I'd love to hear from people who got theirs repaired after opening them. I would take it back to Walmart if I still had the damn receipt, although I hear that isn't much better.

This might help you.

If you have a slim PS2 (those didn't exist when I wrote that) you may be in luck for finding a replacement laser. Sony made few, if any, replacement lasers for the fat consoles. However, when the slims came out *lots* of replacement lasers were available. I don't have any left, sorry, and I haven't been repairing/modding these things full-time for a few years now. :(

*BUT* I expect you would be able to find parts for the slims. And, if you are not scared by smaller parts, you can relatively easily open up the console and replace the laser. I wouldn't reccommend messing around tweaking the laser except as a last resort, since mistakes will cause it to blow out, and then you're boned.

@crazyasianman:

I am now reminded of what you're talking about. Yes, the sled would wear down on these lasers (or maybe the springs in the lasers, to be honest I didn't pay enough attention to which was the issue because the fix is the same). This only happened on fat units. The solution to that is in my ancient post as well. :)

Although, still, the majority of the fat units just had lasers that didn't last. That coupled with people using their (then) $600 console as a $29.99 DVD player and $9.99 CD player meant that the relatively limited lifetime of the laser was used on playing, well, crap. I honestly applauded M$ for not offering DVD support out of the box on the XBOX. It meant you only played games on the unit! Same thing with the NGC.

Almost every single person that had this type of console I asked "Do you play a lot of movies on DVD-R in it or leave it on while paused in a game overnight?" The answer was almost always "Yes".

If your laser is having trouble and you don't want to fix it/can't fix it, I used to recommend HDloader. In the older consoles you could eject the disc after it booted. Since HDloader let you play games from the hard drive, bingo, problem solved. As long as you could get HDloader to boot, you were good to go. If the DVD laser died, but the CD laser was still good (often this would happen) you could get a cheap modchip (Magic/ICE based ones worked well at the time for this) to allow you to play DVD based games despite loading HDloader from a CD-R since the maximum DVD size was reported to the mechacon and DSP.

No matter how much the consoles seem to fail, I can't help but think I should get one - just to go through the Rite of Passage that is the RROD.

My shipping box should arrive today. My Elite 360 purchased 10/24/07 (my birthday gift to myself) died saturday. There was nothing wrong with where it was as the power brick is on a shelf beside the entertainment center and the 360 is on top of the entertainment center (I have a 6 year old so high is the best idea)

I had 3 rings light up and nothing when I powered it up. It would make a 'thunk' sound through my speakers and that was it. No error screen or anything. I have been blowing the dust out every other month as I like my electronics to last.

One MAJOR thing to point out:

The xbox website does NOT state that the issue is covered. You have to go to the 800 number and dispute the repair problem. They will send you a box and let you get the repair. If you go by the website when you put in your serial # you will be told you are out of warranty. I also thought the elite was improved and would not suffer from the issues of the regular 360. I was wrong. I havent played it a lot over the past year but I recently had a couple of games I REALLY like playing and now I have been using it in weekend runs of 3 to 4 hours.

Now we will see what happens with the repair.

@turkeyspam: Just buy one at Costco and you will be good to go if it fails. I bought my son's there because I knew of the high failure rate. Sure enough, 1 year in, he had the RROD. Took it into Costco, they handed us a gift card for the amount we originally paid for it, which he used to buy a brand spanking new sytem, and he even got an upgrade to the 60G HD. Plus he had $75 leftover to spend because the console had dropped in price since we bought it the first time. Costco FTW!!

@RvLeshrac:

I stand corrected , your right. I never bought an Xbox to begin with knowing who the initial Mfg was. So I never kept track of all thge changes. However I know poor quality mfg when I see it and Acer is no different.......same low-ball products same quality issues.
Some day Microsoft will learn from their competitors.
Until then .....let the buyers beware !

@Eric Sarnoski:

There's no such company. There hasn't been for what? Ten years now?

If you're going to troll, you should at least use a company that exists. Next time, try dropping the Acer name in there.

@Sam2k:

They can't cover *every single issue* that ever happens with a service extension.

Sometimes, things just die. Since there are a finite number of ways in which they can malfunction, the percentage of those whose devices have malfunctioned in a specific way is going to be higher for some things that for others, out of the total number of individuals whose devices have malfunctioned.

