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[sinister slipknot]

Couldn't have put it better, and MS knows what the problems are, like what was MS' solution to the poorly designed Xclamps? Eproxy on the GPU in the elites.  

[biosehnsucht]

Eh, when my launch 360 died (last nov/december I think, right after they extended the warrenties on early/launch units) they had it back to me in 2 weeks, during a busy shipping season. The phone process was quick and painless.

I have a mod'd xbox that still works fine to this day (mostly XBMC, some emu stuff, some old xbox games).

I had a PS2, that died a week after modding. The installer could find nothing wrong with it.. no blown fuses, nothing burnt, uninstalled the mod and still no good. I've gone through several dead PS2s trying to put together one from peices that works even w/o a modchip, and finally gave up. I should have just bought another new one, except you can't get ye olde big PS2s new already at the time I was trying to do this.. stupid slimlines.

I think I'll probably do like a friend of mine did, import a PS2 from Japan.. most of the ones on yahoo auctions aren't as abused as US consoles.. then mod that. I still haven't played MGS3, or God of War, and a few other titles.. plus there are several titles I'd like to play again. Most of the titles I want to play though, weren't even released in the US ...

My NES will probably work once I get off my ass and clean the contacts. SNES is fine, Dreamcast #2 is fine (the first one developed an overheating issue, after I opened it up out of curiosity.. funny thing is, nothing is visibly wrong with it).. Playstation (original) is fine after replacing the lens assembly.

My 360 has probably seen more hours of use than my PS2 did and probably more than my Playstation.. not as many yet as the NES or SNES, however.


So I guess there's a "problem" but part of it is, every single person goes online and whines when something happens, and there's no feedback from people who have zero problems. So it looks worse than it is. And in fact, MS is really great about replacing dead consoles (within warrenty) and will ship you a casket pretty quick, all you do is arrange pickup or take it into a UPS store once you have packaged your 360 according to the (simple) instructions. Wait a few weeks, and you're good.

[FCTE]

QUOTE(Trevante @ May 25 2007, 01:19 AM)

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?

Understandable, but still a cop out answer. I mean........... Come On!......... With all the technology available and cooling options on the market, coupled with Microsoft's virtually unlimited engineering resources and funding you mean to tell me that they could not create a decent cooling feature for a high powered gaming console???

My PC is more "functional" than my 360 and yet I never have to feel like I'm playing it on "borrowed time."

[spodee]

I purchased a deck 02/07/06 w/ manufacture date 12/31/05 did not buy an extended warranty.  04/03/06 console died w/ less than 60 hours on it.  Well ventilated never hacked never even moved from where it was placed under my 50" TV after the first time I pulled it out of the box.  I have 2 other friends that have purchased w/ similar stories.  MS would not accept my return as I was 3 days outside the original 90 day warranty that has since been changed back to a year like the original xbox.  I have since had my brother and one other friend tell me they won't buy a 360 because they are concerned about the lack of quality the console has demonstrated.  These are people w/ lots of disposable income that have heard too many horror stories.

Did the article mention how horrible MS xbox customer support has gotten.  W/ the original xbox MS was awesome.  If something broke MS cross shipped no questions asked and sometimes included small freebies and generally paid for DHL shipping.  

To get my 93 day old barely used 360 fixed 3 days outside of 90 day warranty I had to file a BBB complaint which got me an offer for a discounted repair price not including shipping.  Upon faxing MS XBOX VP of customer support Richard Kaplan a letter of complaint showing interest in bringing his local TV news KIRO 7 to his office to discuss manufacturing and quality problems w/ the XBOX 360, his secretary suddenly called me and they decided to pay for my refurb if I covered shipping costs also giving me the option again to purchase the extended 2 year warranty which I did.

This is a true story and this process took approximately eight weeks last year.  I am an XBOX fan boy.  I bought an original XBOX w/in 3 mos. of its original release and purchased three of those decks.  I was on LIVE w/in a month of its public availability.  I will never buy a SONY product.  I am old enough to remember BETA VCR's and DAT and a host of other SONY f/up's.  BUT MS HAD BETTER GET THERE S TOGETHER CUZ PEOPLE WON'T PUT UP WITH CRAPPY PRODUCT FOREVER!!

[richbambam]

Mine got the 3rlod about 2 month ago It lasted about 15 month,& been doing the towel overheating trick since to fix it temporary the fix usually lasts about 4 days before the 3rlod re-apear,I love the 360 but havent got the spare cash to go out & buy another even when i do get the spare cash I will be strongly thinking about a PS3 as i dont want to risk buying another xbox360 only to last another 12+ month,I wish i new someone locally who new how to do the x-clamp replacement,i wouldnt know the first thing what to do else i would try it myself,Its total bS that MS are denying theres a problem,I have got several consoles in my loft one nearly 15 years old & still plays perfectly,I have read on many forums about the 3rlod & know that there is a definat flaw with the xbox360 & come to the conclusion that MS havent done a damn thing yet to fix the problem in new consoles this is why i want to hold off buying a new one,I think this is going to hurt xbox360 in the long run as more & more people lose confidence In buying the console,If the PS3 reduces its price then I will go & buy one of them instead,try & make my current 3rlod last until this Autumn by doing the temp fix make my decision then,Its even banned as well but can't really argue with that I have had a good run on xboxlive

[Avenger 2.0]

Maybe that's why the Xbox 360 will sell more than the PS3. I'm already on my third console now and I'm not even a big user, just play like 2 hours a week. If this continues, I'll have had 8 consoles when the Xbox 360 retires...

