Today My Microsoft Xbox 360 Has Red Ring of Death: Glad own Sony PS3 & Nintendo Wii
Filed under: Gaming, Xbox 360 | By: Daniel
Posted on: September 19, 2007 | 76 Comments
After I wrote on the 29th of August about ringing Microsoft about my Xbox 360 and trying to get them to replace before the “red ring of death” problem happens, as they said no I left it on for hours and the 360 did not go wrong.
After that test I believed that not all Xbox 360’s will get the 3 red lights, I thought it was just some that will (Microsoft changed my mind).
Today is the day I got the 3 lights and so called red ring of death, and that was after not having the console on for 2 days and then turning on for 10 minutes it died.
This proves to me that ALL XBOX 360’S will die, they sold me a product that is faulty from day one and will only replace when it goes wrong (they know about these problems and 3 years warranty is just not good enough). Maybe newer ones will not get this.
Who thinks Microsoft should do a Global Recall on all Xbox 360’s?
Forget about writing comments saying (they will not) I know this, but it makes me laugh how Microsoft are allowed to get away with selling a console that has hardware faults…just shows what kind of company they are.
I love the Xbox 360 and the range of games, but the company puts profit and money before the customer and they know they sold us all faulty goods.
Following the 40 minute phone call to Xbox 360 support a month ago (before the problem happened) where I said in my last post “In short they will only repair the 360 if I get the 3 red lights (even after telling them it sounds like a tank and gets so hot”.
So now they will collect and fix for free, but you tell me is it right for them to sell me a product with hardware problems from the start and not recall it?
We as the consumer have to have all the hassle just so they do not lose money; I wish a higher authority would step in.
It was interesting what people said a month ago before this problem happened to me: here
Papalazarou said:
Well unless YOU have the three red lights, they’re not going to do squat to help you for free. Repair time for each 360 can stretch to about 6 weeks, so they probably want to concentrate on repairing the ones that are actually dead as dodos.
And bca said:
Well, this is typical Microsoft procedure. Let the customer do the testing and find the bugs. Get a Wii or PS3.
Well I did get a Sony PS3 and a Nintendo Wii, but as I posted the other day (Lack of Sony PS3 games makes me get my Xbox 360 out) I went back to my 360 because of the lack of games on the Playstation 3.
Today I am now playing back on my PS3 because the 360 is dead…Microsoft you have lost another customer due to your attitude to put profit before ethics.
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Well I don’t see why this is a big deal. I went through 4 ps2’s last gen. I am still on my first 360 from launch. So I got quite a few to go and it seems they will get much better with the cooler 65nm chips and better heat sinks on the motherboard.
OH yea christian call him a fanboy for speaking his mind… i suppose if his 360 breaks he shouldnt play the PS3 because its made by Sony? And the fact the he gives sony props you call him a fanboy. Hey Daniel, I applaud you for giving your honest answers on your experience with your Microsoft product. Unfortunately that kid is too blind and maniuplated by Microsoft to realize that you werent giving him props. Just the other day you wrote an article about “Lack of PS3 games make u get your Xbox 360 out”
I read your blog because you are in Googles PS3 news feed. I just dont comment but his comment made me comment.
Anyway have fun with your PS3 kid.
@Pete
“The 3 year warrenty is a step in the right direction, but nit does not help the thousands like me who had a 360 die on them before MS decided to take action.”
If you really had a 360 you would know that the warranty DOES cover 360’s that died before it was issued.
“it continues to fail 2 years into it’s production cycle, showing that they have learned nothing.”
I’ve not seen any evidence that recently manifactured consoles are failing at high rates, the cases we are seeing are generally units purchased early on and in some cases those units have been repaired and failed again but a large number of complaints are bogus and come from fanboys.
“Lets forget about games”
Why? thats what i bought my console for, to play GAMES not to boast about it’s reliability while it collects dust under the T.V
The PS2 had a similar problem called DRE (disc read error) the PS2 i own now is my third unit, Sony never owned up to the problem even after settling a law suit.
http://video-games.elliottback.com/2005/11/11/sony-settles-ps2-lawsuit/
Sony repaired or replaced a limited amount of consoles for free as a so called good will gesture while refusing to publicly admit to the problem (they went on to sell over 120M units) i believe the PS1 had hardware problems also but mine was not an early model and i didn’t have it long before trading it in for PS2 games so i can only go on what i’ve heard.
It’s unlikely that any of the cartridge based consoles you mention would have had hardware problems as they contain no moving parts which greatly reduces the risk of failure.
The fact remains that the undeniable reliability of the orginal Xbox did not make it the most successful console last time round and reliability will not make the PS3 successful this time, only a competetive price and large library of great games will sell systems.
