Paul Thurrott is not happy:
At the risk of sounding dramatic, is the 2007 Xbox 360 Fall Dashboard Update a complete nightmare for anyone else, or is it just me? I’ve installed it now on three Xbox 360s, and the results are the same: All three now perform horribly, with frequent pauses in games and in the blade UI. On the Xbox 360 in the living room, which we use as a TV interface via Media Center Extender, it’s even more exasperating: You click on something and then just have to wait, often for up to a minute. This is particularly bad when you want to do something like rewind TV just a few seconds because you missed something. It just freezes up.
Surely I’m not alone on this one. Is anyone else having these issues? Why haven’t I seen anything about this??
I haven’t noticed any problems here, but I never (well, almost never) use the Xbox 360 native interface. We just go straight into Media Center, connected to a Dell XPS 410 in the other room. Haven’t seen any problems since that update appeared earlier this week.
Any other Xbox owners have a report to share?
Ed Bott (@ wordpress.com) 
Personally, I haven’t had any issues. Since the update I’ve spent a good 20 hours with the system between Mass Effect and Rock Band (Though I’ll admit Mass Effect’s loading and framerate are so atrocious that I wouldn’t notice). I’ve also watched a fair amount of video on my system using the video blade. I never use the media extender function, so I have nothing to say about that in particular. Some loading seems to take longer in terms of content across the LAN and out on the intertubes, but not so much that it bothers me.
I haven’t seen any delays. In fact, the interface seems to be faster for myself. The new video codec support for DivX and Xvid is awesome and works great streaming with WMP 11. It has worked great with no problems at all.
I don’t have a MCE box set up right now, so I can’t test that, but I understand that the DivX streaming doesn’t extend to it yet, which is something that I hope will be rectified.
I’ve had quite the opposite experience. I’ve been extremely pleased with the Blade performance since the last update. I had all sorts of freezing issues last time around, and they have all but disappeared.
I think Paul’s got another PEBCAS issue.
Works fine for me. In fact, I’ve noticed that games seem to load a teeny/tiny bit faster and the dashboard blades move a LOT faster.
I can’t speak for Paul’s issue but I’ve not had any issues w/ mine since the update; in fact, at the very least, the Dashboard performance is much better.
No problems for me either.
Other than starting up my Xbox 360, I have had no issues since the Fall update. I would recommend to wait a few days or give your xbox 360s a break for a while. When the Spring update had come earlier this year, I was having similar problems and started to consider sending it back to Microsoft. Within a week, however, it sped back up. I have no idea whether or not this will work for you, but it can’t hurt to try.
Interesting report, Chewy. I wonder if part of the problem is that the Xbox update servers are overloaded?
No problems on this end, everything works as advertised and I’m loving the DivX support as well as the updated ‘twist’ UI brought over from the Zune. None of my other friends have reported issues either.
I use MCE all the time and not one problem since the update.
My Elite, that I use as an extender almost 24hrs a day, has not given me any trouble at all. Now, I will say that some browsing of the blades in the dashboard was slow until I got a cache built up. Now that the data has been synced, I have had zero problems.
No problem here…
I’ve had nothing but problems since the update. I can’t view the marketplace or the first four blades of my system. I just get the loading logo that keeps spinning forever. Luckily, on the fifth blade I can select the game and play it. But I can’t get on at all. Never had a problem before.
i’ve had a problem with certain xvid files. when i try to stream them over my network, about 30 seconds in it starts stuttering and then i get a message that the file type is unsupported.
the twist is that when i copy this same file onto a cd and play it from the drive it works fine. xbox support has been no help. any suggestions
Yeah I can’t get my games marketplace or xbox live blade to do anything anymore…
My 360 is working at an all time low,nothing loads up,i can’t connect to xbox live,ever since the update being able to log on and play as usual has been hit or miss,mainly miss.You try and contact support and you either get ther run around or the “these things happen” speech.I paid good money for my 360 and for Live and i shouldnt have to sit and wonder when the next screw up is going to happen.MS needs to stop forcing people to update their consoles,mine worked fine before the fall update.Myself and numerous people i know are having the same issues…XBL and the 360 is at an all time low right now.
Same thing here… after update i could not connect to LIVE, just a spinning loading icon! the network test showed a clean connect to Live though.
then i started getting the ring of death.
wierd thing is i swapped my xbox 360 HD with another one and removed my intercooler then boom it started working again.
idk if this helps but its worth a try i guess.
ive had the intercooler on it for a year with no issue, then i got the update. maybe MS put something in the new firmware to check voltage from the PSU i know it has voltage sensors….
who knows.
just a further note to help anyone that could be, put your ear up to the HD box and listen for constant clicking or thuds… i found out that the drive being bad will hang your blades at a loading… or get RoD
my dashboard can take minutes to load and even fail!
I downloaded the update, hoping i could play my divX movies off my external HDD, but found that after the update, i couldn’t get to the first 3 blades of my system… (Marketplace, XboxLive, and Games) they just sat on the loading logo forever… if however, i sign out from live… i can play happily, and relogin to live inside the guide blade in game. Damn M$ and their SHITTY updates! I’m going to get a PS3.
I cant watch any movies over my network it says they are opening but then they crap out saying unsaported data which is bull shit cause last week they worked fine
after the update all the games i play freeze up within 30 min of playing 😦 now my xbox is useless