Xbox 360 power supply pinpointed as cause of house fire
By Darren Murph 
posted April 19th 2008 9:56AM
posted April 19th 2008 9:56AM
Sure, you've heard the horror stories of faulty Xbox power cables sparking up fires in homes, but it seems the latest case involves the aforesaid console's successor: the Xbox 360. According to Little Rock, Arkansas fire department captain Jason Weaver, a 360's power cord was to blame for a blaze that injured no one (thankfully) but caused some $100,000 in property damage. Mr. Weaver asserted that the power supply was likely crammed in a tight spot with no "space to dissipate heat," and while we've certainly seen no shortage of overheating Xbox 360s, this marks the first time that we've seen high temperatures wreak havoc on more than just the machine's internals. Here's to hoping this isn't the start of a dreadful trend.[Via Joystiq]
Engadget shares tidbits of info when it comes to MS, here's the whole story:http://kotaku.com/381779/360-power-supply-blamed-in-strange-fire. The fault was the guy, for being, well, stupid.
"Fault lies with the person who stored the powersupply improperly.
Blaming MS for this house fire is like blaming GE for burning your house down because you left the oven on with the door open, expecting it to heat your house."
That is absolutely fallacious thinking. There is no way a reasonable person would expect a power unit to overheat and catch fire. Playing the 360 for extended periods of time is reasonable - it's what the product was bought for and is part of the customer's "bargained-for objective." If the oven exploded in the course of normal use at no fault of the buyer, then GE would be liable. Keeping your oven open to heat your house is not what an oven was designed for and could not have been forseen as a course of action for a reasonable customer by GE. However, it is completely reasonable for a gamer to play the 360 for hours while the brick is heating up.
This is a case of faulty design - there's no failsafe mechanism and the consequences were very foreseeable. Microsoft had reports of overheating and faults in their soldering and design and did not take the necessary course of action to protect consumers.
If this guy hires a good attorney he may get a good stab at punitive damages.
Oh my GOD! so much comments flaming...
First : Xbox360 is a nice console BUT, its hardware design sucks...what was the fail percentage?
Second : I normally leave my pc ON all day...do i expect it to catch fire? no, i even get some blankets on it to keep it quiet at night!! does it get on fire? no...Its well conceived!...
Please stop being fanboys...microsoft is to blame for a crappy hardware design...
when i buy a electronics device its not suppose to catch onfire period.
WHEN I BUY A GAMING, PC, anything that could get hot at this point! it should self-shutdown before it burns down!
look you dumb shits i have been a gamer for years i have been playing video games since i was 5 years old. i got a ps3 and xbox 360 this piece of shit xbox was turned off when it caught fire. and if your stupid asses would do any research, this is not the first case a child was killed by the same thing a year ago. so before you talk shit about someone research the situation!!!!
what temperature should you store your xbox 360 at?