Xbox 360
Forza 3 multiscreen setup
I recently put together a multiscreen setup of Forza 3 motorsports for Xbox 360. Forza 3 is the first driving game I’ve played that made spending the time and money worth it. However, I had a few annoying problems along the way so I’m writing this article to potentially help anyone with problems like I had. This isn’t about how to use multiscreen to increase the field of view on one monitor (which is about all you can find on the web). It’s about using three screens together for one wide display with Forza 3. At the end I share how I did all this for cheap.
First off, you need three of the SAME copies of Forza 3. Mixing in an ultimate collection with the regular versions won’t work, they won’t connect. It took me a while to figure this out. Either use three ultimate collection versions or three regular versions. If you have three regular copies and you bought the ultimate to get more cars, you don’t need to go out and buy two more UC copies. Just put the UC disc in each machine and install disc 2. Then put the regular copies back in.
Second, you need a switch. I read somewhere on forzamotorsport.net that the data sent between the three Xboxes is a large amount of minimum frame size packets so a hub will work but you run the risk of dropping packets which will cause lag. Remember a hub and a switch do the same thing but a switch can learn where packets need to go based on their address, and a hub always just broadcasts to all stations. That is, a switch is more efficient. Use the uplink port of the switch that connects the three Xboxes to connect to your wireless router or gateway (internet).
Then you will need to verify the connection between the three Xboxes. There are a lot of people on the web saying that you need to be connected to Xbox Live, you need a Gold subscription to Xbox Live for each console, etc. None of this is true. You don’t need Xbox live for this to work. I know because I tested the multiscreen capabilities before I signed any of my consoles on to Xbox live. In fact I probably wouldn’t have bothered with Xbox live but I wanted the LFA from Stig’s Garage car pack.
Anyway, sign in on the Xbox that will be your center station, it will be the host and have your profile. It is easiest to test your connection by connecting to Xbox live through the test network utility in the console settings. If you go to: my Xbox / console settings / network / test settings it will test the connection from the console all the way through the local network to Xbox live. If you feel like it you can log on to your router and assign a static address to the three Xboxes to keep it tidy. You can see what IP each of your consoles was assigned by the router in the network settings on the console. All that matters is that they are different and in a range accessible to your router. None of that is really necessary though, if you only have a switch connecting the three consoles. The Xboxes will each assign themselves an address if they can’t find a DHCP server like your router. Your router is typically what assigns local IP addresses. › Continue reading
Xbox 360 red lights issue
A few days ago (just in time for Christmas break) my Xbox 360 started crashing and then gave me 3 red lights, indicating a hardware failure. This is really lame, since I just got hooked on Forza 3, and now I won’t be able to play it over my break from school and work. Thanks Xbox.
I looked up the reason for the red lights, since I can usually find a way to fix stuff. The consensus is that the GPU interface suffered a manufacturing problem due to lead-free solder where the BGA solder balls develop cracks over time. Sounds reasonable. The “fixes” seem to either be reballing the GPU (expensive) or a supposed reflow process that just overheats the GPU.
I tried this one first, since there wasn’t much to lose anyway. The theory is that you can reflow the BGA solder balls and restore electrical contact between the GPU and the PCB by just overheating the GPU. I am pretty skeptical that this is possible, as I don’t think a chip is capable of heating itself to the 320+ °F necessary for solder to melt and flow without damaging itself. Transistors tend to flow a lot of current when they get hot, which would likely damage the processor. At any rate, I tried it. It worked for a day. I wish I would have instrumented the GPU so I knew the peak temperature, but I forgot.
So then I tried to actually reflow the GPU. I tried 5% rosin no-clean flux, and saturated the GPU/PCB interface. I preheated the board to 300°F by setting it on a heated stir plate. I had a fine-gauge K-type thermocouple tucked just under the die so that I could measure the temperature. I heated the die with a hot-air station to 420°F over 2 minutes, and then increased to 450-475°F and held for about 30 seconds.
After the board cooled, I put it back together and plugged it in. Still got three red lights. I took it back apart again and did the same thing to the CPU, but still had the same problem. Then I tried again with 30% rosin flux and slightly higher temperatures. Same three red lights. I suppose the board is junk now, but I still am curious why it worked again after heating the board up a little bit from overheating the GPU. It tells me that most of the fixes out there for “reflowing” aren’t actually doing so, instead they are just creating enough stress on the PCB to fix whatever joint is intermittent. For example, one person supposedly reflowed his entire board in his kitchen oven. I’m not an expert in PCB manufacturing, but if the whole board is at reflow temperature, won’t the RAM chips (and most components) on the bottom side just fall off? There can’t be enough surface tension from the solder balls to actually hold the chip in place upside down.
I did some more digging and found out that you can in fact get error codes without video out. There is a lot of good information at xbox-experts.com. I found out that I have a “bridged solder joint/short GPU/HANA”. I wonder if it’s because of my novice “reflow” skills. I can solder with the best of them, but this is totally different. Wish I had started there first.
That’s one of the funny things about modern manufacturing- it makes something hard look really easy.
References:
http://www.altera.com/literature/an/an353.pdf
http://www.altera.com/literature/wp/wp_chmfgrelldfr.pdf
http://www.altera.com/literature/an/an081.pdf
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