Screen goes black?

[Braddderrrs]

I don't know why but my game will start up, get past the microsoft bit and then the rare bit, but just after the rare logo thing finishes the screen goes black, and then doesn't come back again.
I don't know what to do because i've cleaned my disc many times and i'm not sure if its the xbox, because like many other people i have to reboot it loads of times before it stops saying play dvd instead of play viva pinata.
Any suggestions?

[hey_its_me]

how many gardens do you have? (the gardens' memory might cover hte screen)

[zach]

Does the guide still work (to see if the xbox isn't frozen)? Does the sound cut out? Does it happen if you are signed in into another profile or no profile (no HDD/memory attached)? Have you tried installing it to the HDD to see if that helps?

[hey_its_me]

make sure you have brightness level to the middle

[Braddderrrs]

i only have 2 gardens, my normal one and the one called pinata people to unlock the credits. it went black after loading yesterday too but i rebooted and it worked fine :s. What guide do you mean zach?

[hey_its_me]

i htink he mean if you press the middle button (i dont know what its called) then press Y (then "Yes"). is that black?

[Braddderrrs]

Well when it first happened i just pressed the middle button and you could hear the sound it makes when it pops up but you could see nothing but black. I pressed Y even though i couldn't see anything then moved down on my remote and pressed A (to try and put Yes) but nothing happened :s. Guess i'll just have to put VP: TiP in a dusty cupboard and forget about it :(

EDIT: I just did that thing you suggested zach about signing out and doing it with no profile and that didn't work, so i took off the harddrive and tried it that way and it still didnt work :mad:

[FeralKitty]

I don't know what to do because i've cleaned my disc many times and i'm not sure if its the xbox, because like many other people i have to reboot it loads of times before it stops saying play dvd instead of play viva pinata.

It's the Xbox. You should get it serviced.

[Braddderrrs]

It's the Xbox. You should get it serviced.

How can I the warranty ran out ages ago

[zach]

Yeah the middle button on the controller is the guide button to bring up the in-game 'guide' menu.

You press up to get to confirm, not down.

I don't actually know what it means when you can't see anything at all, and if you have tried the other things I suggested I don't know how to help.

Do you notice your tv flicker as if it has lost signal to the 360? Again I'm not sure what to do about that other than try changing the xbox display (refresh rate, resolution) settings.

[Braddderrrs]

No what happens is you know at the start when the rare bit comes up with all the pinatas forming an R shape then Professer pester gets chased out the screen by a sars? After all that when it fades out the black the screen never comes back up and never goes to the main menu, just stays at the black screen for as long as i leave it. And i've pressed up too at the point where it would be yes or no to go to dashboard but it never works.

Oh and just now the screen had a fit in the background and it said disc unreadable instead of going to black :roll:

EDIT: Right now i am installing to harddrive wish me luck :p
EDIT OF EDIT: it got to 25 percent downloaded then said it can't read the disk because it may be scratched or dirty.. So is it the game or the xbox because most games work after a couple of reboots?

[zach]

Well you can get the bad disc error if your DVD drive is failing so maybe is it. If a couple of reboots fixes it with other games, then that is also a sign it is the xbox failing. You may get E74 or 3 red lights eventually. You may still have a warranty (with MS), worth checking. If you end up having to buy another 360, get a cheap arcade one and clip your current HDD onto it.

[FeralKitty]

So is it the game or the xbox because most games work after a couple of reboots?

It's definitely the Xbox. It's not normal to have to reboot the Xbox a couple of times for any game, never mind most games.

Sounds like your DVD drive has alignment issues, since it's thinking game discs aren't games. This will only get worse as time goes on.

As for completely losing the video, this might be a thermal issue having warped the system board, causing its connections to be faulty.

If you play your game(s) on another Xbox, you'd probably not see any problems at all, which would show it's your Xbox that's the problem.

As has been said, call and try to get your console serviced, or replace it.

[Braddderrrs]

It's definitely the Xbox. It's not normal to have to reboot the Xbox a couple of times for any game, never mind most games.

Forget most games, ALL of them need at least 3 reboots before i can play even if they'e brand new :(

[zach]

Yeah, failing xbox 360 confirmed :( When mine started doing that, I can't remember if it stopped or not because it was followed by the RROD shortly after.

[Braddderrrs]

I've had this problem for ages though and i havent had RROD :confused:
Now ive said that it'll happen next time i switch it on haha

[Braddderrrs]

ok now i've established none of the solutions work how can i get my xbox serviced? because the warranty ran out a while back and i don't know what to do or what number to or whatever :o soo has anyone got any suggestions for me :P

[FeralKitty]

Try Xbox.com, under Support, to get the toll-free number for service, where you're located.

[Braddderrrs]

I was just thinking, is there anyway to skip the rare introduction because i might be able to get to main menu if i can

EDIT: oh and the black screen never happens anymore, the screen just glitches alot then says unreadable disk.