I received the game for Christmas and tried to begin playing it in the first week of January. I've been encountering console freeze and lock-up conditiions. I'm posting this as a new thread because my problems are actually getting worse the more I try to fix them, which seems unique.

Information:

• My console is an older, white XBox 360. It does have a HDD and has been professionally retrofitted against RROD issues.
  
• On a couple other Bethesda games in the past, I've run across "unreadable disc" issues occasionally. But this issue seems different and I am experiencing no issues at all with other games right now.
  
• The first time I inserted the Skyrim disc, my console required some kind of update in order to be able to run the game. This was a console update, not a Skyrim update. I did perform that update.
  
• I have installed Skyrim to the HDD, deleted, and installed again. I have also played the game directly from the disc.
  
• I am on my second physical copy of Skyrim in case the first one had some kind of production defect.
  
• I have deleted the XBox system cache several times.
  
• I have tried running the game both with and without the Skyrim 1.3 update.
  
• I have followed the instructions to delete the Skyrim game cache, although since there is no confirmation on that, it's hard to tell.
  
• I have attempted to play the game with the HDD disconnected from the machine, with the same result.

The first time I played, I played for about an hour. I had time to create a character, begin the story, and run around the keep a little bit. When I reached the "Helgen Escape" section of the initial quest step, the game locked when I was in the cave beneath the torture chamber. The first time this happened, the screen went blank - totally black. This was a catastrophic failure, with no error handling by the game at all like we see with the "unreadable disc" problem. The game simply quit, and locked the console.

With a power off/on, I was able to play again. The system locked again in roughly the same area. Varyingly, it would either black out entirely like it did the first time or the screen would freeze with some digital graphics noise in a vertical pattern. Never any sound. I repeated this problem eight to ten times.

When I replaced the Skyrim disc, I deleted everything on the HDD relating to Skyrim - cache, installed game, and saved game files, and tried again. This time, the game freezes just as it did before, only it does so almost immediately at the beginning credits, when I am still a prisoner riding in a cart. I've tested it this way five times with the same outcome. It is possible that the game takes a little longer to freeze if I look around a lot as soon as it's possible to do that, but that's a non-scientific observation.

There appears to be some kind of incompatibility between the Skyrim game and my XBox hardware, is my best guess.

I've really enjoyed the other Elder Scrolls games. I don't play my XBox very much anymore, and I'm not going to buy a new one only to play this game. Disappointing, but life will go on - although I would like to make this issue clear to Bethesda in case there is some kind of inherent issue playing this game on older XBoxes - if that really is the issue, people should know.

Best luck, everyone.

My guess is that you're Xbox 360 is having problems. This game makes the Xbox work very hard, and if your Xbox 360 and some "gray hairs" showing then this might be the problem.

That's my concern, Ryan. Only, you'd think that the console either has the specs it needs to play the game or it doesn't - generally we don't see a lot of soft failures like this in the electronics world. Are newer XBoxes more powerful than older ones, from a processing standpoint, and aside from HDD differences?

No, not from a processor standpoint, but from a heating and cooling standpoint. The older these consoles become, the more prone to heating issues they become. Also, as in any PC, heating of the processor may become more prevalent as time goes on. Thermal paste is used on the top of a processor when a heatsink is placed, and this stuff gets old and dried up. Also, any dust inside the console could cause it to overheat.

Well, again, all signs point to you being right. I've got so much aftermarket cooling on my unit that the thing sounds like a semi, and this is happening to me directly after I turn it on, anyway. But I can't think of any more plausible explanation.

I'm sorry to hear you are having so many problems, WJGreer. I have an older Xbox too, but i've not had any problems like you are experiencing. To be specific, my Xbox is an older white one too, and is dated 2010. There have been many versions of the Xbox hardware, and mine is the last version before Microsoft started releasing the slim version, (i.e. it is the 'low power' hardware version, which I believe the slim also uses. On the power supply, it says '150W') . I previously had an Xbox dated 2005 (the original release version, which consumed a lot of power. That had '203W' on the power supply) but that died when I started playing Mass Effect 2. While I was playing ME2, the Xbox would get very hot, very quickly, and the game locked up at the same point after about 15 minutes of playing. Either my 2005 Xbox just wore out or ME2 was so taxing for it, that it just burned it out. Maybe you are having a similar problem with Skyrim?

Thankfully, my Xbox dated 2010 seems to be coping with Skyrim ok. I've had the game lockup about 3 times in only 260 hours of play time. I put those particular crashes down to software. So far, i've not had any overheating problems while playing Skyrim.

