production problems and what can happen aside, the 360 is still an amazing console when it comes to gaming. there are a ton of really great gameplay experiences to be had and the online service is the absolute best there is, and there really isn't anyway to deny that. Xbox Live, Xbox Live Marketplace, and Xbox Live Arcade are lightyears ahead of the Wii and PS3 stores, in terms of smooth integration, variety, ease of use and just plain overall enjoyment.

so what if a shit-ton of consoles were dudes off the production line? that was money out of microsoft's pocket, not a gamer's.

TonyRockyHorror

@Darrone: Months without their console? Sure, you would be out a month or two with it in servicing (in reality, its a few weeks), but to prevent it, the 360 would have to be released a whole year later. The 2 million dollars that was cut from QA testing would not change the situation, but would only reveal the obvious. They were spitting out clunkers, and at least they held on to a lot of them.

Remember, its Microsoft taking the hit when it comes to the non-functioning units. Those don't make its way to shelves. Some of the so so units do slip, however, but at least they give you one hell of a warranty to fix it. This story is nothing but ammo for fanboys.

But it does give a little more weight to the Intel XBOX 3 story. I doubt they are going to make this mistake again. For the record, my day 1 elite is still running strong.

Looking at it from a wide angle lens is kind of unnecessary from a personal basis, but is important for Microsoft as a company, since they are the ones to lose more then consumers of the devices. If you as a consumer are pleased with the unit you have, then that's all that should matter.

diabolusunknownTheSecond

@yoshi: People who's first 360's failed week one, then had the second one's GPU fail 1.5 months after the year long non-RRoD warranty expired and paid $100 to get anew one.
Oh yeah, and when the second one supposedly had a lifetime warranty cause it was an '05, but Microsoft decided to take these back about a week before the GPU failure. One red light isn't covered as long as 3 (even though it signifies an epic fail as opposed to a regular one)
Shocker, guess who's saving for a Mac now? (I understand that xbox and windows are completely separate, but Microsoft's shitty handling of the situation, and brutal ass-fucking of my money (which was quite hard to come by when I was 13) resulted in me completely abandoning all brand loyalty and promising to wait at least a year on the nextBox before I buy it, and thats only if it is amazingly better than all other alternatives)
/ability to bitch all day

mferrari

@LittleJon: It becomes OUR problem just there, when we can't enjoy our spent money. I might not play everyday, but when I plan to I expect it to be working for me.

bolix

Anyone know how to tell if you have one of the crappy ones that will eventually die?

SurinaDeimachus

My Nov '06 360 is just dandy. Except that one time when I had vertical, my dog ran by, and knocked it over, causing irreparable damage to the disc inside.

However, it was Sonic the Hedgehog...

ViewtifulJason

I don't know why people get so upset about this. It's Microsoft's problem not ours. If they lose money, so be it!

I got the RROD just before Halo 3 came out. I was without my console for a few weeks and then it was back. Big deal! Sure I had to find other things to do during that time, but I'm still very happy to have bought a 360.

As for the 16% yield on the IBM processors. That's not unusual at the start of a large processor's life. I happen to know that when the Pentium 2 was starting production, Intel was only getting about 10% yield from their factory in Ireland.

LittleJon

As horrible as the launch of the 360 was... I still love mine.

Preyfar

Im so going to start using flustercucks

xxenclavexx

lol Microsoft.

Evolution_GT

@yoshi: Everyone thinking of buying their next console? People who have spent months without their console, who now know it was all easily preventable? Investors, Wall Street, Microsoft fanboys. The list continues.

Darrone

Holy crap! They really wanted to get it out before Sony's PS3. Kind of like Sony wanted their BD out before HD-DVD. Well this has convinced me to hold off buying an Xbox 360 for another year. The Wii and my PC will suffice, perhaps a PS3 later in the year.

Usama

thats the kinda shit that happens when you release a console a year ahead of time haha. i got one now and it works fine for me havent RROD yet

Glavan27

As long as it's fixed, who cares. >>

yoshi

even a 10% failure rate is unacceptable, no wonder they still havnt made any money off the back of this, just be thankful they dont make computer hardware.

speakerwizard

I guess quality control is not Microsoft's forte....

