Xbox 360 diehard loses loyalty after seven bricked consoles
By Darren Murph 
posted February 22nd 2007 9:01PM
posted February 22nd 2007 9:01PM
It's not too difficult to keep the faith if everything's clicking along nicely, but when console after console began to fail soon after Microsoft's highly-anticipated launch of the Xbox 360, skeptics began to surface. Rob and Mindy Cassingham were self-proclaimed "Xbox fanboys," and felt assured that their love for the next rendition would never sway, but after picking up six consoles to install in their home and personally owned gaming center, the relationship started to crumble. The jovial couple snatched up four units at the Zero Hour launch party, and while folks from all over were swarming to get their game on at their party haven, the days of elation were short lived. After dropping over $2,600 on hardware along, registering an "Xbox360" Utah license plate, and rocking Microsoft swag day in and day out, all four of the launch units bit the dust. Eventually, every single first wave unit croaked, and each time the Cassingham's found themselves fighting with overseas call centers just to get a much-belated refurbished unit sent back to them, one of which also fell victim to the red ring of doom. After seven out of six (that's over 100-percent, folks) consoles decide to call it a career before you've had your due fun, it's not easy to remain steadfast in your devotion, and even after an email to Peter Moore himself finally got a brand new console on its way to the once-diehards, things will never be the same. We feel your pain, man.
Wait who said anything about ps3? Why does everything have to be about fanboyism, i hate all fanboys regardless. As much as i hate mark cuban his blog about how stupid fanboys are for throwing support behind faceless multinational corporations was dead on. Why would anyone defend microsoft, a company that has its hand in literally everybodies pocket in the world, same deal with sony. This has nothing to do with OMG PS3 OWNS 360 or vice versa, its about the fact that some people are getting screwed over and its not right. Im not saying the people on kotaku are telling the truth im just saying alot of people were complaining and if youve ever been to their website its not exactly a sony love fest. So take from it what you will.
According to the article the Cassingham's used several of the 360's for a "Gaming Center". I am not sure the 360's were built for a commerical gaming operation and the type of use and/or overuse they could have been subjected to.
I can't believe only one person caught on to this:
Gaming Center
They're using a recreational machine for commercial use.
Imagine using your home DVD player to run a movie theater. It would die within a couple months. These are consumer grade electronics, they're meant to be used in the home for a couple hours at a time, not all day every day.
Mine flashed up two red lights yesterday. I didn't wait for the third. I realised my PS2 controller was resting against the power brick. Now that's just dumb. Still, gimme the 360 anyday over the mega-priced PS3. I'm not Sony's whore, I'll wait a couple of years for a price drop.
http://themotor.myfastforum.org
I just hope they redesign the 360 (in the style of PSOne and PSTwo) so I can finally buy one.
Don't really trust it in its current state, which sucks. Rather not spend $650AUD on something that may cause me unneccessary effort and stress.
I've absolutely abused my 360. It has held up like a champ. What do I mean by abuse? Well, I've gone on gaming binges, brought it into the desert and busted two power supplies (totally my fault) by plugging them into the wrong voltage on a converter. Sure, the DVD drive is a little loud, but never has the 360 failed due to something out of my control.
Maybe the couple in question likes to play their 360's while riding stunt motorcycles or roller coasters.
My original launch console (Nov/05) FINALLY bit the dust, two days ago. One month and a few days after the (extended) warranty expired.
A guy on ebay repairs broken 360s (ring of death) for $40 + shipping... so I'm not too frustrated.
DON'T PAY MS $140 to repair your console! There is a guy on eBay who does it for $100 less! Just search "360 repair"
I'm in the UK and received my 360 shortly after launch in December 2005. I'm now on my 4th 360, that's one original and 3 refurb replacements. The first 3 consoles all had the same red ring of doom problem. The fourth and hopefully final 360 has only been with me for 6 weeks at the moment; I'm only expecting this one to last for 3 months though, as that in my experience seems to be the longest they last.
I think the repair procedure must be different for us in the UK, we have to provide our own box and ring UPS for pickup, no waiting for a box for us; we're not even given the option.
It should also mention that 360's 1-3 were all made in december 2005; not till number 4 (arrived just after christmas) did I receive a newer 360, although that one was made in march 2006, so still fairly old.
I do love my 360, but really, couldn't they sort out their manufacturing issues?
NEXT GEN SYSTEMS SHOULD TRY AGAIN NEXT YEAR!
