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MS: "The worst Xbox 360 failures are behind us"

MS: "The worst Xbox 360 failures are behind us"

According to Microsoft the slow repairs and hardware failures that plagued the Xbox 360 are a thing of the past.

Nearly every Xbox 360 owner has had issues with their console at some point, whether it's faulty disc drives, corrupted hard drives, stolen accounts or the dreaded red ring of death. As a console the Xbox 360 has faced its share of challenges and Microsoft has been forced to pay for them.

The good news though is that, according to Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg, the worst of these problems are behind us now and things can only get better from now on.

"We've improved that [repair] process," Aaron told Edge Online. "It's very quick, and they may upgrade your system with the latest technology. So that works really well."

"What it comes down to is isolating and figuring out the issue," Greenberg added, "fixing the issue, and the more that we can fix the issue, and know it's fixed, then we're good going forward. We've put the worst behind us on this, but we know there are a few lagging systems, and so we want to take those and make it right."

Microsoft are understandably eager to quell doubts over the hardware issues of course, what with the company facing more than one class action lawsuit over the problems.

Do you buy it? Will the Xbox 360 really be more stable from now on, or will you be hanging on to your towels for a while yet just in case? Let us know your thoughts in the forums.

27 Comments

Discuss in the forums Reply
icutebluezone 18th February 2009, 10:59 Quote
Mine dyed after about 1 month. GTA4. got it repaired free and was fast repair then sold it after about 3 weeks.
Joeymac 18th February 2009, 11:08 Quote
I got my 360 oct 2006. In the last couple of weeks the disc drive has stopped opening without a little prod... but it still works fine :shrug:

It is out of warranty now though, presumably if it dies I'll have to buy a new one.
rhuitron 18th February 2009, 12:00 Quote
Honestly, I think The 360, has beat PS3. Respectfully.

If i bought a Console, I would buy a 360. It has all the games I really ever want.
But alas, I still will keep building my huge performance machine. ;-)
Hustler 18th February 2009, 12:00 Quote
Quote:
Originally Posted by Joeymac
I got my 360 oct 2006. In the last couple of weeks the disc drive has stopped opening without a little prod... but it still works fine :shrug:

It is out of warranty now though, presumably if it dies I'll have to buy a new one.


I thought all 360's had their warranty extended to 3yrs....if i were you, i would, cough..err, 'help' the disc drive on its way and phone them up for a repair/replacement.
shigllgetcha 18th February 2009, 12:07 Quote
the 3 year warrantee usually only applies to RROD
craigey1 18th February 2009, 12:49 Quote
I've never had a problem with my 360 & I've had it from new about 6 months after launch.
Blademrk 18th February 2009, 13:34 Quote
Quote:
Originally Posted by Joeymac
I got my 360 oct 2006. In the last couple of weeks the disc drive has stopped opening without a little prod... but it still works fine :shrug:

It is out of warranty now though, presumably if it dies I'll have to buy a new one.

I had the same problem. When my 360 RROD'd over the xmas07 period, when it came back they'd also replaced the drive.
1ad7 18th February 2009, 15:15 Quote
these problem's just shouldn't have happened. Especially after somewhat similar issues with the original xbox. Not terrible for 2nd generation hardware, but its not like they didnt have tons of examples to go off of...
rollo 18th February 2009, 15:42 Quote
theres not a single exclusive game for either console

ps3 360 or wii

that id be tempted to go buy tbh.

all 360 exclusives get ported at some point anyway.

my 360 and wii are just expensive dust collectors

ps3 is a blue ray / media center

theres my uses of this generation of hardware

2 dust collectors and a media center

pc all the way
rollo 18th February 2009, 15:49 Quote
some 2nd hand games stores also refuses to buy 360 consoles in ( they 2nd hand game and console store) As they dont want to the hassle of a console with known issues.

you can get a wii 2nd hand for about £90 now

ps3 is about £140 mark in most places.

