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[Xbox-Scene]

GamesIndustry.biz: Microsoft Needs to Act Now on Hardware Failures Posted by XanTium | May 24 23:58 EST | News Category: Xbox360

From GamesIndustry.biz' Newsletter: There is another problem which Microsoft faces at the moment - one which the company has shown even less sign of understanding, or addressing. It is the problem of hardware reliability and customer service, an area in which the Xbox 360 has a track record that is nothing short of utterly appalling - and an area which Microsoft absolutely must address, or risk handing the goodwill of the market back to its rivals. This problem hasn't gone away; in fact, from a consumer point of view, Microsoft appears to have done precisely nothing to address it. While the attention of the media may have turned to scrutiny of Sony's failings, the vast numbers of Xbox 360 owners who have been let down first by Microsoft's shoddy manufacturing, and subsequently by the company's arrogant and unfair policies with regard to customer service, have increased. Their voices are contributing to a groundswell of unrest and negative buzz which will hurt Microsoft very badly indeed if it is not addressed. To hardcore gamers, consoles are "special case" items; they are early adopters, generally have a large disposable income, and are willing to accept all manner of problems and flaws in order to enjoy the games they want to play. However, they are a small - if vocal - market. To everyone else, to the vast ocean of consumers to whom Microsoft must now appeal, if the PlayStation brand is to be unseated, a console is just another piece of consumer electronics, and it is subject to the same standards you would expect from your DVD player, your digital camera or your toaster. You wouldn't buy a specific DVD player, no matter how nice the feature-set, if a friend had told you that he bought one last year and had to return it to the manufacturer three times. Right now, those horror stories are proliferating; the word of mouth about Xbox 360 is that the games are great, but the hardware is a nightmare. If Microsoft is serious about reaching an audience with Xbox 360 which is bigger than the 20 million units achieved by Xbox, then that simply isn't good enough. It's time for Redmond to stop burying its head in the sand over this problem, and start coming up with solutions - before its unhappy customers become one of Sony's best assets. Full Story: gamesindustry.biz

[jmbear]

agreed. My failure rate for my webshop and local biz has been about 30% as oppposed to M$'s "claimed" 3-5% failure rate........ yeah go ahead M$ keep fooling yourself.

 

[mlapaglia]

^^ aren't you only going to hear from customers when their product isnt working right?

while i haven't had a broken console (still got a launch system), i'm guessing that there is still problems with others. i think a release from microsoft saying the percentage is being released.

i think one factor could be you never hear from the vast majority of people that never have problems, the same goes for the university of dayton, who gives the university laptops from compal. this specific laptop has great ratings from other users, but at the university all you hear is from the people with problems (even though most of the problems are caused by the user lol).

i do think that the percentage of return is high though, but not as high as other people are saying.

[licenz2kill]

Well ive got to say, i think the intercooler has a lot to do with the freezing and all. my system froze maybe a handful of times with it on, and ive taken it off 6 months ago and have yet to see it freeze again. out of all seriousness  i dont see anyone complaining about them breaking anymore (i have like 10 local friends who have a 360, and fifty online that play all the time), and i think they fixed that solder contact problem with the second wave of consoles. by the way, mine is either launch or second wave. i got it in january 2006. its a great machine!

[jagtown]

Hi,

I'm in Canada and I was just confirmed by an 1-800-4MY-XBOX that I will indeed be getting a refurbished xbox... Now I normally would say ... great... in the order that they are fixing units, they go out to the next customer waiting for their functional unit.... thats pretty efficient...

BUT... with possible hardware failures pretty much a matter of time (I know.. open to debate... perhaps im bias as im staring at 3 red lights after 5 months of perfect operation) before the problems return....

I mean the biggest arguement is... how many people had super nintendo's they needed to bring back... or even cd drive systems... My Dreamcast boots up fine to this day...  and my 360 costs hundreds more than that.....

I love my 360.... but my love will go down with each red light that I see.... I think the way things are heading.... its going to be a reocurring nightmare for alot of us.... and MS will need to wake us up if they want to keep us...

[mlapaglia]

QUOTE(licenz2kill @ May 25 2007, 12:26 AM)

Well ive got to say, i think the intercooler has a lot to do with the freezing and all. my system froze maybe a handful of times with it on, and ive taken it off 6 months ago and have yet to see it freeze again. out of all seriousness  i dont see anyone complaining about them breaking anymore (i have like 10 local friends who have a 360, and fifty online that play all the time), and i think they fixed that solder contact problem with the second wave of consoles. by the way, mine is either launch or second wave. i got it in january 2006. its a great machine!

if you think about it, and it's been said before, the intercooler pulls on the already existing fans.

for most people, if you keep you 360 well ventilated, you are fine with the original fans.

i wonder why no one has developed faster replacement fans for it yet?

