There's life jim but not as we know it.....

Zardon

Hands up how many of you have an Xbox360? Erm ok, let me see, 1 ..... 2 ..... 3.... ok hands down, quite a few.

Last year I was lucky enough to pick up 3 or 4 of these consoles, no really, ok ill be honest they weren't all for me, im not that greedy. Two of them I gave to friends as Christmas presents, one of them was our very own Veridian3, DH's resident graphics guru and we have had for the last 6 months quite a good time playing some really fun titles like Project Gotham online. I have also learned an array of new and quite creative swear words from some english kids online ... if only their parents knew.

A few weeks ago Stuart informed me his Xbox 360 basically kicked the bucket, and across the little ring of light, all his green bars had turned to red and he was getting an error number on screen. So we did some research on google and were pretty much amazed to find so much discussion on the topic. Overheating? cpu dead? problem with the graphics card? coffee in the USB ports? yes all possible causes assumed on forums. Microsoft support however claim that this issue is either due to a loose video cable or an issue with cable detection. However after unplugging everything, kicking the console a few times and running around the house in a tribal outfit chanting to the gods for the power of healing, the 4 red lights decided they weren't having any of it.

Being unwilling to lose the warranty by "self repair", Stuart phoned Xbox support in the UK and was put on the line with a rather helpful guy who tried to troubleshoot the issue and then proceeded to inform him the unit would have to go back for repair. So Xbox support arranged UPS to pick the unit up and this happened on the Monday.

Four days later on Friday, Stuart received a knock on the door from UPS with the unit returned, and much to his surprise not only was the unit working but it was in fact a brand new Xbox 360, so time for some Rockstar Table Tennis ..... Now you know why our Conroe review was late.

We all like happy endings and I thought no more of it, until one night when I was playing NBA2k6 my unit hardlocked and when I tried to reboot I got 3 red lights. Hey why wasnt I getting 4? I felt strangely inadequate, and decided to hunt the net for some growth pills. After searching again on google I was again hit with the same responses on forums ... overheating, cpu and graphics card problems, a spiders nest on the cpu fan. I then phoned Microsoft support (was only on hold for 3 minutes) and explained the situation.

I spoke with support technican Dave who politely informed me that I should check the seating of the cables, and to unplug the console and to press the eject button while I was starting the machine up. Asking him what the eject button would do, he informed me that he had no idea but it worked for some of the consoles in their office. We both laughed out loud, well ok, only I did, but after explaining to dave that my xbox right now was still as dead as a dodo and after some more fruitless attempts to get me pressing various combinations of buttons he arranged UPS to pick up the unit. UPS arrived next day and the unit was returned to me in 5 days.

Lo and behold, I also was fortunate enough to receive a brand new unit with a complimentary game certificate from Microsoft.

Obviously there are some build issues with the Xbox 360 and while this is hardly "hot off the press" as people have been experiencing problems for months, it doesn't really hit home until it happens to you or someone you know first hand. In fact of the 4 consoles I bought in December 2005, only one is still working while the other 3 have been replaced.

To be fair to Microsoft they do seem to be aware of the plethora of issues and have a very slick replacement tech support system in place which means if your xbox360 fails, you really only have a period of 1 week downtime.

I would like to hear from other members who have had xbox 360 issues, and if they used Xbox support to get a unit replaced or repaired and the experiences they had. I would also like to hear from those specifically in the USA to see how they implement support compared to our system in the UK.

Veridian3

I have one question... where the &*(& is my free game certificate!!!!

Kombatant

One per site, sorry.

craig5320

LMAO.


Mines ticking away nicely since January, I actually use it a hell of lot more than any other console I've had. I've had the 3 red lights once, but that was my fault after taking the hard drive off being nosey and managing to click the front in but not the back, the result was 3 red lights, but after reseating it, it came back to life and i've not had a problem since.

My mate had trouble with his cd-drive not reading some of his discs, somedays it'll read them, some days it won't, but he hasn't bothered to have it changed, why I don't know.

People rip MS for the problems, I'm holding my judgement until I see the problems the PS3 has.

I think it has been tough on MS because of the tech communities. Remember the PS1? or even PS2 it's hard to find someone who doesn't have a friend whose laser gave up on them, but at that time the online communities and forums and tech sites weren't what they are today and no body really knew the full scale problem, the 360 is right under the microscope, if a kid in Timbuktu burns his 360 out, the world can know in a day.

