RedRingOfDeath
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Xbox 360: refused repairs, and really high failure rate?
It looks like Xbox 360 users in the UK suffering from the dreaded Red Ring of Death now have once less option to get their console fixed, as repair specialist Micromart recently announced that it'll no longer fix the consoles, calling the problem "endemic." While it will apparently still perform other repairs on the console, it says that the most common of all problems just isn't feasible for them to undertake, stating that it would end up costing them around $200 for each repair and still leave them unsatisfied with the result. In related news, DailyTech recently conducted a poll of retailers in an attempt to find out just how high the Xbox 360's failure rate was, one of which reportedly pegged it to be as high as 33 percent. That number comes from a former EB Games employee, who also said that the company was forced to nearly double the price of its over-the-counter warranty prices as a result. According to DailyTech, a Best Buy manager also claimed that the failure rate was "between a quarter to a third" of all units sold, although it seems that those numbers are based only on personal experience.Read - DailyTech, "Console Service Center Refuses to Repair Xbox 360 RROD"Read - DailyTech, "Retailers Estimate Xbox 360 Failure Rate High as 33 Percent"[Photo courtesy of AnandTech]
Gamer replaces 11 360s, records audio proof
It's no secret that Microsoft at least appears to have serious hardware problems with the Xbox 360. Of course, Microsoft claims that failure rates are within acceptable limits. When pressed about the issue, Peter Moore tells 360 owners not to focus on the problem, but to focus on the level of service received in the wake of that problem. Oh, and they won't comment on things like new heatsinks in refurbished systems, which seems like the kind of thing you'd install to stop a recurring overheating problem. On top of all this is yet another web of flamewars (many of which occur right here on the comment threads of X3F). Every time a story is run about customers receiving multiple Rings of Death, two things happen. One, loads of commenters relate that they have had similar problems, and two, loads of different commenters don't believe them. Some even go so far as to suspect that those with problems are nothing more than Sony shills, paid to spread lies throughout the intertubes.Enter Justin Lowe of Aggravated Gamers with his total of 11 replaced Xbox 360s. Yes, he's had 11 of the buggers replaced (he's on his twelfth) for disc read errors, the Red Ring of Death, and a few experience-ruining audio/visual problems. Knowing full well that no one would believe his outrageous claim, he decided to call Xbox customer service and record some evidence. Below you can hear Justin recount all 11 of his Xbox 360s with a customer service representative. 1UP carried Justin's story and received all the standard replies from MS regarding failure rates and new heatsinks (it's a vocal minority, we don't comment on hardware revisions, etc.). Amazingly, Lowe admits, "I still like Microsoft, as much as that may astound people."With the failure stories seemingly escalating, we have to ask: is this issue coming to a head?Lowe Recording:
MS responds to new heatsink in 360s
Microsoft has responded (in a manner of speaking) to yesterday's reports that the company has been installing new additional heatsinks when repairing Xbox 360s. Supposedly, these new heatsinks are appearing in refurbished Xbox 360s in the United Kingdom as a means to combat the Red Ring of Death. In response to a query from gamesindustry.biz, a Microsoft spokesperson noted that "regularly updating console components is commonplace within the industry and is a standard aspect of the business for a variety of reasons including cost reduction, improved manufacturability and improved performance." So yeah, they dodged the question. Furthermore, the representative refused to directly confirm or deny the new heatsinks, saying that Microsoft does not provide information regarding hardware updates. Uh huh, and we're sure that Microsoft won't be trumpeting the new 65nm GPUs either. Sure ....Our translation: there are new heatsinks in refurbished Xbox 360s, but admitting that would be tantamount to admitting that the 360 has a systemic flaw, something Microsoft is not keen to do.