or you can buy a brand new 360 for about £140 ish ( arcade version)

360 elite and ps3 brand new are about the same cost most places now
Dvs98SK 18th February 2009, 16:48 Quote
I think they just disabled the RROD lights. My console started acting strange video output wise after i got a new one from RROD. I'm not the only one either. http://forums.xbox.com/1/16737900/ShowPost.aspx#16737900
Seems to me it plays through the error now. When i called for this problem i had to go through a lot of crap to get it fixed. I have a extended warranty from them though so it covers everything wrong with it not just RROD. If i didn't have it though i fear they may not fix this for u with out paying since its not technically the RROD.
crayfish 18th February 2009, 17:48 Quote
I sent my second 360 away for repair this week. My first lasted just under a year so I took it back to the shop. Then that one failed last Thursday.

I don't know whether to buy a new one and sell the repaired one when it comes back or not.
K.I.T.T. 18th February 2009, 18:24 Quote
My Dec 2008 360 Elite has just RRoD'd with a RAM fault on Friday 13th (lol) so thats off to MS...
crayfish 18th February 2009, 18:29 Quote
Quote:
Originally Posted by K.I.T.T.
My Dec 2008 360 Elite has just RRoD'd with a RAM fault on Friday 13th (lol) so thats off to MS...

After a couple of months?! I'm definitely not sure about buying a new one now :(
mikeuk2004 18th February 2009, 19:07 Quote
The 360 has been the biggest failure in console history. I dont get how they could continue selling them when they have a known design fault. Any other product and company would have been recalled. MS just throws money at it and everyone doesnt mind? I dont get it.
sui_winbolo 18th February 2009, 19:16 Quote
The 360 failures are really bad. But I would not consider the 360 being a complete failure.

I know very few people that own a PS3, everyone has a Wii, most are used rarely. I use to have a Wii, but I sold it because I didn't use it at all. I played half way through Super Mario Galaxy, bought couple SNES games and played those. Tried Wii Sports for awhile, but then I just stopped playing.

The people that "game" here own a 360. It's the most common console in my area I would say.

I play my 360 almost everyday. It's been working good for me. :) *knock on wood*
SolidSnakeUS 18th February 2009, 19:24 Quote
See, the thing is, the 3DO didn't even die this much. It seemed to be more reliable than the 360 haha. But the biggest reason they can keep selling these things is because they pretty much have unlimited money (relatively speaking) and a supposedly easy SDK. If it wasn't for both of these (it would fail if one of these were not the case), the 360 would be as dead as the 3DO.
bridgesentry 19th February 2009, 03:05 Quote
My Xbox360 overheated (red light + not start, not as RROD) one time. I watercooled it, the price of the cooling system is almost the same as the Xbox (and you must have some enthusiasm for hardware). Now it has run more than 2 years, average 2 hrs a day, with many time run 4-5 hrs nonstoped, and I think it can run like that forever.
But if you don't have enough experience of hardware, I don't recommend it.
themax 19th February 2009, 04:27 Quote
Quote:
Originally Posted by mikeuk2004
The 360 has been the biggest failure in console history. I dont get how they could continue selling them when they have a known design fault. Any other product and company would have been recalled. MS just throws money at it and everyone doesnt mind? I dont get it.

Trust me mikeuk it escapes me as well. People seem to love the failure rate, and happily put down the money on a brand new one when the warranty runs out. It's sad when even sites like Kotaku PROUDLY claim to be on their 7th (or was it 8th?) console. A friend of mine is on his 3rd, I'm on my second, my sister's RROD right out of the box. If anything Microsoft has learned that good hardware doesn't matter. An easy SDK, and throwing money at every developer will get you a bigger user base and more money than good Q&A on your hardware. The fact that some people actually try to use MS's 3yr warranty on the RROD as something to tout over the Wii and PS3 is funny (a 3yr Warranty hasn't been required until MS's Xbox 360).
talladega 19th February 2009, 05:28 Quote
I've had my PS3 since the summer after it came out and its still working good. I can't imagine having to get it replaced. I would be so pissed at Sony if their failure rate was like that. Just the other day I did a 8hour nonstop gaming session. Fan running at high speed of course though I can't hear it with headphones on.