Shockage

For fuck's sake, why don't you guys just rename this site "We Hate Microsoft And Everything Do" and be done with it already?

callitfriend-o

Let's all pray Microsoft never makes cars... red ring of death may just lead to actual deaths

fusiongt

@callitfriend-o: A negative microsoft post isn't representative of all the posts. >.>; I've seen good posts for Microsoft too.

It's amusing what sorts of claims of bias happen one a per-article basis.

Reilaos~

And that's why I only play PC games: I control what goes into my box, so I control what comes out of it.

elgilicious

@bolix: Of course, but I'd rather have the machine and play all those great games and then have it away for repair for a few weeks than to never have had it at all.

I'd had my 360 for about 18 months before it broke. Then I was without it for a few weeks. I'm not too upset about that.

My only other option would have been to stick with my PS2 for most of that time and then to have bought an over-priced PS3 when it finally came out.

LittleJon

@fusiongt: Ha! As if all car companies now produce golden units... Never heard of a car recall before?

ripfire

@callitfriend-o: Why would they name a web blog after a nonsensical.

"We Hate Microsoft And Everything Do" wtf does it mean!!!

ichi1

Months? Weeks? I got mine fixed within 1 week. I thought my 360 would be immune to the RROD after using it for almost 2 years now. Then a couple weeks ago, my nephew continuously cycled it several times (don't know why) until it went dead. I checked online for service and said that my unit was out of warranty. I finally did what I've been hearing all over the place: call the support number. Regardless of warranty, they fixed it anyway. I sent it in the same day, and got it back the next week. It wasn't too bad.

Microsoft could've sat on the 360 development for years, and it would still be impossible to release it without problems. The world is advancing too fast for us to sit and sulk. Learn to adapt; move on!

ripfire

Working in an electronics store I remember a couple of months ago another branch called me up saying they sold an Xbox 360 but it was faulty right out of the box. They were going to swap it over for the customer, but they tested their last other new one in store first, and it was also faulty right out of the box.

So they asked if I could check ours, and the first one I plugged in... faulty, right out of the box :( The next one I tested was fine, phew!! But still, that's 3 consoles all dead in their sealed boxes. Microsoft doesn't even test turning them on before shipping them??

TailsNZ

Wow, not having a 360 I had heard there were problems with them, but not on this scale. Its always a complete 'mare when a piece of kit packs in (for me it always seems to be external HDDs), but if I lost my console I'd be gutted.

Vestan_Pance

@SurinaDeimachus:

Does it have the Microsoft logo on it?

Hardcore1

@callitfriend-o: Um, when an entity consistently wastes your time with bad design, and if ANY one tries to deny that you're want to be uniformed, you get distrusting of that entity.

Microsoft just happens to be so entrenched in our everyday lives it will have ALL of its warts exposed.

So, don't confuse the truth, and the feelings associated with it, about Microsoft with unfounded demagoguery.

unspellable

It's what I and a lot of other people have been saying all along. The x360 has been rushed just so they could be first on the market. They probably learned a lesson for their next console. Pretty sure that one has been in the works for over a year now.

It's fun to see some numbers though ... the failure rate is absolutely hilarious.

And for the people saying it's impossible to get better succes rates ... Sony and Nintendo are below 1% failure rate.

SpoBo

Microsoft ftw. Another fine example of a company being so concerned about profits and getting a competing product released that they just fuck the whole thing up. And another win for IBM and its shitty processors. IBM ran into similar problems with their G5 chips for Apple. Due to excessive power consumption they couldn't keep the chips cool therefore accelerating their failure rate costing them millions and a nice production contract with Apple.

Proly not long before a class action lawsuit pops up and Microsoft looses even more money for knowingly selling bricks to its customers. Hey Microsoft, remember when Dell put budget Motherboards in their GX270's and 280's and the capacitors leaked rendering the boards useless costing them some 300+ million dollars to fix the problem... This will be you soon, so you might want to put that 300 million aside for your Windows Gurus, for this.

