Xbox 360's Red Ring of Death visits Weekly Geek Show

I think many of these comments are genuine, however I think Sony PS3 idiots are doing what they do best; Starting bullshit propaganda about the 360 since they get their ass kicked in reality in head to head tests. Well I went thru 8 PS2's and have been thru 3 PS3's already so eat that!

Wow, there is a ridiculous amount of comments about this. Thanks for the support guys, Caspian is quite upset as I am sure all of you who have had the ring of death are as well.

The fact of the matter is that the 360 is an EXCELLENT console. The games and capabilities are top notch and I would recommend it to anyone. Unfortunately it has some horrible hardware problems that Microsoft just plain needs to suck up and address. They need to send everyone with broken units new ones along with some sort of compensation - at the very least a free XBLA game or something.

The main issue is that there's no way to prevent this. If it was obviously caused by a lack of care for your system, then maybe the user would be at fault. Even if it was just because you set it on carpet or something, that is NORMAL USE. The console should be able to stand up to the normal wear and tear of a console. Microsoft needs to look at Nintendo's hardware. Remember that letter someone wrote to nintendo power about how they had their gameboy lost in the snow for a whole winter, and when the snow thawed the gameboy still worked? I want THAT kind of resiliance for my consoles. At least that much effort into making it resiliant.

I was on my way to the mall earlier today and right before I get there I ran into a traffic light; it just stood there blinking red. It's amazing how seeing a red blinking light now correlates to broken xbox 360's. I visited Best Buy and Circuit City and kindly let them know about this joystiq blog post. They said that throughout the holidays and even now that they have replaced more xbox 360 consoles with the best buy and circuit city warranties and that Microsoft counts these as NEW SALES OF XBOX 360'S. I couldn't believe my ears!!!!!!

I am such a idiot. Dur dur dur, i was lying about everything. I really love my Wii.

I feel alotta of these people are sony fanboys.Why do you ask let me explain.When someone buys a console they dont call it a piece of shit unless there a fan of another console.I have had 5 360's all of em work 2 at my vacation home and 1 at my exwifes house and 2 here in my home all work and i have had 2 since launch no problems at all.Now thats 5 units and i hear people saying there on there fourth.First of all nobody after there second fucked console would purchase another so i know thats a line of shit they wouldnt even fix it.Fanboys get the fuq out of here please you arent convincing anyone that sony is better hows this for you buddy.I bought the ps3 and it froze on me and doesnt work anymore.And thats the truth microsoft makes quality end of story and for the people that are seriouse what the fuck are you doing kicking your consoles downt he stairs.

Whoops,i forgot to add, i am a huge Microsoft fanboy,so i shouldn't be posting.Stupid Sony fans,get off here!I hate it when people tell the truth about the 360,

I just don't get it, I really don't, I mean come on there is a huge number of failed 360 consoles and somehow fanboys still thank its the best thing since slice bread.....I personally know a friend who had to have his 360 repaired...but these are the same people that would swear that microsoft is looking out for the little guy......360 fanboys= "I think most of these claims are from sony fanboys trying to make the 360 look bad" LOL yeah so 360 fanboy haven't spent half their lives bashing the ps3 into oblivion..oh the irony...here's a tip ps3 fanboys rarely talk about the 360 unless it directly relates to the ps3..but somehow the 360 fanboys seem more intrested in the ps3 then the ps3 fanboys themselves..I am willing to wager any amount that if this was a ps3 "red rings of death" rabib 360 fanboys would blow the issue into "sony is doom" and "ps3 sucks".....but it seems as if the issue seems to continue to be ignored....18 months after the 360 was released, we shouldn't be still hearing about this but we do and only a true xbots would put their fingers in thier ears and ingnore it

I'm a gaming fan, first and foremost, so I am not a MS or Sony fanboy!
I've been through 4 360's since the launch. My last one died Nov'06, it was just a month old actualy! MS in all 4 instances had accused me of damaging the consoles! After the #4, I just wanted my money back, MS refused, I had to threaten legal action & a report to the better buisness bureau before I got my money back.
After my 4th 360 died, I decided that I would dish out the big bucks to Sony for the PS3. I have not had one problem at all, no freezes, no shut downs, and to top it off it doesn't sound like a jetliner either! My only complaint is the lack of games, wich is getting better, since its in a launch cycle still.
And to top it off, I don't have to pay for online either, a definate bonus!

