360 problems? Throw in the towel

Im on my sixth dead 360.

Ill try this when I get home, but im still sending the damn thing in tomorrow morning.

So, whatever....

I don't understand dead 360s to this day? Are they recycling repaired dead 360s or are they sending out new ones? I've never had issues with mine.

sixth? maybe you should try a different power outlet, or connecting it to an UPS. Six new 360s all faulty from the factory seems a bit crazy. Or are they just 'fixing' and returning the same 360 refurbished?

This trick really does work but you sould still send it in im on my 4th xbox

That's because Mike is lying it couldn't be his sixth because when someone had three Peter Moore personally went to his house and apologized..

In regards to #1; yeah dude seriously, going through six systems is a little overkill. Gotta be something on your end thats not set up correctly. They must love when you call them up.

my launch 360 works like a dream...guess it is just karma.

ya, srsly, it seems the only ones with problems now are those who sent theirs in. ms would prolly be better off just giving out vouchers for a new box and then there would be no worries. mine's working perfectly.

Yeah, if your on your 6th.. or even 3rd.. I'd say theres something else going on here.. power surges or something. I got mine at launch and saw red rings once when the power went out, but I just turned it off/on and it was fine again. Mine is on every day for hours upon hours.. honestly, it rocks.

This proves what Douglass Adams said about towels!

This trick does work with some 360's, but the fix dont last for long. Trust me, I repaired about 30 of them with the heat gun trick and had them all come back after a while with red lights of death!

I -just- got my fourth. I've installed a new power cleaner (monster power) so i'll see if that helps - but these issues are far and wide.

Also, #7: lol.

I'm on my 5th (I think... I kinda lost count) box, and what makes me mad is that they send a refurbished one with a different serial number, but 2005 manufacture date. So every time I get a "new" one, I'm just inheriting someone else's problem.

I'm on my rd. #1 disc munger #2: e-71 on fall update. #3: going fine.

I have to say if it breaks again I'm not buying another as much as I like my 360. It just aint right.

Well faulty rate is 3-5% on most electronics (this is a blog, so no I won't put in the effort to dig up my source, its just from memory). Seeing how outspoken some people are about the 360 rate, I'll even generously boost the 360 rates (fictionally high number) to 8%. If you've had 6 faulty 360s...the chances of that are 0.08^6=0.0000262%....

Which leads me to believe that the problem is you, not the 360.

Guys, trust me. Ive tried EVERYTHING.

Ive been told not to use surge protectors by MS support, so ive used 4 different outlets in the house. The brick is always off the floor raised and with plenty of breathing room. Each refurb they send me has never been mistreated, abused, nothing. Ive tried 2 different power bricks. Same problem.

The consoles are always laying down flat with plenty of breathing room above, on its sides and behind.

I would also find it a bit odd that if it was an issue with the outlet, my 52 inch HDTV, PC, pc monitors, microwave, various charging stations, cell phone or any other powered device has never had the rate of failure that my 360 has had.

MS sends refurbs. Ive talked to the supervisors at 1800 4myxbox and begged, pleaded, threatened to get a new unit or just get my money back so I can buy a new unit off the shelf.

Do I get a new unit? Nope. I get a free copy of PGR. Whooptie fucking do.

They send me a refurb with a different serial number each time.

Seriously, I know 6 systems is a bit much to wrap your heads around, and it would be easier to just chalk it up to "user error"

I can assure you its not. Ive worked help desk and tech support positions for years and im not pulling some boneheaded shit like putting my 360 on top of a surround sound subwoofer and wondering "why the hard drive keeps dying?"

Or perhaps trying to play it submerged in a pool and wondering why my console is shorting out.

Im smarter than your average bear, either I have the worst luck ever or whatever company MS contracts out the refurb work for the 360 is incompetent.

Take your pick.

Well I think its a lot higher then 8%. Of the three people at my work who has one, we each have gone through at least one. I'm on my third...

Well Krazy. Perhaps you can tell me what MS support has been unable to. What is killing these machines?

Cause im sure as hell not bricking them on purpose.

Waiting a week plus every time ive had to ship my unit back isnt exactly what I had in mind when I bought a videogame console.

So you tell me. Whats killing the system?

YEAH... I got the red rings once, after returning from a vacation where the 360 was unplugged (So as to hide it. Yes, I'm very territorial), for 3-4 days.

It popped up, and I freaked out, hit it, and turned it off and back on. Viola. Worked fine.

So, hit your electronics, boys and girls. its the only way to go.

I run an xbox game clan, 28 members and we had a recent forum discusion about this very thing and not one single person in my clan has had any problems with there machines.