Duc

@Duc:

What are you talking about? They are already there. The 1.3 billion figure is the long term cost of them supporting the early launch system failures. They are already paying out more or less, and it was a lo more than 300 million.

juriko

Oh ... on a sidenote. The 3 year warranty is about to expire, no? What happens then? Assuming you have 10 games you like to play for your x360 but no x360 to play on .. you'd have to fork out another 300$ to get a half-descent x360.

I also hate the fact that they shipped the first batch of consoles without HDMI ... it's why I now prefer my PS3 over my launch x360. And no, I won't be buying another x360 or another console from MS for that matter. Unless every single person I meet (that has had some good sexual experiences) says it's the next best thing after sex. And even then ... I'd be skeptical :D

SpoBo

Lucky I guess I have never had a problem with mine and I bought it in November 06~

oneclick

Wintrash.

kanon

@yoshi: Are you serious? Please do not tell me it's appropriate for any company--Sony, Apple, Microsoft, ANY--to make a consistently defective product.

I mean, I understand what you're saying: as long as it's fixed moving forward, right?

However, you cannot ignore the fact that literally millions of people, some of whom worked very hard to afford these consoles, should just "not care" because, hey, as long as it's fixed...

Baffles the mind...

Gilbert

Well, the X360 supports pirated games. There is no mod chip, you only need to do a software flash on the dvd drive. The new versions have different dvd drives making it impossible to get any pirated gaming on the X360. This has absolutely nothing to do with the theme, but I am so tired of my f%&/ing Nintendo Wii. The problem with wii is, it isn't fun if you are playing alone. When there are no friends in the house, the wii stays off.

ProSeven

and thats why I bought a PS3. Well thats not the main reason but one of them

LightAce

@Duc:
Dude, did you read the article? Microsoft took a 1.1 BILLION dollar charge in Q4 2007 to cover just the RROD present and future repairs.

dogcow

@LittleJon:
Well, Microsoft's problem, and all their shareholders :p

dogcow

@speakerwizard: Why were they sold faulty hardware? This really doesn't seem like its Microsoft's fault, besides extensive testing. They should've been sold good hardware.

Xaldian

Bought my 360 June of 06. Ran perfectly fine until about a few weeks ago. No red lights, but the system would randomly lock up and give a checkerboard pattern on the screen. The fan's speed would also change wildly even when just in the main menu. It was obviously an overheating issue. But since I had already opened the box before and had no warranty, I decided to fix it myself before it RRODed.

After the experience of taking the system apart, it was apparent that MS did some horrible cost cutting. The CPU heatsink is fine, but the GPU heatsink is complete garbage. It's basically a small aluminum slab that sits under the DVD drive, so its already fighting to keep the chip cool. Not only that, but the mounting surface of the GPU heatsink was anything but smooth. A heatsink surface should never feel like a novel for the blind. They tried to overcompensate for this by pouring low quality thermal compound between this and the chip. Then use some very weak X-clamps to hold everything together.

The good news is it was a simple fix. Replace the x-clamps with screw mounts and use the proper amount of quality thermal compound. The system runs whisper quiet with not a hint of overheating since. Its not hard if you have any experience with building computers, and you can by a simple kit on ebay for around $10-20 if you don't know what parts to get. Fixed my friend's RROD 360 the same way, and it's a good alternative if you no longer have a warranty.

There's no excuse for MS to cut corners this way, but at least they did the right thing by most customers before the obvious lawsuits. Will definitely think twice before getting the next xbox.

TKWarrior

Not that I am any fanboi or anything but I do think it's funny so many people jump on this like it's new, and no one seems to remember the PS2 having inevitable "Disc Read Error" through every single generation it went through. Microsoft atleast tried to fix the problem and acknowledged it. Sony denies PS2 problems to this day...

I spent way more on replacement PS2's than any Xbox/Xbox360 combined.

keltic

One thing did strike me while reading the article: Robbie Bach's description of how unwavering, forgiving & passionate the core Xbox360 users have been through the whole flustercuck reminds me of how Apple users are often described. I wonder if those Xbox360 users are flattered by that comparison :p

dogcow

I find it mad that so many people find it acceptable to send their console away without an immediate replacement, and also that the 3 year warranty is from original purchase.

