Hitches in 360 version

[irrationallevine]

From Chris Kline, who is smarter than me but doesn't have "sticky" making rights.

Title:

Solution for the XBox360 "game pauses every 10-15 seconds" problem

Problem:

After playing the game for a long time (on the XBox 360 only), the game begins to "hitch" or "pause" slightly every 10-15 seconds. The problem does not go away if you restore a savegame, start a new game, or reboot the XBox 360.

Solution/Workaround:

This seems to be a problem with the hard drive caching system on in the XBox 360 system software, and we are working with Microsoft to identify a solution for this issue. We have confirmed that the hitching goes away if you clear the hard drive cache.

To clear the hard drive cache, you must hold down both the RB and LB gamepad buttons while the game is starting. This must be done IMMEDIATELY after the console is rebooted (or the game is launched from the dashboard) and the buttons must only be released AFTER the red 2K Games logo appears.

NOTE: do not attempt to clear the hard drive cache by holding the "A" button during loading. While that works for Oblivion, Bioshock uses different button combination to clear the cache, and holding "A" will not work.

[chirs3]

I've tried Chris Kline's cache clearing method, and it really works!

But seriously forks, 2K_Richard mentioned this in a thread yesterday, and it's worked wonders in my case. Haven't had a single lockup since. :)

[verio]

Worked for me.

Thanks!

[Braen]

Too bad it doesn't fix the sound cutting out issue.

[KRYS1S]

it looks like it worked for me too.

Thanks

[mathesar]

Im curious if this is a perm fix or does the stuttering eventually come back after so long? I tried the LB / RB method and it did fix the stuttering for me but I was only able to play 15 minutes afterwards last night. Ill probably get some game time in later this evening so we'll see.

[The Black Pope]

It probablt has something to do with the limited hard drives like the 20 gigs. I used to have all sorts of problems with my old 20gig premium before it went red ringed, now that I have a 120 gig elite, everything down to the menu navigation to loading screens are all faster all because of a bigger hd.

[teekan]

looks like I need to get a long awaited 120 gig HDD

[Tech Richard]

There is an alternate way of clearing the 360's cache through the dashboard itself to do this:

Start your console with no disc inserted

Select the "System" tab

Select "Memory"

Press "Y" on your control pad on the HDD symbol

You should now see two options "Format" and "Rename"

Do NOT select these, instead please press the following button combination: X X LB RB X X

For the message that should appear asking to perform maintenance please select "Yes"

This will clear all your cache files and updates so you may need to update other titles via live if required

Regards

[speef22]

From Chris Kline, who is smarter than me but doesn't have "sticky" making rights.

Title:

Solution for the XBox360 "game pauses every 10-15 seconds" problem

Problem:

After playing the game for a long time (on the XBox 360 only), the game begins to "hitch" or "pause" slightly every 10-15 seconds. The problem does not go away if you restore a savegame, start a new game, or reboot the XBox 360.

Solution/Workaround:

This seems to be a problem with the hard drive caching system on in the XBox 360 system software, and we are working with Microsoft to identify a solution for this issue. We have confirmed that the hitching goes away if you clear the hard drive cache.

To clear the hard drive cache, you must hold down both the RB and LB gamepad buttons while the game is starting. This must be done IMMEDIATELY after the console is rebooted (or the game is launched from the dashboard) and the buttons must only be released AFTER the red 2K Games logo appears.

NOTE: do not attempt to clear the hard drive cache by holding the "A" button during loading. While that works for Oblivion, Bioshock uses different button combination to clear the cache, and holding "A" will not work.

Well friends that's it for me, I have cleared caches, tried waiting for my 'Box to cool, bought a 50 dollar 512MB memcard and ran without HDD work around, and still my game hard freezes within 2-3 minutes of playing each time I re-boot(reached this level of freezing after finishing Sander Cohen's art quest...sry spoiler...), I am really sick of this, we spend 40-60 dollars on games that aren't even completely tested/de-bugged, it amazes me just how bad gaming has become, I know that we have AWESOME and complex hardware to run games now(PC and consoles) and they are increasingly harder too code on, but jesus this bit of "rushing" games to meet publishers/public deadlines is killing our industry. I have been gaming hardcore since the days of the Pong box, and I am starting to ware thin of incomplete QandA/testing/de-bugging and support for more and more games...Sorry about LONG post but this is 3 days and 110 bucks of frustration pouring out...Let's hope(but not count on) a RIGHT now patch...2K get your butt in gear please, your fan base is not happy, and unhappy customers=non-paying customers...Thank you.
-Speef22

[SuperSaiyan4]

How comes this occurs with my brand new Elite? I mean its a brand new Hard Drive and still I get this issue so its not helping everyone.

Anyways will go try those methods anyways.

But you know...Deep down inside...

2K we need a patch :cool:

[Kastor]

you do realise that its not the GAME or 2k who is at fault. its a problem with the 360's memory Caching system. Ken stated that in the first post of this thread.

[speef22]

you do realise that its not the GAME or 2k who is at fault. its a problem with the 360's memory Caching system. Ken stated that in the first post of this thread.
Then why is it that this is the only game I have had issues with in over a year?!?! Bioshock must use the caching system unlike ANY OTHER 360 title?!?!?! doubt it.... And now my other games are having issues, FN3 froze on me for the first time EVER.....seems WAY to coincidental to me, go ahead with the "imminate RRoD message" too....i figure that's what i'll be hearing from 2k'ers next......Bioshock has really put the F U in fun for me....pissed doesn't even say it for me right now....
-Speef22

[SuperSaiyan4]

you do realise that its not the GAME or 2k who is at fault. its a problem with the 360's memory Caching system. Ken stated that in the first post of this thread.

Of course it is the game as it has not been created suitably in co-ordination with the Xbox 360's HDD.

I mean whilst they were making it I am sure they came across this problem as if it is the 360's HDD caching then they MUST have come across it!

Because if they didn't then something is amiss here.

The game is not performing correctly as a patch is required to fix the problem.

[Rhedd]

you do realise that its not the GAME or 2k who is at fault. its a problem with the 360's memory Caching system. Ken stated that in the first post of this thread.Don't be dumb. The excuses that work to explain PC bugs don't work on the 360.

The game was developed on the 360, for the 360, knowing exactly what the 360 hardware consists of.

If it doesn't work, it's a broken game and should never have been released. No excuses.

[CaptainSensible]

Don't be dumb. The excuses that work to explain PC bugs don't work on the 360.

The game was developed on the 360, for the 360, knowing exactly what the 360 hardware consists of.

If it doesn't work, it's a broken game and should never have been released. No excuses.

Except the Xbox360's hardware changes from time to time - as most consoles do. Manufacturers often make subtle changes to their console to reduce production times or make fabrication cheaper. Microsoft have changed their firmware too - dashboard updates anyone?

The instruction set architecture, etc don't change from revision to revision so it shouldnt make a difference to how the console runs but sometime these minor changes to the hardware can have unexpected side effects. Which is what I reckon some people are experiencing.

If the game was 'broken' then every single player would be experiencing problems but they arent, so you have to look at why. I've said in other threads that I don't dispute that a patch is in order but laying all the blame at 2K Games' doorstep is frankly, lazy.

[mathesar]

There is an alternate way of clearing the 360's cache through the dashboard itself to do this:

Start your console with no disc inserted

Select the "System" tab

Select "Memory"

Press "Y" on your control pad on the HDD symbol

You should now see two options "Format" and "Rename"

Do NOT select these, instead please press the following button combination: X X LB RB X X

For the message that should appear asking to perform maintenance please select "Yes"

This will clear all your cache files and updates so you may need to update other titles via live if required

Regards

I had tried this method a few times before and it did NOT fix the stuttering issues, only the LB / RB method worked for me.

[SquirrelQuick]

I'm getting some really nasty problems and theyve gotten WORSE since i tried the cache clearing tip, the problem i'm getting is below:

I'm in arcadia around the bit where lets say the "trees die" to keep it spoiler free, I was getting crashes when I was getting new plasmids and tonics, its like the 360 was having trouble with what to do with the info it was getting from the dvd it was spinning and reading but after abit it just give up and froze.

I looked around on the forums saw a couple of threads where there where no replies and then saw this one, I thought hey its worth a try and did it, loaded my save again and I notice a couple of stuttering but when I get new plasmids and tonics it was ALOT smoother almost instant however when I tried hacking it was was abit slow doing do but hey it went through okay, went on abit and then hacked a turret and that was it the game crashed out in record time, tried again different hack and again crashed out.