I dont give a rats ass what you guys say, this machine is stable and is reliable. You people need to take better care of your hardware, 6 replacements my ass, thats total bullshit.

I wonder how many ps3 fangirls are posting bullshit here, how many ps3 fangirls are posting bullshit on xbox 360 related forums.

Yeah thats right girls, were fully aware of some of the pathetic tricks fangirls will play.

I am still happily playing my 360 alot since launch day, hardly gets turned off, when I go to work my kid brother plays it quite alot, when he goes to school my mother plays arcade games almost all fricken day, when I get home I play games all night almost every night and mine is rock solid and works a charm, never once had a problem.

But yeah, after posting this I am sure there will be loads of fangirls of the pc/wii or ps3 that will post some bullshit about bricking like 25 billion xbox 360 machines and its all because microsoft dont know how to make hardware lmao yeah right !

I smell so much bullshit its making my eyes water, going to go get me some fresh air then play my 360 untill the cows come home..

you know what xbox is good and all but im not lying im on my 9th console. the funny thing is that i dont play it that much, i just get crap ones. seems like microsoft hates canada all my friends who have xboxes (3 of them) have broken at least one. There hasnt been any peter moore at my house and i dont lie over the internet to get sympathy so all of this is true dont believe me if you want to be that arrogant

I am on my third 360. Previous two had three red rings. My system does not get abused and I am using a power surge strip. Next time I will buy an extended warranty from Best Buy rather than Microsoft. You can take in your old and receive a new one off the shelf.

If I got to the point where I was on my 6th I think I'd just sell it on ebay and buy something else. On second thought, I'd probably do that on my 3rd.

Right now I'm waiting for my wireless mic to come that I sent to MS 2 weeks ago (I paid for shipping so the mic is costing about $70 overall right now.) If it doesn't work I'll just sell it, I do not need unnecessary stress.

Yo jimmy, get me your contact info and ill send you pics of my set up so you can see exactly how I treat my hardware.

Let me spoil it for ya ...... (immaculate)

While im at it, what do I get if I give you all the ticket numbers from each time ive called xbox support?

Put up or shut up.

As for peter moore visiting me? I could care less, he can save me the visit and just send me a new system. I just want a system that works. I still stand by the belief that they are doing shit work when it comes to refurbishing these units.

Treating my system like shit or abusing it so it bricks as well as fabricating a story about 6 broken systems doesnt serve me at all.

My gamertag: B4DKARM4

*shrug*

Bullshit eh? Again, what do I get if I prove you wrong? Would you be willing to make a 300 dollar bet and just buy me a new system off the shelf if I can prove you wrong?

I know this is xbox360 FANBOY.com ....... but claiming that people with real hardware issues are fabricating these stories up just so they can make MS look bad is a tad bit retarded.

Ive used this trick before it was even announced. It works but the system will fail again.

Brett, he didn't go to his house, he called him. But yea.

I'm going through my second. First bricked when the first update failed to complete. Now the replacement for that has served me well but it's going back tomorrow because the DVD drive doesn't open when there is no disc in. I can put pressure on the drive to get it out and play as normal but I'd rather get it fixed.

While researching what could be causing this issue...... I came across a post on kotaku.com and a forum post xbox-scene.com

Check it out:

http://kotaku.com/gaming/original/and-ashcrafts-xbox-360-croaks-227560.php

Warren DeMontague says:

"I was a mechanical engineer for a while, with some experience in HVAC/Thermo/Heat Transfer design.

Here's what bugged me about the 360's design:

The ventilation openinings were not aligned. The faraday cage and the outer plastic shell both had numerous 1-2 cm holes in them, but since they weren't aligned, they create a 'baffle' of sorts. What that means is that turbulent, slow-moving air gets trapped between the cage and the shell, essentially insulating the innards of the 360 with that air.

Even when the console was under heavy use (and groaning loudly), I never felt that "warm breeze" you usually feel when you put your hand next to the exhaust fans of a PC. Also, having the fans push against static air contributes to fan failure and additional fan noise. I know one of the two cooling fans in one of my 360 went south.

I read an interview with the engineer who designed the 360 physical layout & case, and he said he originally spec'ed an 80mm fan for the console, but they didn't want the case to be that big, so he used two smaller fans instead.

The CPU cooler is actually a passive heat pump, and an impressive piece of engineering. However, I think the lack of convection means that no heat pump can work efficiently under those conditions.