I have said before, my luanch day PSP had so many dead pixels i wanted a new one. I phoned Sony, exchanged details and the very next day a new unit is sent to my house via exchange with the courier. The standard 1 year warranty was renewed for my console. The fact that i swapped a further three times is perfectly acceptable when the exchange was so painless.

Accordion

[Let me be the first to throw in a gratuitous iPhone reference] @Gilbert: You mean like with the iPhone? And the App store? And MobileMe?

Mandatory_Field

eh my 2006 model is still running like a champ, fucked up my skate disc because i knocked it over one day, but i was drunk.

ford4life

I don't find anything of this surprising. You want something from Microsoft that works at least decently? Then you wait for the first "service pack".

DaSmith

Why am I not surprised...It's Microsoft.

Lie when you can, bully when you can't.

klamerus

@keltic
ive had a ps2 fo 7 years neva had a single problem

joeslaughter

I hav all 3 systems and the xbox is the only one that has failed. Not once but twice! Its so bad that if u get a warranty from best buy that you walk in giv em your xbox and you walk over and get a brand new one. im gonna hav to go do that again this weekend bcause it faild again!! and they were both after microsoft supposedl fixed xboxs they lied!!!!!!!!!!!

joeslaughter

Is this Microsoft's fault or ATi (for the gfx heatsink issue)?

draiko

I really hope they recycled all those dead electronics.

HDC

This article comes out at a rather perfect time for me. My 360 just packed it in for the 2nd time. I have to say that the lady on the phone was a lot easier to deal with this time. She more or less just took my name and address and said we'll ship a box out to you right away. This was a lot easier than the last time when I spent more than an hour on the phone with them. I just hope this new one lasts cuz I'm getting close to the end of my 3 year warranty.

Sanbon909

@yoshi: YOu are very ignorant mr.

Playstation

@ripfire:

Come on man, a car recall is pretty rare, and even so, it's not like 1 company consistently produces cars that fall apart year after year. Although, some people may disagree.

mykalt45

Maybe it's an American thing, but I can't understand how people can gravitate to something that breaks people's heart. If it was your girlfriend who kept messing up you'd kick her to the curb, but maybe this is the wrong crowd to use a relationship analogy.

mykalt45

@mykalt45: A new car built by my company leaves somewhere traveling at 60 mph. The rear differential locks up. The car crashes and burns with everyone trapped inside. Now, should we initiate a recall? Take the number of vehicles in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C. A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one.

Kaiser-Machead on the Edge

any one who defends microsoft on this one is retarded. they wasted alot of peoples time and money.

Kartune

@SurinaDeimachus: Yes. Like this:

Is it an XBOX 360? Then the answer is yes.

My 1 year old Elite - pre-Falcon but post-extra cooling revision - is sitting in Frankfurt waiting to be repaired as we speak. You could have used my setup here as a demonstration of how to prevent overheating - ventilated, horizontal placement, off the floor, not near other electronics. All of my friends' have broken in the past also. The hardware is a mess, certainly. If the software wasn't superior to other platforms offerings I would never have bought one.

Cultivar

Wow, I may suspect that Xbox assembling facilities are not Six Sigma certified.

But I have to seriously doubt about those figures. Just move that failure rate to ANY company in ANY industry. No company can handle that (even MS), even at said today's rate of 15%.

DeLarge

Yet again a shining example where a company puts profit and market share ahead of quality control. MS were aware of the failings of the XBOX 360's but would rather beat Sony to market and repair defective consoles as it still meant a sale and an individual invested in their console system and not a rival's hopefully.

I don't think they realised how costly it would end up- don't think they ever envisioned multi-billion dollar write offs for warranty repairs though but it serves them right.

It reminds me of an incident concerning the Aviation industry- i'll ad lib as can't remember all the details but the essence is true.

