Joystiq Poll: Is your Xbox 360 broken?
by Christopher Grant 
{ Nov 24th 2005 at 12:00PM }
Sometimes the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Is this the case with all the reports of 360
flaws? Are the majority of average, albeit lucky, 360 owners doing just fine; playing PDZ on HD, wirelessly,
while listening to music from their iPods? Or is there a massive problem, with recalls imminent. In the interest of
getting closer to understanding the severity and scope of these problems we present another Joystiq poll, in
collaboration with Xbox 360
Fanboy.
Technical mumbo jumbo: this is not a scientific or rigorous poll and is only intended to capture the general consensus of Joystiq and Xbox 360 Fanboy readers. Results will be posted approximately one week after the poll is opened for votes. Sure, you probably could hack this poll if you worked at it, but its more fun for everyone if poll results accurately reflect the opinions of all readers, so please refrain from tampering with poll results.
See also: previous Joystiq polls and poll results.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Lewigi @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
"The requested poll is no longer available. Please press your back button."
Ohh well. My answer was "still being manufactured?"
Omar @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
there should be an option that we couldnt get an xbox 360 becuase gamestop is gay.
lightdarkness @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
If you're having crashing problems, suspend your power supply above a shoebox to give it more ventilation
It's worked for tons of people at gamespot:
http://www.gamespot.com/forums/show_msgs.php?topic_id=23998153&page=0
OTAM @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
Mine has had 0 problems whatsoever on any front and that's after 5 straight hours of PDZ (which is f'ing awesome BTW and well worth the wait).
If your console is overheating I suggest you NOT cram the fucking thing into your entertainment center with no ventilation. If that's how you have it rigged then you are no better than Walmart sticking it in a glass case and piling games on top of it.
binary_hero @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
"The requested poll is no longer available. Please press your back button."
It appears the poll is about as buggy as the console.
Rjcc @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
I don't know about the power supply causing overheating, I have a lot of space behind my entertainment center, but that by itself never gets very warm, the back of the 360 itself gets warm, but not the power supply. No crashes yet.
Matthew @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
How emphatically does it stress good ventilation in the documentation that comes with it?
Remember, this is a *consumer* device, aimed at regular folk. It shouldn't crash. Ever. Does your TV crash? Your hifi? You can't assume that all users will be PC literate overclocking themal-regulation fiends.
If you open the box and a gigantic tent-sized leaflet pops up telling you in no uncertain terms that the PSU needs to be well ventilated, then maybe that's acceptable.
Otherwise MS have to assume that it's going to be crammed at the back of your TV/VCR etc with all the other cables - and make sure that it works in that environment.
I'm not taking sides, but Sony's experience in hardware design is a strength that MS don't have yet.
Burton Finks @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
This ultra-scientific web poll is sure to answer this question once and for all. I mean, there's zero chance that anti-Microsoft fanboys will vote as if they they have a broken 360 is there? Way to be the beacon of rational thought, Joystiq.
Nico @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
I think all the ps3 fans will vote that xbox 360 is teh suck.
hoopty @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
ultra-scientific scooby licious bodacious????? way to go????.....
C. Grant @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
The poll has been fixed, and I want to remind readers that any racist comments, including implied slurs, will be removed immediately.
jACK @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
Had mine since Nov 16 (hex168) and it's been in constant use since then. No problems... voted so on the polls.
Radiant Silvergun @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
My Xbox360 Premium has been working flawlessly since I set it up.
I noticed the console's fans get louder when you play a game from the cd drive. Once you're done and go back to the dashboard, the fans quiet down. Sort of like what the PS2 does when a hard drive is installed and you run something off the hard drive (e.g. FFXI)
Thryon @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
I think this news is being blown out of proportion. There are always a few "bad" units with mass production. I just brought back a water cooler that was not cooling. I do not see any news organization commenting on this water cooler problems. The Xbox360 is new, it hot news, that is why you will hear about every single little problem that arises. I have read headlines indicated "MASSIVE" problems. Funny, no one that I spoke too had any problems. None of the units on display have any problems, and they are running full time. But reporting that XBOX 360 is a MASSIVE success is not news worthy.
Well for the record, mine is working fine and I am MASSIVELY enjoying it.
tony.phewklieng @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
freak!!
i cant even get my f**king hands on a xbox360!