Ok I guess I have to explain the 3 year warranty. It only covers RROD. It does not cover your 360 if anything else happens to it, for example:
The system scratching your disc
Load tray failing to open or close
drive not reading
Outputs not working
Etc, etc, etc
Microsoft has already been sued over the 360 scratching games. If anything other than RROD happens YOU HAVE TO PAY TO FIX YOUR 360.The 3 year warranty is not a peace of mind, it was a quick PR move. If MS wanted to really fix it they would just bring out the 65nm chips and allow you to exchange your 360 for one that works and put 65nm ones in stores.
I don’t understand how anyone can defend MS when they are currently selling systems that have high failure rates. 360 owners should be the most vocal since they are the ones having to be without a system of no fault on their own.
This has nothing to do with the PS3, PS2 or any other systems at all. This only has to do with MS making crappy hardware. People try to make it seem ok that the 360 has the highest failure rate of any video game console ever by dissing another system.
If all the 360 owners that spend there time and typing dissing other systems could transfer that energy is sending emails to MS, FCC or whoever then maybe everyone could get their 360’s replaced with with ones that just won’t break at all and there will be no need for a 3 year warranty.
@pete
you said “only a competetive price and large library of great games will sell systems.”
I agree with what your saying to the point that also many consoles going wrong will also make a games console be outsold by others.
The 360 is still breaking, even after they fix it and on new elite systems, just see teh comments of people that have brought these.
Also look at the video here http://www.product-reviews.net/2007/09/10/xbox-360-elite-cracked-open-video-seems-clone-of-the-original/ on an elite that was taken apart, its 99% the same.
And not the newer better chips rumored to be coming, so things will keep breaking.
Geeez…. Get over it!
Consoles break and MS is fixing it. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. This applies to any company you contact regarding a product.
If people is so upset about the 360, then don’t buy it. The reason MS can continue is because consumers continue to buy the 360. It is as simple as that. No amount of complaining will help. So stop these stupid articles that keep popping up for the exact same things!
Move along people, there is no news here.
I got my Elite on launch day, so it still has the 90nm chips and it is still going strong, even after many 14 hour gaming sessions. The other Elite’s that have experienced RROD may have been manufactured prior to the switch to 65nm. I can say with absolute certainty that not all X360’s fail. How? Mine still works perfectly and I have friends that have launch units that are still going! The above stripdown of the Elite, from this site no less, fails to mention the motherboard has been redone on the Elite when compared to the earlier models. It’s actually careless reporting that implies no change at all.. Check an unbiased source such as llama.com for a thorough breakdown of differences, including images that show a new layout of some components and updated resistors, capaticitors etc… http://www.llamma.com/xbox360/news/inside_the_xbox_360_elite.htm
Honestly I can appreciate the intent of this article - but it came off as a very whiney and childish attack. I do recall the author crying that he couldn’t get his console exchanged when it was not experiencing any issues and now he cries that he needs to get it exchanged. WTF? There was no guarantee that his unit was going to fail, but it sounds he tried to get it to RROD just prove his point. Perhaps inappropriate storage was the culprit? Maybe the good ole towel trick did it in? Who knows……. Anyway, I hope mine continues on with no issues, as it has for many months now. If not I can rest easy knowing hat I have the 3 years of protection from RROD.
I guess @ everyone
Continuing to bring up the PS3, PS2, whatever other systems does not make the 360 have less of a failure rate or and acceptable failure rate. You can talk about how ps2 had problems back in the day and no one fixed it but that doesn’t help you 360 problems today. Plus MS WILL NOT fix your 360 for any problem, only RROD.
If I buy a car with a 3 year powertrain warranty it does not cover the whole car. Same with the 360, the 3 year warranty does not cover the whole system so please everyone stop acting like it does.
The PS3 does have games, Ninja Gaiden Sigma, Warhawk, Heavenly Sword, Dirt, etc and the PS3 has nothing to do with the failure rate of the 360.
As for fanboys making up the failure rate is just the dumbest idea I have ever heard. Does anybody really think that MS would throw out a 3 year RROD warranty because some fanboys lied about there systems breaking on the internet? No. MS knew there system was a problem and coming into this holiday season you don’t want to be known for having the system that breaks 33% of the time with nothing to back you.
@SN
The Elite does not have the 65nm chips. There are supposed to be in the rumored falcon models of the 360s.
I also believe that not all 360’s will fail. Just an alarmingly high rate of them will.
Apple recall the ipods, of course apple is not microsoft, they take care of their costumers.
In my own point of view, there could be 2 reasons why microsoft dont recall the xbox 360:
a) They dont have a good console to gave you for your faulty console, in other words, they know the xbox 360 has problems, but dont know exactly how to solve the problem or prevent it, so they cant recall because they dont have “fixed” consoles that wont break. This idea has support because microsoft other times have recalled or fixed hardware problems (xbox and racing wheel for example)
b) They cant afford 10000000 xbox 360 recalled, microsoft has more than 7 years of money drain in the xbox businnes, they havent make any dime from the xbox, the investors are angry, they dont wanted microsoft maked the xbox in the first place, so a total global recall, could be the last the investors could take, and forze microsoft to drop the xbox (add the problems with vista and you see how even the richest pocket has a limit for wasting money)