Xbox 360 losing sound and showing green static

Hi all, the title says it all. My Xbox 360 Elite decided to cut the sound and give me some faint green static on top of the game I was playing earlier (GTA V).

It happened about an hour and 45 minutes into playing. I turned it off, let it cool down for a bit and then tried again. Twenty minutes of play later it did it again. I've heard a lot of horror stories about inadequate heat sinks around the GPU in Xbox 360s - does this situation sound familiar to anyone?

I've had GTA V for two days now and my girlfriend's currently on holiday, so I'm pretty addicted and want to get as much out of my system before she comes home. So I've put the Xbox in the freezer for now to let it cool down, just wondering if I'm right in guessing that this is overheating, or are there any other possibilities/solutions?

Cheers!

There's nothing wrong with the heat sink if it's properly attached. Is the fan running? Blowing dust out of it with some canned air is about the only thing you can try that doesn't require taking it apart and fixing it.

@drsuave: I had a similar problem - which only affected GTAV on my 360. Every other game I had worked perfectly. I would play GTAV for about 20 minutes then it would hang and just completely freeze. The only option was to switch off the xbox at the plug and turn it on again. Then I would get maybe another 15 or 20 minutes before it happened again. It's a heat thing. I sucked all the dust out of the 360 and put it in a different place, etc. I approached Rockstar who advised the usual (clear the cache, try the disc in a different 360, etc).

Then I fixed it. You know those freezer block things, like this...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Packs-Freezer-Blocks-250g-Blue/dp/B004LB38QM/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1428404988&sr=8-4&keywords=freezer+block

...I just got 2 of these and placed them (on a cloth to soak up any condensation) on the 360 (with the 360 lying flat, not standing upright). After that, I was able to play for hours at a time. Never had the problem again (although I didn't do this anymore as I have a One now).

Try it. It's hardly practical, but it's cheap and definitely worked for me.

Thanks guys. I did actually end up taking it apart and poking around fixing it. Turns out it was actually missing a few heat absorption pads inside. I made my own out of copper coins and got an hour and a half of play before it cut out again... better, but than five minutes but still really annoying!

That's a clever idea @mpl911, I'll give it a go. Just wish there was a more permanent solution. Also really hope I'm not about to red ring!

The only other cause I can think of could be the HDMI cable. If I had a component cable I'd experiment with that.

@drsuave: It happened to my friend and he asked me to fix it which i did. The problem usually is way too much dust inside which slows down the fan and creates blockage for ventilation. What I did is open his console up and used a compressed air can on it and used a towel to get the hard to reach clumps of dust. After a hour of use no problems to the xbox.