Scott @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
I wonder how many people that are having problems have their 360's either in an enclosed space or sitting either on top or next to another heat generating component like a receiver.
I put my 360 in a slot by itself in my entertainment center where it can get decent ventilation and haven't had a single problem. I've been playing PGR3, PDZero, and Geometry Wars frequently since Tuesday.
Burton Finks @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
Nico: welcome to the world of fanboys, where it's more fun to make the competition look bad than to sit back and sa "I'm just a Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo - fan what would I know?".
XD @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
No issues with mine and I hope it stays that way. It would suck to have got one of these and paid all that money to just wait for a replacement. I hope the numbers of this are low especialy now that quantities are limited.
Matthew,
didn't you know that so many PS1s had the piece that lets the laser move get destroyed and make the system unusable? Then PS2 had lasers not working at all? Sony isn't perfect either! Another thing to remember is that the new systems are all running hot so the location that the hardware is stored can have significant impacts on all hot running electronics (including receivers, PCs, DVD players and other consoles as of DreamCast and later)! This isn't limited to the X360 so don't turn this into another trashing session!
Remien @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
Finally got mine delievered yesterday from Circuit City.com. Funny really, I opted for the 7-10 day free shipping and got it in three days, I'm a happy camper right now. No problems so far.
Honestly though, this next generation, people are going to have to get use to having systems requiring a lot of space to breathe, the only one I think might get away with being in a semi-confined space is the Revolution. I just can't see the Cell proccessor, Nvidia gpu, and blu-ray drives in the PS3 running any cooler than what Microsoft has put into the 360. But then again, I haven't read up on the fine details of the PS3 since E3, so I could be forgeting whatever cooling systems they have planned. I'll be curious to see if it will have a external or internal power supply. If it's internal, you'll have to worry about the combined heat of all those components running in a space only a few inches bigger than the 360.
Either way, I'll end up getting 'em all. I can't wait to see more information on Warhawk, loved that game.
paralipsis @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
I'm starting to think that the reason that the Xbox 360 has been delayed until March in Australia is that they would not survive through a summer in most parts of the country ;)
Chris @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
"The Xbox360 is new, it hot news, that is why you will hear about every single little problem that arises."
Perhaps if the first Xbox hadn't set a prescedent for spontaneously combusting, Microsoft might have gotten a pass this generation.
Phil @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
If the Xbox 360 is overheating, WTF are Sony going to do with the PS3. The models they've showed off so far have NO ventilation slot at all.
SuperJesus @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
I got two 360's... One is working fine but the other is overheating and freezing up. I think it's media center I've put it in. Still, didn't count on having to cut a whole in an oak cabinet so I can better ventilate a console.
James @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
Chris Grant,
Why did you include options so fanboys can screw with the stats? Retarded move. People may actually want to know the percentage of bad Xbox 360.
I think it's your inner fanboyism seeping out. Get a life!
Jmoney @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
funny how only 6% of the votes have problems with their 360....yet we heard the rumors like it happening to every 360.
Cyberclaws @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
I got the premium from Costco on launch day and it runs superbly. No overheating, no freeze/lockups, no crashes at all. I read all about these errors and glitches and problems and can't duplicate them with the way I have mine setup. I even played the SW movie and no problems, had it running over 24 hrs and no overheating. I have mine set up in the entertainment center next to my Nintendo Gamecube (side by side) with about six inches free all around the 360 (including top airflow). So all I got to say is, thank goodness that I got a glitch, lockup, crash, overheating problem free 360 console! Thank you Costco and M$! Now to get the Revo....
Lansing @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
funny how the waiting for ps3 is "xbox is teh suck" while Revolution waiters get "humbly waiting for Rev" Not every Sony fan hates the 360, hell I want a 360 but finding it isn't exactly possible and thats not really criticizing Microsoft in particular to avoid setting off a flurry of "Sony did it too, Sony did it too"
PS: Joystiq should try not to be a ba--ard and purposely screw with polls by asking leading questions. The top 4 should be the only ones there anyway.
PPS: When it gets closer to the PS3 launch Ill go searching for site other than joycrosoft for a more fair news site that doesnt imply that Sony fans talk like MTV watching Gam0RZ or whatever the dumb 1337 speak for gamers is now.
bd (formerly b) @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
Impressive.
