3 red lights!

[Admiral Huddy]

I have been sort of waiting for this. My son came to me saying that his 360 had the 3 rings of death. After trying the MS support tips, they agreed to an RMA 6 months after the 1 year warrantee expired, so hopfully, UPS will pick it up over the next few days. Apparently, the warrantee is extend to 3 years for the 3 red rings, and only this.

This leads me to wonder about the general reliability of these machines. Surely, if the red eye is inevitable, which it seems it is, then surely there's a problem with the design? Surely MS can't survive in such a competitive market when a majority of their machines fail??

I'm glad they have agreed to repair.replace, but surely questions have to asked?

#hugs PC#

[leowyatt]

The newer machines are greatly improved now :)

[Davey_Pitch]

All newer Xbox 360's should (in theory) be free of the problem as MS did realise there was a design flaw and have now taken steps to fix this by putting in better components that don't overheat any more (for some reason my mind has blanked over what exactly was replaced). Certainly the number of Xbox 360's dying now is tiny compared to the amount of a year ago. Indeed, I can't think of anyone who's bought one of the newer Xbox consoles that have had a problem with it.

[NokkonWud]

Microsoft admitted that there was an inherent design issue with all Xbox360's which is why they made it a 3 year warranty (this has been the case for almost 2 years now I believe).

Microsoft have fixed the design issue and all models for around 12 months have been massively improved. I haven't heard many issues at all regarding the reliability of the new ones in a negative light, which is a good thing.

[Admiral Huddy]

Then really, this should be replaced not fixed.. 3 years MTBF is pretty unacceptable in my opinion.

[NokkonWud]

They swap it if it's less than 12 months, by law it's a fix for anything longer than that.
Let us not forget, MS could have just left it as 12 months, so a fix for 36 months is very good if you ask me.

They may put it in a new shell like Sony do with PS3's so you'll never know.

[phykell]

Let us not forget, MS could have just left it as 12 months, so a fix for 36 months is very good if you ask me.
I don't believe that - if something's not fit for purpose, and a games console that only lasts 12 months can't be considered as being reasonably fit for purpose, then the retailer must offer a replacement or repair, some of the cost of which, may be borne by the consumer depending on how old the item is.

[NokkonWud]

You could complain, heck, you can even after 5 years etc... but a lot of consumers wouldn't know that.

[Mark]

Agreed in both counts. Far too few people know about, let alone exercise, their rights under consumer regulations. They just assume the warranty is 'law'. And, the problem is, retailers (who really should know better) do the same - either fobbing you off with the warranty or telling you to go complain to the manufacturer (both of which are incorrect in UK law).

I have no doubt I've thrown away stuff where they might have been a case to answer.

Unlucky on the 3RROD. I'm sure it'll get fixed but it's the inconvenience.

[Toby]

I may be wrong but I think that, under the SoGA, if a fault is deemed to be inherent, then the manufacturer can't put any limits on warranties and have to fix/replace. If this is the case then, with the history of this issue, they'd have a hard time arguing it wasn't an inherent fault with this units.

[Mark]

The SoGA is inherently woolly with terms such as 'reasonable'. Inherent fault or not all products have a reasonable lifespan. I doubt you'd get much sympathy if you claimed in 10 years for a 3RROD fault, for example.

[jmc41]

In the meantime...

No idea if this works, but it's funny none-the-less

http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/15/towel-trick-provides-temporary-fix-to-xbox-360s-red-ring-of-d

(Standard disclaimer about not endorsing anything on above page etc... :0)

[Windle]

Problems still aren't fixed in the new models. I had a Falcon core with all the new jazzamatazz and it RRoD 2 months ago, luckily only a few months old so Gamestation swapped it for a brand new one no hassle.

[NokkonWud]

Nothing is infallible, however they are greatly improved.

[karbon]

RRoD is the "general hardware failure" error message. which can be anything from board, chip, psu or drive failure.

which is why the new ones will still fail with the same error visibly, though possibly different symptoms.

[leowyatt]

With regards to RRoD here, my first console died in March 2007 which I swapped with a new one at GAME. Does the 3 years now start from when my new console was built? I.e December 2006? Or is it 3 years from the console launch?

[Pumpkinstew]

The new warranty applies to the new machine. Game should habe supplied you with a new proof of purchase but if not MS can use the X-Box serial number to determine day of manufacture.

If you'd had it repaired then the warranty/guarantee you received on the repairs would apply.

[leowyatt]

Nah GAME never gave me poor of purchase :( forgot to ask as well, doh!

Anyway details on the back of new/old console is December 2006 :) so I'm good for another 12 months!