My question to joystiq is this! Those 10 million units MS claims to have sold, how many are refurbished machines being sent out to replace broken machines?

I don't trust MS anymore, their failure rate is far greater than 3%, so how can we trust, their sales numbers either? I don't even trust that there are 6 million Live users! MS I think is playing the "bogus" game!

I won't touch the 360 with a barge pole until stories like this calm down..a LOT. My friend has had one fail too, so these 'anecdotes' bother me much MUCH more than if he hadn't.

Who'se surprised? Not me. These things are about as reliable as a soviet motorcycle. X360 is a piece of sh!t, their fale rates, lack of built in HIGH CAPACITY drives, lack of built in wifi/bluetooth - So glad I went with the PS3.

Okay Alexander Sliwinski we get it. Took a few articles, but we get it. You love to write negative sensualist pieces about the 360 and MS. You love to add flame to the fire. You hate them, you're possibly a Sony or Nintendo Fanboy and you may be a tool. Got it loud and clear.

i like who people are shocked that a thread about failed boxes actually has people complaining about their failed boxes. wow, so if you use this one thread to judge the entire value of the console you must be a seriously shallow person.

even if every single comment on this thread actually did have a failed console, that would still be nothing extraordinary.

for everyone one person that is pissed at MS over this issue there are 10 people who are perfectly happy with with their systems.

just give it a rest. if you don't like your service or your system or whatever, you have two choices. you can go save some money and buy a underpowered Wii with crappy games, or you can bust the bank and buy an overpriced system that has a good Blur-Ray player but not many games at the moment. it's up to you. take it or leave it. 360 is the best in my opinion and regardless of what happens, i'll stick with it.

Hilarious, many of my friends have an Xbox 360 and they've all had problems with it. The only problem that has plagued my friends that own a Wii is the weak cords that make controllers fly. None of my PS3 owning friends has had problems with it.

On my personal experience, I haven't had a problem with PS3. 360 on the other hand, has crapped out twice. But that's not the worst part; they made me pay for the shippment of failed HDDs. That is, the one that came with my box failed, and the second one they sent failed too. I had to pay shipping for both. The shit box also scratched my copy of GRAW, so Microsoft heard my story about the piss poor quality of the system, and after half an hour of arguing, they agreed to send me a copy of a 20 dollar worth(less) game PGR3, which sucks anyway.

Xbox fan:

The only dipshit, retard, mentally challenged person in this thread is you.

Oh wait... that's only true if you qualify as a person, but you more likely qualify as a turd (but don't worry, a polished turd nonetheless; one that came out of Bill Gates' ass).

My first XBox lasted eleven months. I sent that one in and received a different XBox back. I didn't purchase a warranty when I purchased the first box and the repair was free. The second one last two and a half months. I called the repair center and they wanted me to pay the $139 for repair. I got them down to 75% off and went ahead and paid that fee. I am a member of a forum and the "death rate" of the 360s there is quite high. I think it is ridiculous to have to pay for repair when it is obvious they are selling faulty products. I received the same box back on my second repair. The customer service reps were horrible. I was hung up on, then when I called back a few days later, the rep didn't seem to know what she was doing. She told me one thing then would put me on hold and come back and tell me something else. They wouldn't provide a return box is what she told me, then told me they would, then told me they wouldn't. I ended up sending it in the repair box they had sent before. I now know why it is called a 360. It is the never ending circle from my home to repair, home to repair.

