Be Excellent To Each Other

Does anyone else get an occasional problem where the sound on their 360 drops out for about half a second every now and then? I'm using an optical cable, plugged into the socket on the plug at the 360 end of the component A/V cable (if that makes sense), and it used to happen every few hours or so, and was easily ignorable (although "foolishly ignored" would perhaps be a better phrase, given it's now out of warranty) but it seems to be happening increasingly often and is rather annoying.

Anyone had this and/or found a solution to it?

I suppose I could try the analogue audio cables, but I'd lose the nice 5.1 sound.

Sounds like an intermittent connection, which causes the amp to lose sync to the digital signal for a short period of time. Try changing the cable.

Yes, the amp is losing sync as I can see the Dolby Digital indicators go off and on when it happens. I was blaming this on the 360. It hadn't occurred to me that the cable could be at fault, as optical cables always just seem to work, but I guess I've overlooked the obvious so I'll give that a try - cheers.

A small amount of light leakage into the end of the plug would cause this. Or, a broken fibre. I've had a fibre cable flat-out stop working after I moved it once.

Never had any audio problems but I do have speckled lines on my screen.

I've been meaning to bring this up for a while. At my normal viewing position from the sofa they don't even register, but when closer to the screen there are small speckled lines all over the shop. The video is coming out of my 360 to a component splitter shared with my Wii (which has perfect picture). I've tried swapping over the two to see if its a problem with the switch, but I guess its a problem with the cable or the video card (eek!)

Anyone else noticed similar anomalies? Sorry for the hijack btw

I've got the exact same issue, so I'll be interested to hear if this solves it or not.

I get the 1/2 second drop outs however on mine they seem to occur with great regularity. Usually it happens either once or twice just after the console has booted (but after I have started playing a game or watching a film), then after that it's absolutely fine.

Do you have a spare 360 component lead I can try Mark?

I don't have a spare one but you can take mine to try it if you like.

Yeah cheers, probably do that at some point.

Although my chat with myself in town convinced me I need an Elite now they're 200 notes and I'll sell my current one.

I remembered what I do have that you can have if it's any use, a component switching box thingy.

I used to use the optical connection and I never had problems. I haven't been able to setup my surround though since moving and also not tested on the latest dashboard which I hear did have some problems on this front but not sure if that related to your problems.Thinks it's been fixed by MS by now in the last update.

This was a bug related to using HDMI audio out, it was nothing to do with optical audio.

Already got one of those thanks, and from testing the inputs with the Wii it appears that it's working fine. Sell it and give me the money if you want though.

Well, I swapped the cable but the problem continued, but I noticed I'd swapped it for another cable of the same make (it was still in a little plastic bag, so they probably both came free with some bit of hardware). So I tried a third cable, one which I knew to be good as it's been working fine with my PS3: so far it's been fine with no drop-outs. So it looks like I'm indebted to Doctor G - cheers Doc! And thanks to others for suggestions.


I'm pretty sure that's what I used to get before it became more frequent. Maybe that's normal and what I've subsequently had is a coincidental but unrelated issue.

And the dropouts returned yesterday.

While I'm moaning about 360 problems, I've got wireless three controllers, all about 18 months old, two of them hardly used. One now disconnects every few minutes, one has a left analogue stick that drifts upwards and the other has a dodgy (more so than they normally are) d-pad. Thanks, MS!

This is getting really annoying now. The socket where the optical cable plugs into the AV (component) cable is very loose. Tried wedging it in with a tiny bit of paper, which held it firm, but the dropouts continued, so I'm not sure the looseness is related.

I'm tempted to try buying another component cable.

I think a new cable is a good idea. You could always borrow one. Wouldn't have to be component, either, if you just want to test the audio.