[Admiral Huddy]

Pete's Xbox was returned yesterday. I'm quite impressed with the trunaround. They have actually replaced the unit which was quite surprising. I'm wondering if this a newwe model. It certianly seem quieter. Anyway to tell?

Also, does this mean the 3 years warrantee starts from here, or the original purchase date?

[leowyatt]

do you have a HDMI port on the back?

[Justsomebloke]

New one comes with a 175w power supply, Lift PSU read sticker.







Disclaimer.
The author is NOT responsible for any damage caused by Huddy touching Anything. :p

[Admiral Huddy]

I'll check tonight :)

[Wyrdo]

I oven baked mine for four minutes at max temp after it gave me the RROD - been working fine since then :p

[karbon]

i deffinetly got the same one back when i sent mine away (same minor cosmetic damage), though i think it was 6 days start to finish, so they had it for 4.

[LeperousDust]

I oven baked mine for four minutes at max temp after it gave me the RROD - been working fine since then :p

;D Alright Delia!

[Admiral Huddy]

Ok, so Pete's new Xbox has been back for a few weeks and Friday the optical drive puts a lovely deep scratch in his FableII disk. So I managed to exchange it not thinking it would be the drive at fault. Yesterday .Kkrrrrrrr Same thing.

Rang MS and the unit is going off again.. Fortunately, they will replace the disk too.

In the great Console -v- PC debate .. PC wins for me.

[Daz]

I'm a big fan of the Xbox, but it's reliability issues are well publicised and aren't excusable. It's not fair to tar all consoles with your experiences with this one though, the PS3 and Wii are exceptionally reliable, particularly the PS3 by all accounts, and historically consoles have been extremely reliable devices.

[NokkonWud]

The Xbox360 is susceptible to disc scratching when vertical. It will also scratch a disc if moved at all every single time.

The PS3 isn't that reliable Daz. I'm on my 3rd :p. (for reference, I'm only on my 2nd Xbox360 - and that wasn't due to RRoD).

[Haly]

I had my 360 vertical for at least a year and I never scratched a disc :confused:
No disputing it's more susceptible, just never happened to me. I made sure it was never moved while a disc was in it though.

[Aboobie]

My new Arcade is vertical and seems to be running fine so far.

I'll get my Elite back today and I'm quite excited as I've missed the little blighter, I just hope everything's working as both my brother in law's and best mate's 360's were dead within a week after their fix.

I had to get my Wii repaired a month ago (sold it since) so I wouldn't hold any of the current consoles up as consumate pieces of engineering prowess, but then again when you think of what we're getting for our money I don't think we can really expect them to be.

[NokkonWud]

It's disappointing, but again, unsurprising. Consoles have more parts in smaller spaces than ever before so it's not easy.

I had 4 Sony Playstations, 2 Playstation 2's and 3x Playstation 3's. I had a PSU on my Dreamcast die, Xbox360's GPU popped.

Only consoles that have had any length of gameplay and not died since going CD is my Sega Saturn. (I have grossly underplayed both GameCube and Wii).

[Aboobie]

I liken it to washing machines.

Buy a cheap Indesit over a Bosch and what do you expect...

It's just a shame with consoles we can only buy the cheap mass produced versions.

[Aboobie]

All back,all working, new mother board and 1 months Gold for my trouble. Not too bad really. :)

[NokkonWud]

Didn't take long. Nice to see MS are quite speedy now. Guess practice made perfect ;).

[Admiral Huddy]

haha I rang MS Xbox support today after they rang me to say call back.. So I did.. and the bloke had no idea what to do. I Asked him to email the person who contacted me to get he or she to call me.. and this was his response ..

"We don't have email"

haha I said "but you're Microsoft, It's like NASA not having moon buggy"!!

I asked if he had a a pencil..

We don't have access to pencil"

"Are you human?", I asked

"yes I am", he replied

ROFL

no matter what I said, it was off the script in front of him and I got no where.

Idiots!

[phykell]

I had 4 Sony Playstations, 2 Playstation 2's and 3x Playstation 3's. I had a PSU on my Dreamcast die, Xbox360's GPU popped.
:shocked:

What are you doing to them?

IMO, one of the major flaws in modern PCs and other hardware as well, is related to the ever-increasing demands made on the heatsinks. The way the hardware manufacturers approach the problem is to increase the efficiency of the fans and the heasinks themselves - the latter usually means increasing the effective surface area and this is best achieved by increasing the density of the vanes. The problem is that the higher the vane density, the more they are susceptible to clogging due to dust, hair and other detritus. Even if there is no visible dust, the vanes themselves become covered in grime, effectively acting to reduce the amount of heat that can be transferred to the air.