I've looked through these boards again and all I see is angry PC gamers saying they get the same thing, obviously they are no help for 360 issues.

I've tried the cache clearing again and nothing, I've played my entire catalogue of 360 games to check for crashes/freezes/etc none of them do it, i've checked the dvd for scratches in which case there is none, i've tried clearing up/copying stuff to/from the hard-drive in my 360 and no issues there, so it seems its just bioshock causing/having these issues. Does anyone have any ideas if theres anything more my side I could do or do I have to sit in line and wait for a patch (side note: is there any timescale for it?).

I turned down the PC version after hearing all the stuff about securom which I personally disagree with out of principle and the other issues PC gamers where getting so I opted for the 360 version hoping for a smoother ride and a more finished product but I guess not.

[shootist2600]

Apart from framerate issues, the problem I've experienced seems to be shared by only one other gamer and that was on the xbox site.

Both of us experienced a fluctuating color palette/tint, especially so far in the upper wharf and smuggler's den, whereby the screen alternates between different colors. The hud is fine so it's not a general failure, but rest of the screen experiences colorful flashes that are more dull than bright not to mention disorienting, so that gameplay becomes impossible in those moments.

The framerate remedy of holding LB/RB while loading seems to at least temporarily fix this problem as well. Is this also a caching problem and will it likewise be fixed by an potential patch??

Also wondering if anyone else here, PC or 360, has experienced this particular problem.

[speef22]

So if you have seen my earlier replies about constant freezing 2-3 minutes into playing after the Sander Cohen area, then you know how pissed i was, well here is a bit of gaming serendipity that I figure you all can share in my excitement... i stated i tried every fix/work around to no avail, in fact my whole machine(premium 06/2006) began to crap out, freeze and the dvd door began to act sporadic...anyway, i had thought i bought a one year replacement from Best Buy and couldn't get this fixed and was going to wait out the Red Rings-o-Death, then have MS "repair" it for me. well it turns out that it was a two year plan and on top of that i was able to walk right into my local BB and after they checked it through they agreed to replace it with an Elite, so with the recent price drop and my original price at 399 i was able to pick up a brand new(06/09/2007) model with a new two year replacement plan for 111.63....so i still stand by my comments about shoddy craftsmanship, in fact Bioshock does run, but with stutters on new 'Box, so still crappy, but at least i can "thank" :rolleyes: Bioshock/2k for getting me into gear to score a sweet deal on a new Elite...so Thanks 2k(lol) :D Best of luck to each of you on getting a playable Bioshock....where's our patch?!?! :confused:
-Speef22

[BioShockWins]

I've tried Chris Kline's cache clearing method, and it really works!

But seriously forks, 2K_Richard mentioned this in a thread yesterday, and it's worked wonders in my case. Haven't had a single lockup since. :)

I'm BSW, and I approve this message!

[shortnnz]

does anyone know why some textures are slow to load? it really ruins the flow of the game when you run up to something and it takes its time to load the texture, the problem gets worse the further you go in the game.
and i did a cache clear, it didnt help this issue, will there be a patch to fix this?

[SuperSaiyan4]

does anyone know why some textures are slow to load? it really ruins the flow of the game when you run up to something and it takes its time to load the texture, the problem gets worse the further you go in the game.
and i did a cache clear, it didnt help this issue, will there be a patch to fix this?

Ah I also have been getting this, I think its a trate off of the crap Unreal 3 engine as the same thing happens with gears of war as well...

[conantheking]

Odd thing is, I don't need to do this for some reason. If I play for several hours I get slight pauses every 5-10 seconds but that problem automatically goes away withing 2 minutes.

[doob]

Yo all,

I've not got very far, but already I've noticed that after getting killed a couple of times by a big daddy the little sister disappears! Obviously I then run around screaming but she's nowhere!

This has happend twice and usually happens when I die more than twice, although I'm not far in the game I'm missing vital ADAM ~ sigh ~ ... To me this looks like problem with the game A.I.

Doob
:cool:

[speef22]

Yo all,

I've not got very far, but already I've noticed that after getting killed a couple of times by a big daddy the little sister disappears! Obviously I then run around screaming but she's nowhere!

This has happend twice and usually happens when I die more than twice, although I'm not far in the game I'm missing vital ADAM ~ sigh ~ ... To me this looks like problem with the game A.I.

Doob
:cool:
She runs away if you dont "get" her right after your kill, they crawl back into those holes you see in the wall, the ones that have a star shape around them. So if you get killed during a BD fight there is a chance the LS will be gone before you get back to the spot where you died...I had that happen a number of times too, but if you hustle back you can sometimes catch LS before they flee....best of luck!
-Speef22

[aubergine]

Otherwise, find the Big Daddy and wait near where you fought before. He will eventually go the vent and bang on the wall, waking up Little Sis who will crawl out.

After my PC disaster, I bought a 360 two days ago, and it is working so perfectly it's like the horror of personal computing never existed. Hitching hasn't happened yet, but perhaps it's because it's the first game played on it and no xbox live yet, so no other applications.

[HaloKittty]

Ouch. I'm afraid I have to add my name to the list of those who are very sad and frustrated that their otherwise amazing BioShock experience has ground to a stuttering, game-freezing halt. I've tried all the cache-clearing work-arounds to no avail. No combination of LB/RB or xxx seems to work. It started just after I saved in Arcadia following a Power to the People upgrade to my shotgun. Suddenly, every time an enemy shows up or it gets technically hairy (fireballs, water, etc) the game stutters, usually once a minute, and remains frozen for several seconds. I simply can't play the game like this.

I really really really really hope 2K and Microsoft can get this patch out, and FAST. I was looking forward to the long weekend and playing BioShock, and instead I'm...well, NOT playing BioShock.

Sigh :(

[mathesar]

Ouch. I'm afraid I have to add my name to the list of those who are very sad and frustrated that their otherwise amazing BioShock experience has ground to a stuttering, game-freezing halt. I've tried all the cache-clearing work-arounds to no avail. No combination of LB/RB or xxx seems to work. It started just after I saved in Arcadia following a Power to the People upgrade to my shotgun. Suddenly, every time an enemy shows up or it gets technically hairy (fireballs, water, etc) the game stutters, usually once a minute, and remains frozen for several seconds. I simply can't play the game like this.

I really really really really hope 2K and Microsoft can get this patch out, and FAST. I was looking forward to the long weekend and playing BioShock, and instead I'm...well, NOT playing BioShock.

Sigh :(

Hrm doing the LB/RB clear cache method should be working for you ,It fixed the pausing issue on both of my 360's and they both had the issue pretty bad before then, are you doing it exactly as explained in the first post in this thread?

[slimjim]

Ouch. I'm afraid I have to add my name to the list of those who are very sad and frustrated that their otherwise amazing BioShock experience has ground to a stuttering, game-freezing halt. I've tried all the cache-clearing work-arounds to no avail. No combination of LB/RB or xxx seems to work. It started just after I saved in Arcadia following a Power to the People upgrade to my shotgun. Suddenly, every time an enemy shows up or it gets technically hairy (fireballs, water, etc) the game stutters, usually once a minute, and remains frozen for several seconds. I simply can't play the game like this.

I really really really really hope 2K and Microsoft can get this patch out, and FAST. I was looking forward to the long weekend and playing BioShock, and instead I'm...well, NOT playing BioShock.

Sigh :(

Have you tried cleaning your disk? Try a little warm water and dish liquid and see if the problem is actually a dirty disk.

[Carpathian Psychonaut]

Still having the same problem as I posted a while ago - the game's graphics freeze, control stops and you get sound stuck in a loop. It does this at random after playing for a while. The only result is to reset the 360 completely and any other game/demo plays fine without the same issue.

This means that after every important pick-up, every fight and every plot move I'm having to save. It works and when things crashed I just reload the latest save, but obviously NOT having a game that dies would be better.

This sounds different to the stop/start cache issue and yes, I've still tried the LB+RB thing but still happens after a while. I've just lost a portion in the fisheries when it froze during a big fight before I had chance tyo finish it and save. Needless to say, this isn't appreciated and it's now out of the drive again.

Any ideas????

{excuse me posting this both 360 threads but there are two seemingly for the same reason and I've no idea which one gets officially looked at!}

[radiator]

I am going to try the cache clearing , but my problem is a bit different....

