XboX failure rate 54.2%

Looks like they need to find a new manufacturer or maybe see if it was a design error (s).
http://blog.seattlepi.com/microsoft/archives/176741.asp

Survey: Xbox 360 failure rate is 54.2%
Xbox 360 gamers know the Red Ring of Death all too well. When one of Microsoft's gaming consoles experiences a hardware failure, three of the four red lights ringing the Xbox's power indicator illuminate.

Since the Xbox 360's launch in late 2005, system failures have gained their fair share of attention. Last year, Microsoft even set aside $1 billion to extend Red Ring of Death warranty coverage to three years.

In fact, a Game Informer survey of 5,000 readers found that the Xbox 360 has an astounding 54.2 percent failure rate. That means 54.2 percent of Xbox 360 consoles fail in one way or another.

That's well above the reported failure rates of Sony's PlayStation 3 (10.6 percent) and Nintendo's Wii (6.8 percent).

I mean, if they're going to compare all things public to the DMV, why not compare all things private to the XBOX and the 54% failure rate? Would you want YOUR doctor to have a 54% failure rate?

My husband's failed for the first time in 2007, before Microsoft admitted they had a problem. It would have cost a lot to fix it because the warranty expired, so he sold it for parts and bought another one. That one failed last year, but Microsoft extended its warranty so we sent it in and it was fixed. It just failed again last week. So it looks like we'll send it in again.

We haven't had any other problems with Wii or PS3. But to be fair, he plays 360 a lot more than he plays the other two. It seems they can't compete with Xbox live.

:-)

There...

:hi:

And we are not even considering changing it.

What kind of plastic microchips are they building these damn things out of?

They was still under warrenty so the was fixed for free

I mean eventually they all fail. I imagine this was a lifetime test of some duration in time?

I think I bought it in 1993 or somewhere around there. It still works like a charm after 16 years. Some of the carts are dirty, but a little q-tip and alcohol cleans it up, and it works fine.

This thing was not made for 65" TVs, that's for sure! It's still fun though, which is what it's all about.

My Atari still works. It also doesn't have the optical components and moving parts of DVD player. For comparison my work DVD drive on my computer died in less than a year. How long do these optical devices usually last and how bad is the Xbox in comparison. Without the time element to the test study the whole comparison to other systems seems pointless to me.

We've never had any trouble with it. The wii and ps3 also have "optical components", and their failure rates are within an acceptable range.

1 point data samples isn't really helpful. Unless there has been a consumer reports type study, I think no conclusion can be made. Sorry.

And my Dreamcast still works like a charm (My favorite console).

Against some rocks, I've heard the foot has a failure rate of 83%

that's why i switched over to xbox.

maybe it's time for a nintendo.

It happened approximately 18 months after purchase.

Edited to add that my nephew's had it also. Not sure how old his was when it happened.

If Gates were still in charge, he'd be going apeshit on the employees now.

Very easy to correct. The problem lies with the soldering of the main chip coming loose. Requires disassembly, removal of x-brackets, 8 new nuts and bolts, reassemble and wal-la. Basically all you are doing is overheating the system to re-melt the solder by not using the fan for five minutes. Many video demos on the internet to show how to repair. I did it. Still working 8 mos later. Took me about an hour. My son was ecstatic.

Self selected poll = whiny fanbois.

The poster above is right: It's a soldering problem that is quite well known. If XBOX didn't have superior Online function, my husband would have just switched over to PS3 by now. But he loves LIVE and his gamer points.

My anecdote is precisely as reliable as a self-selected internet poll on a video game site. :hi:

edit: Jesus Christ! This post is already the number two hit on google on the above string, after having been posted 1 minute earlier. :wow:

And he would definitely concur with this poll.

54.2% does seem a bit high, but the failure rate is at LEAST two to three times the other consoles.

Just sayin' :shrug:

They should take more care.

the quality of work they did could mean the difference between life and death. Remember when the USS Yorktown became disabled because the whole system shut down because it's computer was asked to divide by zero? It was running Windows at the time.

It is not a soldering problem, it is a heat issue and can screw with the solder

but people do stupid things, you can not stack other AV equipment around the 360 or stick it in a entertainment center that does not have air flow. The 1st units would overheat and give the red ring of death, but that issue has been fix (thinner CPU and better heat sinks) for over a year now

I have had no issues with my launch day 360 unit, but I have gone through 3 PS3 controllers (the charge would only last like 10 minutes)

So this news is hardly surprising. And your example of 1 is even weaker then the poll you're busting.

And I'm a PC gamer, so no bias by me one way or another over which console is better. I have a PS2 that I've still barely used.