So basically, 100% breaks up like this:
67% don't have a 360 yet
(22% are waiting; they should be pretty pissed off by now)
33% do have a 360 already
26% out of 33% say it's working great; which is worrying considering it means that little more than 21% of Joystiq readers that own it are having problems with it.
More than half of those that are having problems are having heat issues. This means something around 12% of users, while 6% is getting their discs scratched, and 3% has dead consoles.
12% fucking percent of overheating, and 3% dead, which is consistent with (if not a little worse than) the reported data about 10% of consoles having problems. That's a huge ratio.
Oh man, I'm glad I'm waiting.
ReyBrujo @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
Only fanboys get offended by polls ;-)
RiXst3r @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
the phrase "I humbly await the revolution" is misleading in that people are clicking it, thinking they are talking about the next gen gaming revolution that they cant join because they cant find a 360... not the nintendo... I think it should say "I humbly await the Nintendo Revolution" and be reset, to get an acuate poll!
doogiestyle @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
my 360 stopped locking up after i reseated the hard-drive and put it on it's side (as opposed to vertical).
it has been fine since.
Vav00m @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
Dead on arrival
black screen of death during music, xbox 1 games, xbox 360 games, dvds, or anything more than the dashboard.
boooo
C. Grant @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
#24: The disclaimer already asks readers not to mess with the poll, its hard to do more than that. By adding more options for other platform preferences, it will hopefully remove some of the desire to select something, whether they own a 360 or not.
As for the choice of language for the options: its meant to be funny. Smile. ;)
Herzigovina @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
"funny how only 6% of the votes have problems with their 360"
Did you really just write this? 6% of votes have problems, yes, but only 35% of the votes are people who own the console! Did you even take a math class in this life? This means that 17% of the people who have consoles have a problem of some sort. This is huge. It may be skewed though as most place I've seen have been quoting about 10% problem rate which is still pretty bad.
In fact, at the time I'm reading the poll, The breakdown is:
Overheating = 251
scratching = 69
DOA = 110
working fine = 1393
That means out of a total 1,823 xbox360 owners polled, 23.5% are having problems. Shit. I hope some people are lying or MS is in deep SH*T.
totoro @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
Hard to tell who and how many are affected-how many Xboxes are still in their packaging til Xmas?
everdreaded @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
"Honestly though, this next generation, people are going to have to get use to having systems requiring a lot of space to breathe, the only one I think might get away with being in a semi-confined space is the Revolution. I just can't see the Cell proccessor, Nvidia gpu, and blu-ray drives in the PS3 running any cooler than what Microsoft has put into the 360"
No offense, but its this kinda thinking that hurts productivity of anything in this country. I would rather wait for something to be done right rather than a rushed half ass experiment to see what works and does not work for 400 dollars a pop.
I'm not downing the xbox-360 I hope it is a glitch thats an easy fix. But Technology is supposed to surpass the previous innovations without loss of quality and efficiency. Not burden a person with the time and energy to take care of something that should have been dealt with before it hit the showroom floor.
James @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
Can you really believe the stats of this poll anyways? You can be anyone (even without a xbox 360) and vote for any options that you're having problems especially those retarded Sony fanboys. This poll is neither scientific or reliable. You're better off polling a bunch of drunks in a bar asking them what's their favorite bar snacks. At least there, you would get more accurate results.
malcolm @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
im not trying to dis the 360 but i think that the problems should have been fixed before shipping. and no im not a sony or nintendo fanboy i hate those guys i like a little of each companys products. the only company i trust at launch is nintendo cuz besides the n64 i havent heard of any problems so thats why im waiten for a revo. well to the people that got a broken system i feel sorry for you.and for ones who got ones that work congrats! i just think that these problems should have been resolved before such a huge launch.
OTAM @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
Of course it's going to show that a ton of people are having problems with their 360. Who's going to go online to make threads in forums about how their 360 is working perfect and doesnt need any repairs/tech help?
mike @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
I haven't bought an XBOX360 yet but judging by the reports im rethinking my decision.One thing i noticed is even though i do not i have one i have seen the way it is packaged.I work at the #1 packaging supplier in canada. First who in their right mind exposes one side of electronic equipment bare to the outer side of cardboard with no protection.UNBELEIVABLE!