If they cover every single failure for eternity, how would they make any profit?

@Jakuub: The failure rate is actually much higher than you think. At one point, it was established that around 68% of all consoles being produced was defective and would fail eventually [www.gamespot.com] . For me, it has been 4 months, and Microsoft has been unable to properly fix my unit. What a terrible console...

When I read dohtem's comment below, about "right after the warranty has expired," I thought, "exactly! Just like my son's." I don't know where I came up with "four months" in my original post.

Sleep would be good. Sorry.

The ?regional manager? unfortunately wasn't in this part of the state that day after all, but he had called and authorized the store manager to repeat the excuses I'd already heard and to offer me $5 store credit.

Five. Dollars.

I'm remembering more of this series of fiascos than I'd wanted to, yet not enough to piece it all together... Ah well. He's discovered girls now, anyway. (c:

Essentially Microsoft kept saying that EB Games had to eat the cost, and vice versa, and eventually I got sick of spending 4 hours on hold to India and told my son that I survived without video games just fine, he'd survive too.

Honestly, I don't think I could remember the specifics of it even if I HAD had any sleep in the last 36 hours; even as it was all happening I had to draw a little flow-chart to keep it straight for myself so I could explain it all again every time I got cut off and had to call their damned "customer service" line back. Sorry. I'm sure my son could resurrect every detail, but meh.

All I know is, he's got an XBox and a spare, and if they both crap out between now and the time he turns 18, afaiac he is SOL because I'm done with that particular cash-sink.

Microsofts mistake started on the day they awarded the contract to produce the XBox to E-Machines.
I'm not a technie , but I am fairly computer savy. I don't have enough fingers or toes to count the number of times I've had neighbors or friends ask me to come over because their E-machine computer is crapping out. They get sucked into buying them because of the cheap prices. There is a reason they are so cheap. Crappy construction. el-cheapo power supply. some unheard of brand hard drives. inadequate cooling....the list goes on. The only way Microsoft will ever redeem the Xbox is to clean house and find a new manufacturer. This poor choice has probably cost them millions already.

@shepd:
seems a little unusual as if I recall correctly, there was a problem related to a plastic supporting spring/housing-ish sort of thing for the diode that would fatigue and fail as sony apparently saved a few fractions of a cent going with plastic instead of metal.

from urban dictionary:

"One who posts a deliberately provocative message to a newsgroup or message board with the intention of causing maximum disruption and argument."

I don't think Brad qualifies as a troll here. He wasn't making a statement simply to piss people off and lead to a pointless, endless commenter war. Check out some of the other definitions to get a better idea.

I had originally purchaed the "Pro" model with the 20GB HD. After mine crashed I went to the local BB and bought an Arcade with some BB credit I had, but yes, it cost me $199+tax.

Not an ideal solution, but they were going to ask me around $120 to fix the 360... I'd rather have a new one with HDMI for another $80 at that rate.

PS2 lasers generally died because they simply, well, burned out. The diode was craptastic in early models, and the controller chip was the issue in later ones. I never saw a spring problem for the laser in a PS2, and I opened at least a few hundred of these during my days as a modchipper.

Generally, a few more months of life could be eked out of a worn-out laser by upping the power (just tweak the pot on the laser). The ones that literally burned out were screwed (This happened due to the chip that powers the laser locking up due to bad commands from the mechacon--the error state was to turn the laser on full. This occurred often on chipped consoles as part of hacking them involves rewriting the mechacon data stream).

The problem slowly went away as Sony released new versions.

I think, though, you might be speaking about the issues with the PS1, which involved a mechanical problem (but I only ever had one in my shop, and it wasn't for that problem, so beats me what it was).

"Sometimes a product just sucks and needs to go through a revision before it works properly."

Except in this case the "sucking" of the product was done deliberately. And hell no it's not okay. It's true that the majority of electronics just released into the market will have early failure rates, if they're anything close to the 33% debacle of the Xbox 360 then you shouldn't accept it.

And had to send in a 360 for my boss, and the return box microsoft sends out is quite secure and well padded, though I have heard lately that they are making people come up with their own packing materials.

Phew -- the 360's continuing failure rate is totally unacceptable.

I have also heard that some of the 360 disc drives have damaged discs.

Because I would use a game console to play DVDs, there is NO way I'd expose my precious discs to the possibility of permanent damage...

