360 Newbie

[AEJustin1]

Yea I LOVE making custom paint jobs on Forza 2.

Justin, your gamerscore makes me cry, I want MOAR achievements...

[Tagger]

Sup Justin! Good to see you again bro. Hope your connection is holding up well. Remember, a well fed mouse runs faster on the little dsl wheel! You gotta hook me up with some paintjobs for my rides man. I suck at detailing cars.

[Sabotage]

Whores!!! They're everywhere!

[Tagger]

It's sort of addictive......

[Tagger]

I've been having some intermittent mic trouble since I first signed onto Xbox Live. Here's a post a put up on the Xbox forums in the technical discussion thread (Intermittent Mic post). No responses however. Any ideas? Here's my post:

"I recently purchased a 360 elite system. I'm loving the system except that I frequently lose audio contact with party members. I am using the headset that was included with the bundle. It works fine for sending and receiving audio messages to friends. The problem surfaces when I'm in a party and/or playing a multi-player game with a party. Then, we can only hear one another some of the time.

Some facts that may be pertinent:

- My 360 gets broadband signal via hard line from a DSL modem.
- I do not connect through a router. I think my DSL modem also performs routing functions.
- The modem is a 2Wire 2701-HG-B Gateway.

I've checked to be sure the audio plug is firmly inserted into the controller and that there are no kinks or apparent damage to the headset or the wire leading from it to the controller. I have not found any obvious defects. And, it does work fine when exchanging voice mails with friends. I have tried switching controllers. That does not seem to help.

In the short 3 weeks I've played online games on Xbox Live, I have noticed hardly no lag at all. I would probably know if my connection wasn't up to speed since I've had experience with poor connections in the past. My current connection speed is normally around 3,500kbps up and 380kbps down pinging inthe 70's and sometimes in the 80's.

I suspect there may be a setting in my modem which may be causing the problem. But, I don't know where to look or what to change.

Thanks in advance."

Could this be a symptom of a firewall issue in my modem/router?

[Tagger]

I've set my 360 connection to DMZ mode. Last night my mic worked fine for a while. But eventually it got to where no one could hear me talk. I could hear the 3 or 4 other guys in my party. But, they couldn't hear me. Very frustrating. Not sure what to do. Any advice appreciated.

dead batteries maybe?

[Chenzo]

Yeah, I don't know... I've heard of this problem before tho...

I'm surprised that a google search hasn't found anything.

My guess is router/modem issues.

I wish I could tell ya what the problem is.

[Tagger]

Yup, I'm gonna have to break down and call tech support at AT&T/Bellsouth. Really don't want to do that. It's like getting a root canal. But, I think I'm out of options.

[Chenzo]

I wonder... the fact that you can hear them and they can't hear you...

perhaps the mic itself is having problems. I mean a hardware issue. I don't suppose you know another local xboxer who could lend you their mic to try?

For a quick inexpensive solution I would replace the headset first.

Odds are you'll get billed if the DSL tech has to come to your house just to tell you there is nothing wrong. Which is what they always do for their first visit.

Also, and it doesn't sound like this is the issue, but be sure your not in a chat party, or the people on your team are in a private chat party. Then you wont be able to hear each other and may think something is wrong with the hardware when there isn't.

[Tagger]

Thanks. I spoke to an AT&T tech today and he advised I contact Xbox to see if there is an application that handles the voice chat that I can add to the list of allowed applications on my firewall settings for the 360 connection. I'll try Xbox support tonight after work and see if that's the case.

If that doesn't help, I'll try a new headset. If that fails, I may consider a new modem/router purchase.

One of the guys at work bought 360's for his sons. Maybe I can borrow one of their headsets for a test. It's worth trying.

This will be my last post on this subject for now. I don't think Rator had tech support in mind when he set up the forums. I'll post the outcome the problem is resolved though in case someone else could use the info. Thanks guys.

A brief confession: I am starting to obsess over teh stuped gamerscore. Wut r wrong wit me?!!!

[AEJustin1]

lol it's addictive tag! That headset issue is weird because I hear you fine when you send a voice message but not in a chat or game.

[Tagger]

I think I figured it out last night. Sent my original headset back to MS repair center yesterday and bought a new wired standard headset. Plugged it in and well, nothing. Nothing until I raised my voice. Then people could hear me. Turns out that when I speak in a normal tone, I'm not loud enough for the mic boom to pick up the input. Problem is I have to move the mic boom around to the point where it is touching my mouth which puts the ear piece in front of my ear instead of over it. Guess I'll either have to start yelling at my teammates or party members or I'll pick up a wireless headset and see if that works any better. As far as I can tell, there is no way to adjust the sensitivity of the mic. I did remove the wind cover from the mic and that helped a little. Whodathunkit. I have a heavy voice and normally have to work to keep my voice down on a phone call or at the office. Most would find it kind of ironic if they ever heard me talk face to face.