[Mark]

haha I said "but you're Microsoft, It's like NASA not having moon buggy"!!
It's not unusual - email is seen as a distraction when they have call volume targets to achieve (especially in the Indian type centres). CPW famously scrapped email at least for their shop staff.

[Haly]

CPW famously scrapped email at least for their shop staff.
Did they? Aww that was a brilliant distraction when I worked there ;D

[NokkonWud]

Stoopid Microsoft
I've always found Microsoft's software and hardware support top notch. Their Xbox Live support however is one of the worst I've EVER used. Maybe you got one of that lot :p.

[NokkonWud]

:shocked:

What are you doing to them?

Arguably over-playing them. The PSone's were shocking, I'm sure most people ended up having to play them upside down. I just got another when this was the case.
My launch PS2 was one of the batch with faulty lasers which scratched discs.
My launch PS3 had a GPU error, my second PS3 stopped reading some discs.
My Dreamcasts PSU went, a common error amongst them.
My Xbox360 had 1RRoD errors frequently, eventually it became permanent when the GPU on it finally died last November.

My PC's PSU blew about 4 weeks ago too :p.

[Davey_Pitch]

My Wii's PSU blew a week ago (thought it was the console at first, but Leo loaned me his PSU and it worked fine). Thankfully they're cheap to replace and I don't need to worry about sending the console off to get repaired.

[Mark]

Did they? Aww that was a brilliant distraction when I worked there ;D
Might have been Phones4U. One of the big phone retailers did it anyway.

PSUs seem to be one of the most common points of failure in hardware. They're often inadequately cooled, or not cooled at all, so they get hot (often too hot). In the case of consoles they often get buried under random stuff which makes the problem even worse.

[leowyatt]

Holy thread resurrection batman!

I have now sadly joined the club :(

[Haly]

Aww :(
At least it's fixed for free unlike your previous problem!

[Blighter]

Am I the only one with a launch day console that still works? ;D

[Fayshun]

Am I the only one with a launch day console that still works? ;D

Awaits Blighters "3RROD" post within the week.

[Blighter]

:p
It could be because I only ever play one of three games :p

[NokkonWud]

This leads me to wonder about the general reliability of these machines. Surely, if the red eye is inevitable, which it seems it is, then surely there's a problem with the design? Surely MS can't survive in such a competitive market when a majority of their machines fail??


Much improved now, Microsoft openly admitted that there was fault with their design.
As for PC's, are you telling me you've never had a PC component fail? :p.

Edit, I'm slow. Leo's thread ressurection took me off my A-game for a split second.

[leowyatt]

I'll be phoning today to arrange for it to be collected.

[leowyatt]

Right registered for repair. They asked what colour the power supply light was but I don't know because the console is here at work and the brick is at home ;D I just said "green" :p

Should get the labels through in the next 2 days then off it goes. The bummer is I can't check the status on the site because I keep getting an error page :'( so I'll have to phone every time.

[Davey_Pitch]

Green is the right answer. If you answered orange they'd probably say it was a problem with the power supply :)

[leowyatt]

I googled it to check it was right ;)

[Jingo]

Am I the only one with a launch day console that still works? ;D

I have a Wii siunce launch date still work fine and dandy! :)

[Davey_Pitch]

I have a Wii siunce launch date still work fine and dandy! :)
He's just talking about the Xbox :)

[leowyatt]

Argh1!!! How bloody difficult is it to send a sodding shipping label!

[Davey_Pitch]

They usually take about 24 hours in my experience to come through to whatever email address you gave them :)

[leowyatt]

I already have them but can't print them, so have had to arrange with MS to get UPS to bring them that takes 2-3 days :(

[Davey_Pitch]

Couldn't you print them at work? You could have sent them to me and I'd have printed them at home, you could have got them on your way home from work.

[leowyatt]

the link doesn't work fella :( Spoke to UPS and they told me I'd have to ring MS back and get them some other way. Turns out the only other way is to get MS to contact UPS on my behalf and ask them to bring the docs with them when they come to collect it.

[Davey_Pitch]

Ah, that's a pain :( Hopefully they'll still get it before the weekend and it won't be away for too long :)

[leowyatt]

Well I'm leaving it here at work so I'm hoping it's collected tomorrow or Thursday, failing that Friday when I'm off. I think though I'll be sent back during the Easter break so won't get it till when I'm on jury duty and can't get it from work :'(

[Admiral Huddy]

On both times our Xbox was sent off it was turned around in 2 weeks.

