Sunday 21 November 2010

Microsoft Xbox 360 Repairs - Getting Your Console Fixed Within One Hour

Microsoft Xbox 360 Repairs - Getting Your Console Fixed Within One Hour
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Dave_R_Richards]Dave R Richards

Microsoft is the giant software and games company that released the Xbox 360 gaming console in 2005. They did a good job of putting creative and fun games well-combined with great graphics that all combine to keep gamers glued to their consoles for long. However; the device is now having problems and users are in dire search for ways to fix their consoles fast. If you want to learn about Microsoft Xbox 360 repairs; stick to this article until you get to the last word.

When Microsoft was designing and manufacturing the console; they reduced the size of the heat sinks. With their reduction in size; the sinks do not have to ability to function properly. It was not a selfish move on the part of Microsoft because the heat sinks were downsized in order to provide space for the DVD player. The result of that action makes it very hard for the temperature of the console to be regulated

Gamers also have a share in the blame for the problems encountered on the device. Most gamers tend to keep their consoles in places where air is absent (such as a cabinet), they are so addicted to the games that they often play on the device for more than six hours a day. Coupled with all these; they do not clean and dust their consoles regularly.

The extended game-time makes heat to build up rapidly inside the console. The dust and lack of air prevent the generated heat from going out. The trapped heat then starts to fraternize with the motherboard and the many vital components of the Xbox. What then happens is that the heat ends up destroying these parts and thus; the console starts having problems.

Microsoft Xbox 360 repairs are two forms; you can send the console to the manufacturer or you can do the repairs yourself. Sending your console to Microsoft would only help you if your console is still under warranty because they would charge you about $140 if you are no longer under warranty. It also takes them a space of five weeks to fix the console and send it to you.

The topic of this article shows that we can get our consoles fixed within one hour. That is only possible when you decide to do the repairs yourself. If you love your games so much and can spare one hour to work on your console; then you would be gaming in no time. The basic things you need for the procedure of repairs are household tools and an Xbox 360 repair guide.

The Xbox 360 repair guide is a manual that is sold on the internet and accompanied with video clips, live customer support and even money back guaranty. It contains all that you need to be able to fix your console within sixty minutes. All you have to do is to follow the instructions in the guide and you would soon forget that your console ever got bad.

If you have a damaged Xbox 360, no matter how bad it is, you will be able to fix it after reading how I successfully repaired my Xbox [http://xbox360errorguide.com].

Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Microsoft-Xbox-360-Repairs---Getting-Your-Console-Fixed-Within-One-Hour&id=3876970] Microsoft Xbox 360 Repairs - Getting Your Console Fixed Within One Hour

Monday 15 November 2010

Find The Xbox 360 Repair Guide Online

Find The Xbox 360 Repair Guide Online
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Phil_Rorrer]Phil Rorrer

The x-box 360 is a video game from the stables of computer giant Microsoft Corporation. It is so popular that many video game enthusiasts have become cult followers of the x-box 360 that offers a variety of games to be played. The x-box is considered a revolutionary gadget since it offers plenty of flexibility when it comes to playing games, particularly some of the top end video games that require a lot of skills and talent. The x-box 360 can be purchased from any consumer electronic equipment retail store. However, if you don't have the time to visit a store, you can place an order on the internet.


Using popular search engines such as Yahoo! and Google, you can trace the store selling the x-box 360 online. However, to convince yourself about the product, go through the reviews available online. As plenty of users have uploaded their reviews of the machine on various group sites and social networking sites. You can read the review for an objective opinion on the product. Subsequently, if you are satisfied, place an order for x-box 360 online. However, if you are not happy with the reviews, it is suggested that a visit to an electronic equipment store is necessary. Try your hands personally on a machine before purchasing it.


If you read through the reviews the x-box 360, you will notice one particular pattern of complaints from the users. It relates to the red ring of death on the x-box console that is often considered the most undesirable element of the video game. The red ring of death is nothing but a ring of red color that glows whenever the x-box machine is facing performance related issues. Whenever the x-box machine has a problem the red ring of light glows. In many cases, the machine fails to perform. Under such circumstance, it is advised that the users of the machine take it to the nearest Microsoft authorized dealer for a closer inspection and repair. Do not try to repair the x-box machine on your own since it will void the warranty.