I still have a launch 360 (1 repair) and an added 250 GB HDD.
It used to be exclusively my console but the kids got a kinect for the holidays.
So since it was only being used by me. Skyrim was the only game being played. Skyrim uses heavy caching. So other games that are using the same cache can cause the console to lag and or freeze.
What worked for me was that if any other game was played, the cache would be cleared before Skyrim was put back in. Also, I found that limiting my game saves to under 20 helped the game run a little smoother. You would be surprised how many of those save files pile up.
Good luck. I hope you get it all working.

http://www.strategyinformer.com/news/15435/skyrim-makes-heavy-use-of-caching-on-xbox-360-longer-loads-if-cache-cleared

• 
  
  On a couple other Bethesda games in the past, I've run across "unreadable disc" issues occasionally. But this issue seems different and I am experiencing no issues at all with other games right now.

I actually ran into a similar problem on my old Xbox 360. Both NCAA Football and Bioshock would not read properly, while my other games all worked fine. When I called Microsoft, they had me send in the Xbox and have the disc drive replaced.

This just made me realise something...whenever a player (including myself) gets a 'read error' from any game disk, our immediate reaction is to try our other games, and if those games work ok, we assume it is the fault of that particular game disk. However, I guess we never stop and consider that each game stores data on different parts of the disk, and that a 'read error' may involve the drive head moving to a particular part of the disk. So, if one particular game's data is not in the position of a disk that causes the drive to generate the 'read error', we think that game is ok. But trying another game disk, where the data is in the place which can generate a read error, we think it is that particular game that is broken. Whereas in reality, the game disk is fine, and it is the disk drive itself that is broken.

Additionally, a game may 'look' fine because we get to the title page and we play the first few levels. But, we never reaslise that a problem may occur in the future because the data (for example) for the last level of a game is stored in the position that causes the disk drive to go wrong.

I guess the only way to see if the drive is broke is to 'install' a game disk that we know to work. That way, most (if not all) of the disk will be read, which will put the drive head into all possible positions to read the disk. This is may be a way to check if a disk drive is broke.

I understand - that was one of the reasons that, after I initially ran into trouble, I decided to uninstall, delete pretty much everything else from my HDD, and then reinstall the game. It seems unlikely that the reinstall happened on the exact same part of the HDD as the original. I ended up installing it a third time, too, for good measure.

But here's the thing - at one point I pulled the HDD off the unit completely and played off the disc to see if that would change anything. I knew I wouldn't be able to save, but I wanted to see if the game stopped freezing. It didn't; it acted the exact same way - so reasonably I don't think the HDD is the issue.

This is a pretty old XBox, though. I got it shortly after launch, so whatever year that was. It's died twice from the RROD; I fixed it myself the first time and had an expert do it the second. The failure behavior suggests a video card or processor issue (not sure why I think that, but I do), and I wonder if it may be possible that Microsoft made some changes along the way on graphics hardware that they didn't talk about, and this game is breaking the old hardware. Either that, or as Ryan says, it's an old XBox and this game might be too much for it to handle for some unclearly defined reason. Either way, it looks like I won't be slaying any dragons soon.

Its not the specifications mate, its just the console. As you said its RROD'ed before, and to be frank once a 360 has a RROD its pretty much on its last legs even after having "expert" repairs. The reason is hasnt shown up as bad prior to this is that Skyrim and other newer games push the cpu and gpu in the consoles that little bit harder for longer periods. Since its a design AND a manufacturing flaw in the older consoles that caused the vast majority of RROD's, its really just a matter of "when" and not "if" it fails again.

That 360 is showing it now. Its telling you by its degraded performance that its no longer capable of maintaining steady and consistant usage, and is at the end of its life. You have been extremely lucky to have it last this long to be honest.

Couple things. First, I did determine that there is an issue preventing a small number of XBox consoles from properly reading these new disc formats.

Link:

http://www.insidegamingdaily.com/2011/05/18/microsoft-replacing-consoles-incompatible-with-new-disc-format/

Second, I spent some time in an online chat with a Micrsoft support rep this evening. I'm pasting the text below. It's a long read, but it gets interesting at the end. The guy sort of bailed on the conversation. Here it is. I thought the guy did a fine job, although I am not sure why he wouldn't clarify his position at the end.