***IMHO*** MS knows exactly what's wrong, and may have even changed the design (slightly) of the console. However, giving people old, broken refurbs as replacements means that they keep circulating bad machines. I'm sure they'll fix the problems in v. 2.0, which is why I'm waiting to buy another."

http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=579364

The above link for xbox scene.com talks about reapplying solder on some parts of the 360 because MS has to use leadfree solder on their devices.

Lead free solder proving to be shitty in the 360 coupled with informative posts by people who actually have a clue (kotaku post) about how the 360s have poor ventilation and you dont exactly have to be a genius to see why some of the systems are failing.

Of course, while this is all neat and all. I still have a bricked unit.

Froody.

I have a "Launch" 360 and It is still working!!!
It has Locked Up after some lengthy gaming, But it is Still Working!!!
Knock on Wood, etc, etc.
My PS3 has Locked up as well, also a Launch Console.

jimmybobuk

I wouldn't Call the 360 stable and reliable, because mine does lock up on certain games.
But I definitely agree that a lot of people report stuff like this just to make a Rival Console look bad.
Not to say that the Guy is lying, but it does happen a lot on sites such as these.
If he is not Lying then there is probably a problem with his Electrical Service or TV or cables or he has it stored in a unventilated area, because the chances of getting 6 Bad ones is highly unlikely.

I've been on a launch console without any problems since November of 2005. I won it from 1UP.com and it has never caused me a problem.

The red rings- by the way- do not necessarily mean "death" but "Hey! Something is wrong!" and it could be anything from your video or power cord not being fully connected to low power coming from your outlet. In my case, I did get red rings when I connected to an outlet in my crappy apartment that wasn't grounded properly. Putting the 360 on a different outlet that had proper ground solved the problem.

Six--- Dude, I really hope it's just that MS is sending you bad refurbs, because if you have screwed-up power that is doing this, you need to have a serious talk with your electric company or a contractor.

Monster Power, by the way, is not very good. There are far better ways to save your electronics from damage. I'd suggest a UPS from Belkin for some serious protection and power regulation. They start around $35 and go up from there.

6!!!! 9!!!!

Yeah right.... for so many reasons....I tend to agree with the "fanboy"-"fangirl" theory...

I had my first one go bad and the second I got has been good for ten months.... no problems

Just because yours hasn't broken doesn't mean you should rip on those who have real problems. This isn't some conspiracy to bash MS, and even if it was, what good would it do? Haven't you read the sales data?

Be glad you can play your games trouble-free and move along...nothing to see here.

I had a launch console that bugged out on me just three weeks into Jan '06....I tried todo an update and the console crashed destryoing my $60 COD2 game...then M$ pulls some BS of how its not their problem even though it was their console that crashed and destroyed my game....then I email Activision and you gotta pay $20 to get a new one what a ripoff So I send it in and instead of fixing it they send me a new one. The note they couldnt find anything with the 360 so they just sent me a new one, At the time I was really pissed b/c I lost all my achievements all 500 of them but looking back and seeing aLL these ppls 360s crashing & burning I have to say
I LOVE MY 360!!!!! It may say its made in CHINA
BUT DAMN is it DURABLE...sometimes I've kept it on for days while I was at school or work never saw the RINGS OF DEATH NOT ONCE....it did crash a couple times while I was playing but not during an update or SAVING/LOADING a game
thankfully
Anywayz...after that fiasco I decided to buy an intercooler I think the one I bought was a Nyko...Now I dont know if its actually helping the 360 stay cool or not....but its been working problem free for a year now. My brick cord is always on the itcarpet & I have it plugged into the surge protector. the layout is this: 61' Panasonic LCD wh the top tv stand holding the 360 and the Dircttv DVR on the bottom. AND get this the power has gone off four times the last 5 months b/c My family had all the heaters running non-stop and I live in CALI LOL while the 360 was on and I had no issue at all. Theres a window right next to it and I always keep it open. I have never played the 360 while in a vertical stance. I think its just a truly moronic move just to make it look cool... you run the risk of damaging the your $60 game, plus after what happened with mine I am not taking any chances. Also I bought 2 year warranty just last Dec. And for the guy whos going on his 6th 7th, 8th or w/e 360 it might be better to spend your cash on the new version. I dont know if its user error or its jus M$ shafting you all the time. Make sure when you do get a new one treat it like GOLD... no WHITE GOLD...dont do anything that even runs the risk of you damaging it. Because If I went through all that I'd probably buy a TITanium CASE to entomb it in so not even a earthquake could touch it.
Just my 2 cents