A crash investigation report highlighted the fact that the front passenger cargo holds of major airlines did not have smoke detector early warning systems fitted. The Airlines response was that the cost of retrofitting their fleets would costs millions and would see little benefit safety wise as the front cargo holds were hermetically sealed (i.e airtight)

However at the time some airlines were transporting spare parts in these holds-the relevance to this story? The cargo included used/spare oxygen generators of the type that are fitted in cabins for when air pressure is lost. When transported correctly and the safety mechanisms in place to prevent accidental firing of these units they were relatively safe- yet still very hazardous cargo.

A mix up at an airline's depot saw these canisters wrongly labeled as general cargo (their firing pins were secured only with string to prevent accidental firing as a stop gap until the proper parts arrived)

They were placed in the front air-tight hold for transport amongst all the other luggage. Shortly after take off, the plane carrying them burst into flames and blew up killing all on board.

The reason- these oxygen generators when ignited reach temperatures of about 500C on the outside of the cannister and as they weren't properly secured set light to the hold- which although 'airtight' now had a supply of oxygen from these canisters. The lack of smoke detectors and suppressant systems in these holds due to cost resulted in the tragic loss of so many lives.

As a direct result of this it is illegal to carry such cargo and the already mentioned safety systems are mandatory on all aircraft.

jimbowyer

Ahhh... its nice to see that the same love and care went into the xbox that goes into everything else touched by these clowns.

Ednonymous

My 1st gen Sega Genesis still works after 16 years. Why isnt Sega making consoles anymore?

Aturayd

This post needs more hyperbole. More hyperbole please.

WickedKoala

The thing that everyone is neglecting to point out is that despite the amount of money this has caused Microsoft, it still worked for them. They are sitting comfortably in second place right now, but where do you think they would have been had they waited an extra year to put their system out? Not only would that have given the PS3 a head start, but some of the games that are multi console may have been PS3 exclusive and maybe even some of the games that were 360 exclusive would have either been multi console or PS3 exclusive. Remember, some of the games that became 360 games that were not originally supposed to be 360 games only became 360 games because their was a larger install base on the 360 due to its year lead. Additionally, the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray war may have ended sooner without the help of those extra 360 HD-DVD drives that were so cheap at the time which would have given the PS3 an extra boost. Overall, it was probably worth it to Microsoft to put out a faulty system to stay in the race rather than having to start the race way behind.

@ripfire: You should have tried to get your XBox repaired shortly after Halo 3, Gears of War, Call of Duty 4, or GTAIV. You got your XBox back quickly because it broke during a non-peak time.

ceilingFANBOY

@SurinaDeimachus:

All of the crappy ones don't have HDMI ports.

As for the Microsoft screwing up the 360 launch, yeah so what, Sony did the same thing for the PSOne, but they didn't own up to it with a warranty, they just said screw you consumers.

mergedwarrior

I just sent my 360 to MS for repair for the 2nd time in a year. I is so sad. :(

ae89194

Got mine about, oh, 8 months after release, no RROD

Con Seannery

@callitfriend-o:

Already been done:
[www.ubuntu.com]
[www.apple.com]

and many others of course... ;)

migsims

honestly if you have had more than one fail on your chances are its your fault, keeping it enclosed in ANY type of furniture is asking for trouble.

[s70.photobucket.com]

THATS how you mount your old xbox for a trouble free experience.

ford4life

I love my WinXP, and am not a Microsoft hater...

I think there's too many things out there people has to THANK Microsoft for existing.

Computers as popular household device for starters, and many technologies people don't even know the initial researches were made by Microsoft.

But the RROD case was a major f*ck up, and no one can deny that.

Shure, despite lying and delaying the problem for too long a time, eventually Microsoft assumed they had screwed up and made all necessary arrangements to fix it.

But like I said:
1. It took too damn long for them to address the issue;
2. They LIED at first, saying RRODs where "normal";
3. The initial fail rate IS UNNACEPTABLE. So much that in some countries no one would buy because of it.
4. It wasn't like assuming the error was some kind of altruistic move. They were FORCED to do it. And they only did, when they noticed that otherwise, things would get much worse.

I, for one, would have waited for them to admit the error and promise a fix to only then, consider buying it.

