Xbox 360.

mantis

I'm jst wondering if anyone has there orignal working xbox 360?

Every single person on my friends list has had to replace or repair there xbox 360 at least once. Most are on there 3rd or 4th one. I personally am on my 3rd one and I think this one is starting to act up. great:mad::mad:

Why is there such a high failure rate with Xbox? Is it because Microsoft runs the show? What is it?

On another note, I have owned video game consoles all my life starting with the original Pong. I have had just about every single console ever offered. Until the first Playstation, I have had no problems with these exceptions.

1) Nintendo you had to blow on the game or clean them sometimes after years of use. But I still own it and it still works to this day

2) Super Nintendo same thing. Games got dirty and a cleaning or a blow made it work. I still have my Orignal super Nes

3) Orignal Playstation was the first game console to actually break. I played the hell our of R Evil and I think I killed the PS. I got a new one and it lasted for years. We own the newer smaller version Ps2.

4) The orignal Xbox broke like 3 times. My 4th I traded in on the xbox 360. It lasted about 6 months then it failed. Next one lasted about the same time and failed. This one is maybe a year or so and it's showing the signs.

Right now I have 3 active game systems. 360 , Wii and Ps3. Only the 360 gives me trouble.

I really love the games and online but I get really tired of it breaking. A friend of mine has a 360 Elite, it's 4 months old and he got the red rings of death already. This is his 4th 360. 3 of them where Pro's and his newest one is the Elite. he is now on his 2nd Elite. He returned it under warranty which he purchased when he got the Elite and now is on his 5th 360.

Simply Amazing.

mutelight

I am on my 6th, you may have seen some of my posts about it on FM.

The answer is fairly simple MS cut every corner imaginable to hit their target launch date, which heightened the possibility of major design flaws, such as proper cooling. They were willing to do whatever was necessary to hit the date even though I am sure there were engineers stating otherwise but the suits forced the console out the door kicking and screaming.

There are multiple points of failure on the system, thanks to each component coming from the lowest bidder without and regard to quality control. The most common is the mainboard overheating and bowing due to the heat causing the heatsinks on the CPU and GPU to unseat then overheat and fail. There are also failure related to the DVD pickup failing and no longer reading discs.

It blows my mind that after all of these years they are still failing, then again their repair center is highly daft as I once received a console back from them that lasted 10 minutes, I **** you not.

djlogix

Most of my friends are still on their first. Both of the systems I bought at launch day are still working. Since that time I've bought a Premium for my brother in 2006, it's still working. I've also purchased two elites to replace my Premiums and they're still fine as well.

Frank840

my cousin still has his orignal first gen xbox 360, he doesnt have a cooling fan on it, and leaves it running 24/7 only thing he has to do is every once inwhile put in a disk cleaner. i have only had my for a year and have yet to have problems (knock on wood) it froze once and that is it.

people are not lieing when they say microsoft cut corners to sale their products. i bought the halo edition and a week later my friend buys one , the finish on mine is rough around the edges and his is clean and smooth..

Serendipity

Just a thought -

Does anybody know if the 360's are failing more often in warmer climates? Because here in the Northeast, during the winter I can run an AVR, HTPC, and sub amp for a few hours and feel the heat in the room. If you put your hand on top of any modern AVR, there's a TON of heat being emitted.

Now the 360 may have a design failure, like others have stated in the thread. But I'm willing to bet that ambient temp. makes a difference in the console's life.

I may be wrong though...

mutelight

appadv wrote: »

Just a thought -

Does anybody know if the 360's are failing more often in warmer climates? Because here in the Northeast, during the winter I can run an AVR, HTPC, and sub amp for a few hours and feel the heat in the room. If you put your hand on top of any modern AVR, there's a TON of heat being emitted.

Now the 360 may have a design failure, like others have stated in the thread. But I'm willing to bet that ambient temp. makes a difference in the console's life.

I may be wrong though...

To an extent you are correct, the ambient temp can potentially affect the 360 however my PS3 and Wii have never once had a problem regardless of the surrounding temperature.

Sherardp

I had 3 of the fail also, so I know exactly where you are. An out of pocket remedy is to have an arcade version on standby, I paid 250 or so for one, so that when my premium fails, theres no downtime. Sux but if youre into COD4 of Live, then its worth it.

kuntasensei

Like Sherardp, I have a Core system as a backup. Since launch, my Premium has been replaced 7 times and my Core once. The Premium I have now is the first I've gotten with the GPU heatpipe they added to fix the heat issues, and it seems to be pretty bulletproof. I'm currently using my non-heatpipe Core unit in the hopes that it will die and I can send it in to get one with a heatpipe.

The reason I bought the Core was because back when Gears Of War and Rainbow Six Vegas came out, Microsoft sent me one refurb that was instantly killed by a faulty update then another that was dead on arrival... then lost my return in the system for two months and told me they had no record of it and weren't going to replace it. I ultimately had to e-mail Major Nelson my tracking number and he went over their heads to get me taken care of. My total time on the phone with Microsoft support since launch is near 50 hours.

It's a shame Live works so well and the 360 controller fits so comfortably in my hands! No way I could switch now.

m00npie

I'm still on my first and have had it for about a year and a half. I'm hoping I don't have the issues that I have read about.

