Xbox 360 VGA adapter nightmare....

Hey, hopefully someone can help before I smash my Xbox to pieces.

A few months ago, I purchased the 360 VGA adapter so I could enjoy lagless gaming on my HDTV. From day one I've had problems, but recently they've been getting worse...

It'll randomly give me an "Out of range" message when I turn my xbox on occasionally, and in the past all I've done to rectify the problem is disconnect the VGA, connect to the TV with HDMI, boot up and turn off the console, reconnect the VGA and start up the 360 again resetting the resolution using Y + RT during boot. Worryingly, I might have to do that a few times before I can get a display through the VGA again.
It's been happening more and more, and over the last couple of days, I've been lucky to get the display working at all. This afternoon I literally connected/disconnected the VGA and swapped it with HDMI, Component and Scart a number of times all to no avail. However, this also happened a couple of weeks back, where nothing seemed to work, then after I'd given up, I plugged in the VGA again and all of a sudden it just worked for no reason, I didn't even have to set the res or anything.

Do any of you guys have an idea why this is happening? The intermittent nature of the problem is driving me mental. It doesn't seem to matter what I do, sometimes it works fine for days/weeks with no problems, then one day it'll just stop working and I'll have to fuck on with it until luckily it comes back on.

What's making me even more angry is the resolution reset for the 360, the hold RT + Y trick on the boot screen. If that sets the display to 640x480, which I know my TV doesn't have any problems with, how come it only works once in a while?

How is a cable that's plugged from console to TV, that doesn't get interfered with, in any way, not even changing channel (the TV is specifically for the 360), cause me so much grief?? I could always just go back to HDMI or composite but the lag is ridiculous in comparison, I don't think I could stand it....

Please, someone, help me out.

The TV in question is a 26" Sony KDL26T-2800.

 

I've tried the cable and console with an old CRT monitor and it worked straight away, I tried connecting an old laptop to the VGA port on the TV and it also worked straight away. I can't even begin to get my head around it. Someone's already said that my 360 is probably on it's way out, but it's totally fine through every other input....
It's mad isn't it.

 

Is your xbox resolution set to "auto", or do you have it set manually to 720p?

HDMI is causing lag for you? Really? The only cases I've heard of that happening is when the engine on the monitor is so old that it has a processing time. Even in most of those cases HDMI is better because if you turn off other processes, such as dynamic contrast or "special" video settings, it usually goes away.

 

When I use the VGA cable, I have to manually change the resolution to 1280 x 768, but through HDMI it's automatically at 720p. I'd use the HDMI but the lag is really bad, the TV is 2 years old now, so perhaps its age is a problem. Through HDMI the image is marginally sharper, but the colours are infinitely stronger. The lag comes from all the post processing the TV does to tidy up the image. It mightn't seem like a lot, but it's very noticeable to me. When I'm playing SF, I can tell you from the main menu or character select if there's lag on the display. I admittedly couldn't on VF, but 2D games I notice a mile off. An easy way to do a test (In SFIV) is to try Ibuki's Tsumuji loop. On a lagless display, you get a visual indicator when she finishes the Tsumuji and you have to press LP to combo, but through HDMI or with lag, I have to adjust the link by a few frames and hit the button earlier in the Tsumuji. That probably doesn't sound very conclusive, but I can tell almost instantly in most cases.

My TV doesn't have an option to disable all the fluff on the HDMI inputs, it doesn't have a game mode or anything like that.

 

How are you manually changing the resolution? Through the monitor, or through the xbox?

Theres nothing in the monitor options? Nothing at all? Does your sound run through the monitor or is it hooked up to a separate system?

 

It's an HDTV, not a monitor. I used an old style CRT monitor to test the cable, and the xbox. With the VGA cable connected, I have to set the resolution manually through the xbox. First of all, if Im getting an "Out of range" message when I first turn the xbox on, I hold the Y & RT buttons to reset the resolution to default (640x480), if that succeeds and I get a picture, I go to the display options in the Xbox system settings and change to the appropriate resolution for my TV's VGA port (1280x768@60Hz).

Literally, and I could take photo's to show you, the only display options on my TV are brightness/contrast, a choice of 3 preset image tones (warm, cool and something else), and P in P options. It's pretty bare.

The more I've thought about it, the more I'm thinking it's the TV. I haven't been able to get another xbox to test the TV and cable with. I'm going to get in contact with Sony and see what they have to tell me about it.

I'm not going to let this drive me mental, anymore. I'm just gonna settle on HDMI or Component connection temporarily, things have started coming together in my head about VF so I want to strike while the iron's hot and start getting down some good habits.

VF5 supports 4:3 aspect ratio doesn't it? I could always just get my old CRT TV and hook it up through scart, if I'm desperate for a lagless display in the meantime. I'd use the CRT monitor but I don't have a set of PC speakers to run the audio through.

 

you have a broken cable. Buy a new one or borrow one from friend to test it. Or go to friends place to test your cable.

 

I'll test the cable at a friends as you suggested, but I thought I'd already eliminated the cable as the problem by testing it with an old CRT monitor, where it worked 100% of the time at any resolution the monitor supported.

 

Do you keep your xbox at the same place all the time?
If not, your cable could be partially working in only some positions. Or could sony be so evil that they are pissing into
microsoft cerials?