I sent my 360 in for repair last tuesday and got it back today. Actually I was kinda surprised it came back so soon(10 days). first thing I noticed was the poor way it came boxed. it was not in the so called coffin box that people call it. it was in a larger box with very loose foam. After I opened it the first thing I noticed was a scuff mark on the faceplate and like glue from a sticker also on the faceplate. I proceded to turn it over and dust was falling out of it, yeah dust can you beleive it. I took tons of photos of this. looking through the ventilation holes all you can see is the fans covered with dust. Are they even checking these things? whats the deal? yeah I'm a microsoft fan but this is insane. I posted some pictures on my web page. people even if your xbox360 is running perfect you should still be concerned because this can happen to you also. any ideas what I should do next besides calling them back? actually I'm kinda concerned that if I plug it in it can catch fire from all the dust. anyway here's some photo's of this piece of crap.



http://spanishflybob.spaces.live.com/

If you think Microsoft isn't nickel-and-diming you, you need to take a look around.

$140 to repair a defective console
MS Points have some crazy conversion rate that FUDs the consumer
WiFi costs $100
Live costs $50 / year

All of these could be fixed if Microsoft cared. But, alas.

My June 2006 xbox died in january of 2007, sent it in.... They sent me one back and said on the letter that it was a brand new one for my convenience BUT it is the same one that I marked before i sent it with pen, and it has the same serial number. Now I am getting the E74 error and will soon need to send my box away a-friggin-gain.
PS I have almost 10,000 gamerscore.... Tekkitakkitorri

Yeah Caspian at the weekly geek is my big brother and about a month in a half before his 360 took a crap my 360 saw the ring of death, and im not happy at all about it, i want microsoft to do a recal on all the crappy systems.

"3. Seems to be the most faulty console ever."

That would be the playstation 1. It had a failure rate due to heat that broke almost 50 percent of console in it's first year.

That's 50 percent.

I was thinking all the red ringers must've been treating their consoles poorly. I mean, it must have been since I had my console since launch and hadn't had any problems. Then, in mid March (obviously after the extended warranty ended), mine got the red rings for one afternoon when the console had been fine just that same morning. Now I'm out $139 + shipping to MSFT. My only question, how many PS2s or orig Xboxes has this happened to? Surely not as many as for the 360?

Come on Microsoft! This many comments in less than 24 hours... This should be a huge issue! Lets see how big we can make this list!! I bet we could reach over 1000 comments!

@ bootsielon

"The only dipshit, retard, mentally challenged person in this thread is you.

Oh wait... that's only true if you qualify as a person, but you more likely qualify as a turd (but don't worry, a polished turd nonetheless; one that came out of Bill Gates' ass)."

Wow, did you think of that all by yourself or did mommy help you? Poop jokes, that's great. You must have just got off the bus with your other grade school thread buddies.

Let's all just post meaningless comments all day long and call each other names as though we're in the 1st grade again shall we. Grow the f-ck up. Seriously dude, what f-cking grade are you in? I came here posting my opinion on a topic til you Three Stooges (Bootsielon, Sheppy, And Samfish) ... bed buddies, pen pals, whatever you are to each other... long lost lovers.. had to chime in and start the name calling.

This may be a total shock to all 3 of you as-holes but your opinions on these thread don't make the world go around nor does anyone EVER have to agree with you. Who the f-ck are you to tell someone what they should think or not, just because you hate Microsoft and spend long nights lubing up your PS3 with KY jelly?

Does coming here and trashing others make you feel better in your pathetic little existence?? This isn't the first time I've read your pointless and obviously biased crap.

Now I want you to take a magnifying glass or do whatever you have to in order to find what others have.. a brain.. and comprehend what I've already told your toddler playmates. Put it to rest already. What the f-ck is your point? If your lonely and want to feel important, then save your FINGERS for your late night activities you do with youself and quit wasting other people's time.

Stick with the posts. If you write a response to me again, it will not be read so don't even bother. I'm going to come in here and post my opinions. If you don't agree, you don't have to, but there is not a God Damn thing you can do about it. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Grow up. That goes for all 3 of you. Wow, name calling and poop jokes. That's totally original let me tell you.

just wondering how many of you are 2 for 2 with xbox products:

1. original xbox - dirty disc error (thomson dvd drive)
2. xbox 360 - rrod, 3rl, whatever you wanna call it

360 is designed for short term period, they will release another limited edition machine ~ probably every year... they don't enough thinking when releasing the console...
M$ is not just bad with Windows, but now with console~

170. just wondering how many of you are 2 for 2 with xbox products:

1. original xbox - dirty disc error (thomson dvd drive)
2. xbox 360 - rrod, 3rl, whatever you wanna call it

Posted at 2:27AM on Mar 26th 2007 by sp


Im in the exact same boat.