Rumor: Microsoft adding extra cooling to repaired 360s
Several technology websites have become hosts to images of newly repaired Xbox 360s featuring a cooling solution which was not present in the original hardware. It is claimed that after placing a malfunctioning system in a cozy coffin and sending it off to Microsoft, users receive a repaired system equipped with a second GPU (graphics processing unit) heatsink. No instances of the heatsink appearing in brand new systems have yet been documented, but its initial appearance seems to highlight what anecdotal evidence has been suggesting for months -- if it's broke, you should fix it.Is Microsoft finally taking a shot at Peter Moore's "moving target" failure rate? If indeed legitimate, this hardware modification suggests that the system's reported problems could be due to an engineering issue as opposed to generalized problems. Then again, it's no simple matter drawing conclusions based on nothing but anecdotal evidence and a tight-lipped manufacturer... and perhaps therein lies the real problem. Microsoft did not respond to our request for comment at the time of writing. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
MS installing new heatsinks in refurb 360s
The technophiles at Xbox-Scene have uncovered a tasty bit of Xbox 360 news that should serve as some relief to sufferers of the Red Ring of Death. It looks like Microsoft is employing new heat-combating measures when refurbishing broken units. Specifically, a new heatsink is being installed. The heatsink resides directly under the DVD drive, connected to one of the other heatsinks with copper tubing. Blessedly untouched by the Red Ring of Death thus far, we don't know how effective this new heatsink is, but we're hopeful that it will solve perpetually publicized 360 failures. Whether or not Microsoft is also installing the heatsink in new Xbox 360s is unknown. See video proof of the new heatsink after the break.[Thanks, Josh W]
Ring of death inspires Forza 2 artwork
Another Forza 2 customized paint job arrived in our inbox today and we thought its inspiration was noteworthy. Some of us (including me) have experienced the dreaded red lights and have had to deal with Microsoft's semi-helpful customer service to send off a broken 360. CoolNumber9 is having the same red ring of death problems and has been using the "towel trick" to keep it running long enough to make a ring of death inspired Forza 2 car. It may not be the most badass ride on the block, but anyone who has had to deal with the red lights will shudder when they see this beast in their rear view mirror. Long live die the ring of death!And as always, send us your custom Forza 2 creations so we can add them to our lovely gallery below.%Gallery-3640%
Motley Fool tells MS to get its act together
Adding himself to the ever-growing pool of Xbox 360 failure coverage, Seth Jayson of The Motley Fool is warning investors that the Xbox 360's failure rates could hurt its future growth. After receiving the dreaded Ring of Death himself (and some faulty Zunes), Jayson has some fighting words for Microsoft. Of particular note, is the statement that the actual failure rates aren't as important as the perceived failure rates. In other words, the stories of multiple failed Xbox 360s are much louder than Microsoft's claims that failure rates are within the acceptable standard. Jayson admits that, when functional, the Xbox 360 is a topnotch game player and an excellent media hub to boot, but if the public perceives it as faulty, then Microsoft stands the chance of "alienating potential customers and crimping future growth." In conclusion, Jayson notes that Microsoft must address these basic hardware issues before it can effectively execute its plans for new-gen dominance.What do you think? Do you know anyone who was swayed from getting an Xbox 360 based on failure horror stories?
Anecdotal: Microsoft low on Xbox 360 coffins
For the most part, we've given up on reporting every single time one of our colleagues in the gaming press has an Xbox 360 die on them. Frankly, we'd be writing a piece every couple weeks. A brilliant recent example was the Weekly Geek Show's Xbox 360, which we covered, died again in late May. Exactly one month and six days after being "repaired." But, like Peter Moore asked of all of us, we shouldn't focus on the failure rate of Xbox 360s, but on the service in repairing them. And so, we have the story of Officer Craig Ravitch of the New York Police Department.Officer Ravitch discovered last Friday that his Xbox 360 died on him in a classic New York "You gotta' be frickin' kidding me!" moment. He loves his Xbox 360, it's his "favorite system," but the "constant breaking down is amazing" to him. He called Microsoft, as he's done three times before. This next console will be his fourth since the 360 launch. He bought the $60 two-year warranty after his last failure and also received a 50% repair discount after arguing the last time. Microsoft support told him he'd have his box by Tuesday. After not receiving a confirmation that this Xbox 360 coffin was sent (which he received the last time he did this), he decided to call support again. They informed him his box wasn't sent because "the service department is running very low on boxes, so it will take a little longer than expected to get that box" out to him. Ravitch was shocked. Is Microsoft getting back so many defective systems that they don't have a fresh supply of coffins anymore?We spoke with Officer Ravitch, who has a 26,000 point Gamerscore and buys about four games a month, and he told us, "As a consumer, I'm extremely, extremely disappointed with the way these consoles are dying. I don't have small children, I'm married, I get my three hours of gaming in when I can." He points out that the time he's lost in the back and fourth transit of his Xbox 360 has cost him three months of Xbox Live and he's thankful that he bought the warranty last time around, despite it being an unnecessary expense. Ravitch was mostly concerned that Microsoft is running low on coffins and now his repair has been delayed by a full week. Ravitch says, "I hate to badmouth the 360, its one of my favorite systems, but this burns me."