PSP, DS...Plus a decent gaming PC and a Macbook.

I am the fucking ultimate in platform agnostic.

Call me when you also claim to own:

Sears Video Arcade
Atari 2600
Atari 5200
Atari 7800
Mattel Intellivision
Mattel intellivision II
Colecovision
Maganavox Odysssey
Sega Master System
Sega Genesis
Sega Saturn
Sega White Japanese Saturn
NES
Super Nintendo
Super Nintendo Toploader
Sega Dreamcast
Treamcast
Gameboy
Gameboy Advance SP
Neo Geo
Neo Geo Pocket
Turbo Graffix 16
Turbo Duo
Nintendo 64

THEN we can throw down :evilgrin:

I've owned the bulk of those units. Well maybe not the bulk of your handhelds, but I've had the Gameboy, Game Gear and a DS. Also the 2600, ALL the Sega Systems, the Odyssey, all Nintendo systems with the exception of the Wii and the MS Systems. And my current PC is rocking an i7 920 OCed to 4.0ghz and dual GTX 285s, so I can run pretty much everything at 2304x1440 on my Sony CRT :) Of all the game systems I've owned, I still love gaming on my PC the most. It's hard to beat a good custom rig for FPS gaming with a keyboard and mouse.

I salute you!

I own, in addition to the above:

Gameboy
Gameboy Color
Gameboy Pocket
Gameboy Advance V1
Gameboy Advance SP
DS v1
DS v2
Neo Geo Pocket (B&W)
Neo Geo Pocket Color
SNES
N64
Gamecube
Dreamcast
Turbo Express
PSX
PS2
Xbox
Amiga (500? I don't recall)

:)

The fact you own an Amiga is SO damn cool. Definitely the most underrated, underappreciated computer EVER, along with the C64 of course.

The one thing I don't have yet is an Atari Lynx, but I am currently trying to track one down.

I salute you as well, fellow gamer.

You definitely have a taste that is commendable and admirable. :patriot:

I didn't see a Game Gear, then a Nomad (Genesis protable), Turbo Express (PC Engine portable).

Then there's...
Fairchild Channel F
Emerson Arcadia 2001
Bally Pro Arcade/Astrocade
Coleco Adam
Virtua Boy
Neo Geo MVS ($150 Cart system)
I didn't see a Sega 32X, 3DO, CDi or a Jaguar, but if you do, then forget those.

:evilgrin:

I have not owned the fist four in that list, but the others, definitely. :)

I had almost forgotten about the Arcadia.

What about The Vectrex, The Ill-Fated Western Technologies machine from 1982?

Now THAT thing is difficult to locate. :)

We all like videogames in this household, so through a combination of pooling money, savvy shopping and a lucky competition win we have all 3 of the main systems. They each have their merits, but the xbox is the only one we've had troubles with.

$299 for the remodeled slim model. Sony will again be king.

Netflix for the Xbox is also a very good deal when you consider the amount of films you can stream.

word. my genesis is also still going strong.

Amazing these old dinosaurs keep on trucking. My SNES is still working after 16 years. I bet my N64 still works too. Have to dig in the closet for it.

my ps1 is still rockin' too. :D

plus N64 need not suffer from craptastic tv resolution any longer.

:)

Emulation rules. Been playing an old Atari ST game called Sundog that was awesome then, and now.

So far, nada.

and... you're in 8th place????! LOOOOOOOSER! :rofl:

http://www.pure-mac.com/emu.html

Snes9x is an excellent emulator, though I haven't tried it on a mac.

Looks like fun!:yourock:

I doubt there's one made specifically for N64 games (I could be wrong), but if you have another USB controller they probably let you reprogram the controller to something that works for you. I change mine around depending on the game. I haven't even tried a N64 emulator yet, so I'm not sure how they're setup, but I would think they'd let you use a controller of some sort.

I don't know if it would be ideal for N64 or not, though.

...so I can use my Xbox controller wirelessly. I'll have to look for it, and see if it's Mac compatible.

Almost every controller in use today is derived from the N64 controller. 360's controller has a couple of more buttons, and the 4 camera buttons are replaced with a 2nd joystick, but it's pretty much the same.

And I already have 2 360 controllers already, one of which is still in it's plastic packaging.

I being a real pest today.:dunce:

You just download the rom and it should work with whatever emulator you're using. Emulators vary and can be hit or miss with some games, but most of the ones I've tried have worked fine.

Try these sites...

http://www.romnation.net/srv/roms/snes/0.html

(Any game ending in (U) is U.S., (J) is Japanese games, etc.)

http://www.rom-world.com/dl.php?name=Super_Nintendo

:woohoo:

MS's history is replete with cheapness...