I am at the part where you have to collect the 3 ingredients for that recipe.. I am trying to leave Arcadia via the transport... I have done everything correctly.. I enter the bulkhead, get a flashback and the icon says "press Y to travel to..." I press Y, the wheel spins closing both doors to the bulkhead and then.. nothing happens. I have tried reloading previous save point etc.. still nothing. Trapped .. in a bulkhead. Also sometime in the past few hours, the voice recordings you pick up won't let me play them.

I have a new premium (the middle range one) that the just added hdmi 2, hink sinks etc.

Does this sound like another caching issue.. god I hope so , because if not this game just went from being in my top ten all time to non-visible..

[vlad]

So I just wanted to add my voice to others who've said that the cache clearing method is not working. The hitches started occurring at Point Prometheus, maybe every 20 secs or so. I cleared the cache a couple of times. They didn't go away. The problem got really bad (every few seconds) when I went back to the previous level. And so here I am. I'm gonna take a break from the game and try again later when I'm feeling less frustrated.

[bobbobbob]

This is ridiculous...not only does my game freeze on most occasions within a minute of starting, but the disk is sometimes unreadable.

I mean...wow...what a big screw up.

[MTXperience]

I too have tried both cache clearing methods, to no avail. My girlfriend is in the main foyer of Fort Frolic, and the game stutters every 2-3 seconds. My saved games under my gamer tag work fine, as do other save games of her own. I noticed I only had 1 GB free on the HDD, and cleared off about 10 GB, nada.

My XBox is a premium, purchased December '06. Hve had no other issues with the hardware.

[mathesar]

I too have tried both cache clearing methods, to no avail. My girlfriend is in the main foyer of Fort Frolic, and the game stutters every 2-3 seconds. My saved games under my gamer tag work fine, as do other save games of her own. I noticed I only had 1 GB free on the HDD, and cleared off about 10 GB, nada.

My XBox is a premium, purchased December '06. Hve had no other issues with the hardware.

If all else fails you could copy your gamer profile and saves to a memory card, it will definitely fix the stutters that way ..but really the LB / RB clear cache method (as the game is loading) should be fixing it.

[slimjim]

http://forum.teamxbox.com/showthread.php?t=544706

[mathesar]

Yep there's a patch out which apparently fixes the hitching issue. I just updated mine but I haven't had the issue since clearing hdd cache awhile back.

[Onza]

Could be worse... My 360 just went RRoD on me...

Coffin on the way...

New member of the "3 flashing red lights club" 31-AUG-2007

Xbox Purchase Date: 02-DEC-2006 - R.I.P.

[L0stS0ul]

Well I was one of the lucky ones that was not having any problems playing the game. Today as I booted it up to get some Bioshock time in the Live Update thing came up so I went ahead and updated the game. Not 10 minutes into the game did it start hitching. Pretty much every 5-10 seconds it freezes for 2-3 seconds. All sound/movement stops. I just entered the arcadia as that's where my save game was. I will try to clear my cache but it looks to me like the patch did not fix the issue and actually created it for me.

[therev]

Well I was one of the lucky ones that was not having any problems playing the game. Today as I booted it up to get some Bioshock time in the Live Update thing came up so I went ahead and updated the game. Not 10 minutes into the game did it start hitching. Pretty much every 5-10 seconds it freezes for 2-3 seconds. All sound/movement stops. I just entered the arcadia as that's where my save game was. I will try to clear my cache but it looks to me like the patch did not fix the issue and actually created it for me.

Exactly the same think happened to me, except I managed to play for an hour or so after the update before things started going wrong. Radio messages and diaries seem to play fine while the game is "paused", but everything else just stops.

I'll try the LB and RB trick when I get home from work to see if that helps at all.

It's annoying because I'm nearing the end and the game's completely unplayable right now.

[jdizz76]

I've had my 360 for over a year now with not one problem (thankfully). I was running bioshock for the past 2 days and it worked perfectly, but for some reason I was forced to download an update which has ruined the whole experience. I truly enjoyed the game, but now it's nothing more than a big pile of crap; in a matter of hours 2K went from brilliant to idiotic. Why? What was the reason for this update? Why was I forced to download an update which did no good? I want an answer!

[Dia]

BioShock has ran smoothly on my XBOX360, never before have I experienced hitching. I've plaid the game thru once already.
Now this morning when I started BioShock and intended to continue my second(hard dificulty) run thru, it forced me to download the update and after playing about 10 minutes, my game started freezing every 10 seconds, this has not happened ever before.

Seems like the update actually created this problem also for me.

I cleared the cache and the game ran again smoothly for about half an hour till I got into a bigger area, where it started freezing again every 10 or 15 seconds. Seems that when the area is big, it starts to freeze now(after patch).

[Downloads]

Well I was one of the lucky ones that was not having any problems playing the game. Today as I booted it up to get some Bioshock time in the Live Update thing came up so I went ahead and updated the game. Not 10 minutes into the game did it start hitching. Pretty much every 5-10 seconds it freezes for 2-3 seconds. All sound/movement stops. I just entered the arcadia as that's where my save game was. I will try to clear my cache but it looks to me like the patch did not fix the issue and actually created it for me.

This is exactly the same for me and my work colleague. A couple of hours after the update it's gone mental and unplayable. The game now freezes every 5-10 seconds ish and it's ruined. This needs to be fixed as a matter of urgency or it's getting returned at the weekend by both of us. Shame on this update, it's terrible and wrecked one of my favourite games. Please sort this ASAP.

[Jingo]

After hearing this, i'm not even going to try and play it. mine has been working fine ( so far ) so you can imagine how eager is am to patch it up and as a result screw up what has been a wonderful game so far.

Some thing needs to be done, at least make the patch optional, so those without problems don't need to apply it and risk ruining the game, and let it fix ( we hope ) the poor folks who are having issue's .

[Carpathian Psychonaut]

Can we get a clarification from anybody officially - does the Live! update fix the complete lockups while playing or just the stop/start stuttering?

My copy is shelved until I know it's worth carrying on - just gets too annoying having to save every room and still lose progress if it freezes in the middle of a big fight etc

Thanks in advance......

[Downloads]

My frustration is that after a week of playing a perfect game an update like this comes out and wrecks it, i would expect nothing less than an update within 24 hours to rectify the problems they have given people. Other games have done updates immediately, so lets see.

[Jingo]

Can we get a clarification from anybody officially - does the Live! update fix the complete lockups while playing or just the stop/start stuttering?

My copy is shelved until I know it's worth carrying on - just gets too annoying having to save every room and still lose progress if it freezes in the middle of a big fight etc

Thanks in advance......

For reading new and posts from various sites, the update fixes the issue for those that suffer from it and introduces it to those that are currently working fine. :(

[conantheking]

For reading new and posts from various sites, the update fixes the issue for those that suffer from it and introduces it to those that are currently working fine. :(

Ouch, I just got my Bioshock faceplate and wanted to celebrate by starting a 3rd playthrough tonight. I hope I don't start getting this problem.

[Jingo]

All i can suggest is dont run the update if you are working fine atm.

[Downloads]

For reading new and posts from various sites, the update fixes the issue for those that suffer from it and introduces it to those that are currently working fine. :(

*laughs*

That was exactly what i said to someone where i work earlier. It solved it for those who had it and gave it to those who didn't!

Wonderful!

[Hyden]

I had the problem from the update & decided to try the cache clear again. This time I started the game from the desktop then cleared the cache & it seems to have done the trick, I played for an hour without any screen lag. So you may have to try clearing the cache a few times.

[electr0n]

I updated last night on my Xbox 360 Elite and now have the stuttering/lag problem. The game has been playing flawlessly until then. Needless to say I'm pretty disappointed as I'm getting near the end of the game. I'll try the clear cache to see if that works.
2K - I really want to love this game but you just broke it for me! :eek:

[yarr]

so is it actually possible to uninstall the title updates that are downloaded?

I probably don't need to add I updated bioshock yesterday and am now experiencing the stuttering problems when I wasn't before and also the drive now makes loud, aggressive reading noises when it was relatively quiet before the update.

[TBGamer]

It started this past weekend. In the area where the frozen tunnels are. None of the cache clearing stuff work. (though I did accidentally delete my saved game...not all of them though) The LB RB thing didn't work or the go to system and do the xx...xx thing. I have not tried the patch. I'm glad to hear it isn't just me.

[bobbobbob]

Sometimes it freezes...sometimes it's unreadable.

good times 2k.