Microsoft is running out of 360 coffins?
If you recognize the cardboard box pictured above, then you are one of the unlucky souls to have witnessed the Red Ring of Death. While Microsoft continues to refuse requests to publish failure rates, the failure stories show no signs of stopping. We certainly can't cover them all, and Peter Moore has suggested that failures themselves aren't important at all, but rather the service received in the event of a failure. Thus, we bring you this failure story by way of Joystiq. The protagonist of our story is one Officer Craig Ravitch of the New York Police Department. According to Ravitch, he has gone through three Xbox 360 consoles since launch. His third recently broke down on him, prompting yet another call to Xbox customer support (something he's familiar with at this point). Customer support informed him that his 360 coffin -- the box used to send the console back to Microsoft -- would arrive on Tuesday. Ravitch never received confirmation that his coffin had been shipped, so he called customer support again. The representative informed him "the service department is running very low on boxes, so it will take a little longer than expected to get that box." Ravitch is quick to say that he loves his Xbox 360 and that it is his "favorite system," but he is understandably upset by the whole situation, noting "I hate to badmouth the 360, its one of my favorite systems, but this burns me."Is it possible that Microsoft has sent out so many Xbox 360 coffins that they are running low? We have to wonder how much longer it will be before MS stops tap dancing around this issue.
What's one Red Ring of Death between friends?
We like pictures. You guys must know this, because one of you (allmodcons) has sent us one. A photograph snapped at the Union Square Gamestop in New York City. You can see a cropped version to the right, if you're feeling too lazy to click through. It's an Xbox 360 display case with an unfortunate case of Red-Ring-of-Death-itis. That's the proper medical name, I've heard.I'll admit that when I saw the image schadenfreude got the better of me. I took some pleasure in Gamestop's misfortune and smiled to myself. Doing so without any malice toward the Xbox 360 console itself or its owners, however. We at PS3 Fanboy love our 360 owning brothers (and sisters). Don't spread this too far, but some of us even own one ourselves. Crazy, eh? We may tease them about their embarrassing hiccups from time to time, but like the well-intentioned siblings that they are they give as good as they get. We'll be the first to mention the number of times the PS3 has overheated at a retail booth (or even at the TGS), or its low sales figures. Remember the Xbox 360 dressed up as a PS3? That was pretty embarrassing, too. A bit of good natured ribbing on each side makes things a bit more fun and interesting, I think. That's why it's OK to have a chuckle at pictures like this from time to time.Console war? More like a console pillow-fight.[Thanks Nick]
Xbox 360 can't handle the PS3 heat
Toddlers are dangerous creatures. Especially when they get their hands on expensive gadgets. This life lesson comes to you via 1UP Editor John Davison, who recently discovered it for himself when his two sons woke up early one morning wanting to play video games. It seems Davison keeps his PS3 and his Xbox 360 in a less-than-well ventilated entertainment unit. Usually this is of no consequence as the two consoles are rarely running together. Davison also makes sure to keep the doors open whenever the PS3 is running. Unfortunately on this particular morning his wee-est nipper decided to play along with the older brother as he played on the Xbox 360. To make a short story shorter, the toddler pushed the PS button on the SIXAXIS controller (which was obviously the young lad's controller of choice when pretending to play - such good taste at such a young age), causing the PLAYSTATION 3 to fire up.And fire up it did. The temperature within the unventilated entertainment unit shot up, initiating some kind of Scandinavian sauna challenge between the two consoles. As the 360 started showing signs of its encroaching Red Ring of Death, the PS3 was still going strong. In the end Sony's behemoth emerges victorious. And the 360? Don't ask, it's not pretty. Oh well. I guess it's perfect timing. Time to go pick up one of those Xbox 360 Elite's I've heard so much about, right?[Via Joystiq]
GayGamer visited by the Red Ring of Death
Another month, another media outlet visited by the Xbox 360's Red Ring of Death. Two weeks ago we told the story of The Weekly Geek show. Now the gentlemen of GayGamer castle were visited and have lifted the drawbridge to keep the Xbox Reaper (pictured) from wandering around to the rest of their consoles. Timsy over at GayGamer gave a good sob story when he called to declare the death of his console and by the grace of Microsoft he'll pay $70, instead of the $140, for the repair. Of course, he'll be documenting the process for their readers, a story we are all too familiar with.Microsoft just recently expanded their repair policy again. After increasing the warranty to a year, now if your Xbox 360 is visited by the Xbox Reaper, after paying for the repair you'll receive another year of warranty. Typically this is the part where we'd go over Microsoft fibbing greatly about the 3 percent failure rate, especially when you take the great fanboy story of seven deaths into the equation, but we'll just let all that go for once. Just tell your Xbox 360 you love it every night, because you never know when the Xbox Reaper will pay her a visit.