Personally, I don't own a 360, but after all this flame & hate towards the 360, it's a wonder there are still people buying six or seven of these overpriced doorstops. The PS3 isn't exactly being praised either. Sounds to me like everybody was in too much of a hurry to get their product out and now the consumers are suffering. The same thing happened with my X-box but I wasn't dumb enough to buy 6 more of em. If it keeps breaking then stop buying it genius.
i find this very funny, as already stated i see sony fanboys rejoicing... however, ive had my 360 since may of 06 and other than the typical overheating issue but even that wasnt even that hard to deal with. what people need to realise is that the new generation of consoles are more and more like a pc everytime a new system is launched. that being said the reason they probably failed could be very simple, one if running with a windows pc in media center mode if you will the 360 couldve gotten a virus seeing as how the 360 is windows based this isnt far fetched. and 2 just like a pc you gotta have proper airflow, if now the fucker will die, and finally taking proper steps to ensure long life. this isnt your typical ps2 that you can throw around like a frisbee come on people i hate to say it but most of the time people hear the word console and assume its a tank to be treated as such. however, as stated earlier in this thread 360 and ps3 are so close to being pc's its not funny only differance? is that they are more accesible and simple in setting up where a pc can be a bitch. so its not outside the possibility these retards could created their own "problem" with faulty hardware.
For all those out there that have bad consoles and cannot return the 360 because they voided the warranty by opening it: BUY A NEW ONE AND RETURN THE OLD ONE AT WAL-MART. Heres what i did. I bought a new 360 (yes, buy one with money). I then went home and CAREFULLY opened JUST the 360. Dont take anything out of the box except for the 360 and the bag it comes in. Once you have the 360, swap the guts, then take the "NEW" 360 back to Wal-Mart. This way you have the same case, just new guts, and a new case, with the "bad" guts. Put everything carefully back in the box so it does not even look like it was opened. When you take it back to Wal-Mart, DO NOT tell them that you are returning it because it does not work. They will only want to exchange it then. Tell them something witty like, "yeah, my wife got mad and made me return it", or "an emergency came up and i need to return it". You should have no problems. I bought mine one night, took it home and swapped everything, then returned it early the next morning. The lady did not even look in the box because i told her i never opened it. I LOVE WAL-MART return policy.
IMHO - People like you are scum .. Don't fuck up your systems by taking it apart (especially when you don't what you are doing with electrionic "guts"), and you won't be part of the defect problem. What do you suppose happens to the screwed up system(s) you swapped out (and told Wal-Mart) you never opened)? It goes back on the damn shelf, you idiot.
The next person buys your screwed-guts-in-a-new-console-shell and then calls MS to report a defect (or returns to Wal-Mart for a legit return). In the end the next consumer, M$ or Wal-Mart ends up losing as you are ahead one system.
Yeah the sucky part is when YOU don't break or brick your system and Microsoft will do nothing for it because you are out of warranty, I have had mine since release. It's been great, love it even better then PS3. But when you get the 3 rings of death...out of warranty they want 150 bucks to fix it. I fixed it myself because I had no other choice with the X Clamp fix. It worked for 1 more month and it's back, very upsetting. Trust me, Walmart sees no loss for that, they get reimbursed. I don't think I have to spend another 300 bucks because Microsoft sends bad motherboards and clamps. Only problem I have is I have no HDMI and new ones do grrrr.
For all those out there that have bad consoles and cannot return the 360 because they voided the warranty by opening it: BUY A NEW ONE AND RETURN THE OLD ONE AT WAL-MART. Heres what i did. I bought a new 360 (yes, buy one with money). I then went home and CAREFULLY opened JUST the 360. Dont take anything out of the box except for the 360 and the bag it comes in. Once you have the 360, swap the guts, then take the "NEW" 360 back to Wal-Mart. This way you have the same case, just new guts, and a new case, with the "bad" guts. Put everything carefully back in the box so it does not even look like it was opened. When you take it back to Wal-Mart, DO NOT tell them that you are returning it because it does not work. They will only want to exchange it then. Tell them something witty like, "yeah, my wife got mad and made me return it", or "an emergency came up and i need to return it". You should have no problems. I bought mine one night, took it home and swapped everything, then returned it early the next morning. The lady did not even look in the box because i told her i never opened it. I LOVE WAL-MART return policy.
soldierboyadam...while I admire your spirit and I'm sure others have considered this in frustration, you realize that you just openly confessed to defrauding one of the largest companies in the world...in writing.
Im on my third, but I still like it more than my PS3
It's their own fault for getting those systems as soon as they came out. Why wouldn't you just buy one to see how it does instead of buying four... tards!
'Have my X360 since launch day and never had any problems. But then again I'm a casual gamer.
Ours failed twice within the first year. We bought one of the original 360's. Both time MSFT replaced it no problem. The second time was at the end of the warranty period and I only had days to renew when it was returned. I forgot of course, and yes it failed a third time. MSFT wanted me to pay this time since it was out of warranty, so I ended up finding a third party to repair it - for less money. It's been six months now and it's working great.