Does anyone get what I mean?

redsolar

In my experience, MS hardware support has been one of the few, who actually knew what they were doing, unlike many other hardware support (cough Dell, Linksys, D-Link etc). Their front line support was empowered enough to know that if they can't fix things over the phone, a new part was in order.

I don't own an x360, nor planning on it at this time, but it's good to see the same support translates in to that division too.

Zardon

Yes I think everyone had a failing laser on the PS1, I know I did. I agree with you, I think the xbox 360 is an amazing console and to be honest, even after the experiences above I still think its a corker machine, some brilliant games on it. I do however feel they needed to bump up the cooling on the units, I have read reports of the cpus running at 70+c and it has to be down to the limited space in the chassis. They dont look poorly made and perhaps its a small percentage of failed units compared to those sold. I dont have figures at hand.... I doubt many do.

however ive experienced 3 dead units out of 4 in 6 months, that doesnt really seem like a good percentage to me. Microsoft tech support really is first class though, especially when I look back at helping my mate get through to dell support and I ended up talking to some plonker in india. that was beyond hideous.

Customgamer1

Well I own a Xbox 360 and it works great! I bought the cooler that goes on the back of the 360 and have noticed that it seems to keep the box a little cooler!

I place my hand on the top after playing a while and it's warm and when I put the cooler on and do the same thing I can't even tell it's been on. I think everyone should spend the $20 USD on the cooler or xbox should include it lol.

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Nyko-...oductDetail.do

Zardon

Yes they do help however im not sure they are the solving of all the 360 issues being reported. my friend had one on his system...... one of the systems that failed. in fact the only one i have which hasnt failed is the unit that is stuck in a cabinet downstairs near a tv and probably is running the hottest.

temeteus82

All these problems with Xbox 360 tell me to stick my PC! Since it won’t overheat …

Customgamer1

Well the PC costs the most to! And you need to keep up with other problems with the parts of the pc. Hard drives fails, video card over heats, CPU burned up or dead lot of problems that cost a lot to repair.

And I see why the adverage person buys a console over a PC. The console only get's updated like every 5 years and PC parts need to be updated about half that time to keep up with the demanding games!

Asmoday

This is interesting, I didn't realize that there was those kind of problems with the 360's....good thing though that MS seems to be really quick with the RMA's.

niceguyrichy

interesting read.
first off I can't believe you phoned a comp company support line and got a 'reasonably helpful guy'

never happened to me yet

good to know that the support is there, and is slick to boot
fairly inevitable that the kids are gonna get one soon (along with every other console on the market), so a bit of reassurance.

and just by the by, I've had a PS1 since launch and the laser works just fine, as does my old ps2's

Erroneus

Well it's the latest of the greatest, has to be some of them who cant handle the "pressure". But I fear the PS3 might be alot worse (not to say that the xbox360 problems has been bad) with all the problems sony are having, you could speculate that Sony might want to cut some corners.

YAYitsAndrew

Next two purchases in my apartment are a nice big lcd tv and an xbox 360.

Judas

i've yet to see a Gamecube go in for repair...

*adds just a pinch of salt and a massage to rub it in just a wee bit*

niceguyrichy

Damn, I was waiting for Andrew to come out with that...

I owe my gf a fiver

craig5320

People don't bother, they just place it on the floor to hold the door open

BiGBrOwNPimpsta

never had an issue with my PS1 or PS2, but xbox and 360's of my buddies and people i know i cannot say the same. the 360 hasnt grabbed me yet, but i wont be surprised if it wins me over the ps3 this time.

i do expect these types of problems with the ps3 definitely and probably more annoying/serious issues with all the complicated crap in there

Lelisevis

Had my UK 360 since day one and so far no problems (touches wood....well wood effect laminate, aint getting off my ass). Anyway my question is the current debate over the 360's warranty, seems some countries are getting stiffed with 3 months MS warranty and it appears unlike the uk they have no other protection such as return to store. Can anyone do a comparison or share experiences of warranty problems?

Zardon

I hope we get some members who have experienced issues outside the UK and have tested the warranty, it seems really good here. The guys we dealt with in Xbox support didnt even ask when or where we bought the consoles.

pr0digal jenius