64 replies to this topic

[Chickybaby]

Interesting. Makes me not want to buy a 360 however.

Quote

Red Ring of Death
GameDaily BIZ reported yesterday that one online warranty company says that the failure rate for the Xbox 360 is 16.4%. Based on Microsoft's console numbers of 17.7 million consoles sold (Microsoft's official sold into retail numbers through December 2007), that would mean that there are 2,902,800 defective consoles sold since the Xbox 360 released.

While most of the GameDaily team has experienced their personal turmoil with the Xbox 360's fabled red ring of death, one staff member takes the lead with four dead consoles. What about you?

Got the Rings? Get Rid of 'Em
If your Xbox 360 starts to flash three red lights, aka the Red Rings of Death, head to this Xbox help page for assistance in getting your system repaired.
- http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support

Here's the link if anyone wants to read comments posted, add a comment, or vote in their mini poll - http://www.gamedaily...ver-16-percent/

Edited by Chickybaby, Sun Feb 17, 2008 8:39 PM.

[Prodos8]

My kids have one that's nearly two years old and still going strong. Though they do get a disk read error now and then. Knocking on wood now.

[JamesD]

Just remember that earlier 360s have a higher failure rate than newer ones so the new ones are bringing that number down.

[moycon]

If anyone is interested here is the response for MS....

http://xbox360.ign.c...2/852669p1.html

Bottom line they question the methods used which I think was based on 1,000 SquareTrade warranted units. (Possibly all 1st year produced 360's?)
In any case I agree the early 360's failure rate was totally unacceptable even without seeing any percentages.
I wouldn't worry about it so much now, I'm sure some units still fail but nowhere near like they were that first year.
I would take SquareTrade's investigation for what it is, the results of a very small sample of warranted 360's.

[remowilliams]

1,000 units? That's their sample, and they come up with some crazy extrapolation from that? LOL Nice work!

moycon, on Sun Feb 17, 2008 10:24 PM, said:

In any case I agree the early 360's failure rate was totally unacceptable even without seeing any percentages.

That at least is fact.

[Rybags]

It's a joke, and so is the PS3.

Actually, my Playstation (original) died in under 2 years as well.

Just the fact that both companies sell "intercooler" attachments for their consoles is acknowledgement in my book that they are badly designed.

[christianscott27]

As I've posted before both my Xbox 1 and my 360 have had problems. My 360 basically cooked its own video card and may get repaired while my Xbox 1 went up in smoke and I repaired it with a friend and some radio shack parts, now its heading for its 2nd GFI cord. Seriously MS needs to stop the 'arms race' mentality and take the time to get a solid machine together before launch. Aside from the NES every Nintendo I've owned is still working, as are most I find in the thrifts and fleas. Thats something I'll keep in mind when making the leap in the future, especially since I have kids.

So does the Zune breakdown all the time too or is it just a console thing?

[Red 5]

How about this...

Number FIVE (yes, 5) is on it's way back right now.
(I bought my first one at launch.)

This one lasted the longest by far since I added the fan.
But the fan means I have to keep it vertical.
I guess that means it hurts the DVD drive, because that is what died this time.
A loud, grinding, screaching horrible death.

No red rings of death though!

Here is my brief history...

Launch system died in 6 months. Red rings of death.

System 2 : Lasted two months before red rings of death.
System 3 : Almost dead out of box. Lasted about three hours before red rings.
System 4 : Lasted about 6 - 7 months before red rings of death. Decided to buy a cooling fan.

System 5 : I got this one over a year ago. I bought the fan stand that has it's own AC jack and isn't powered off of the 360.
The fan means I have to keep it on its side, but it was noticeably cooler and I left the fan on after I shut down for about 5 - 10 minutes every night. Never locked up. Never had any issues at all. A beautiful thing for over a year.
Then the drive started making noises. And now, she's dead Jim.

Microsoft is honoring the extended warranty ... again ...
So here's to hoping the 6th one is the charm?

(the sad part is that the 360 is still in my top 5 list of best systems ever, because when it's working, it's a thing of absolute beauty.)

Edited by therealred5, Mon Feb 18, 2008 10:43 AM.

[jetset]

Whats amazing is that even the most hardened fanboys here admit to having problems (well, some but not all). And it seems like MS is up to their old tricks of pretending there's no problem when you call customer service.
I still love my (original) xbox, but there's WAAAAAAAAYYYY too many problems with the 360 to even remotely consider buying one.

[Crimefighter]

Remember kids....you can't spell C-R-A-S-H without Bill Gates!

[Gregory DG]

I wonder if this takes into account one person sending a console back 3 or 4 times. How would that factor in? I mean if console #123 comes back for repair on two different occasions, is that counted as two bad consoles or just one?

[masschamber]

all I know about the 360 is my brother's (about 6 months after launch machine) got the rrod, and mine (about 18 months after launch machine and I barely used the thing) got the rrod, glad they extended that warranty, but it just goes to show, shoddy assembly and indifference to build quality might fly with a pirated noac bought for 10 dollars at a kiosk in a mall, but there will be much suffering for the manufacturer if they allow a real console to be a piece of junk

[StormSurge]

I'm definitely in a unique group. I bought my Core in February of '06 and it's had zero issues. [/knocking on wood]

[moycon]

Quote

Number FIVE (yes, 5) is on it's way back right now.

Hearing numbers like this, you have to wonder if the 360 if affected by the way your house is wired up or somthing. Maybe you are getting surges or fluctuations or something that are killing off your 360 consoles? I realize you've probably had other consoles hooked up with no issues, but maybe the 360 is just super sensitive to these types of electrical anomolies. That would explain why some people continuously have to return their units. 5 times seem crazy.