You are now chatting with 'Joe'.
Joe: Hello, thank you for contacting Xbox Customer Support. My name is Joe. Please give me a moment to review your question.
Will: OK. Hello.
Joe: You're skyrim game is freezing, and you have already posted in the forums. Is that correct?
Will: That is correct.
Joe: Let me look up your forum post.
Joe: Feel free to provide any details you think I should know in the chat pod.
Will: Ah...not in your forum, in the Bethesda forum. Do you want the URL?
Joe: No thanks I have it here.
Will: My console required me to perform an upgrade prior to launching Skyrim. I have discovered that this upgrade may cause severe issues with certain old consoles. Mine is in fact old, and my objective here is to determine if it is one of the affetced units.
Joe: It is hard to determine if your unit is one of the affected units. There isn't a list of serial numbers or anything like that. We can try deleting and reinstalling the update.
Joe: It might just be corrupted data in an update.
Will: Whatever you'd like to try.
Joe: We'll try some basic trouble shooting to see if we can fix this.
Joe: Okay, on the xbox lets go to the "storage" page.
Will: It's in the very next room...let me go power it on.
Joe: No problem. I'll type out some directions.
Joe: Take your time.
Joe: On the xbox home page go right to "settings" then open "system".
Will: OK. I'm back. The console is on, and I navigated to the Settings page.
Will: ...and on the "system" menu now
Joe: Now open "storage"
Will: ...and on the "storage" menu now.
Will: Done
Joe: and type LB, RB, x, LB, RB, x
Joe: thats left bumper, right bumper, blue x, repeat.
Will: That brought up the "Delete System Update" dialogue.
Joe: Go ahead and select yes, please
Joe: It will restart your console.
Will: Done, and indeed it did.
Will: restart
Joe: Now just take any and every update it offers you.
Will: Alright...going to do that now.
Joe: Did you have the game installed on the hard drive, or did you just play it off the disc?
Will: I tried it both ways, and installed it to the HDD three separate times in the course of my research.
Will: I also tried it with the HDD disconnected from the console.
Joe: That's good to know.
Joe: But none of it worked, apparently. So that's not good.
Joe: How soon after you start playing will it freeze?
Will: Nope, in fact it freezes pretty much immediately upon launching Skyrim. I haven't tried any other games since the update.
Will: The update completeed and the console does not seem to be calling for another one.
Joe: Go ahead and give it a try.
Will: OK.
Will: Launching now. It usually gets past the load graphics, and freezes when the actual game begins. Hold...
Joe: holding...
Will: OK. It froze aboout 45 seconds in. Screen blanked out, then I see narrow vertical lines as digital noise.
Joe: Can you try some different discs?
Will: Sure.
Will: Hold on...
Joe: A DVD or music CD or something like that.
Will: OK
Will: I have a DVD in there now. Let's see what it does.
Joe: okay, let me know.
Will: Nothing unusual yet, the DVD is playing fine.
Joe: If that seems okay can you try an older game disc?
Will: Sure.
Joe: thank you.
Will: Trying Tiger Woods PGA '07. I had been playing that recently, before the update, and it was OK. Let's see how it acts now.
Will: Hit a couple shots off the practice tee. Seems fine.
Joe: So it must be related just to that new game.
Joe: it is hard to say what to do in this situation. The xbox seems okay, so I wouldn't recommend a repair.
Joe: If this is a known issue, bethesda may send out a patch in a future update.
Joe: But I can't guaranty that, because they are not microsoft.
Will: There seem to be a lot of people experiencing freezes with Skyrim, but none as early or as catastrophic as I am.
Will: I'm familiar enough with electronics to understand that we don't usually experience "soft" failures, but is it possible that Skyrim is somehow overtaxing this console?
Joe: there are never any error messages or status codes, just freezing. Is that correct?
Will: That is correct. In the past, I've seen "disc unreadable" type error messages now and then, but this is a catastrophic failure. No error handling at all - the console simply freezes and requires a power cycle to get back.
Joe: You could file a repair for this if you really wanted to.
Joe: An out of warranty repair is 99$
Joe: If its not working with the new update, or even with the hard drvie removed then it is probably not a hard drive error or update failure.
Will: As it stands, I wouldn't buy another new game to play on this console, fearing that it would behave as Skyrim does.
Joe: I can understand that.
Will: How would you describe the technical difference between Skyrim and the Tiger Woods game, suchthat the console would allow me to play the latter but forces the update before allowing me to play Skyrim?
Joe: Skyrim just has newer software.
Joe: Let me see if we have anything specific about this issue posted anywhere.
Will: Certainly. At a somewhat technical level, would you say that the software in Skyrim uses a different read protocol with the console, somehow engages the processor in a different way, or similar? I am trying to figure out how I feel about the chances of a repair being successful.
Joe: I'm not sure honestly. If your other games are working it might even be an update Bethesda provides. Our last update had to do with disc formatting.
Joe: These newer games are formatted slightly different so they can pack in more data.
Joe: The update helped format the laser to read the newer discs.
Will: Is it ppossible that the hardware in my old Xbox is unable to function as the update requires?
Will: Sorry about all my typos. Geez.
Joe: So unless you tried another brand new game it would be hard to tell.
Joe: No matter how old your console is it should be able to read the new discs as long as it has the update.
Will: OK. If I decide to send the console in, I assume the site has directions to do that?
Joe: yes, let me send you a link.
Will: This has been helpful, if inconclusive. To make it part of my research record on the Bethesda forum, I will post the text of this conversation in my thread there. Is that objectionable?
Joe: http://support.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-360/repair/repair-process
Joe: I'm not sure about posting this chat in Bethesda's forum. Let me check.
Joe: Although I guess there's no way to stop you.
Will: I have another question. The site I will link to below, which I understand is not a Microsoft site, indicates that some XBox consoles are "incompatible with the new disc format". A moment ago, you said that "No matter how old your console is it should be able to read the new discs as long as it has the update." Those two statements are at odds with one another. Your thoughts?
Will: The site: http://www.insidegamingdaily.com/2011/05/18/microsoft-replacing-consoles-incompatible-with-new-disc-format/
Joe: Let me see about this. Give me a moment.
Will: No problem.
Joe: So basically, I cannot comment on any third party article.
Joe: My understanding is that all of our consoles should be compatible as long as they are updated.
Joe: I would recommend posting this issue in our forums as well.
Joe: If the issue is that prevalent one of the things you can do is try to get a buzz going on the forum.
Will: Here's a link to a Twitter message from @XboxSupport essentially confirming the issue from the other link I provided.
Will: https://twitter.com/#!/xboxsupport/status/70536373467234305
Chat session has been ended by the agent.