[Goodison Steve]

I also started to experience the stuttering effect after applying the update. Luckily for me the LB/RB trick seems to have done the trick. Bit of a shame though, superb game, bad patch - meant 3 hours of frustration.

[S.T.A.R.S-Zero]

Well I was one of the lucky ones that was not having any problems playing the game. Today as I booted it up to get some Bioshock time in the Live Update thing came up so I went ahead and updated the game. Not 10 minutes into the game did it start hitching. Pretty much every 5-10 seconds it freezes for 2-3 seconds. All sound/movement stops. I just entered the arcadia as that's where my save game was. I will try to clear my cache but it looks to me like the patch did not fix the issue and actually created it for me.

I am also in this same boat. :( Good thing I've beaten it three times.

[zhatka]

I am also in this same boat. :( Good thing I've beaten it three times.

Yea cuz if you only beat it twice...well then you'd suck.

[ADJUST BRIGHTNESS]

I've been having problems since day one. Sent one back after getting the red ring and another one that wouldn't read disks. Serious frustrations, then the freeze issues in this game. I thought instead of sending another box back, just to file a small claim.

I tried all cache clearing methods and the fix to no avail.

Came here to see if this was in fact the patch I was looking for as it didn't do anything to help the stutter issue I was having at the time.

I've since read through all pages in this thread and kept my game on pause for about 20 mins.

After I went back to my game it's worked fine. I've been playing for the last 45 minutes stutter free and my faith has been temporarily restored.

I have a funny feeling after posting this that it will stutter again, but try pausing for a period of time after the clearing and applying the fix.

[zhatka]

I got through the pausing garbage!

Several days ago, in Fort Frolic, I started the hitching/stutterring.

I tried the LBRB, cache....the whole nine yards.

Today I snagged the update, and it appeared to go a bit slower. I decided to just play through it. Every couple of minuts I would save, just to try different things, and sure enough after about 5 minutes I was back into smooth gamin'. No idea why, but it just kicked back into gear.

Then again, I had just nailed a big daddy with the hypno plasmid....

But seriously I just played through it. I will beat on it for the next half hour or so and post back my findings.

Wait. That came out wrong....

DAMNIT.

[audiosnag]

I got through the pausing garbage!

Several days ago, in Fort Frolic, I started the hitching/stutterring.

I tried the LBRB, cache....the whole nine yards.

Today I snagged the update, and it appeared to go a bit slower. I decided to just play through it. Every couple of minuts I would save, just to try different things, and sure enough after about 5 minutes I was back into smooth gamin'. No idea why, but it just kicked back into gear.

Then again, I had just nailed a big daddy with the hypno plasmid....

But seriously I just played through it. I will beat on it for the next half hour or so and post back my findings.

Wait. That came out wrong....

DAMNIT.


make sure u wash your hands before u start typing again :D

[heller59]

360 version btw...

Luckily I finished the game, but now I'm going back to get all my achievements. Throughout the game, I had no issues, no stuttering, smooth as glass.

So tonight I get home and there's a Live update. Not ten minutes into loading a save game and going around the map, does the game graphics stop completely but the sound keeps playing normally.

Pretty much every 2 mins or so it freezes for 2-3 seconds. All sound and movement stops. I tried clearing my cache (LBRB) a few times and that fixes the problem for like 10 mins, but then I get the same problem all over again.

So it looks to me like the patch did not fix the issue and actually created it for me.

Do I need some minimum amount of free space on the drive to allow the HDD caching to work properly? Is my HD too fragmented all of the sudden? I'm damn disappointed to see these issues, since I had no issues for so long!

:-(

Heller59

[zhatka]

I have played since my last post and all is fine.

Knock on wood.

JESUS!

[Kruku]

To clear the hard drive cache, you must hold down both the RB and LB gamepad buttons while the game is starting. This must be done IMMEDIATELY after the console is rebooted (or the game is launched from the dashboard) and the buttons must only be released AFTER the red 2K Games logo appears.
.

sorry chris, regardless of holding rb+lb pressed, my bioshock crashed after 5 sec of play.

[therev]

After my problems after the update I tried the LB and RB trick. Had to do it twice in a three-hour session, but it works for me.

[Kruku]

the only thing is that i cant do it second time - my xbox360 is dead. thanks 2k.

[mathesar]

This thread is referring to frequent hitching / pausing during gameplay... someone blaming 2k for there 360 dying is a bit extreme. if the game is hard locking to where you have to reset your 360 then its more of an issue with the 360 itself, Not the game.

[onesilverbullet]

Holding RB/LB down after rebooting the game >>> from the dashboard <<< worked for me.

Thanks, Ken!

[mash440]

The hacking tutorial screen informs you about how to hack a 'circut'.

[Neobium]

I figure that the more people mention their problems, the sooner the issue will be resolved, so I'll chime in on my Bioshock woes.

I started getting the "hitching" problem last week (9/1). In my case, the game stops for only a moment, but does it repeatedly at a rate of once ever 1 to 2 seconds. I've never had the game lock up completely, or gotten audio loops, or any of the other stated issues. I've attempted to clear the cache using the LB/RB technique several times, attempting it from both a dashboard game load and a system restart game load, but none of the attempts have proven successful. I have yet to try the other method, nor the "wait 5+ minutes", so perhaps those will fix the problem, but I'm not hopeful. On the off chance I'm completely screwing up the cache clearing technique, does anyone for whom it has worked have details as to their methods? When are you starting to hold the two bumper buttons? When are you letting them go (before the 2K logo is gone or after)? Hopefully a subsequent patch will be released, because it sure seems this cache clearing method isn't working universally.

[Daz1967]

I would suggest that anyone who is NOT having problems with BioShock does NOT install this update because I did and it caused the game to freeze for half a second everytime I encountered an enemy which was really quite annoying.

It didn't happen at all prior to the update and, in fact, once I used the X, X, LB, RB, X, X cache clearing hack to remove the patch completely I was able to play the game normally again without any hitches whatsoever. Clearly this patch doesn't work for me and does the very thing I thought it was supposed to address in the first place!!! While I accept it might work for those that had the stuttering framerate in the first place, I've read a lot of posts from people, who like me, had no issues before but now post-patch have a stuttery, bordering on unplayable game.

Something needs to be done about this a.s.a.p. as I keep being prompted to install the update and if I don't it logs me out of Xbox Live. Surely all Xbox 360s are the same so why does this patch only work for some and not other; why did some people have the stuttering to start with while I did not.

P.S. I always load the game using the RB plus LB cache clearing trick so I know that does NOT fix this when the game is patched. I also have the 120 GB HDD (but not the Elite, just a normal Premium) but the game ran perfectly fine with my old 20 GB HDD apart from the odd minor late texture popping in.

[Daz1967]

I should have added that I was playing Apollo Square when I got the framerate stutters with the updated game. Once I removed the patch I was able to play the game as normal without any hitches.

[FUCHI PATAS]

I would suggest that anyone who is NOT having problems with BioShock does NOT install this update because I did and it caused the game to freeze for half a second everytime I encountered an enemy which was really quite annoying.

It didn't happen at all prior to the update and, in fact, once I used the X, X, LB, RB, X, X cache clearing hack to remove the patch completely I was able to play the game normally again without any hitches whatsoever. Clearly this patch doesn't work for me and does the very thing I thought it was supposed to address in the first place!!! While I accept it might work for those that had the stuttering framerate in the first place, I've read a lot of posts from people, who like me, had no issues before but now post-patch have a stuttery, bordering on unplayable game.

Something needs to be done about this a.s.a.p. as I keep being prompted to install the update and if I don't it logs me out of Xbox Live. Surely all Xbox 360s are the same so why does this patch only work for some and not other; why did some people have the stuttering to start with while I did not.

P.S. I always load the game using the RB plus LB cache clearing trick so I know that does NOT fix this when the game is patched. I also have the 120 GB HDD (but not the Elite, just a normal Premium) but the game ran perfectly fine with my old 20 GB HDD apart from the odd minor late texture popping in.

Yup. I've had the exact same experience.:mad:
The game is now nearly unplayable for me and I'm trying to finish it on HARD.
I was playing in Mount Olympus and the framerate would completely choke, stutter and freeze.
Tried the LB + RB trick... no luck...:mad:
Maybe I'll try clearing all my cache tonight...
This is my first experience with an update totally effin' up the game for me.

[Daz1967]

Yeah, it is for me too.

