Hi, last days I've been having this issue I don't even know why. Just to clarify my system is a Xbox 360 Core (Xenon, yes still alive!!) and an official HDD 60GB.

Since a few weeks ago, sometimes when I'm playing something and decided to quit to dashboard (change game, check friends, whatever) it suddently crashes and give me 1 red light (bottom right) and black screen.

I searched online and made the hidden feature to check the error that was 1013 which is equal to E71 error (means Dashboard faulty or something like that).

What doesn't make sense, is that it happens ONLY SOMETIMES, and ONLY when I quit from a game to dashboard and it's completly random. I can't recreate the error, it does it when it wants. My games are installed in the HDD and everything runs fine (loading/saving) no problems at all. Dashboard works good aswell, as said before it's a weird 'crash' and happens only sometimes and always when quiting to dashboard, not in a middle game.

I've cleared and reformated the HDD and I think it's something related to it I don't know, since if it was the dashboard or even it works or not not a mid term.

It's driving me crazy this kind of problem because I can't get a solution and don't know what's causing it. It happens let's say, 3 in each 10 times I quit from a game to dashboard.

I've searched online and all I found is related to E71/1013 but of people which's xbox doesn't even boot and gives the error when it's turned on. Mine boots ALWAYS well, no problems at all.

Sorry for my english but I don't even know where else to ask.

This one can be tough in my opinion.

The decision on what to do is the toughest part. I think this error has possible connections in several areas.

First try to reset the console. A Power UP while holding the Synch button down

It could be files and file management. Could be the harddrive needs organizing. Could be an update picked up from Xbox Live that isn't quite jiving with an older console.

Could be the HD connector on the main board.

Other sources talk about having the Southbridge chip reballed. Perhaps even the Gpu

I don't want to steer you wrong. Wait a few more days and get some more contribution from others.

I really don't know. It's weird because if I am playing ALL DAY long, everything's fine. But as soon as I quit to dashboard it might crash or not. It's completly random.

I never messed up with the x clamps inside, the only thing I did was to clean the console inside, nothing else.

It only bothers me because I don't know where the problem is coming from. I even thinked of trying to play without the HDD but since it's random and I don't have other hard drive, I don't want to play a lot of time of the DVD because it makes a lot of noise. Even the console itself is noisy runing the games from the HDD.

Really need a hand over here of someone expert. I'm not experiecing any kind of problem inside of the games, even after hours the game keeps smooth and without freezing or whatever. I think my GPU's fine idk.

Definitely try resetting the console like wilgo45 mentioned, clearing the cache, and try to play without the HDD attached.

I had a similar situation with an older console, and I thought as well that the console was going bad, but it was actually the HDD slowly dying on me. Swapped it for a new one, and it worked all the way 'till I traded the system in for a slim.

First of all thank you for your fast answer. The point here that I can't understand is why is it giving me an error related to dashboard error and not to the hdd itself? I mean, if it's really an hdd error why is it relating it as a dashboard issue?!

I really don't have money now to buy a new system and I am a completely hardcore gamer (play around 4-7h each day) and I am trying to keep this system up for as long as possible (until the new Xbox is out I hope so). The first time since ever that I am starting to get worry is now because this is the first time that my Xbox has a system error related and I don't know where it's coming from.

Why do you mean that the hdd is dying? I can install everything, save and load with no problem on it.

But as somebody said before its a tough one because it's a random issue and only sometimes.

I have already cleared the cache and reseted the Xbox.


PS: is there any secure way to check for any corrupt sectors or some issue in the hdd by connecting it to a pc? I have a 2.5'' external case. And if so, what program should I use?

Thank you!

Sure you can install and play everything, but does that mean the hdd is reading the sectors completely error free? Can you be sure of that? It could be the location of your profile stored on the hdd, when its being read as you go back to dash, one sector is read wrong, and throwing a bad bit into the loading, and you have an error. Its a possibility. Hdd's are mechanical devices, wear and tear, along with time, will break down any mechanical device. Better to eliminate the hdd as cause of the problem by separating the hdd from the console.

If you can play a game off the dvd drive, and can go back to the dash without it crashing, then you have ruled out the console as a possible source of the error.

I haven't seen any tools that defrag the hdd.

In theory, you can convert the HDD to PC format, check for bad sectors, and then convert back to XBOX format with the hddhackr utility and a HDD bios (.bin) file.

Thank you for your reply.

I still don't know what's causing it. Today I got it (after a while of not geting the error like 2 days in a row fine) and it was by quiting to the dashboard when playing a game from de DVD drive (with the HDD plugged in however).

One thing that I found after the crash is that when I turned on back again, the theme on the dash was the default one and not the one that I had (stored in the HDD).

Maybe an issue related to the theme when the dash is loading back from the game?

It's weird because it's only sometimes. If it was ALL the times for sure there would be some kind of problem in the HDD or whatever. But no, it's only like 3/10 times.

Maybe indeed your HDD is failing. I think you should make a profile backup and check the drive on a pc

How can I check it on a PC?

I've tried to connect the HD to a PC and then on disk managment I formated it to PC (FAT 32 or NTFS) and it said everything was alright.

But as soon as I plugged it back in on 360 on the HD section it was there! Like the 360 recognized it and didn't even needed to reformat it. Plus, all the games that I'd installed on it appeared there with a ! mark as corrupt but they were still there.

Like the HDD even formated with the computer, just keeped everything inside somehow. On the PC it showed 55 or something like that GB free (60gb HDD) so how is it possible that after a completely format on PC the 360 knew what was there and even recognized it!??!

I think you have formated only the DATA partition on the hard disk. Anyway you must run a checkdisk program, to check the hard disk. You can even use the internal windows tool.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315265