Shame Pete's had it banned 'till End of August :p

[Davey_Pitch]

What's he done?

[leowyatt]

I've just received another email like the first so I'm starting to wonder if they have even bothered to book it in with UPS and have just sent the request again :huh:

[Admiral Huddy]

What's he done?

It's too shamefull to post! He got a six month ban.. He's starting to feel it now..

[Admiral Huddy]

I've just received another email like the first so I'm starting to wonder if they have even bothered to book it in with UPS and have just sent the request again :huh:

Where is your local UPS.. I just poped it down to my local UPS depot on both occassions .. Much easier tbh.

[leowyatt]

local UPS is Manchester - around 30 miles away.

EDIT: Doesn't matter anyway huddy because I can't print the lables out, the links in the email doesn't work.

[Daz]

It's too shamefull to post! He got a six month ban.. He's starting to feel it now..
Oh come on... you gotta tell us now :D

[leowyatt]

it's en route \o/

[Admiral Huddy]

it's en route \o/

Chicken?


Oh come on... you gotta tell us now :D

I'd be banned from living if i did :D

[NokkonWud]

Has he put a semi-racist Motto in for his Avatar? I know people have supposedly been banned for that before.

[leowyatt]

The land of the big sausage has it now \o/

[leowyatt]

Repair In Progress :D

[Davey_Pitch]

Awesome, hope you get it back early next week then :)

[Haly]

Excellent :)

[leowyatt]

I shall be checking the site over the weekend ;)

[Admiral Huddy]

You might just get a replacement reconditioned one. Yours will go into the the repair queue.

[Fayshun]

Has he put a semi-racist Motto in for his Avatar? I know people have supposedly been banned for that before.
I think it's a parent enforced ban reading the thread.

[Joe 90]

3 year warrenty for 3 lights!?! jesus. if i'd of known that i wouldn't have gone all out with the towel trick in a last ditch effort to save my xbox. oh well.

[leowyatt]

Still being repaired in Germany :(

[Haly]

:(

[leowyatt]

Just checked my hotmail email and it got an email at 14:28 saying the repair centre has received it :( so no xbox for me this easter weekend :'(

[leowyatt]

Well I think this is good news as my repair has now disappeared off the site and tells me there is no repair recorded against my console. Looking at it my serial number has changed too. Seem my console was manufactured in the middle of Feb this year so should be a new jasper I think :D

[Haly]

Oooh nice one :D

[leowyatt]

Well I think that is right according to the decipher page I looked up :)

No email regarding the return of the console though :(

[Psymonkee]

I never got an email saying they were returning mine either :(

It just showed up on UPS, good job there was someone at home :D

[leowyatt]

I never got an email saying they were returning mine either :(

It just showed up on UPS, good job there was someone at home :D

Well mine is coming back to my work so someone will always be there. Did you get a tracking number of anything?

If I'm getting a Feb 09 xbox will this have HDMI or just be the old premium in a new case?

[Feek]

Mine was the same, I had no notification that it was being sent and no tracking number until after it arrived!

Mind you, it broke again a week later so I Tesco'd it.

[leowyatt]

ah right ok, will just wait eagerly await a UPS delivery man over the next 2 days :)

[leowyatt]

Just checking the UPS site with my original tracking number it now says:

FRANKFURT,
DE 07/04/2009 6:53 REGISTERED WITH CLEARING AGENCY / SHIPMENT SUBMITTED TO CLEARING AGENCY
07/04/2009 6:53 REGISTERED WITH CLEARING AGENCY / RELEASED BY CLR AGENCY. NOW IN-TRANSIT
FRANKFURT,
DE 03/04/2009 4:12 DEPARTURE SCAN
03/04/2009 3:03 RETURNED TO SHIPPER

Am I right in assuming this is on it's way back?

[Davey_Pitch]

Looks so to me, good news that it's being turned around so quickly :)

[leowyatt]

Hmm turns out that reference number is only for the package getting there. I'll have to wait for the return tracking number to be generated. Will give them a call today and see. One good thing is it looks like they deliver on Good Friday so hopefully with me being in work I can get it delivered there.

[leowyatt]

I have a tracking number now \o/ but UPS don't deliver on Good Friday so it's next week now, oh well.

[leowyatt]

http://www.badasszebedee.com/images/package.jpg

[Haly]

:(

[Kitten]

it's alright, I'll make sure he's got something else to play with ;)

[Daz]

Rubbish timing!

[leowyatt]

it's alright, I'll make sure he's got something else to play with ;)

\o/ ;) don't want no stinking xbox :p