BioShock is such an amazing game, possibly my favourite on the Xbox 360 next to Oblivion, that this kind of "hiccup" jars all the more. I hope the developers will quickly address this as I'm getting fed up of having to decline the update every time I play the game. :(

[FUCHI PATAS]

^^^
Yup. I love this game.
The Update is a real drag... I'm gald I was ble to play it thru the 1st time with no hiccups.

I'm hoping the DLC arrives sooner rather than later and hopefully it'll include 250 extra Achievement points!

[ADJUST BRIGHTNESS]

I figure that the more people mention their problems, the sooner the issue will be resolved, so I'll chime in on my Bioshock woes.

I started getting the "hitching" problem last week (9/1). In my case, the game stops for only a moment, but does it repeatedly at a rate of once ever 1 to 2 seconds. I've never had the game lock up completely, or gotten audio loops, or any of the other stated issues. I've attempted to clear the cache using the LB/RB technique several times, attempting it from both a dashboard game load and a system restart game load, but none of the attempts have proven successful. I have yet to try the other method, nor the "wait 5+ minutes", so perhaps those will fix the problem, but I'm not hopeful. On the off chance I'm completely screwing up the cache clearing technique, does anyone for whom it has worked have details as to their methods? When are you starting to hold the two bumper buttons? When are you letting them go (before the 2K logo is gone or after)? Hopefully a subsequent patch will be released, because it sure seems this cache clearing method isn't working universally.

Awesome! I just noticed that my 2nd refurbished x box doesn’t even have half of the exhaust perforations punched out of the plastic case on the top (not the hard drive top) of the casing.

I’m looking forward to my warranty running out soon! Yay!

[Daz1967]

Here's something odd I discovered last night...

I have two Xboxes, one is a repaired launch model with a new motherboard and an Hitachi DVD drive, and the other is has a Samsung DVD drive and was built in October 2006. When updated BioShock runs fine on the former, my launch machine, but freezes momentarily everytime I encounter an enemy with my new machine. That's using the same 120 GB HDD with both machines.

I can only conclude that there are differences between my machines internally that cause the game to stutter on one but not the other. This is the kind of thing that you'd expect to happen on a PC with billions of combinations of hardware but not on a games console that's supposed to have a standard design!

Has anyone else been able to test the game on two different machine?

[skip0pot2mus]

Wasn't there another update this morning? Now most of the freezes are gone, but now sometimes I experience total freeze up [which I have never done before]. I have to manaully turn the box off...how frustrating, now I'm saving at every corner.

[Neobium]

After reading a couple of posts from people the said they waited for a few minutes while the game was running and found that the hitching went away, I tried this method. I cleared the cache on start up, then just wandered around for a few minutes, and sure enough, the hitching stopped. I played for another hour or so, with no problems at all, even when a number of enemies appeared on screen at once. Patience would seem to be a virtue in this case. I hope this works for others too.

[souledoutange1]

I noticed the game didn't start freezing until i reached Arcadia, odd. I figured the 360 couldn't handle all the different colors, etc. Then i thought it had to be the game, something as simple as a "defective" disk. I guess it goes alittle deeper than that gentlemen. Well the upside to this is that Target will take it back. The down side is i want to finish the damn game, but if it's going to give me problem the rest of the way forget it. I'll try the cache clear first.

[Daz1967]

I don't know whether there was a new update or not but I've tried it again with both my Xbox 360s and BioShock now appear to work fine on both of them.

Regarding the cache though: how difficult would it be for developers to automatically clear the cache as part of the game's loading sequence? Or better still, why can't Microsoft add automatic cache clearing as part of the Xbox 360's boot sequence and when you return to the dashboard after playing a game? It seems such a stupidly easy thing to fix yet Oblivion and BioShock both required you to do it manually!!!

[tbmichael]

We have confirmed that the hitching goes away if you clear the hard drive cache.



Nope, that doesn't fix it. We have one machine that glitches every new game and every saved file regardless of clearing the GAME cache or the XBox cache. Our other 360 does not, both played fine for a day after the update.

We have experienced both the "pause every footstep" and the "pause every 10 seconds" issues.

Neither cache clearing method fixes it. The game is unplayable from scratch, as are all of the saves.

[lanifiel]

I was pulling my hair out thinking I was heading towards another ring of death encounter with the month of no xBox invovled. Thankfully I checked the forums. This work-around does work for me, I just do it every time I play BioShock. It's tedious as hell (and annoying when you forget), but it does work.

Hopefully there will be a patch soonish that will actually provide a solution and not just a work around, but untill then, good job with this :tu:

[tbmichael]

I was pulling my hair out thinking I was heading towards another ring of death encounter with the month of no xBox invovled. Thankfully I checked the forums. This work-around does work for me, I just do it every time I play BioShock. It's tedious as hell (and annoying when you forget), but it does work.

Hopefully there will be a patch soonish that will actually provide a solution and not just a work around, but untill then, good job with this :tu:

It will eventually happen, because it seems to be unrelated to the other "fixes." What we ended up doing was deleting a bunch of old saves and moving our current saves to a 512 card. No problems yet. We'll see. Oh, and we DID NOT reinstall the update. No thanks!

Good luck everyone reading this.

[Daz1967]

I don't know whether there was a new update or not but I've tried it again with both my Xbox 360s and BioShock now appear to work fine on both of them.

Regarding the cache though: how difficult would it be for developers to automatically clear the cache as part of the game's loading sequence? Or better still, why can't Microsoft add automatic cache clearing as part of the Xbox 360's boot sequence and when you return to the dashboard after playing a game? It seems such a stupidly easy thing to fix yet Oblivion and BioShock both required you to do it manually!!!

Scratch what I wrote in the first paragraph... I played the game twice over the weekend on the same 360. On Saturday, the game was hitching annoyingly so I removed the patch. On Sunday, I decided to try the patch again and apart from two minor judders the game worked fine and I was able to complete it. It would seem to me that there is something wrong with this update and/or it's related to the 360's HDD cache.

Apart from the odd non-textured brown corpse and the out-of-synch subtitles (which should have been picked up during testing as it affects the PC and 360 versions!), I've been able to play the game mostly without problems, mainly thanks to owning two 360s. If I didn't know about the cache clearing trick and had been forced to play the game on my new 360 then I might not have been so impressed with the game! :p

Whatever, this game was magnificent, a true classic in every sense of the word and it's a game I fully intend replaying, hopefully with fixed subtitles and an updated patch that doesn't stutter on either of my 360s! :D

[montie1001]

I was saying to my rather uninterested wife a couple of days ago that Bioshock was one of the best games I had played in years. I was quite happy with myself, having found myself submerged (no pun intended) in gameplay into the early hours of the morning- not wanting to leave it alone.

I have been so frustrated however, that the game is obviuosly affected by a glitch of some kind. I have been reading through these forums with all these grand ideas on how to remedy the problem, but to no avail. My game is freezing/pausing every couple of seconds, just a small pause, but a pause.

I have tried clearing the cache, tried this, tried that. Nope.

As previuosly stated by another- I am shocked (no pun) that 2K would have released this game with such a glitch attached. Its almost criminal- to allow a game that clearly isnt performing as it should be on the market. Its like selling stale fish. The most anoying part of this episode is that it is a bloody good game- and the desire to continue is compounded by the fact that it is not playable with this bug.

Boycott 2K!

Yours- disappointed Montie.

[souledoutange1]

Turns out the cache dump works wonders on system. Since then i havent had a glitch or freeze thanks 2k.

[gallow737]

Well, after reading the first few pages and taking the advice to clear the cache, this is what has happened to me:

1) It deleted some of my saves and set me back a good 2 hours.

2) It fixed nothing. It actually skips worse than it did before.

This is really frustrating, mainly because I've been trying to go back and get all the achievements, and now I don't know if I've gotten all the tape recordings, the research photos, etc. Clearing the cache really bit me in the rear. I'm willing to believe that this stems from the update that I downloaded from XBox live. I was going through my 2nd time around and it was working fine and I installed the update right before Fort Frolic. Ever since then, it has been awful and skips more than I care for it to. I haven't read the last 4 or so pages, so if it has been fixed, great, but judging from the last page it doesn't seem like it is.

That being said, BioShock is one of the best games I've played thus far on my 360. Bravo on a great game, boo-hiss for this glitch and advice that has given me a setback

[hidannik]

Came here on search after getting hitches in Fort Frolic (a quarter-second pause every second and a half or so, which went away by the end of the level). I saved while the hitches were going on, and after they went away. Any time I loaded the "hitch save", I got hitches. Any time I loaded the later save, I didn't get them.