Wow omg this is amazing so I’m on my 2nd Xbox and I just tried this wrapping the Xbox with towels with my first 360 which I got the red ring of death on about 3 months ago and I had it wrapped in a regular bath towel without its outer shell (white case) for about 10 minutes after 5 minutes the fan picked up and kept going after 10 total minutes the fan shut off and there was no noise from the Xbox what so ever but the 3 red light were still on because I hadn’t shut off the 360 so I decided to reboot to see if I herd any sound and I turned it off and back on and now it works perfectly fine. I am so stoked now I have 2 360s wonder what I’m going to do with it any suggestions and I’m not simply giving it to any of you guys lol.

this seems to be similiar to the heat gun trick i used. My 360 works for about 2 minutes now then freezes. at least no more red rings. but i still cant play.

anyone who doesnt believe that the 360's break down take a visit to www.xboxscene.com. there you will learn alot about your precious perfect 360.

well I am on my 1st system from day ONE!
It broke down last night ...no RED lights or nothin the game woulden spin ,,, as in the dvd drive was fooked ..... SO i open the xbox up ( I have had it for 1+ year) started to spin the game with my finger ( i have a CLEAR dvd DRIVe ....and bang the game started to spin once more :S

TO tell the truth like ..... I am a Really big xbox fan ,.,,, But part of me thinks how them people who are on xbox number 4+ due to problems can keep goin on! ...it would drive me mad,,,, and really like it does not say alot for 360 sales when you have to count all the people who are on 360 number 5+

Lets hope the new Ver2 out this year runs better :)

PAUL

Hmmmm. I've had mine nearly a year now - no preblems whatsoever. It's covered in dents, scratches, and scuff marks, because I reguarly chuck it all into a rucksack and lug it over to my friends' houses. It's given me the red ring of death once, and I just turned it off and then on again and it was fine (after I nearly had a heart attack over it!).

I like in the UK but mine's a Japanese unit. I hear something about the type of solder they have to use in the US not being very good, and that this could be causing things to break. It probably doesn't help that they keep sending refurb units out to people who've had problems.

Oh, and I do think that at least some of the people bitching and moaning about the 360 being unreliable are PS3 fanboys who don't even own a 360, but maybe that's just my cynical side? :P

I thought these were ps3 fanboys pumping up the complaints until mine died after 11 months with no problems. It was a 2005 model so I got a refurbished one back but it is a noisy one, and if my internet connection is off I can't use all the downloaded content I had purchased over the year...

A 360 Fanboy site is probably the worst place to gather 360 fail rates as a sample of the entire population; given that posters/readers here are also using their 360s significantly longer than others, it would be more prone to failure as would any other electronic device. That said, however, other consoles don't seem to have as many hardware issues, even on their own fanboy sites (through my casual observation, at least).

As for warranties/service plans, I've heard that Costco's or Sam's Clubs (those wholesale discount sellers) have the best policies by way of straight up exchanging defective/malfunctioning units for a new one of the shelves. They are also supposedly rather lenient in terms of how long ago the original purchase took place. It beats having to deal with Microsoft and shipping your console to them and waiting for a return. Other retail sellers like Best Buy offer service plans, but if I'm not mistaken those may ultimately go back to Microsoft anyway, so it is really only a middleman handling your issues.

I haven't had the full red-ring of death (all 4 sections lighting up), and hopefully never will. I do, however, get the 3 sectioned ring almost every single time I turn on my console. It takes jiggling the A/V cable to resolve it. So it still functions, but it's a pain every time.

Well I cant say for sure that the Xbox 360 is really reliable but I cant say its not. A lot of people have had problems with their xbox's, I'm one of them. I had to replace my Xbox it was only 6 months old and it was connected to a 1500VA Battery Backup. Thankfully I had bought the Protection PLan at EB Games and got a new one. So far no problem. The only thing that makes me mad about the Xbox 360 is that you buy a product thats supposed to work and you pay $400+ for it and you dont get what you paid for. If my 360 fails again I'm afraid I won't buy another one. As for the people that have had their Xbox fail more than 3+ times, I'm kinda skeptical about it but hey when your dealing with technology anything is possible.

OMG this is the worst idea I have ever heard.

DO NOT TRY THIS.

I do not see how this would possibly not fry your 360. If you're this desperate and aren't going to send it in... (and have some know how) I'ld recommend replacing the fans and thermal paste. those are the only sane things to do.

I got mine the day after Thanksgiving when they launched. I am still on my first one thankfully. Although one time I did get the red ring, but I turned it off. Waited about 10 minutes, and turned it back on and it was fine. :P

I really wonder what people aren’t telling you when they brick there 360. I had a friend forget to turn his off before he went a way for a week. Came back it was fine, mine runs around 4 hours a day and 6 to 8 on the weekend no prob. I use mine for video, dvd, music and games with no problem.