[Red 5]

moycon, on Mon Feb 18, 2008 2:49 PM, said:

Quote

Number FIVE (yes, 5) is on it's way back right now.

Hearing numbers like this, you have to wonder if the 360 if affected by the way your house is wired up or somthing. Maybe you are getting surges or fluctuations or something that are killing off your 360 consoles? I realize you've probably had other consoles hooked up with no issues, but maybe the 360 is just super sensitive to these types of electrical anomolies. That would explain why some people continuously have to return their units. 5 times seem crazy.

You would think so, but unless it is 'super sensitive' the Xbox 360 sits where the old Xbox sat.
I bought the old Xbox at launch and it worked fine there. It was replaced by the 360 which was put in the
same spot.

The entertainment center has also housed (or houses) a PS2, a Wii, and a GameCube all with no issues whatsoever, all purchased and used from launch.

Keep in mind that 2 of the 4 360's were replacement systems that just about died right out of the box.
So, giving them the benefit of the doubt, only three have died since launch due to normal use, and it gets played just about every night.

This 4th one, I am convinced it is because it lived it's life vertically and that killed the DVD drive.

With this new one, I may just assume the overheating problem has been solved and put it back in its normal horizontal position.

Certainly not making excuses for them.
I am just a sucker for this system because even with these two week inconveniences, I still love the f-in' thing.

Edited by therealred5, Mon Feb 18, 2008 2:03 PM.

[JamesD]

I think you'll find the death tool to be highest with the release version of the console.
Things started improving with the newer heat sink and I think the verdict is still out on the Falcon but it should help.
Once they introduce a lower power gfx chip I think the problem will go away.

[cimerians]

Damn. I've been experiencing lock ups last year. Things are better now but I keep wondering if the red ring will rear its head.
I bought the 360 a few months after release so I have the older unit.

[jeremiahjt]

Mine died this last weekend. It lasted a little over a year. I haven't used it for gaming in months, but I have been using it as my primary dvd player like crazy lately. Now I use my original XBox as my dvd player and the drive on that has been going out for a couple of years now so it barely works. Oh well, if I'm lucky maybe my new 360 will have the hdmi port.

[cimerians]

I've been splitting DVD playing between the Xbox and PS3. The drive on my 360 is pretty loud so I try to avoid using it to play movies but since I play the 360 a whole lot more than the PS3 its nice to just throw in a movie on the 360.......

[Red 5]

In shocking news, I bitched a bit about this being my 5th system and all...

and they sent me a Fed Ex overnight box !

This is nothing short of shocking.

[Breakpack]

The first 360 I bought back in Christmas 2006 was RRoD right out of the box.Before I knew of the warranty thing,I returned it to Wally World in exchange.Still going strong to this day.Awhile I didnt use it,but in the past few months I have been running it like crazy.Sometimes I leave it on for and go to bed.Many times I've had the 6 hr auto shut off kick in.I've had a few lock-ups,but I suspect they were from buggy game design (Prey) or crappy internet connection <knock on wood> If the thing is going to get RRoD,then I hope its within the 3 years and not just after <yikes!>

[Random Terrain]

I gave up on the 360 for a while, but ever since someone here at AtariAge told me about this fan, the Xbox 360 doesn't look as bad as it did. I might finally get to play games like Oblivion. It might take until 2009 to get one though. There are more important things I need to get first.

[Red 5]

Random Terrain, on Thu Feb 21, 2008 1:04 PM, said:

I gave up on the 360 for a while, but ever since someone here at AtariAge told me about this fan, the Xbox 360 doesn't look as bad as it did. I might finally get to play games like Oblivion. It might take until 2009 to get one though. There are more important things I need to get first.

That was me.
The fan worked great on preventing the old RRoD.
However, now I have to wonder if keeping it vertical is what lead to the dvd drive dying.

I think if you are a 360 owner, an acceptance of eventual system failure is needed.

[heavy-sixer]

1st -- 6 month old 360 got RROD so I sent it back for repair

2nd -- MS sent back original unit but it still had RROD right out of the repair box

3rd -- MS Sent me a new power supply and that must have been the problem

4th -- When unit was about a year old RROD again and they sent me another unit

5th -- Right now about 6 months after last incident the drive makes a really loud high pitch noise. It's not your normal loud drive noise; it's really annoying. It doesn't do it all the time but enough for me to call and have them send me a box again. I think it's a sign that the disc drive maybe dying.

I really like the system and the games for it but of all the consoles I've owned from the 2600 up to the Wii and PS3, I've never had problems like with the 360. It's getting to the point where, if possible, I buy the PS3 version. I just got The Club last night and since my 360 will be leaving soon, I got the PS3 version.

[Red 5]

heavy-sixer, on Thu Feb 21, 2008 1:56 PM, said:

1st -- 6 month old 360 got RROD so I sent it back for repair

2nd -- MS sent back original unit but it still had RROD right out of the repair box

3rd -- MS Sent me a new power supply and that must have been the problem

4th -- When unit was about a year old RROD again and they sent me another unit

5th -- Right now about 6 months after last incident the drive makes a really loud high pitch noise. It's not your normal loud drive noise; it's really annoying. It doesn't do it all the time but enough for me to call and have them send me a box again. I think it's a sign that the disc drive maybe dying.

I really like the system and the games for it but of all the consoles I've owned from the 2600 up to the Wii and PS3, I've never had problems like with the 360. It's getting to the point where, if possible, I buy the PS3 version. I just got The Club last night and since my 360 will be leaving soon, I got the PS3 version.

Sounds like exactly what I went through.
Mine is arriving in Texas today.
With any luck, I will be up again by early next week.