It doesn't matter if they replaced for new fixed consoles after some time. You don't buy expensive electronics like that thinking "oh, maybe this thing will crash on me, but I'll only have to wait some weeks for a replacement".

Usually, people only buy expensive consoles like that when they have really given the purchase a REAL LONG thought, and when they finally decide to buy it, it HAS to work.

But I truly hope Microsoft has learned from this. Because they don't have a good history of learning through such problems. I don't have to remember that the first X-Box also suffered from overheating problems.

But we'll see in some years.

Bokusatsu_Tenshi

I got mine a couple weeks after launch, haven't had any problems, save for the controllers' batteries.

Derek, IN

@Kaiser-Machead on the Edge:

You had me at hello.

mykalt45

I have had to send in my console six separate times. I have had freezing, rrod, error codes, and even one time where I was getting shocked by static electricity off the machine. My current console has been sent in twice now and seems to be working at the moment. It doesn't kill me to keep sending these things in as long as they keep doing it for free. The day I have to pay more money because Microsoft had to save some money will be the day I absolutely lose my mind. I love my 360 when its working, I've just grown accustomed to periodically having to send the thing in to be fixed. Just wish Microsoft would have fessed up sooner instead of lying through there teeth to save face.

jbdyson

just bought my 3rd x360 for 199.99 (already had a 20gb drive :^)

the first two I sold before they could crap out on me :^)))

Ahhhh, Dead Rising, so good, so very very good....

banmojo

@jae_mez:
I think you mean billions.

daftrok

I had a friend return his...4 days later he got it back fully repaired. Things happen. Microsoft reacted and fixed it in my opinion...all the while losing millions of dollars

jae_mez

whatever...ive been playing my 360 non stop for a week - so many games...Tales, IU, still havent finished grid, Fo3, fable 2 soon.

Cry moar.

twylight

@diabolusunknownTheSecond: "some units" shouldn't be 15-25% as noted in the article. And yes, it is the consumer that gets screwed as well since it means time dealing with tech support, weeks of being unable to use your console, etc. Don't forget, MS is the one saying their failure rates were within normal margins...they were obviously lying/deceiving. Any kind of purchase made in bad faith is harmful to the consumer.

geowrian

@Darrone: Find me all these people who have spent months without consoles. If you actually knew, youd know that it only takes on average 9 days to send in your xbox and get it back. Months? really?

Mericana

Too bad the article is bullshit. Right around page 3 they blame it all on ATI. Yet ATI came in late after Microsoft developed the failed GPU design... What the hell is this nonsense? fucking lies I tell you fucking lies.

T1nd0g

@Kaiser-Machead on the Edge: Nice reference, dude. Just finished reading that for the second time last week...

djtooshay

From page five of this 'inside source' or as I like to call them Lying liars trying desperately to cover their own asses.

"The hardware engineers worked mainly to address the overheating of the graphics chip from ATI. The chip was overheating and causing both the chip and the circuit board to warp, cracking the joints that were held together by the lead-free solder."

NO, Just NO! and who the hell is venture beat digital media?

T1nd0g

[www.crunchgear.com]

"The Xbox 360 recall a year ago happened because "Microsoft wanted to avoid an ASIC vendor," said Lewis. Microsoft designed the graphic chip on its own, cut a traditional ASIC vendor out of the process and went straight to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd., he explained."

[www.eetimes.com]

Read it and weep. This article is a biased source. It's not just from the inside it might as well have been pushed straight out of ballmer's bum.

T1nd0g

@Reilaos~ & unspellabe,
Giz's bias against microsoft is legendary and hardly based in unfounded demogogoury. There are countless posts with hardly any content and based soley on conjecture and fanboyism. You are both either very new here or not paying attention to a painful degree.

skeptic11

As I grow older, I need to play less and less Halo, so buying an XBox (besides for the games I can play on the Ps3 except for the fact that the DualShock 3 sucks) wouldn't make sense for me at the moment. And I am missing having a real iPod, so that's prolly next.

MastaFalse

@fusiongt: automotive red ring of death aka: firestone tires

rezin khanz

Very interesting read. I'm on my 4th 360, but as long as MS is paying for the repairs and turn around is less than two weeks, I don't mind all too much.