However, there are many ways to prevent the red ring of death. For this, you need to go through the instruction manual and guide very carefully. The guide is supplied by Microsoft at the time of retailing the x-box 360. It contains complete details on handling and maintaining the video game machine. It also provides tips to run the machine efficiently. Whenever you are purchasing the x-box 360 video game machine, insist for the guide. Apart from the printed format of the guide, Microsoft updates the latest information on the internet. Therefore, visit the internet site at least once a week for the latest downloads of the guide.


Apart from the official guide, many users of the x-box 360 video game machine have developed their own guide after studying its performance. Though users cannot rely exclusively on such guides, on occasions, they are of assistance in trouble shooting. Therefore, gather as many guides as possible on the internet.

If Your Xbox 360 is out of warranty or you just want to fix it yourself so you can get back to your game faster. You should go here >>>> http://www.squidoo.com/fix-xbox-360-red-lights These guides will help you fix your xbox 360 fast.

Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Find-The-Xbox-360-Repair-Guide-Online&id=1071068] Find The Xbox 360 Repair Guide Online

Monday 8 November 2010

Shooting Games - Get Ready for the Real War

Shooting Games - Get Ready for the Real War
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Peter_Rodrick]Peter Rodrick

Shooting games are action games and they are considered as great stress reliever! There is nothing to confuse that what how can the gun work like anti-depressant? Many psychiatrists have now come to the conclusion that people who play shooting games can let out their anger by gunning down the enemies and objects in those action games. There could be a lot of variety in action games to choose from. Shooting games can also be included in the adventure genre of games, but have been labeled separate due to games' extreme popularity.

Giant game consoles such as Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation have contributed making online shooting games as revolutionary change in the world of computer games. Such sophisticated and interactive games assure the entertainment and are proven to be an excellent fun-pack program. Providing innumerable games console to its diehard players, shooting games' software library includes plenty of different action and adventurous games that may or may not contain mission or story. 

Shooting games are the video game or computer game that is equivalent of some action movies that includes wars, gunning down the enemies, some mission to be accomplished or to rescue some of the warriors. Such games normally feature physical fighting including great explosions, shooting, punch-bangs, nimble flying or driving aircraft or any other funky vehicles like motorbike or a sports car while shooting. This everything is in order to terminate enemies with minor puzzle solving involved. These games center on speed and physical drama that set high requirements on the reflexes of the players and brain-to-hand coordination skills.

Some of these games that come under adventurous or action games have created hallmark of such genre. For instance, Microsoft Game Studio has produced Gears of War, which is a great hit. With the Xbox 360, the Windows gamer love playing such an attractive game with mouse, keyboard or Windows-enabled controllers. This popular shooting/action game boasts dainty and original content, new matchless accomplishments, and high resolution visual effects. New campaign stages consist of an epic war; terrorizing Brumak is added to make the entire shooting game more interesting. Such action-packed game console comes with 3 special multiplayer maps, a 'King of the Hill' and compatible with 'Games for Windows LIVE'. It is also having the Unreal Editor that enables one to have user-created levels.

Shooting games can also include some space games that feature some mission and/or destroying some meteorites and other targets that come in the way of your space craft. In between, you can also get some power that adds extra strength to the player's spaceship such as double missiles, power missiles, protecting ring and many more. These games are action-packed exciting and amusing games that assures stirring experience to its players. The colored flames, horrid night creatures like bats, stylish spaceship or some funky vehicle, ultra-violet beam weapons, different types of guns and missiles all make shooting games marvelous. The software used in such game gives realistic flair with eye catching graphics and excellent sound effects.

Play Free Online [http://www.webgameawards.com/]Shooting Games and [http://www.webgameawards.com/]Fighting Games. Also do not forget to submit your games.

Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Shooting-Games---Get-Ready-for-the-Real-War&id=1027129] Shooting Games - Get Ready for the Real War

Friday 5 November 2010

Family Gaming - 10 Best Xbox 360 Family Games

Family Gaming - 10 Best Xbox 360 Family Games
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Tom_C.]Tom C.

Enjoy family gaming with these 10 Best Xbox 360 Family Games! These game picks are very enjoyable and you won't feel guilty for ignoring the kids! The majority of these great games can be purchased at budget prices, and each will provide hours of family fun.
Just don't get mad when your ego is bruised because you got powned by your 6 year old in Sega Superstars Tennis or Viva Pinata. . . You have been warned!