Xbox 360's Red Ring of Death visits Weekly Geek Show
You hope that nobody gets it, it's curable, but anecdotal evidence continues to pile-up and show the Xbox 360's Red Ring of Death seems to be far more prevalent than gamers would hope. Like any disease, coming out and discussing it is what gets people talking about the problem and acknowledging that there may be a greater issue here. At a minimum, it would be nice to finally get some answers.Now, the issue isn't that random consumers continue to experience the Red Ring of Death repeatedly, but wouldn't you know it, for an item that supposedly has a 3 percent failure rate, it certainly has a lot of that happening in the gaming media. The latest victim is Michael "Caspian" Wiegand over at Weekly Geek Show. He's gone over his year warranty, refuses to pay the $139 and he's using extortion as his method for receiving a new system. Wiegand writes, "[Microsoft] send me, your dejected disciple, a new 360 and a free gold subscription for a year and I'll retract this article and replace it with a flattering one."Wiegand is in the right frame of mind, it's not like Microsoft hasn't shut up complaining customers with new systems before. Although it's getting harder and harder to dismiss the problems when more high-profile Xbox 360 failures continue to occur, especially when systems are being sent back for repairs a second time. Joystiq's saga of a broken Xbox 360 wasn't even an isolated incident on our own staff. At this point it'd be nice if Microsoft further extended their warranty or finally released the actual failure rates for the system. We hope the new black Xbox is built better. Chris Furniss, from the Weekly Geek Show, speaks for many Xbox 360 owners when he says, "I fully expect my Xbox to give me the ring of death sometime within the next year ... It really is a great machine. It just has a horrible failure rate."
Save money, smack some sense into your 360
This one goes out to all those people who don't want to shell out $130 (plus shipping) to fix their 360 after receiving the dreaded Red Ring of Death®. This guy has a modified -- and not working -- 360. He turns it on and, sure enough, receives the red lights. What can he do? Call up tech support and try to bargain that $130 dollars down to an oh-so-attractive $115? Give up altogether? No, as the resourceful gamer knows only too well, if all else fails, smack it! Just beat the crap out of any malfunctioning piece of electronics, and there is a 50/50 chance it will be right as rain. So, before you send in that junked 360 for expensive repairs, be sure to give it a good beating first.[Via Joystiq]
Xbox 360 isn't actually broken, just misbehaving
We're all aware of the Xbox 360's Red Ring of Death, whether or not we experienced the problem firsthand. The logical assumption when three of the console's pretty green lights turn red and the games stop playing is that the system is broken. Apparently, that isn't always the case as the above video shows. Microsoft's AI branch prediction in the Xbox 360 is so good that some systems are becoming sentient. The red lights are simply the way the Xbox 360 communicates to the user that it doesn't feel like playing. But, like any misbehaving child, give it a good whack on the backside and it'll straighten up. You paid $400 (or $500 if you got suckered into the official wireless adapter) for the machine; it works for you, not the other way around. [Thanks, Zed]
Broken 360 from 2005? Repair it for free
Several of our readers have tipped us to the possibility that Microsoft was going to expand the warranty on all 360s manufactured in 2005, and it looks like they were right. Both Engadget and Joystiq have officially confirmed that Microsoft has acknowledged hardware problems with the first batch of Xbox 360s. In order to rectify the situation, Microsoft has decided to repair all consoles manufactured in 2005 for free. In addition, refunds will be paid to a limited group of people who have already paid for repairs, though at the moment we don't have details on exactly who qualifies for a refund. In the meantime we'd suggest readers get on the phone with customer support for more information. Any readers out there who start the quest for a free repair or a refund, let us know how it went. We'll be sure to stay on top of this at it develops. See Microsoft's statement after the break. [Via Joystiq]