That's a reasonable explanation, but I can't fully embrace it because my console will freeze every time within a minute of launching Skyrim, just after turning it on. It can't be an issue related to long term play.

No you misunderstand me. The calculations required by games such as Skyrim require CPU and GPU's to be working perfectly. Its similar to an PC that has been overclocked and is unstable. Most applications will run normally, and only show the occasional error as the calculations are simplistic and dont put any real strain on the system. However once that same PC is then "torture tested" is starts throwing out memory errors and blue screens like nobodies buisness and within seconds of activation.

If at any time a piece of software is run on a system that is "unstable" and said software involves memory intense high-end mathmatics calculations it will cause the system to error out. With a 360 that has RROD'ed the hardware inside the system can become damaged. This damage may not be redily apparent or may not even be visable or normally detectable. Resisters can overheat and lose integrity, solder can crack internally, chips on the board can get internal damage that is not visable. Even after substantial expert repairs some of these can still remain as they are almost impossible to detect. The damage that was initially caused by the RROD may have indeed been minor, but electronics are extremely delicate and over time these minor defects come to the fore as major ones due to the wear and tear on the system.

Ive worked making computer systems for a leading technology company. Ive seen first hand under a microscope what can happen to motherboards, gpu's cpu's etc etc when they become damaged. Hell even something as simple as your coat can kill an electronics system stone dead from ESD. And many microchips, while not "dying" there and then from ESD damage, can become error prone due to damage to the circuit pathways from the ESD. Even a minor surge can damage microchips, any kind of usage outside of its thermal envelope even for a second or two can damage it.

As I said, you got really lucky with that 360 making it this far.

I see. That sounds fair.

Please see above edit, I was fixing typo's and adding info to it.

I've also run across freezing issues, though its usually after several hours of game play. Since starting Skyrim haven't played any other games period, and have only gone to the dashboard twice. One freeze occurred while I had the game paused, char in empty building, while I stepped outside for 5 min. All other freezes occurred while travelling on foot to quest locations or just as combat had been initiated. in appox 12 freezes, 8 were in the wilderness, 2 on outskirts of a town under dragon attack and 2 in dungeons. Experienced similar freezes with PC ver, though on the PC freezing frequency was appox triple(literal)

i have an older xbox too and sometimes the games freezes for me too, but not too frequently. the only big problems I had were in blackreach, where the game freezed everytime i cast candlelight spell, so i had to explore the place in the dark. all the other times i solved the issue by clearing the system cache.

I hate to say it, but in all likelihood it probably your kit. There are so many things that couldd go wrong with the original 360, that even if you get one sorted another can still break it. I had by diskdrive replaced on my first Xbox when it stopped reading the majority of games I had at the time. A couple of years later the graphics failed. 2D images were fine, but anything with 3D graphics were a pixellated mess. It overheated while playing Dragon Age II, and ended up like that. In the end I just boght a new slimline 360. Not a problem so far. Different parts inside the box, and a much better fan and vent for pumping out heat.

That said I did have a repeatable lock-up area in Skyrim. It was while I was retrievung a Sword for Mjoll the Lioness. Every time I engaged an enemy from the halfway point of the ruin I was in the game would feeze. Even from multiple sabed games I tried.

I found an earlier save from before I went in, reloaded that, and the second time around it was fine. I guess some tiny detail just went wrong the first time around. It happens in a game this size.

After i burned down three systems from released to 2009...i got ana arcade manufactured on sep of 2009 and i have to say that is a hard s** of a b**** to brake ..she is been throug 97 games and its still strong..i always install my games on my harddrive and i think thtas why im saving my drive some extra spining.....knock on wood......