Lego Rock Band: Now the entire family can enjoy the road to rock stardom! Contains some old favorites as well as some current hits, this game has tunes the whole family will love. Feature's Rock n' Roll challenges such as: Defeating a giant robot, demolishing a skyscraper, or storm summoning; all using the power of rock! Also features customization for your whole band. Climb the ladder to success by earning better equipment, vehicles, and furniture for the rock bands hangout. Has an easier skill level for the youngsters. *Note-This game requires a guitar peripheral
Viva Pinata: Create a living garden! Influence and control the environment in order to create your own unique pet paradise! The contents you choose to create your world's environment will determine which pinata species will be attracted to live there; as each has there own special requirements.  Plant tree's and plants, use ornaments, and build structures in order to create the prefect pinata paradise. You will need to bond with and understand each unique personality type in order for them to live in and thrive in your community. Excellent choice for a night of family gaming!
Rated: Everyone
Lego Indiana Jones + Kung Fu Panda (2 Game Set): Kung Fu Panda-Master the unique kung fu fighting styles and abilities of Po, Shifu, and the "Furious Five". Level up in order to collect achievements and upgrades with special moves. Earn upgrades to build Po's agility, speed, and strength. Lot's of fun for sure! Lego Indiana Jones-The adventure of the Indiana Jones films with the fun of Lego's. You can relive moments from the movies such as escaping from the snake pit! Unlock familiar favorite characters and create new one's with all unique features. Use Indy's whip to activate levers, attack, swing across chasms, and more. Play with friends or family members to battle enemies and escape from sticky situations.
Microsoft Children's Miracle Network Games Bundle (includes 3 games! ): Viva Pinata Party Animals, Sonic The Hedgehog, and Shrek The Third.
An incredible value, TON'S of fun for the kid's and family alike, great for parties too. Very popular games, especially for ages 3-10. Each game is individually packaged, so they make great stocking stuffers! And 100% of Microsoft's net proceeds from this Family Games pack go to support local Children's Miracle Network Hospitals.
Sega Superstars Tennis: Features 16 of Sega's most popular characters such as Nights, Sonic, Ai Ai, and more! Hours of family gaming fun with (up to) 4 player multiplayer games, tournaments, and even unlockable special events. My kids and I love playing this game together on family gaming night, and so will yours! Notable kids favorites are such things as each playable character has a special "superstar ability" which unlocks temporarily to give a winning edge and guaranteed laughs. Also there are a choice of 10 different courts to play on, such as: Sonic's lush Green Hill Zone, Ulala's Space Channel 5 world, carnival, House of the Dead: Mansion, and others. There are even 4 tournament modes for unlocking extra bonus content.  Also of note: The soundtrack consists of classic Sega songs reproduced in full Dolby Digital 5. 1, and my daughters LOVE the music! This game is sure to bring your family hours of racket smashing fun!
LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4: Experience your favorite Harry Potter movie moments through the video game! Explore classic movie settings including Hogwartscastle, Diagon Alley, the Forbidden Forest and the village of Hogsmeade. LEGO Hogwarts castle is an incredible, 3-D environment and the most detailed LEGO game location ever created. Be a wizard and play as Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger or any one of over 100 possible character options. Learn magic by attending magic classes, learning to cast spells, mixing potions, flying around on broomsticks, and completing special tasks to earn points. Even features multiplayer co-op, so your team can play through Harry's first 4 years at Hogwart's together both online and off.
Cars-Pretty simple, and simply FUN! All the same voice actors from the movie are featured in the game. Rip roaring racing fun playing as your favorite Cars character while helping Lightning McQueen capture the cherished Piston Cup Championship! Have fun racing through and tearing up the town of Radiator Springs for hours on end. Probably more for the 4-10 year old crowd, I had fun helping the kids play this so we could see the cut scenes.
Lego Indiana Jones 2-The Adventure Continues: Features the wit and non-stop action of Indiana Jones mixed with the fun and creativeness of Lego's! This second installment follows the escapades of Dr. Jones' from the jungles of South America to the Peruvian Ruins and beyond. This game provides a truly amazing and unique gaming experience as it not only allows the player to create their own custom levels, but it allows players to combine these levels with those already part of the game, a TRULY CUSTOMIZED gaming experience like no other! Provides new Kingdom of the Crystal Skull playable characters such as Mutt Williams, and use special abilities such as Oxley's Crystal Skull Power. All new levels with all new vehicles, such as planes, boats and mine carts! Even Indie's whip has new powers, such as grabbing the bad guys and throwing them over his shoulder. It is even helpful for solving puzzles as well! 2 player co-op encourages parents to experience the fun as well.
SpongeBob's Truth or Square: A funny game about (what else? ) the laughable hijinks that occur when Spongebob loses Mr Krabs top secret Krabby Patty recipe!
In a fit of desperation from losing the formula, Spongebob joins force with Plankton to fight to retrieve the formula, although Plankton wants the formula for himself. Together they utilize Plankton's memory machine to jog Spongebob's memory and hopefully find the secret Krabby Patty formula in time for the Krusty Krab's Eleventy Seventh anniversary. Levels are based upon different episodes from the cartoon.
Great looking all new levels, excellent multiplayer game play, and wonderfully accurate skill level settings make this game a winner for the whole family!
LEGO Batman: Fight on the side of good as Batman or Robin; or evil as Joker, Catwoman, Harley Quinn, Mr. Freeze or one of 8 other super villians. Will you fight to save Gotham City or to destroy it? The choice is yours! The villains have escaped Arkham Asylum. Fight your way across rooftops and through sewers with new moves, special superhero power-suits (the magnetic suit was my kids favorite), and unique weapons for each playable character. Build your own Lego versions of the Batmobile, Batboat, and even the Batwing. Designed for standard two-player drop-in/out cooperative play, the game feature's 18 different levels throughout 3 different story arcs. You and your kids are sure to want to play this game together again and again, as you will have a blast like we did! I really hope you and your family have as much fun with your family gaming as we have playing these great games. we have played 7 of these titles together and the other 3 picks (#1, 4, and 6) have been added because of recommendations by personal friends and/or family members who have actually played them.