I cleared caches, both BioShock's method and X360 maintenance. No effect (the hitch save still hitched, the smooth save still ran smooth).

I copied the saves to a memory card, turned the X360 off, detached the HDD, and restarted. Rejected the update. Ran the game. No effect (hitch save still hitched, smooth save still smooth).

I turned the X360 off and on and restarted the game. Accepted the update. No effect (hitch still hitch, smooth still smooth).

I can only conclude that it's a game bug of some sort probably related to object management and garbage collection.

I have a gadget (Action Replay) for backing up my saves to PC. I could upload the glitching one to 2K if y'all would like to debug with it.


Hans

[dazzi220]

I hope they sort this out for those of us who can't get rid of this issue, I cleared the cache countless times and bioshock on my new elite is a ma absolute mess

gutted

[Maceone]

I have the stuttering issue every other second. I'm almost finished with Fort Frolic (it started about half-way through). I've tried clearing caches both ways, and am now playing without the update - still stutters. I'm going to try and play through and see if it clears. Also, I've noticed 2 doors in the frozen poseidon tunnels stay open - not sure if that's related.

[Maceone]

I have the stuttering issue every other second. I'm almost finished with Fort Frolic (it started about half-way through). I've tried clearing caches both ways, and am now playing without the update - still stutters. I'm going to try and play through and see if it clears. Also, I've noticed 2 doors in the frozen poseidon tunnels stay open - not sure if that's related.
...update

Hector Rodriguez may be the key. It started for me when I first encountered him, and now as soon as I killed him, the stuttering cleared.

[Jajuka]

...update

Hector Rodriguez may be the key. It started for me when I first encountered him, and now as soon as I killed him, the stuttering cleared.

I'm having the same exact issue as you stated. The game ran completely perfectly until I encountered Hector in the bar. The game started hitching for about 1/2 second, every 3-4 seconds, IMMEDIATELY after I saw him. I've just killed him, and it hasn't gone away, it's actually gotten a little worse over time. I've reloaded my saved game from before I met him, and it works perfectly; no hitches, freezes, glitches... nothing. It also appears that any and all saves after his encounter are affected by this problem.

As soon as I go into that room behind the stage and come out to encounter Hector, the game starts hitching and doesn't quit. I managed to kill him, though I wasted much ammo trying to hit him while simultaneously battling the stuttering hitches.

I hoped it would go away after I got rid of him, but it didn't. This is only my first play through, and I'm almost afraid to keep going. This kind of thing will completely ruin a game for me. I've tried clearing the cache (LB+RB during loading) multiple times with absolutely no effect. So far this has been one of my favorite games of all time (I've played tons of games, and own 17 game consoles, so saying this was one of my favorites is a big statement for me). But this kind of problem makes the game unplayable, and I can't just "play through it". I'd rather not play it at all than be completely frustrated with it for the rest of the game.

Please tell me there is some kind of patch in the works. The people at 2K MUST know that there are still problems (some actually caused by their update). Why is nothing being done about this? I wish someone from 2K would say something on this thread to reassure those of us that are experiencing these problems.

[Maceone]

I'm having the same exact issue as you stated. The game ran completely perfectly until I encountered Hector in the bar. The game started hitching for about 1/2 second, every 3-4 seconds, IMMEDIATELY after I saw him. I've just killed him, and it hasn't gone away, it's actually gotten a little worse over time. I've reloaded my saved game from before I met him, and it works perfectly; no hitches, freezes, glitches... nothing. It also appears that any and all saves after his encounter are affected by this problem.

As soon as I go into that room behind the stage and come out to encounter Hector, the game starts hitching and doesn't quit. I managed to kill him, though I wasted much ammo trying to hit him while simultaneously battling the stuttering hitches.

I hoped it would go away after I got rid of him, but it didn't. This is only my first play through, and I'm almost afraid to keep going. This kind of thing will completely ruin a game for me. I've tried clearing the cache (LB+RB during loading) multiple times with absolutely no effect. So far this has been one of my favorite games of all time (I've played tons of games, and own 17 game consoles, so saying this was one of my favorites is a big statement for me). But this kind of problem makes the game unplayable, and I can't just "play through it". I'd rather not play it at all than be completely frustrated with it for the rest of the game.

Please tell me there is some kind of patch in the works. The people at 2K MUST know that there are still problems (some actually caused by their update). Why is nothing being done about this? I wish someone from 2K would say something on this thread to reassure those of us that are experiencing these problems.

It may also be that I was playing the game after clearing the cache and not applying the update patch. It could be both something to do with the patch and with Hector appearing. Hopefully 2k are working on a fix. I'm not applying the previous patch to the game until there is an update on here about a fix.
Good luck.

[ender1601]

it got terrible for me in fort frolic too - i killed hector and nothing change... i refuse to play the game until this is addressed

[dazzi220]

the update has rendered our game a eractic random mess of tech problems.

Theres alot of us in the same boat who can't sort this out, they have to release a update to fix this instead of boasting the 1.5million sales figure and a sequel

[Jajuka]

I've now also tried running the maintenance on the XBOX 360 HDD, which is supposed to clear all cache and game updates. After I ran that I went back into the game, and opted NOT to run the update. I loaded up my latest save and and the hitching is still there. It's gotten much worse over time, since it first started with my encounter with Hector. It now hitches for about 1/2 second, every second.

So as I'm trying to play I get; -pause- . . . -pause- . . . -pause- . . . -pause- . . . every second this happens. The game is nowhere near playable in this state. I can hardly navigate through the rooms, let alone try to attack anything. I don't know if the patch caused this problem or not... what I do know is that it certainly didn't fix anything. That's for sure.

It's nice to know that they're boasting about their 1.5 million sales of this game, when people who bought it can't even play it. This is the kind of thing that drives people to piracy. If there is a chance the game might not even work, and there is no priority put behind fixing it, why bother paying for it. If someone doesn't take care of the major issues with this game, they can be sure to count 1 less sale for all their future releases.

[Soviet Chimp]

Thank you! Thank you! I haven't had a pause or whatever since! ;)

[tariz]

I just installed the patch today after coming back from vacation.
After a few minutes of play the 360 completely locks up. I have to reboot in order to do anything. Clearing the cache makes no difference.
Bioshock is completely unplayable, which is a shame. :(

2K, When is the patch for the patch going to be released?

[Jajuka]

Ok. Last update. Hitching is GONE.

It appears that the problem for me WAS with Hector. As soon as I saw him, the game started hitching. The person that I thought I already killed in one of my previous posts wasn't Hector, it was one of the other people you need to photograph. I finally found Hector and killed him. The hitching IMMEDIATELY stopped as soon as he drew his last breath. :) I was lucky that he was walking all over the security systems and turrets I hacked, because I don't think I would have been able to kill him very easily with the way my game was playing.

I don't know what actually happened to cause this problem with Hector. Maybe his character started some memory loop/glitch in the system, and was glitching every second until his character was dead. The only other thing I noticed, was that as soon as you meet him, the dramatic music starts to play and doesn't go back to normaly until you apparently kill him. Probably has nothing to do with it, but I thought I'd mention it.

So, to anyone else who has this problem when Hector appears, do yourself a favor and go nuts all over him until he's dead. Because if the glitch is the same as mine (glitch disappears when he's dead), you'll want to get rid of him ASAP.

I'd still like to know why there are no members of 2K trying to help people in this thread... very dissapointing. :mad:

[h4us3r]

Check out my thread on the "hitching" when it pops up on the forum. I think I've figured out why it does it.

Thread title is "360 graphics "hitching"".

Basically I think its an issue with the multi-part goal Finish Cohen's Masterpiece. If you attempt to kill one rodriguez (the nitro splicer) and let him get away, then start killing the other 3 guys the graphics start to hitch every couple of seconds. If you are experiencing the hitching problem, finish killing all four guys (I'd start with rodriguez because of precedence) and it should stop as soon as the last one is dead. I think the goal is causing too much info to be loaded into the cache so the graphics start taking a beating, dunno for sure though. Check this possiblity out and let me know how it turns out.

[dazzi220]

regardless tho, mine and many others have been left with a game that is practically unplayable, mine freezes, crashes and the texture take a week to load it. Its a complete mess and I've tried absolutly everything.

Its been a waste of £50 and it I wanted this much trouble I'd have bought the pc version. The fact 2K can't even be arsed to atleast release a small statement agknowledging theres a problem speaks wonders.