It's easy to say people are doing something wrong or stupid to their consoles to make them break so much. I'm sure that's the case with some failures, but since it's happened to me twice, I'm leaning more toward a shitty product. My 360 sits on top of a A/V stand with nothing near it on any side (except an wireless ethernet bridge), so it's definitely not about needing more breathing room. On top of that I barely play the thing, maybe 6 hrs a week.
So as I said shitty product, but they keep replacing it for me so I'm not giving up yet.
I actually got them to replace it this time for free also although it's out of the warranty period. I said that it was only 5 months that it worked for since it broke last time and the warranty should be at least that it works for a year with no problems...then they can screw me over. They accepted that and set up a free repair.
As other has mentioned, this story is weird. I think the return rate of the early versions has been around 3-5 percent. The probability to brick seven consoles is therefore roughly one in 45 billion, all things equal. I think the PiBKAC.
http://www.joystiq.com/2005/12/01/xbox-360-sells-400k-only-3-of-units-defective/
"Microsoft has said that Xbox 360 return rates are within the normal 3 percent to 5 percent average for consumer electronics products. With 1.75 million consoles sold as of March 31, that means at least 50,000 consumers have had problems."
I have two 360's, one from launch, one from last February. Both work great. 7 failures??? No question this guy is doing something stupid. Gimme a break. Go tell him to break some PS3's now, maybe fling a few Wiimotes while he's at it.
I'm nowhere near a PS3 or Nintendo fanboy, but my Xbox360 is not helping Microsoft's cause. I received a unit day one and have since had to replace it 5 times, as well as a replaced wireless unit. It sucks everytime this happens. The repiar service is great but how hard is it to send me a unit that works.
I know many of your Xbox's are fine, but you must realize that there is another side of the spectrum. I just want a unit that works as advertised - is that too much to ask.
If your unit failed 5 times, that suggests there's specific to you or your location that's causing the failure. Off the top of my head:
(1) Have you tried plugging it into a surge protector?
(2) Where are you from? Maybe 360s in a particular region are more prone to failure?
(3) Is the 360 being placed in a confined space?
(4) Do you play with the 360 horizontally or vertically?
(5) How hot does the air get in the room with the 360?
(6) How often do you play?
Of course, another possibility might just be that MS is sending you the same 360 over and over again.
It would help if Microsoft released data, but based on anecdotal evidence, it always seems the failures happen to the same people over and over. Therefore, the problem is specific to the person (or maybe the place in which they live). A couple of questions MS should be asking to figure out why 360s are bricking (although they need to guarantee free replacement regardless of the answers to get honest responses):
(1) What's the power like in their area? Maybe the region is prone to power surges and the 360 is especially sensitive to it? Try plugging it into a surge protector.
(2) What's the average play time on the 360? It stands that a 360 played 24/7 in a "game center" is more prone to failure than one played primarily on the weekends.
(3) Where are they placing their 360s? We already know the sucker needs a lot of air.
(4) Do they play with the console vertically or horizontally? Theoretically, it shouldn't matter, but it could potentially make a difference with airflow or what not?
(5) What's the ambient air temperature in the room? I live in a dorm room has central heating so it can get pretty hot if the doors and windows are closed. It's never affected my 360, but my computer crashes out of programs when the heat goes up.
My first 360 I got in January of 2006. It got the three red lights of death in December. I exchanged it with the service plan I had at Game Crazy. Now this one just had a dvd drive failure. It wont read any discs now. So it's a good thing I renewed that service plan so I can go get a brand new xbox tonite at Game Crazy (instead of waiting 2 weeks for a MS replacement). I still love my 360, I just wish it didn't break so easy.
Their experience is simlilar to mine: 1 XBox360 and 1 failure. That's 100%!
Interestingly, it's also similar to my experience with iPods: 7 units and 6 failures, and also like my experience with macs: 4 units and 3 failures within 30 days of purchase. The difference is that all the iPods and macs were different models purchased at different times. The Xbox360s were almost certainly from the same batch known to have problems.
A statistically invalid sample doesn't make a trend. It's not news that the first 360s had problems with the power supplies.
Everyone I know who has had an xbox for more than 1 yr has bricked.
Mine bricked at 6 months in an OPEN environment with the optional cooling fan...
That is why Extended Warranties are a must with these consoles. I'm certainly glad I paid the extra $50 when my 360 Premie failed about 6 months after purchase. I'm now sitting on my Best Buy gift card for $430 waiting for the price to drop on them a little or for the new version with the larger HDDs.
PS3 > Wii > 360
"PS3 > Wii > 360"
Thanks. Exactly what EVERY SINGLE comments section about next-gen console posts needs. Your opinion.
Okay john, nobody cares about you. Just go jump off a cliff or something lol.