This has been a miserable generation of consoles. I don't like the graphics or controls of the wii, the xbox 360 keeps self-destructing and apparently taking discs with it -- and the ps3 was sacrified at the altar of corporate synergy: got to sell them blueray discs at premium prices, y'all!

Phooey.

I am female and not of the video game-loving persuasion, so I have nothing more to add.

@Brad Parker: I could also say the same thing on the other side. I know about 20 friends who have 360s (A mix of first gen and Jaspers). Of them, 2 have gotten RRoD sent them in got them back within 2 weeks. I have yet heard of any of my friends getting E74s.

@opsomath:
is your PS2 part of the early runs that suffered laser failure because sony cheaped out on a plastic spring? my buddy got screwed on his because when his failed, sony had already ended the recall window.

I shouldn't have to go out and shell out 200$ on a console every 2 years because the previous model broke and the company won't take care of my needs in a reasonable manner. If that happened to me I would definitely sell what I could out of the system and games and just move on to something else. Call me old fashioned, but I don't think wasting money on unreliable products is cool.

Even though Nintendo is not the best for systems or games I am kinda glad I have a Wii because at least if it breaks they will take care of it. They did replace my DS Lite that started to have weird problems without question.

I bet that they're still not going to cover the numerous 360s that suffered graphics failures without 3 red rings or this E74 error.

Of course, I wouldn't throw away the old unit, I'd ebay it. There are surprising number of people who buy them to try the common fixit techniques.

If this is happening with occasional users, then it's a really big problem.

@Mike8813: *firmware ISSUE, typo in the second paragraph.

I own both a PS3 and an Xbox360. And while I enjoy the PS3 more, and have had my xbox RROD on me once, the Playstation hasn't been perfect. When update 2.40 came out, it froze my PS3 and I ended up having to wipe my hard drive to fix it. I of course hadn't been backing up my saves, and I lost a lot of data.

This being a firmware update and not a hardware one, I do feel that the PS3 is better built and more reliable. That was a terrible pain in the ass though...

A troll is someone who generally posts inflammatory messages in order to cause a stir. Check here for a better description:

[en.wikipedia.org])

@lannister80 - Thank you! Nice to see someone else with insane failure stats to make me sound less crazy!

-Thanks

A)opened the Xbox to repair it myself a couple times.
B)took the X-Clamps off the bottom of the Motherboard.
C) Re-did the original thermal paste as well as a few broken solder points.

Oh well. Now I have 2 Xboxes. :)

I'm a PS3 owner (60GB EU Mk1), my brother is a 360 owner. He's on his second 360 (first one died of RRoD), I'm on my first PS3 (and even that was bought used). I'll admit the PS3 is a little sluggish (and the PS2 "backwards compatibility" is a total joke) but I'll take "a little slow" over "worketh not a toss" any day.

Anyway, I've got access to surface-mount repair gear and decided that seeing as his first 360 was utterly stuffed, I'd try and fix it. Not a chance. I eventually gave up, and decided to do an autopsy. Pulled the CPU and GPU, and both were absolutely covered in failed solder joints. These either didn't melt properly when the machine was being assembled, or they failed in use.

I've been toying with the idea of "re-balling" the chips (replacing the solder joints and resoldering the chips) but to be honest, the cost-benefit ratio is too low to make it worth bothering.

Definitely not impressed.

Personally I still think the Xbox is the better system in terms of game selection and hardware performance, but obviously that only holds true if the hardware doesn't break. The PS3 has better graphics, but the game selection isn't as good, and Guitar Hero doesn't work well on it.

If you had E74 you might as well file a claim for the out of warranty service you paid for. Even if they won't warranty it, they should pay your expense.

I mean I still have my sega genesis from when I was 6, which was bought used... I should still have my PS3, Wii, n64, snes and etc when I am 40 (I'm 22 right now), providing that I take good care of my equipment like I do right now.

My life has no room for inferior products that can't last even when they are taken good care of =(

"a mysterious new error has been affecting the XBOX 360"

There is nothing new about this error. This has been around for some time, just not as high profile as the RRoD. It just hasn't been finacially vesable for them to want to work on it yet.

The XBox is now in the *same* place it was before (actually a bit more enclosed/less air-circ), with *fewer* exterior cooling devices on it, and getting more use than it was previously.