I'm way out of warranty ( could still have warranty if I let BestBuy sucker me into their warranty) so I think one day I will open it up and clean out the dust. That should quiet it down alot. Still not as bad as the hovercraft MS sells.
sui_winbolo 19th February 2009, 05:40 Quote
Quote:
Originally Posted by themax
Trust me mikeuk it escapes me as well. People seem to love the failure rate, and happily put down the money on a brand new one when the warranty runs out. It's sad when even sites like Kotaku PROUDLY claim to be on their 7th (or was it 8th?) console. A friend of mine is on his 3rd, I'm on my second, my sister's RROD right out of the box. If anything Microsoft has learned that good hardware doesn't matter. An easy SDK, and throwing money at every developer will get you a bigger user base and more money than good Q&A on your hardware. The fact that some people actually try to use MS's 3yr warranty on the RROD as something to tout over the Wii and PS3 is funny (a 3yr Warranty hasn't been required until MS's Xbox 360).

Actually I think the biggest culprit behind these failure rates is the lead free solder and the high heat caused by cramming a powerful system in a small case with poor cooling.

I personally blame environmentalist. :)

I eventually want to get a different 360 just to keep my Halo 3 edition in mint condition. Then watercool it. Like bridgesentry has done with his. I think that would pretty much solve the overheating issue. Plus I want to get my hands into watercooling.
Spiny 19th February 2009, 10:03 Quote
"Do you buy it? "

Nope, I bought a PS3 this xmas. One of the main reasons in choosing it was the poor reliability of the 360
Paradigm Shifter 19th February 2009, 11:14 Quote
Quote:
Originally Posted by K.I.T.T.
My Dec 2008 360 Elite has just RRoD'd with a RAM fault on Friday 13th (lol) so thats off to MS...

Yikes. I've had my PS3 since October 2007 and it's been going strong since then.

I've held off on the purchase of a 360 (even though I'd like one for RPGs like Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon and so on...) precisely because of the RROD issues. A colleague who has a 360 fortunately picked up Argos's 3-year 'if it breaks we'll replace it free' warranty, as he's had his die three times now - each time he's just taken it back to Argos and gotten a replacement. But I don't think he'd be as forgiving toward his 360 if every time it died he had to send it off to MS or buy a new one. He actually picked up a second hand PS3 just after Christmas... mostly for the Blu-ray player, admittedly.

It's not all good news on the PS3 front, though - another friends PS3 died a few months after he bought it. The good news there was that Sony collected it the day after he phoned them up, and week later a brand new one turned up as Sony said his wasn't fixable.

I wonder if the new die-shrunk parts are any better? Jasper, or whatever its codename is?
devdevil85 19th February 2009, 18:57 Quote
That is such BS. My cousin has gone through two, TWO brand new 360 Arcades now in last 4 months due to RRoD. I'm not buying this one bit! If they're so confident then release the numbers that prove it! I just sent a package at my local UPS store. A guy was waiting in line behind me to send his "broken" 360 back to MS. The guy at the counter says that they get one about every day. That is really sad.
Quote:
Originally Posted by themax
Quote:
Originally Posted by mikeuk2004
The 360 has been the biggest failure in console history. I dont get how they could continue selling them when they have a known design fault. Any other product and company would have been recalled. MS just throws money at it and everyone doesnt mind? I dont get it.