I'm on #5 since launch caught the red lights i would be playing a game and it would crash and i dot mean the normal run of the mill crash i mean it fucking crashed like it would make this loud ass noise and the graphics would brake up i would turn it off and try to turn it back on but it would do nothing this happened with all of the 360's ive had
and the ones they send you are refurb i love my 360 i just wish it wouldnt break for no fucking reason and no its not user error trust me i dont play this dam thing on the heater or in a wall unit for those of you who say mine's fine your stupid (trust me your gonna send back at least one or two )

I'm just about on my 3rd (awaiting its arrival). Both red-ringed, both times I happened to be playing XBLA games. Plenty of room behind the box to breathe, power supply breathes just fine, though it's not breaking, the 360 is. It seems that if you start to get Disc Unreadable errors, you can pretty much guarantee that its days are numbered.

It's currently plugged into one of these, plenty of surge protection

http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=122868

The power in this house ain't exactly wonderful though, so I can only think the 360's wicked sensitive, and needs a line conditioner. Gonna grab a UPS with AVR before the 360 gets returned, and hope that that fixes things.

To the paranoid mofo; you're a little zealotical, seriously. I still wouldn't buy a PS3, because Sony is the Devil, and I don't like JRPGs. I really don't like being weeks without my gaming box, though. It's also my DVD player and media center extender, so it's a pain in the bleep to be without.

http://nexgenwars.com/forum/archive/index.php?t-64.html

I received my first 360 for Christmas(2006). Every game that I tried to play froze within the first hour of play. I took the system back to Best Buy and got a replacement. The replacement worked great for the first two weeks I played it then it had the three red rings and never recovered.

My friend never had any problems with his system, but his was an older model. I think the problem lies with the new model. By the way, I returned my replacement system to Best Buy again and got my money back. I love the system but will not risk loosing $400+ because Microsoft can't make a quality product.

One more thing....jimmybobuk you are a jackass! People are trying to help other people on this site. Not everyone is a conspiracy theorist like yourself. GET A LIFE!

I have to be completely honest with you guys, I bought my xbox 360 way back in May of '06, I've played through Perfect Dark, Gears of War, Call of Duty 3, Ghost Recon, and man it's been awesome. So to my dismay, last week....January 29, 2007, I go to put Employee of the Month into my XBOX...and a friend of mine says hey, pause it for a minute i gotta pee. So I pause it, he walks back in, and i go to hit unpause and it's frozen. My heart skips a beat, and I hit the power, once, twice, three times and it finally goes off. I go to turn the console back on, and I get to the DVD main menu, where it freezes again...frantically I try other DVDs that have worked fine and to no avail they still freeze, the games dont even get passed the XBOX 360 LOGO!!! Pissed off I email microsoft because it's 2 in the morning, and in the meantime unplug the console, make sure everything is cool and I leave it be for about an hour or two. Then I go to turn it on thinking it must be overheated....I get a black screen and a CLICK NOISE from the disc drive and 3 BLINKING RED LIGHTS...Im thinking to myself how could it take this long, one month into the new year and I cant get on live or watch movies..Here I am stuck at college with a broken 360. So I call my father the following day, while checking to make sure the console still has the same problem, and it does. Luckily I got the 2 year replacement plan from Best Buy, so I picked a new one up today, but strange thing is the disc drive is different, I believe it's a Phillips Model, anyways I've played it for about an hour an no problems thus far....guess I just thought I'd share because it took so long for my 360 to actually act up and leave me.

Hey guys,
I broke into a house a few weeks back and stole an xbox 360, I got all the cables and games and stuff and I thought it would work fine.
However when I plugged it all in back at home to test it, I'd get half way through a game and the console would freeze. I'd reboot and get 3 red lights. I tried an hour later and the same thing happened.
I tried the towel trick and now it won't even boot to the console so THANKS ALOT you FUCKING TOOLS, I risked my lifestyle by breaking into a house to steal some merchandise and all you internet nerds do is give me false advice which screws it in the long run. I'm just going to sell the hard drive and games to get a PSP, next time I'll grab the jewelry.
/BEN :)

ok guys the problem is this, the solder that holds the gpu to the motherboard breaks off vuz microsoft uses very cheap solder so thats why u get the 3 red lights thats why the towel trick melts the solder again and makes the gpu stick to the motherboard so thats why u get the 3 red lights damn rip off artists MICROSOFT NEEDS TO USE BETTER SOLDER!!!