My review site will provide more great gaming choices of [http://www.squidoo.com/10-best-xbox-360-family-games]Xbox 360 Family Games

Free video review trailers of your favorite games: [http://gamenewsvideo.net/]Video Game Trailers

My name is Tom C. and I live to play as many games as possible while still spending time with the family.

Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Family-Gaming---10-Best-Xbox-360-Family-Games&id=5124762] Family Gaming - 10 Best Xbox 360 Family Games

Tuesday 2 November 2010

The XBox 360 Graphics Processor

The XBox 360 Graphics Processor
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Mac_Jones]Mac Jones

The XBox 360 from computer giant Microsoft was launched in 2005 as a successor to the original XBox games console. At the heart of every gaming machine are the two main processing elements, the central processing unit (CPU) and the graphics processing unit (GPU). In this article we take a look at the 360's GPU.

The graphics processor is responsible for the picture drawing capabilities of the console and basically takes the raw data from the game and turns it into stunning high-resolution images. By dealing with the bulk of the graphics processing the GPU frees up the CPU to deal with other tasks.

The GPU in the XBox 360 is called Xenos and was custom designed by graphics experts ATI, who have many years experience with PC based graphics cards. Xenos contains two separate silicon chips, each with a clock speed of 500 MHz and sharing 10 MB of DRAM for the main memory. The GPU is manufactured by the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, one of the largest semiconductor manufacturers in the world.

While a 500 MHz processor combined with 10 MB of DRAM provides plenty of power for the 360, the main feature of the GPU is that it uses unified shader architecture.

Shaders are like filters that are applied to the bare 3D objects that have been rendered by the GPU. Their purpose is to make them look more realistic when they are displayed on your screen. Shaders can be divided into two types, pixel and vertex shaders. Pixel shaders adjust the lighting, colour and surface textures of each pixel in order to manipulate the look of 3D objects that are constructed from these pixels. They often serve to smooth out the basic 3D objects to give them a more realistic look.

Vertex shaders process the basic graphics produced by the GPU in order to add special effects to objects in a 3D environment. They do this by performing mathematical operations on an objects vertex data, which is in simple terms its position in relation other objects in the picture, its colour and its texture. By manipulating these values an object can be made to look different to suit the environment it is being displayed in or the requirements of the games developers.

These shaders make billions of computations every second in order to achieve the required output. Traditionally the two types of sharer had to be processed one after the other, meaning complex graphics took at lot of resources to generate. This is where ATI's unified shader architecture comes into play as with this technology both shader types can be processed at the same time. This allows the XBox 360 to process 48 billion shader operations per second, giving it unprecedented graphics processing power on its release.

Get your [http://www.gadgets-4-free.co.uk]free XBox 360 from Gadgets-4-Free. With wireless controllers, on-line gaming, an integrated DVD drive and surround sound, the Xbox 360 is not just a games console but the ultimate in home entertainment hardware. The console is now available as the basic Arcade or the high specification Elite model.

Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?The-XBox-360-Graphics-Processor&id=3045549] The XBox 360 Graphics Processor