JohnnyCashAK @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
Mine is running awesome, except I just found out that my 1k HDTV doesn't support 720p... wtf Magnavox? Oh well, I've been looking for a reason to buy a new flatscreen anyway, but until now I couldn't justify replacing my big tube set with an lcd or plasma because the size isn't really an issue. Thank god the 360 can upscale to 1080i which my tv DOES support.
To be honest I've only used my new gaming system to play games 20 percent of the time it's turned on. The other 80 percent is spent streaming music through my surround sound system or pulling my bit torrent movies off my pc and watching it on my 30" hdtv and my sound system from the comfort of my couch. Oh brave new world...
Kevin D @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
You're all kidding me right?.....
So if some kids were to take their new laptops and put them in a 'stereo' cabinet and they overheated (which they would if they were running alot of apps), its Dell's fault?....
Come on, give your heads a shake... This is a high end computing device that anyone with half a braincell knows will generate ALOT of heat so it should be in a more open environment (NOT ON CARPETING).. Put your laptop on your carpet and see how 'hot' it gets....LOL..
All I've got to say is if the 'PS3' is SOOO much more powerful, its gonna generate a TON more heat... The only way to solve this is fans, open areas OR (as desktop pc's do - A VERY LARGE TOWER CASE - which increases the volue of air surrounding the electronics)....
Anyways, Love my 360 and it works F'n Awesome... BLOWS anything else out of the water....LOL
Max Boyer @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
Mine is freezing up after 30 minutes of Perfect Dark or Project Gotham and it's having all kinds of backwards compatibility issues. Oh, and it keeps giving me this message "To play this disc, put it in an XBOX 360" when I put in any of microsoft's games (PDZ, PGR3 sometimes and Kameo almost every time I trie it). What is this message? Is the system stuck in Xbox 1 emulation mode or something?
Anybody else getting these problems?
chimp_321@yahoo.com
homer @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
the bottom line is a console should be as easy to setup and use as a toaster.
shame on microsoft for releasing such a shoddy product. when will people learn that MS is only concerned about $$$, not about the customer.
sounds like the 360 is about as well designed as their sh1t software.
PickyPants @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
Hey Kevin D, do you only write one comment a year and copy/paste it? I have seen that comment 4 times now. Should I copy/paste all the replies that knock your silly ass out of the water?
Necrophiliac @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
I have had no problems with mine. And as far as scratching discs is concerned... it says right in the instructions to NEVER change the console's orientation while a disc is in the tray. Most people who scratched discs did so by moving the system from horizontal to vertical or vice versa with a disc in it to see the ring of light change. Dumb move people.
Heretic @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
should of put waiting on halo 3 in the poll.
Just Mike @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
Holy crap, revolution with the most votes in an xbox360 poll!? I havent even heard many nintend ofanboys this excited about it. Its not hard to see the genius of the reolution after you play the xbox 360, i mean you already know it will just be xbox with much better graphics, but its not untill you actually play it that you realise how dissapointing the "next-gen" is. Its just like EA, "same stuff but improved". What i wouldnt give just to see gameplay footage of revolution
DM @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
Just checked out an XBOX 360 at ToysRUs which had been on all day (according to the staff)and found that while playing the King Kong demo game, the T'rex turned a solid Blue color and was 3/4 embedded in the rocks where Kong was trying to kill him. I tried hard button mashing to release him but gave up due to this glitch. This made everyone watching behind me shake their heads in disbelief. I enjoyed the game up until that part then wondered if maybe it was just the heat, the disc or that it's demo version of the full game.
In the last few days, I've seen some strange tings happening on consoles in store kiosks that make me wonder if I really need to invest now or wait for a newer production model.
HD is Sweet! I can wait to buy!
BTW: I'm enjoying LEGO Star Wars and Shadow of the Colossus on a PS2 at the moment. Lots of life left in PS2,XBOX,GC.
Cheers!
DrmChsr0 @ Dec 18th 2005 9:13PM
I have to admit, until I get my hands on an XBOX360(What does the 360 mean? 360 times the weight? 360 times the crappyness? 360 times the waste heat production?), which means early next year in these parts (I'm from LOL SINGAPORE), I can't say much, and judging from the comments, it seems to be awesome, but bogged down by massive bugs.
Let's wait for Microsoft to release the XBOX360 1.1 patch before we comment, shall we?