[FCTE]

QUOTE(spodee @ May 25 2007, 05:36 AM)

BUT MS HAD BETTER GET THERE S TOGETHER CUZ PEOPLE WON'T PUT UP WITH CRAPPY PRODUCT FOREVER!!

Yes they will, it's called Windows. The only operating system that needs at least 3 different crutch applications just to keep it running.  

[billygraf]

I bought an xbox 360 last march and I am on my 4th xbox 360, after my third one broke I told microsoft that if they didn't give me an xbox 360 elite, I would never buy another microsoft product  and they sent me a brand new elite in the box. Every person I know is on atleast there 2nd 360.  I would say the failure rate is around 30%

[slunk]

ms was clearly so keen on getting a head start in the console war that they skipped the hardware testing and put these things straight on the shelf. I, being a big xbox1 fan, went straight out and handed over 300 odd quid for an untested piece of hardware. That alone is enough to piss me off. The fact that my 360 got the 3RLOD out of its warranty and MS wanted nothing to do with it was just the icing on the cake.

I've now bought a macbook and my pc is is running ubuntu. might get a ps3 when more games come out. MS = balls

[Lizard King]

Mine finally red-lighted on the 9th of May...I was a launch 360 built in October of 2005. It was the update that killed it.

I have 9 people in my buddy list. ALL 9 have had to send their units back. I don't care how you try to refute it, more than 2-3% have had problems. You can say all the "you only hear about those with problems", but it's beyond that, almost comical. How are we supposed to proliferate as a community and recoemmend these consoles to others when there is a problem like this? I've been telling people to wait for the 65nm CPU and definitely buy the $60 warranty.

I also find it rediculous the amount of time that you must wait to get the empty box, send it out and have it returned. 3-4 weeks for East Coast. This is a problem they created, not an abuse from the user - better service is a must.

[JCBDigger]

QUOTE(biosehnsucht @ May 25 2007, 09:27 AM)

So I guess there's a "problem" but part of it is, every single person goes online and whines when something happens, and there's no feedback from people who have zero problems.

I agree and think that Microsoft can never recover fully from these rumours and the repeated failures many people have had.  I know about 6 people with 360's and mine is the only one to fail.  Mine was one of the early UK ones they rushed to ship to get in before Christmas 2005, most of the others are at least 6 months newer.

After about 4 months of use mine died.  Microsoft was very helpful on the phone and would have swapped it free but expected it to take 2 weeks so I returned it to the shop for an instant exchange.  (UK law gives much better protection than US law so we have always had better than 90 days from the retailer although the law does not specify an exact time scale.)

Even if there were never any more failures there would be news reports repeating old news.  Microsoft's only real hope is that the PS3 is just as unreliable in it's early days.

I never read PS3 forum's so I have no idea about Sony's reliability.

Faulty or not the xbox360 has the games I want to play and I like the controllers better than the Sony ones.  I won't change and I suspect that comparing the reliability of consoles is also low down other gamers choices when they go to buy one.

[hardcandy]

Having all three new consoles, 360 (December 2005) + PS3 + Wii, and reading around on the web, I have to say the 360 is the one causing the most fear of a hardware failure. I have the extended warranty until spring 2008.
But a year after the PS# and Wii have been around and gotten some use, perhaps they will catch up to the 360's reputation.
I am dreading Halo3, I have a feeling the loads caused by extended playing and the newer AI will show any weakness present. Guess, I'll have to run through Oblivion again and see if anything breaks.

[BanditRW]

Well I own 2 360's ,one of which is a Launch Day console, and I have had no problems with mine.I have also bought one as a Birthday gift for a friend and they have had no problems as well.Compare that  to my PS2 which I am now on my 4th one because of bad lasers.I bought a Launch Day Xbox 1 and it lasted 6 months before the crappy Thompson Drive died but it was an easy fix by replacing it with a Sammy.
I don't understand why everyone can't resist the urge to condemn a console manufacturer for problems that every game console released has had.The original Playstation suffered from overheating and DRE's,the SCPH-1001 model, but once again I had purchased a Launch Day system that everyone had complained about but I've never had a single problem with it and it is still working today.The same with the Dreamcast where there were many reports of overheating and some units even melting down,but once again my Launch Dreamcast is still going strong.A LOT of these problems are often caused by the end user whether they want to admit it or not and some may not even realize it,course I'm not defending MS..not all the blame rests with the end user...they do have some manufacturing problems they need to address.
As for my PS3 well....things haven't went smoothly.It crashed 3 times while I was trying to go thru the setup and still occasionally exhibits quirky behavior...the main problem being the Bluetooth sync problem with the controller,it will suddenly develop a mind of its own and thats not a good thing in the middle of a firefight,lost count how many times I got axed because the controller wouldn't respond.

[Millenia1x]

i had a red light 360 but sold it for parts on ebay

got another one and that got banned

i got a new motherboard but now i think the dvd drive is dying


might go pick up a wii

[dvsone]

The fact is 90% of the problems are fixable via the X-Clamp removable method founded by RBJtech. Thanks to him I bought my 360 back to life with less an $5 worth of parts. However I can not blame my 3ROL issues totally on MS because

a) I used an intercooler for 3-4 weeks and started having 3ROL issues with it and had to rip it off
I open my 360 and accidentally unscrewed the 8 black screws holding the X-Clamps to the bottom of the case.

Anyway there obviously is a problem with many 360's. We have identified the problem and so has MS, the only thing they have to do is address the issue in their manufacturing process. The 65nm chips should also help reduce the failure rates.