[ThaCrip]

i gotta say from what i "hear" and my own experiences that the xbox360 seems alot less reliable than the original xbox was.

cause i got mine used (basically more or less new) from half.com and so far it's working BUT it does have a glitch in it and i do get a E74 from time to time.

basically if the system is cold (I.E. setting overnight) and i first power it up almost always (pretty much always) nothing shows up on the screen... but once i power it OFF and the back ON it almost always works perfectly fine then.

cause once it's working i basically have 0 problems with it (only had a freeze i think once or so in game, but that was before i bought the "Nyko Intercooler EX" for it, since it got this the system runs MUCH cooler!, i know this cause touching the side of the case is "noticeably" more colder to the touch vs without it)

but it's like someone said im SURE there is alot more failures of the system that microsoft is willing to admit. (they claim, what was it? 3-5percent?)

just some thoughts

[lowendfrequency]

I just wish that the warranty would reset itself upon reciept of a new/repaired console.  My first died just under a year and MS replaced it with a new unit for free.  I just sold it to a buddy to buy an elite and now it died on him only a week or so later.  Even though that console is only 6 months old, it's out of warranty.

[Liquidvlade Hiraduo]

I totally agree that Microsoft must do something, this story is similar to the one of the PlayStation 2, too many lasers dying and stuff, but not nearly as many 3 red light cases we have seen. It feels like the Xbox 360 is disposable. I bought mine on December 18th (2nd shipment) and it lasted me until March this year. I really took care of it and out of no where, bam and you gotta pay 129$ for re-pairs, which is extremely unfair. Customer service makes you feel like you must spend extra money in order to play.

The only good thing about it is the compesation you get for a well thrown (excuse the language) bitch-fit. I had my brother call who's good at that and he got 50% off on the repair, 6 months of Xbox Live, and 2 years of warranty, which isnt bad. Still sucks you gotta pay 65$ but its better than 130$ + shipping.

[vitorp07]

I completely agree everybody i know having a xbox 360 had some hardware failure including myself this is my second xbox and i had failure issues many times with that one too(way too much errors)i've been a fan of xbox since the first one came out but now i'm really not sure if i'm gonna buy the xbox 3 if it comes out one day.

[Paperstack.1]

hmmm...... the games for it are really addicting but the console is a major problem.... my sig says it all

* and no, those are not replacements from M$  

[Trevante]

QUOTE(jagtown @ May 24 2007, 11:37 PM)

I mean the biggest arguement is... how many people had super nintendo's they needed to bring back... or even cd drive systems... My Dreamcast boots up fine to this day...  and my 360 costs hundreds more than that.....

To be fair, you have to consider the type of technology used in the SNES and Dreamcast compared to the 360. Obviously when there's more stuff in a system, there's more room to go wrong. Sure MS could make a rock solid system if they made it like the Dreamcast, but then it wouldnt' be as functional as the 360 is would it?

[chuckthefuk]

Its true..  the word on the street....   If you want good games and a system that will breakdown get a 360.  if u want crappy games and a perfect system get a Wii...  if you want third degree burns and shotty physics get a PS3.

WORD.

[DuBob4432]

i don't think ms will ever admit there is a problem because i think then they are liable and may need to replace the consoles.  like replace them with a setup that doesn't have the issues, not just give you another box that more than likely just had some internal code reset, haha (purely speculation)

we all know what the problem is, and i am actually working on a copper gpu heatsink (i have the resources and the knowledge ), but i am still in alpha stages at best and basically am doing it more for proof of concept than anything else.  to rectify the issue, follows RBJTechs tips on cooling down the box w/ his homebrew mods, and also do the xclamp/xbracket mod.  also, once i get the copper heatsink done, i will probably send one over to RBJTech since he does have a lot of temperature data.  if it is better, it is better, if not, than so be it.  either way it is a fun way to learn solidworks

[faithlesssoul]

QUOTE(Liquidvlade Hiraduo @ May 25 2007, 01:42 AM)

I totally agree that Microsoft must do something, this story is similar to the one of the PlayStation 2, too many lasers dying and stuff, but not nearly as many 3 red light cases we have seen. It feels like the Xbox 360 is disposable. I bought mine on December 18th (2nd shipment) and it lasted me until March this year. I really took care of it and out of no where, bam and you gotta pay 129$ for re-pairs, which is extremely unfair. Customer service makes you feel like you must spend extra money in order to play.

The only good thing about it is the compesation you get for a well thrown (excuse the language) bitch-fit. I had my brother call who's good at that and he got 50% off on the repair, 6 months of Xbox Live, and 2 years of warranty, which isnt bad. Still sucks you gotta pay 65$ but its better than 130$ + shipping.

PlayStation 2, too many lasers and what did sony do fucking nothing the the new version sill
have shit lasers