This E74 error is a different animal entirely, and it strikes me as very odd that they didn't do enough testing to see it before the NXE came out. It strikes me as a software issue that they can hopefully fix with a firmware update.

Funny how I also singled out this exact line when reading the article. If it was a very small problem they wouldn't need a press release or mass refunds. As for comments about how nobody people know seem to have problems with Xbox failures I have 6 friends with them that all said the same thing. Now 4 of them have had theirs replaced including 2 who bought the newer elite systems that Microsoft claimed wouldn't have the problem.

He sweet-talked his grandparents into getting him a replacement machine around Easter of the following year (they were fully aware of the situation), and my mom paid for the "extended warranty" on that one. I can't even tell you what happened there, because I seem to have blocked the episode from my memory. All I remember is "EB Games are LYING LIARS and they SUCK and I will never EVER set FOOT in there again."

When we couldn't get the second one fixed without spending another fortune, I said, again, tough. Court of last resort: He asked his dad to get him one for his birthday. He got it in early August 07. He ran two fans/coolers attached to the unit, and two room fans pointed directly at it/the power brick. Within three weeks, the third one had RROD'd too.

I was ready to set every XBox item he owned on fire. Microsoft AND whichever retailer he bought the third one from were spectacularly unhelpful. More useless or "expired" or "doesn't apply to this" warranties. (This was in part because I had no idea what I was talking about, trying to explain the problem, and was so mad I could hardly speak - I'll own that. It wasn't all them.)

BUT at about that time, my son found a Craigslist ad for someone who offered a repair service. I was skeptical, but after meeting the guy, he seemed upfront and trustworthy, so I said we'd give it a shot. We did them one at a time to make sure his repairs actually worked. All I remember is the phrase "heat sink," although he explained it to me in great detail and even showed me step by step what he'd do. After the older one had been running like a dream for a month, we also got the second one repaired to have as a backup just in case.

Whatever he did, it worked like a charm (and he cautioned me several times that it would void the warranty, but they weren't honoring the warranty ANYWAY so whatever). My son's been running the older machine since ~October, with only the one cooler, and hasn't had a single problem with it, even when he pulls all-weekend marathons.

In my mind, it totally defeats the purpose of having a console if you have to spend a lot of time and hassle getting it to work properly. I want to plug in the shiny box and play fun games, not spend time talking to customer support or writing "Fragile" on boxes; if I bought a new console and it developed any serious problems, I think that thing would be going back to the store posthaste.

Currently on my 8th unit. Purchase a new 60GB for $100 direct from Microsoft. First six died, then purchased the 8th unit because I wanted the new CPU and 60GB HD.

I kid, I'm sure you get tons of tips for most stories.

On to a serious note, the Xbox has been plagued with issues since release. That's okay. Sometimes a product just sucks and needs to go through a revision before it works properly.

What is *not* okay is how slow Microsoft has been to acknowledge and take care of issues like this.

What about those of us who junked our E74 generating original XBOX360 and purchased a new one?

(sigh)

@everyone else who replied before that - Perhaps I just know unlucky ones? Honestly, out of about 14 people I know with the system I'd say 2 have yet to have problems. It's not like I made the an argument for arguments sake.

More of a reason I'm happy I bought a PS3. Xbox360 = trash, just like Windows (no, I'm not an apple fanboy). I don't think I would be able to take having to send off my console for repairs all the time. Not that I can't go without gaming, just be really pissed that I'd have to go through it all of the time. And, once out of warranty, I would be basically screwed if it RROD on me or something.

Stupid xbox.

I'll give you that 20% failure rate is still far too high, but it's not quite the apocalypse of the 360 that you're depicting.

@Brad Parker: Bought mine Summer of 2007. Have had no problems whatsoever with it. Zero complaints at all.

When does the current Microsoft provided warranty end?

lol. Rite. The damn boxes are still dropping like flies everywhere from RROD, E74 and gawd knows what else. Everyone I know with the system is on at least their first replacement, with a few on upwards of 4 replacements now.

I just don't understand why it's such a major issue! You'd think after 3+ years of developing the machine they'd learn to make one that'd last more than a year! (most don't make it that far)

I've already had one 360 die on me, now I want to stuff the new one in my freezer. hmmmmmmmmm chicken wings or street fighter 4...