposting. I've heard a couple things more recently about the new xbox one style 360 model. From what I've heard they just put the slim model in a new case. I would hope they put a better DVD drive in the thing, but I have my doubts.

 

Also, someone asked about using SSDs. I've heard nothing about that. SSDs are still super expensive if you want to get a decent capacity one (like 250GB and up.) Also they have a limited number of rewrites, albeit a VERY high limit that would take a very long time reach. The Xbox 360 isn't really designed to read SSDs, which have significantly higher access speeds than normal harddrives. You could have a very smooth experience, or the 360 might have trouble keeping up with those high speeds. Personally I don't think the 360 would really have that much trouble.

[sephstorm]

The link is on Operation Sports forums:

 

http://www.operationsports.com/forums/wrestling/676857-bugs-glitches-wwe-2k14.html