Demiurge

I have my first. No problems at all, and it's a launch unit.

Sherardp

kuntasensei wrote: »

I ultimately had to e-mail Major Nelson my tracking number and he went over their heads to get me taken care of. My total time on the phone with Microsoft support since launch is near 50 hours.
QUOTE]

Talk about similar experiences. Its a nightmare being on the phone with them. None of them speak well enough to understand, no offense to anyone. But phone time with them sucked so bad. My initial system was also lost in their crappy system.

66chevyIISS

I bought my 360 used last August. It has a 2006 build date. Haven't had any issues yet *knocks on wood*

Serendipity

mutelight wrote: »

To an extent you are correct, the ambient temp can potentially affect the 360 however my PS3 and Wii have never once had a problem regardless of the surrounding temperature.

True, the 360 may have more problems than the other consoles, but I still believe that in cold places (such as Northern Canada) someone's 360 will last a lot longer than one in Texas (or Florida).

Let's see what happens when I buy my first 360 - it's going to be in a cold basement all the time and during the winter here in NY it can get down to 40 degrees or lower.

krabby5

nope...Ive had mine since January 2007..

Ive never had an expensive electronics unit fail on me other than a computer:o

There I said it..

But I bought the Bestbuy replacement plan with the Xbox so Im prolly safe until it expires:rolleyes:

mutelight

appadv wrote: »

True, the 360 may have more problems than the other consoles, but I still believe that in cold places (such as Northern Canada) someone's 360 will last a lot longer than one in Texas (or Florida).

Let's see what happens when I buy my first 360 - it's going to be in a cold basement all the time and during the winter here in NY it can get down to 40 degrees or lower.

It is funny you mention that because my current Xbox would actually give me the RRoD if I turned it on after a night being in our 30-40 degree living room in the winter. A quick power down then back up again would resolve the issue though. Very strange.

Overall though, it really doesn't matter on the conditions all that much, the failures are undoubtedly rampant and happen at complete random. I cannot count how many times someone has said, "I am still on my launch, I dunno what the problem is..." to have theirs fail shortly after making that comment.

Demiurge

appadv wrote: »

True, the 360 may have more problems than the other consoles, but I still believe that in cold places (such as Northern Canada) someone's 360 will last a lot longer than one in Texas (or Florida).

Let's see what happens when I buy my first 360 - it's going to be in a cold basement all the time and during the winter here in NY it can get down to 40 degrees or lower.

This doesn't make any sense. Mine is above a hot running B & K Amp and a receiver, granted it's separated by glass with 4 inches of airflow able to travel between all 3 units, but it still gets hot in there.

Not to mention it's not like it doesn't get hot in Canada. Will be in the mid-90s and as humid as Florida here tomorrow. Happens every summer.

While overheating will cause issues, I highly doubt your locale has any bearing on whether or not your unit will overheat.

mutelight

Demiurge wrote: »

This doesn't make any sense. Mine is above a hot running B & K Amp and a receiver, granted it's separated by glass with 4 inches of airflow able to travel between all 3 units, but it still gets hot in there.

Not to mention it's not like it doesn't get hot in Canada. Will be in the mid-90s and as humid as Florida here tomorrow. Happens every summer.

While overheating will cause issues, I highly doubt your locale has any bearing on whether or not your unit will overheat.

In certain cases I could see if affecting the console to a certain extent but as you are getting at the life span of each individual console is really hit or miss and it all really boils down to build quality on their end more than external factors.

Shizelbs

I don't see ambient temperatures affecting the internal temperature of the case and components that overheat at temps well above what our summers are capable of.

Demiurge

Shizelbs wrote: »

I don't see ambient temperatures affecting the internal temperature of the case and components that overheat at temps well above what our summers are capable of.

That was my point, more concisely stated.

Serendipity

Demiurge wrote: »

While overheating will cause issues, I highly doubt your locale has any bearing on whether or not your unit will overheat.

So I guess I was wrong then - hot ambient temperatures seem to have no effect on the 360's lifespan.

Demiurge

You could be right, I just don't think so. Otherwise you'd have computers failing in countries where it's hot year round, and I really haven't heard that before. Granted, it is true that the colder it is the better when it comes to cooling your PC.

Shizelbs

Demiurge wrote: »

That was my point, more concisely stated.

I know. Hire an editor.

Serendipity

Demiurge wrote: »

You could be right, I just don't think so. Otherwise you'd have computers failing in countries where it's hot year round, and I really haven't heard that before. Granted, it is true that the colder it is the better when it comes to cooling your PC.

Well, there are some people that install water-cooling systems in their PC's to keep the CPU cool. IMO, the cooler it is the longer your PC will last.

mutelight

appadv wrote: »

Well, there are some people that install water-cooling systems in their PC's to keep the CPU cool. IMO, the cooler it is the longer your PC will last.

People who use water cooling typically install those systems to reduce noise as well as more efficient cooling so they can overclock their hardware.

I don't think anyone would dare overclock their 360 with all the internal cooling issues already present. haha

Demiurge

appadv wrote: »

Well, there are some people that install water-cooling systems in their PC's to keep the CPU cool. IMO, the cooler it is the longer your PC will last.

Like I said...

Granted, it is true that the colder it is the better when it comes to cooling your PC.