A friend of mine is on his 3rd Xbox 360, I refuse to buy one just for that fact alone, the same reason I refuse to buy a PS3, overpriced, over hyped and lousy craftsmanship. I'll stick with what I have now, the only new system worth buying is a Nintendo Wii, hours upon hours of fun at a low price. Maybe that's why the Wii out sold both since its debut, hmmmm.
I'm being called an idiot by people that can't spell...interesting. I've had to send my console in for repair 3 times. I've never poured syrup on it or hit it with a hammer; I barely play it. My unit is plugged into a line conditioner which is plugged into a $5,000 APC UPS. I have expensive toys and I can promise the power going to them is as clean as can be. My units have always been positioned vertically, on a wire shelf with at least 8" of clearance on all sides. That includes the bottom. The power supply is also positioned with 8" of clearance on all sides of it. On average, the units are used less than an hour a week. Tell me exactly what I'm doing wrong...someone? Please?
As to why an individual would purchase more than one unit. Perhaps it's simply that he/she could. I realize it's a foreign concept to many of you but maybe someone is willing to spend the $400 to put a high def media center extender on every TV in their home. Maybe they have lots of children. Maybe they just want to make you jealous.
The comment about only buying one instead of four to see if it would work is ridiculous. A consumer should be able to buy a product in good faith without worrying about whether or not it's going to work.
Personally, I think the power supply is what's causing many of these multiple failures. MS is not replacing or repairing the power supply, just the console. I'm sure they'll figure that out eventually after they've spent even more money in repairs. I tried to explain this to my good friend "Mike" from some far away land but it wasn't on his script and he quickly became disoriented and afraid and I had to talk him back down.
For all of you that have working consoles. That's great. I just don't understand why you belittle and bash those that have problems. Everything that isn't exactly like you isn't wrong or stupid.
I find this hard to believe. I have 2 systems, both have failed, but for differrent reasons. One for the DVD drive, the other the Ring of Death. I called MS and had no problems getting new units, free with free shipping both ways. Each call was only 5 min, and no problems getting a new unit. One was even out of warrenty, and it was still fixed for free after the software update killed it.
I went through 3 original Xbox units before I got one that lasted -- and they were all used VERY lightly by one adult. Based on that experience I would NEVER consider buying a 360, despite how cool or wonderful it appears to be.
Jeebus.
I definitely feel for those folks. My first experience with the 360 was extremely poor. Bought the console, set it up, nothing (and I'm far from being technology illiterate). Call to Bangalore, said return it to the store, so I did. Second unit, brought it home, also nothing. This happened 2 more times, with 3 more trips to exchange the console at the store. The fifth unit finally started up and works just fine. (HD gaming is awesome and I'll never go back!)
So MSFT has serious quality issues. Let's see: 4 bad units out of 5, that's 80% failure. A very poor track record.
I think The Gods were trying to tell them something.... like get a life.
You guys and your "i'm on my 2rd but I love my 360" are a bunch of fuking sheep...............baaaaaaaaaaa
I work for a UK chain that sells games consoles, we currently are running at about 1 in 5 360's coming back faulty. Some don't work straight out of the box. Microsoft has a serious build quality issue going on... and no they don't go back on the shelf if they get returned, they go back to microsoft to be "Repaired" lol...
my xbox 360 is working perfectly well here in nigeria for over a year now,so are my friends own.my old xbox have lasted over 3yrs now,i guess the new one is equal to the same task.bought my 360 in u.k cos we use the same voltage here in nigeria,i play it almost everday since i got it,and it still works perfectly well,so i dont know what you sony's allies are talking bout.
"just to get a much-belated refurbished unit sent back to them, one of which also fell victim to the red ring of doom."
this is evidence enough that my thoery was right enough all along.
i am on my third console, now out of warranty (i think, but i hear that microsoft has extended all first shipment concole warranties to another year, i dont know), and they have all bit the dust.
anyway, i had a feeling back then that they were simply sending me refurbished, or warehoused, first shipment consoles that had all the problems. my third console has worked for approximately six months now...but it freezes constantly, and its obnoxiously loud.
i know that if i simply bought a new one i would have no problems, because a friend of mine bought one a few weeks ago and i went to his house to play it and it worked like a charm.
anyway, i just dont want to spend the money now (although i do have the money to spare) im just sitting on the rumours of Zepher....or whatever its called, the new Xbox 360.
We can only hope.
The damage control in this topic by 360 people is hilarious.
I have one friend who is on his 5th Xbox 360. It seems there's no taking him from his addiction to Madden football.
Also, I have a roommate who's Xbox 360 recently died. He's sending it in for repair but intends to try and sell it or trade it in at Gamestop asap... for a Wii.
well my record is very similar. 5 out of 5 and one power brick if you asked me xbox needs better coustomer service, and councels.