PlasmaMachine

It all my years I have never seen a group of people defend a company who so willingly put out such a horrible product...I don't give a shit what their customer service is.

It is amazing how blindly you look at one company and how critically you look at another...get over yourselves

efenili

When is the article on how Apple screwed everyone with the Newton going to be released?

Siouxperman

Siouxperman: Um dude, that's like 10 to 15 years ago... You seriously need to work though that.

As an asside, my Newton 120 worked as of a year ago wehn I gave it to a buddy of mine who was given an old working 5200 LC, so I thought it would make an interresting set.

SSRPaulO

Look forward to reading this.

dmexs

For those of you who've never experienced an RROD, consider yourselves lucky. Those of you who have, and *haven't* had the pleasure of dealing with Microsoft's extended warranty, consider yourself even luckier.

Having gone through four 360's since launch, all replaced under the wondrous Microsoft extended warranty, I'm not even considering buy a Microsoft-branded console next go-round.

My launch 360 locked up every single time I tried to play PGR3 online; everything else worked fine. I called MS, waited for the coffin & received a replacement in less than two weeks.

That 360 died after the second dashboard update (the infamous Fall Brick Update of '06). Microsoft replaced that one in about a month.

Replacement #2 died after the Spring '07 dash update. That one took two months to replace.

Replacement #3, also delivered two months later, was DOA from the service center. Microsoft replaced the motherboard, which screwed with the lovely DRM scheme even more.

That final replacement, knock wood, has been working for almost a year and a half now.

Based on my experiences with their customer service (initially in US & Canada, then wholly outsourced to India), their replacement "Dead Pool", their outright lying to consumers, and refusal to provide anything remotely resembling adequate compensation (1 month of Live is *not* adequate) for the months without hardware and DRM-locked content, I won't be buying the next M$ console.

It really is M$, because their only concern was cutting as many corners as possible to beat Sony and make a few bucks. Unfortunately, there are enough sheeple still supporting them to keep them afloat this go-round. It'll be interesting to see how things turn out next round. Some assumed that Sony would continue their reign, Microsoft would be in second, and Nintendo would be the also-ran; we all know that things didn't quite work out that way.

I used to be a Microsoft fanboy, but between the neutered (diskless), defective and DRM-ridden 360 and the slovenly Windows Vista, I've already started moving my family to other OSes and consoles. We own all three & probably put more time on the PS3 than we do the 360 or Wii. We're back on XP and Ubuntu & will be moving to Macs next spring. So much for cutting corners, eh Microsoft? How's that working for ya?

Mystakill

First for the people who have recved so many rrods i think its you this article says that its was a 63% chance and that is bs because a 63% means that 1 out of every 2 was going to rrod and thats just not true i have had 2 1 when it was first luanched i still have it and it works and then when the elite was lauched and both works so i truly believe some of yall were the cause of those rrods and some people was unluck but i dont think ms should have waited to lauch that system. i think there was alot more people happy then there was upset. in a war there will be casualties baby this is a war between the gaming systems.

charger08

@LittleJon: I agree. Big deal. Who cares as long as I can get the problem fixed quickly.

I'm on my 5th xbox -- and on my 5th iPhone, by the way. In each case, I was able to get them replaced in under an hour (including drive time). That's why you buy xboxs as Costco and you buy iPhones at The Apple Store.

FritzLaurel

"We Hate Microsoft And Everything Do"
LOL
Best laugh I've had all day.

fastlanestranger

@yoshi:
How about the MILLIONS of people who still have an older unit that most likly will break on them.

How about the millions of people that went through XBL hell to get their unit fixed.

Probably more...but these guy probably care the most.

As for someone being on their 5th Xbox....HAHAHAHA!!!!!! That's hilarious!

JEmlay

@efenili: I totally agree with you.