And I'm not talking about the iPhone.

I'd hit it! :rofl:

factor iPod touch/iPhone for the gamers and video buffs. I will believe it when I see it.

A 6" and a 10" model. Sept. 7th is a big Apple event. My guess it'll be introduced then.

iPod and iPhone updates.

http://www.crn.com/mobile/219400654;jsessionid=UEGYWD2SVWYNJQE1GHRSKH4ATMY32JVN

Rumors that the Apple tablet may have a companion and that Sept. 9 may be the big unveiling of the pair of touch-screen tablets comes just a day after sources close to Apple said there would be no Apple tablet come Sept. 9 at an event Apple is reportedly planning in San Francisco.

But Envisioneering Group market researcher Richard Doherty told Business Week that Apple has two tablets that will come out either this year or early next year and that the two tablet prototypes are a 6-inch version that resembles an oversized iPod Touch and a version with a larger display, likely the 10-inch model that has been the focus of most Apple tablet speculation.

The 6-inch Apple tablet, Doherty told Business Week, will be mainly used for watching videos, playing games and reading e-books. The second model will be bigger, have a larger screen and be able to run Mac applications like audio/video editing and graphic animation. The researcher speculated that the smaller Apple tablet would cost about $679 and will probably run on an iPhone-based operating system.

Tomorrow, we'll be back to "Apple Tablet will be MIA at Sept. Event." :rofl:

biggest secret of all, the shift to Intel, There were rumors of an Intel laptop running OSX. but they never developed the story. The Darwin project caused some speculation, but when Apple dropped support and went in house with it, interest waned.

it's a big reason the PS3 is suffering. There just aren't as many games for the PS3 and there's a reason for that. Microsoft managed to corner the market, just as they have always done. Unfortunately, their products really do not live up to their successful business model.

Nintendo had that monopoly when PS1 stole most of their companies, then the 360 took them from Sony. Now iPhone has thousands of games from people I never heard of. Can they make a Halo killer? Who knows, but there's always a new developer opening up shop.

But the two people I know who also have 360s have both have Red Ring of Death issues. At least MS pays for the shipping and repair, but still, you're fucked for three or so weeks if you want to play any games. They have first-run 360s, though, bought them the year they came out. Mine was built after the RROD problem had become apparent so hopefully it was better constructed in the factory to begin with.

I almost bought a PS3 because of this and because PS3s have Blu Ray, but I just think Xbox does gaming better. A better game library, better online play, more ergonomic controller.

With XBox live, there is no other console that gets the amount of playtime the XBox 360 does. For any given number of days or weeks, the 360 is operating a whole lot more hours than any other console out there. If you want the data taken seriously, you need to use MTBF (Mean time between failures) instead of discrete failure counts.

Go buy a Cadillac, drive it 300,000 miles and then bitch that it quit working while your 500 mile Yugo still runs great.

And we've never had any trouble.

I do a good amount of playing with it (movies, gaming, Live, etc.) and never had any issues. The MTBF comment still brings up an interesting point.

a valid point. The question is the XBox failing faster than normal similar optical devices in terms of usage time? So far no one in the thread has been able to answer the question. I don't see it as being pro or con Microsoft to want a fair comparison of systems before condemning any brand.

I never would have gotten to experience inFamous any other way.

Rest of the line is fairly thin, imo. I am not a fan of MGS4.

and it's very therapeutic...not having to worry about saving civilians or any of that garbage. :evilgrin:

I was evil on my first go round in inFamous. Very therapeutic, as you say! :evilgrin:

Two of my brothers own a 360, both have died twice, a bud of mine in Sac had his die once as well.

I'm not a big fan of spending 2-3 hundred bucks for a machine that will die on me. I'm not a big gamer persay, but every now and then a game grabs me and I play the hell out of it for "Years"

Another one of my brothers has a launch ps3 and his is still going strong, and he puts at least 8 hours a day on this thing...of all my brothers, he is the one that is truly, the most dedicated to games. He also plays a lot of PC games as well (warcraft/everquest, games like that).

The games for the 360 look very damn good though, I wish they would release games for all three of the major consoles, but what I want, and what I get are two entirely different issues.

This one just came out for 20+ year old systems. SNES, Sega Gen, NES



http://www.dkoldies.com/FC3-Plus-System-Genesis-Nintendo-NES-SNES-p/fc3%20-%203%20systems%20in%201c.htm

at the Game Exchange, they wanted 60 bucks for it, its worth it, but I still got my SNES and most of the games I liked for the NES I have for my gameboy advance....