Sad thing is after my first 360 broke last year I sold everything xbox then reluctantly bought the elite just for bioshock, I feel like a right twat now. I'm very close to selling my copy of the game as I can't see a fix anythime soon if they're not even accepting theres a problem....

[Daz1967]

I've just exchanged my October 2006 built premium Xbox 360 for a new one with HDMI built in July 2007. It has a BenQ DVD drive. When I play BioShock on it, I'm again getting minor but annoying hitches and everytime a Big Daddy appears on screen the framerate drops horribly with the whole game feeling treacly and running in slow-motion. Why does this happen? It never happened prior to the patch on either of my previous Xbox 360s. :confused:

[dogbert1280]

yea, i think it might be caused by an overloading of info into the HD cache. im curious though as to whether this might be fixable if you were to free up some space on your hard drive (im currently getting the delayed texture loading glitch) so i will experiment with it tonight (have not patched bioshock because im too afraid it wont run afterwords)

[Daz1967]

I have a 120 GB HDD drive with around 84 GB free so if that isn't enough to run BioShock smoothly then there's something seriously, seriously wrong with this "update" (or downgrade as I like to call it!). On my old 20 GB HDD with less than 2 GB free the game ran perfectly with no issues of any kind for the 20 odd hours I played it. Then this downgrade came along and made the game run inconsistently, something it works fine, other times it hitches and slowdowns to the point where it makes Two Worlds look amazingly smooth!!!

This issue really needs fixing, the developers have basically turned a superb £50 game into a flawed £20 budget title... :confused:

[cyanosis117]

Hey everyone, just thought I'd throw in my two cents.

I tried the RB+LB fix and lo and behold, as many have experienced, it didn't work. The game still stuttered every 15 seconds or so.

However, I am a bit of an excessive saver (seriously its ridiculous, I have twenty or so saves in Arcadia alone and probably possibly 100 or more overall), so I deleted about 12 of the most recent ones (not the ten most recent, i left about three from the last 15 or so).

This, through some unexplained voodoo, has solved the stuttering (as well as significantly sped up the loading of the save/load screens.)

If you are normal and only have a handful of save games, this may be completely irrelevant and i wouldn't suggest you delete all your saves, but for those people whose save habits test the boundaries, it could well be a contributing factor.

This may or may not be helpful for people, I just thought I would put it out there. Good luck.

[Daz1967]

I'd say that was a coincidence myself as whether you have 1,000 save games or one shouldn't make any difference to the running of the game, only perhaps slow down the access to the load or save screen whenever you go to it.

I'm having erratic performance since the update, sometimes the game runs fine with the odd minor hitch and other times, like the last I played it, it was hitching every time I came across a splicer and the framerate was dropping to unplayable levels when a Big Daddy appeared onscreen. As I keep saying this didn't happen AT ALL prior to the update.

[GibGezr]

R+L button worked for me. I played this game through twice, no problems. My son has started playing it, and it had the hiccups every 15-30 seconds. Tried the R+L button trickand it fixed it. If clearing the cache is all that is needed, why the heck haven't 2K released a patch that just clears the cache every time the game is booted, and every time you load a new level? That is a pretty easy fix for what seems to be the majority of people experiencing stuttering issues.

[bioshocking]

Hey everyone, just thought I'd throw in my two cents.

I tried the RB+LB fix and lo and behold, as many have experienced, it didn't work. The game still stuttered every 15 seconds or so.

However, I am a bit of an excessive saver (seriously its ridiculous, I have twenty or so saves in Arcadia alone and probably possibly 100 or more overall), so I deleted about 12 of the most recent ones (not the ten most recent, i left about three from the last 15 or so).

This, through some unexplained voodoo, has solved the stuttering (as well as significantly sped up the loading of the save/load screens.)

If you are normal and only have a handful of save games, this may be completely irrelevant and i wouldn't suggest you delete all your saves, but for those people whose save habits test the boundaries, it could well be a contributing factor.

This may or may not be helpful for people, I just thought I would put it out there. Good luck.

Thanks for that as it helped me resolve my issues however AFTER deleting the saves THEN I cleared the cache using the XX LB RB XX method.

I would recommend others try the same.

Cheers dude. :cool:

[hidannik]

If clearing the cache is all that is needed, why the heck haven't 2K released a patch that just clears the cache every time the game is booted, and every time you load a new level?

Because it's not just BioShock's cache; the HDD cache applies to all games you've run with the HDD attached. Also, it doesn't just cache information loaded from the DVD-ROM, but also stores any updates downloaded from Xbox Live, and all original Xbox compatibility files.

Were they to do as you suggested, they'd be forcing every other game to load data from DVD-ROM rather than the cache. What's worse, every game you have that's been patched or updated (including BioShock) would have to redownload its patch or update from Xbox Live when you played it. And just to top it off, any original Xbox games that have become supported for compatibility since the Xbox 360's launch would also have to redownload their compatibility files to be playable.

Here's a real-world example, to make this concrete: I was having the hitch problem at Fort Frolic. I cleared the cache (which didn't help). Today I put in Black (an original Xbox game). It wouldn't play until I redownloaded the compatibility update from Xbox Live. I also put in Oblivion. It needed to redownload its patches before it would be safe to play.

This is why clearing the HDD cache is considered a last resort, requiring special undocumented operations (LB+RB in BioShock, or XX LB RB XX in the system memory menu) to execute.

And you want this to happen every time BioShock runs, and every time you change levels?


Hans

[LukDev]

I was having the same problem with the hitching, for me it started just before Fort FRolic and was hitching every 2 seconds or so. I cleared the cache both ways,(from the dashboard and in the game which didn't help a single bit! Next I tried an older save(I only have two) and voila no hitching. I dunno maybe the save games get corrupted or something.

[montie1001]

I read Jajuka's post aobut Fort Frolic and the syptoms he/she was getting. When I made my pervious post I couldnt quite remember when the hitching had started, but was well p**sed off about it all.

Anyway, after reading Jajuka's post I thought I'd continue Fort Frolic with the 2 second time lapse- hey presto- (minor spoiler) as soon as I killed the last of the four chappies - the hitching stopped almost instantly. I am now on the next level with NO Problems whatsoever.

All nice and rosie?

Well actually- no. I still cant beleive that this micky mouse company '2K' haven't bothered to address what I consider a huge defect in their program/game. It clearly isnt working as it should be, and the game testers should be sacked- or beaten - or both.

I wont buy another 2K game in the future- because I am not sure whether the same issue might arise. All they had to do- was post a message- email a few of us- or do something to reassure us that they are/were aware of the problem, and have it in hand. But no- silence is their method.

To sum up- if you're hitching every 1-2 seconds- in Fort Frolic- PLAY ON (as best as you can) and all will get better.

To be honest - all of this has kind of spolied the game for me - as I didnt play it for over a week and I have been so frustrated over not being able to play it.

Thanks Jajuka!
Montie

[CaptainMayhem88]

I read Jajuka's post aobut Fort Frolic and the syptoms he/she was getting. When I made my pervious post I couldnt quite remember when the hitching had started, but was well p**sed off about it all.

Anyway, after reading Jajuka's post I thought I'd continue Fort Frolic with the 2 second time lapse- hey presto- (minor spoiler) as soon as I killed the last of the four chappies - the hitching stopped almost instantly. I am now on the next level with NO Problems whatsoever.

All nice and rosie?

Well actually- no. I still cant beleive that this micky mouse company '2K' haven't bothered to address what I consider a huge defect in their program/game. It clearly isnt working as it should be, and the game testers should be sacked- or beaten - or both.

I wont buy another 2K game in the future- because I am not sure whether the same issue might arise. All they had to do- was post a message- email a few of us- or do something to reassure us that they are/were aware of the problem, and have it in hand. But no- silence is their method.

To sum up- if you're hitching every 1-2 seconds- in Fort Frolic- PLAY ON (as best as you can) and all will get better.

To be honest - all of this has kind of spolied the game for me - as I didnt play it for over a week and I have been so frustrated over not being able to play it.

Thanks Jajuka!
Montie

the only problem with this though in my case is that my game still hitches even after I did what Jajuka said to do so this "fix" is only for few people.

[montie1001]

:confused: Hey Captain- did you finish Fort Frolic- the whole level. If its still hitching then there must be a multiple issue- I feel for you!!!

Good luck.

Montie

[CaptainMayhem88]

:confused: Hey Captain- did you finish Fort Frolic- the whole level. If its still hitching then there must be a multiple issue- I feel for you!!!