Trust me mikeuk it escapes me as well. People seem to love the failure rate, and happily put down the money on a brand new one when the warranty runs out. It's sad when even sites like Kotaku PROUDLY claim to be on their 7th (or was it 8th?) console. A friend of mine is on his 3rd, I'm on my second, my sister's RROD right out of the box. If anything Microsoft has learned that good hardware doesn't matter. An easy SDK, and throwing money at every developer will get you a bigger user base and more money than good Q&A on your hardware. The fact that some people actually try to use MS's 3yr warranty on the RROD as something to tout over the Wii and PS3 is funny (a 3yr Warranty hasn't been required until MS's Xbox 360).
The only reasons that I can come up with for why people still love/support 360 (as a console) even with the ridiculous failure rates is that MS covers the replacement costs for free within a 3-year time period for RRoD so owners only lose out on a couple of days of gaming or because "all of their friends own it", so it's gotta be the best...who knows....
sui_winbolo 19th February 2009, 22:30 Quote
Quote:
Originally Posted by devdevil85
The only reasons that I can come up with for why people still love/support 360 (as a console) even with the ridiculous failure rates is that MS covers the replacement costs for free within a 3-year time period for RRoD so owners only lose out on a couple of days of gaming or because "all of their friends own it", so it's gotta be the best...who knows....

I would say the biggest reason has to be the games and the community.

Xbox Live is great, you have games like Gears of War 2, Fable 2, Halo 3, Halo Wars, Halo 3: ODST, etc that are exclusive.

Also it IS more fun to play with people you know. Unless you're anti social and don't like to communicate with other people.

There's too many tards playing Xbox to make it enjoyable meeting new people. That's one of my biggest problems is the immature user base.
talladega 19th February 2009, 22:40 Quote
Quote:
Originally Posted by sui_winbolo
Actually I think the biggest culprit behind these failure rates is the lead free solder and the high heat caused by cramming a powerful system in a small case with poor cooling.

I personally blame environmentalist. :)

Yet the PS3 uses alot more power AND has the PSU built into the system while 360's PSU is external..........
Quote:
Originally Posted by sui_winbolo
I would say the biggest reason has to be the games and the community.

Xbox Live is great, you have games like Gears of War 2, Fable 2, Halo 3, Halo Wars, Halo 3: ODST, etc that are exclusive.

Also it IS more fun to play with people you know. Unless you're anti social and don't like to communicate with other people.

There's too many tards playing Xbox to make it enjoyable meeting new people. That's one of my biggest problems is the immature user base.

Games are personal opinion. But it is great to have a system that your friends do as well.

As for immature tards playing online, in my experience with PS3 I haven't seen a whole lot.
But it greatly depends on the games you play. Play a hugely popular game that sells millions (Halo, Gears of War) and you're gonna have a bunch of kids acting like morons over the mic. That happened occasionally on CoD4. Not as much though because alot of people dont have mics.
But I now only play Socom and it is not a huge extremely popular game but probably 90% or more have mics and there is very few kids being rejects. Makes for great teamwork which is required in the game.
sui_winbolo 20th February 2009, 00:13 Quote
Quote:
Originally Posted by talladega
Yet the PS3 uses alot more power AND has the PSU built into the system while 360's PSU is external..........

PS3 has better heatsink and fan than the 360. The surface area of the PS3's heatsink is HUGE compared to the 360's. My laptop has an external power brick, so does my cable box, and so did my Wii.

It only sucks when you want to bring your 360 somewhere, simply because you have another thing to carry.

Quote:
Originally Posted by talladega

Games are personal opinion. But it is great to have a system that your friends do as well.

As for immature tards playing online, in my experience with PS3 I haven't seen a whole lot.
But it greatly depends on the games you play. Play a hugely popular game that sells millions (Halo, Gears of War) and you're gonna have a bunch of kids acting like morons over the mic. That happened occasionally on CoD4. Not as much though because alot of people dont have mics.
But I now only play Socom and it is not a huge extremely popular game but probably 90% or more have mics and there is very few kids being rejects. Makes for great teamwork which is required in the game.

I guess that is true, that is why I'm hoping Halo Wars does not appeal to little kids. Please God...
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