The sega games though, there were many of those I miss greatly, especially Golden Axe. :)

The Exabyte 8mm tape drive was the computer industry standard for a few years back in the '90s. That also had more than a 50% fail-rate. But it was still cheaper to have over 50% of them manufactured, assembled and packaged overseas, shipped to the customer, returned by the customer, repaired in a US factory and returned to the customer than to have 100% of them manufactured in the US with almost no failures.

Of course, the Exabyte 8mm tape drive did not reign supreme for very long despite having some serious marketing advantages over the 4mm. It may have been because of the failure rate.

I've had two 360's fail. In both instances I phoned Microsoft, gave my details and a UPS guy turned up the next day to collect the console. The first was returned in a fortnight and the second in a week. Free.

I've also had a BluRay drive problem with my PS3. It eventually got fixed under warranty but it took a victory in a battle of wits between myself and the Sony representative to get it sorted.

I'm no fan of Microsoft but all credit to them, they recognised that they had a problem with the hardware and made sure the problem is as painless as possible.

card for 2 free weeks of XBOX live to reimburse me for the time that was lost.

time I left the outside shell off so the machine stays a little cooler inside and it has been working ever since.

:)

it must have been 2 years ago since I bought it and it gets played everyday for hours on end by my younger brother. Half the time people just don't know how to take care of their things, if you treat your electronics like crap they will eventually fail on you.

into a game console monopoly.

The first executives charged with antitrust violations were threatened with slammer time. no shit.

printer at a loss but make up for it with ink. Their cut (licensing, access, etc) of the games could be their "ink."

All the current consoles are loss leaders. Nintendo started that game years ago with the Famicom.

Nintendo has never sold any of their systems at a loss. Even the GC & Wii. They make money on every one.

Sony & MS do sell theirs at a loss though, and have since PS1.

The Wii is almost no different hardware-wise from the Gamecube which was selling at under $100 when the Wii started selling. It's basically a Gamecube with an OCed CPU and GPU, a different optical drive and all that motion sensor crap. I liked the Gamecube (which I got for $100), but there was no way in hell I'd pay almost 3x that much for the same graphics and wireless controllers with motion sensing. I'm amazed that the Wii has done as well as it has, but I guess they really did manage to bring in a ton of people who would normally not be gamers. The graphics seem so primitive in this day and age. If they would have sold it for $150 right from the start, I would have considered it, but now I really doubt I'll ever own one.

Go check out "Muramasa: the Demon Blade". The whole game looks like a painting come to life.

Yes, it's a side-scroller, but... it's just gorgeous.

meaning game developers... I have XBOX 360 and it crashes a lot, just like many PC's running windows, I've used over the years. Microsoft is one bloated company that gets away with selling shit.

it freezes quite often.

This is why monopolies suck. Vista Home Basic's customer satisfaction rate? 15%.

Go Google.

:crazy:

for it to not be fixed four years later is disgusting.


Kurzweil Synthesizers were famous in this regard because their PC-88 synth keyboard had a 95plus percentage failure rate on the first shipment. HOWEVER Kurzweil was quick to fix the solder joint problem and returned to normal rates by the 2nd or 3rd shipment. That was about 6 months of turnaround time.

To have a 54% fail rate is horrible. Amazing.

just for quality control. A business is only as good as its name. You get tagged for lousy work, it's hard to overcome that. Your CEO might be known as a roaring asshole, but if his product is good and reliable, one could overlook shortcomings in personalities.

Sure they might resign or say they are leaving for some other job which the company forcing them out will give them time to link up, but the fact is none of these people get back marks on their record for screwing things up.

I worked for a dot-com where the person above me stole $50 grand worth of equipment and still got given three months to look for an other position. When i got promoted and transferred across the country i got three days notice to move my whole life.

I wonder how many people have problems because they lie it on it's side, which defeats the purpose of the coolant system.

:eyes:

Too bad. LOL

and they are still working out the bugs...

crap like this happens.

Dump the "good enough" philosophy.

HP has the same problem, there is little left that is actually HP, executives and their support staff, lawyers, and some of the principle design. Everything else is outsourced to China and India and the result is massive defect rates.

Manufacturing, assembly, software, nobody that makes the thing has any stake in it.

Wow. More than half. Ours lasted about 5 months of very infrequent play before dying. I will give them props for making repairs pretty painless, though.

And they fix it at their own expense.

Makes for more consistent quarterly profit margins.

Does anyone know how Microsoft handles claims for this? Please pm me.
Thanks!

:P

C