Good luck.

Montie

yes unfortunately the game was still hitching after I beat the entire level and was still hitching when I beat the game, the only time it didn't was when I fought the last boss...after that I've cleared the HD cache and so this next time I play through will be the moment of truth for me.

[PrivateJoker]

Dear Ken Levine,

Would you kindly recreate a thread to answer our questions about Bioshock's storyline? :)

Congratulations on the game being such a commercial success, its probably time to get to work on the sequel/expansion!

Best Regards,

PrivateJoker

[Mrdones]

I am experiencing the same problem. I just plan to take my game back to walmart as a defective product from the manufacture and get my money back!!

[CaptainMayhem88]

yeah I've had enough now I was playing through again and got to arcadia and big suprise the game started freezing again this is earlier than the first time I played through the game, and yes I have cleared the cache both of the game itself and that of the hard drive I've even deleted all of my old saves but to no avail. This game is a very wonderful game graphic wise and storyline wise it's just sad that I have to stop playing this game because 2K is just sitting on their asses not even acknowledging that the game has a problem. As far as I am concerned I will not be buying any 2K game in the future because if this is the way they treat just one game how would they possibly treat more. I think that 2k and EA should partner up seeing how they're both lazy with game maintenance.

[montie1001]

Below is an email I sent to 2K customer support and their reply! It would appear that the customer support team are not aware of the hitching problems as they dont actualy refer to it, and gave me a long list of potential remedies!

My favourites are:
Dont use solvents on the play disc!
Make sure your unit is plugged in!!!!
I especially like the last line which says "STATUS - SOLVED"

LOL

Anyway- I've given up. Mine is running OK now after Fort Frolic (see previuos post)- but I cant be bothered to finish the game now. Fed up.

Montie



Subject
When are you going to sort out BIOSHOCK then?

Discussion Thread
Response (Overflow UK 4) 20/09/2007 02.54 PM
Hello Matt,

Steps for troubleshooting for Xbox 360...

1. Make sure all of your appropriate connections are functioning (Power cables and AV cables are all fully attached)

2. Make sure your game disc is free of dust and/or scratches. To clean the disc:

*Hold the disc by the edges without touching the surface with your fingers.
*Clean the disc with a soft cloth, lightly wiping from the center outwards.
*Do not use solvents or chemicals to clean the disc.
*Try to play the game again.

3. Try changing the video mode for the graphics on the xbox360. Try loading the xbox360 without the disk. Then from the tabs goto the "System" tab --> "Console Settings" --> "Display" --> "Screen format". Change this over to normal mode for me then try the game again.

4. Make sure the Time Setting on your Xbox360 is set to today's date.

5. Remove all unnecessary peripherals, and then test to see whether the problem still occurs.

6. Try clearing out the xbox360 cache folder on the hard drive. To do this turn on the xbox360 without the game inside to load the dashboard. From here make sure your controller is working and you can move around the menu. Place in the game disk and hold down the A button. Keep this button held until the game starts to load up past the intro screen.

7. If you have internet access, we suggest logging onto the internet to see if there is any patches or updates for the game. It will appear on screen if there is an update for the game when you connect online.

8. If your using a normal TV, try changing the PAL settings. Try loading the xbox360 without the disk. Then from the tabs goto the "System" tab --> "Console Settings" --> "Display" --> "PAL settings". Change this over from the current PAL setting to the other setting in use.

Customer 10/09/2007 04.56 PM

Hello kind Sir/Madam,

Silence is golden.....

Just kind of wondering when you were going to sort out your issue with the X360 version of Bioshock. Anytime soon?

Great game - but annoying beyond words that you have released this with such an issue. I will certainly think before buying anymore 2K games in the future and I am making a point of telling everyone I know of this.

Will you be bothered to respond?

I wonder.

Matt

:o Question Reference No070910-000286
Product Level 1: Microsoft Xbox 360
Product Level 2: BioShock
Date Created: 10/09/2007 04.56 PM
Last Updated: 20/09/2007 02.54 PM
Status: Solved




Please be sure to delete all previous correspondence when replying. This will help us to process your response in a more timely and efficient manner.

Kind Regards,

2K Games Technical Support

[CaptainMayhem88]

I like how the tech support tells you to hold in A when Mr Levine said that doesn't work that you have to hold in LB+RB.

[Tech John]

I like how the tech support tells you to hold in A when Mr Levine said that doesn't work that you have to hold in LB+RB.

Just for clarity.

The correct way to clear the cache files for Bioshock is to hold down the LB and RB buttons during game startup. Other games do use the A button method but not Bioshock. It is possible that the agent who you were speaking was mistaken.

[montie1001]

Just for clarity.

The correct way to clear the cache files for Bioshock is to hold down the LB and RB buttons during game startup. Other games do use the A button method but not Bioshock. It is possible that the agent who you were speaking was mistaken.

This is exactly my point- the agent was mistaken!! Surely 2K would have sent an email or circular to ALL of their staff exaplaining the issues and the UNSOLVED status of it.

I would have prefers a response of reassurance- rather than the proforma stupid suggestion email.

Anyway- I noticed that on the day I signed up to these forums- that 2K had never had such a high amount of traffic on their site, or these forums for that matter. Maybe, they like the attention- bad or good.

Well, as prevously stated, Im fed up now with 2K- so i'm going to stop moaning - cause it makes me look like I havent got anything better to do with my life (which i have believe it or not).

it reminds me of the British Goverment- do what they want, annoying, need removing.

Peace.
:)

[frontdoortopfloor]

hey all...
so yeah got the hitch problem too in fort frolic but it just happened at the very end of the level and seemed to resolve itself on starting the next level hephaeston.

all seemed well in the world until i enterde the corridor with the splicers who are lyin on the ground pretending to be corpses - they got up and i wiped them out but the game froze and now i cant actually leave the room as neither door will open!

anyone got a clue how to fix this?
so gutted was really lovin this game now i just wanna get rid of it!

[BioShockWins]

I got weird slow downs (like frame loses?) and weird blue things going across (horizontally) across my screen in Cohen's home when fighting the ice houdinis.

Of course, it just might have been their ice ball things that I saw, and it was me being frozen.

[TBGamer]

I restarted the game from the autosave of Fort Frolic. I played the goals in order and took out Hector as soon as I saw him. I have not had a single pausing problem. I had terrible pausing(every second for about a second) with my old saves in Fort Frolic. Maybe between the patch, restarting Fort Frolic and playing the objectives in order I have found the solution. I have almost finished the the next Haephestus or ?? with no problems.

[dazzi220]

like magic mione has started working ok again....for now, I just wiped the cache using both methods and delated my saves, I've done this countless times over the past 2 weeks or so but for some reason its worked now....fingers crossed.

just goes to show how messed up that update is, steer clear everyone for christ sake!

[Emmanuel]

iam with u speef i have minor problems that wont get resolved and i tried all their clearin cache methode and u know what it does, JACK ****. I have some weird texture pop in problem and 2k are not smart enouph to find out about it. the problem is when i burn some one in bioshock and then i save and then load it up i see the body that i burned textureless and it stays like this forever unless u start from the part befor burning bodies. but its real anoying that i have a 360 game and i feel that iam playing a play station one game. i tried every smart thing such as formating my hard drive or rent an diff copy of the game still doesnt work and i played it at a frindes house it still have this problem now i dont know if this problems happened thrugh my first play throug becuse i felt that i had no problems the first time but then again i dont remeber burning bodys and then save right away and load it back up and searched the bodys that ive burned. pop ins happen in unreal engin but not to that point wher their is no textures. another step i have taken is play without memory and still this problem happens i think the new update that came messed up my game for good even thogh i cleared it but it might still have messed up my game in some way.
Its like a virouse that u get in a computer and after finding and erasing the virous the bad effect is still on the computer.

[Rose Nyght]

This may be off topic, but in my game, I don't have one of the audio diaries, I find it, but the game says I don't have it in my posession, and when I go back totry to see if I miss it. its not there. I found this out when I was going over to see if I had them all to see if I could get the achivement. Is it a problem with my game itself or is it for all the games? (Note: this is the 360 game)

[Hector Rodriguez]

One of Ryan's ADs from Farmer's Market (I think) is listed in the Neptune's Bounty AD archive.

[Rose Nyght]

One of Ryan's ADs from Farmer's Market (I think) is listed in the Neptune's Bounty AD archive.
YES! Thats the one, thanks =3