MS willingly sold defective products that were never fully tested and had known problems. And sold them for a nice price too lets not forget! So people were left out the price they paid and withought a console for a varying amount of time. Yet there are still people who will defend them and take such apathetic attitude towards the whole thing. "who cares it's fixed now." and "I dont care MS is paying for it." Well maybe you should care if the company you paid good money to for an item sells you an item they knew would break. It's those attitudes that will not give MS incentive to change their ways in the long run cause they know eventually their loyal fanbase will buy whatever they put out.
But XboX has tha best graph1cz and gamez EVAR!

Idiots.

everfade

red ring of death FTL! My xbox got it and i was without an xbox for a month. They gave me a complementary month of xbox live tho, w/e, their games are too fun for me to complain too much.

geonave

When I used to work for Gamestop, I was acquaintances with a chunk of the guys who worked for gaming magazines, websites, etc. There was one gentleman who was testing and working with the 360's before they were launches, just as a way to write a review of them. From what he told me they gave him one to test and check out about, three weeks or so, before the actual launch. What he told me was they gave him a test version, an incomplete (so to speak) console. I forget the term he used to describe the systems they let them check out. Now Microsoft DID INFACT build their systems up a little, but from what we had talked about next time, they didn't exactly make them perfect though. They were sorta like "oh crap" copies for a last minute release. It goes to show why some companies are smarter for pushing back, despite the grumbling from the hype. You have a deadline, but any smart business person will say that in this age we will wait, and complain, for a product we really want. This story sounds slightly like that I heard about sony's first series of ps2's, and their laser defects.

RitaKnujunkle

I heard that some people fixed their ring of death by plugging the Xbox 360 straight into a wall socket or a good surge protector or good plug strip. Plugging it into a cheap strip messes it up.

Another thing that sometimes works for the ring of death is if you take the power supply brick off the ground and put it in a well ventilated area, such as suspending it in the air with a string.

blahblahblah555

So it seems as though the alternative to not buying a 360 for all you Sony Fanboys out there is to sit and bit@h about how poor the 360 performs....instead of looking at the stellar playlist that you have...MGS...oh wait, that's a movie, not a game...PS3 did tout their amazing video quality with Blu-Ray...or how about Gran Turis....oh wait, they could only muster up a a prequel that sucked...how about God of Wa....oh PSP, I forgot, my bad...Tomb Raider, I mean Uncharted...Yeah, love these great new concepts Sony is pumping out.

I've had a 360 since day one, with no problems, took advantage of Best Buy's PRP and stepped up to an Elite on day one, also no problems. So even if you Red Ringed and were without a video game system for a couple weeks....big deal, it got fixed for free. I really feel sorry for you Sony schmucks that have been without a video game system since you purchased it. Enjoy your shiny new DVD player!

Spud27

well, we already knew microsoft was a bastard
so what have we learned?
Ummmmm, Let's go buy an xBox!!!

Pwnage

Yeah, agreed with yoshi. I am sure every company has loads of problems, they don't talk about.

Dainis Graveris

68 percent?! I knew Microsoft were lying to us, but not that badly.

I worked for the Xbox call center during the first year of 360 (when the warranty was 30 days), and I had to read the stupid text Microsoft gave us, that the console was failing at "normal rates for consumer electronic products."

Working there, I had heard "normal" meant it was 8% but knew it must have been higher than that. Now I feel dirty, knowing I had to lie for Microsoft to thousands of customers.

Margatron

holy crap...isn't 85 % way below normal standards?

why can't microsoft just pay the money to fix the issues...i can't be that expansive and anything would be cheaper then having to give out new xboxs to 15% of ppl

tenio

By the way, don't fault the Xbox service reps. They only know as much as Xbox tells them.

I have to go have a shower now.

Margatron

How many bets that all these folks who say "Who cares? They fix them" had Mommy and Daddy buy their consoles for them?

I work my ass off for my money. When I spend it on something, I expect that something to function as advertised for a reasonable length of time. I don't want to have to deal with tech support, mail in the console, wait several days (or weeks, if they happen to be busy), and then repeat the experience again in a few months. I can and will reject a low-quality product.

Gizmodo, thank you for articles like this; if not for your (and other blogs') exposure of these problems, I'd probably have become a severely disappointed and angry 360 owner instead of a (relatively) happy Wii owner.

HeartBurnKid, creepy morbid freak