I think there has to be some sort of major problem Microsoft isn't willing to acknowledge.

My 360 had the red ring of death just before Christmas, my brothers just this weekend.

Now someone who knows stats tell me what are the odds of two 360's in the same house, bought two months apart, failing are?

When the "official" percentage is 3%, I'm guessing it is much much higher than that.

Maybe there should be a survey here at Joystiq to check it out?

I am also on console #4 since Dec. '05 and fully expect I will be on #5 in a few months. I really had hoped MS had this issue taken care of but I guess not.

I am on my 3rd. The failure rate is very high among my xbox live friends list. 33 out of 78 have had their 360's fail. Many of those 32 had repeated failures.

I just don't understand why Microsoft is refusing the address this system's hardware problems. It would have to be cheaper to fix the design than to pay for the shipping and replacing the system. A year long warrenty means they'll probably replace it at least twice.

I only know 1 person with a 360 (Not a knock against the XBOX brand it's just that I don't know all that many people who play videogames) and he told me that his was working fine. Then about 2 weeks ago he said he had to send it in for repair. Fortunately it was still under warrenty, but the UPS guy (I think it was UPS) said that he's seen many of these going back. I guess he recognized the address.

FYI: I've had to return my Wii twice due to the random bad pixel problem.

I'm on my second one.

That said, the replacement process was very easy and pretty fast. And I got to take a three week break from gaming, which was a nice change.

I got my 360 launch day and it's never crashed.

I think even with the many, many comments online, it's still a fairly low percentage that are failing. They've sold millions of units and there's no way 25% have failed.

What's not helping is that they do bad repair jobs and send you the same system back, which then breaks again. They should just bitethe bullet and give you a new 360.

I have had a 360 for almost a year now, and it is still running fine. I picked up the cooling fan attachment back in May. It sounds like I have a jet engine strapped to the back on my 360 but I have had no problems with my system overheating or any ring of death.

I have PS3 and 360 and the PS3 is rock solid. Not once have I had it freeze on me or anything. The only problem I've noticed is the Bluetooth controller losing its connection, but that rarely happens. My 360, on the other hand, is currently in McAllen, TX getting fixed. I thought the ring of death was a myth or a legend...something that occurs very rarely...but believe me, it happens. I don't even play it that much, really. Oh well, Resistance will keep me occupied until my 360 is back home.

Many have made the point that Microsoft's claim of a 2-3% failure rate is plausible because that would be around 300,000 users and they could make a lot of noise on the web. Combine that with the fact that owners of defective products make more noise than those with working systems and you have the reason for the 360's poor reputation on the web.

This is an incorrect line of thinking.

First off, gaming consoles are one of the few product where its owners gather on certain websites to post comments about that product. Have a defective Kitchen Aid blender and you might vent about it online, but have a working one and you aren't going to go to www.kitchenaidfan.com to talk about upcoming news with blending. Video game consoles are different. Their owners go online and chat about their console and the industry. This would make it very difficult for owners of defective 360s to drown out those with working 360s if the defective owners are such a small portion of owners.

Second, the 360 is not the only product to sell over 11 million units so shouldn't everything with sales that high have a bad reputation? Even if we compare apples to apples (video game systems), shouldn't the Nintendo DS have a horrible worse than the 360? Not only is this not the case, the little system has a very good reputation of quality. The 360 quickly earned its reputation for hardware failures, yet the PS3 and Wii (even with its random dot problem) combined haven't come close to matching the bad comments that the 360 racked up within 4 months of its release.


I'd like to have a 360 because I've heard good things about many of its games, but there's just no way in hell I'm going to buy one until the 360 has a proven track record of reliability. This mysterious "Elite" is the first sign that Microsoft may have finally fixed this problem.

I purchased a launch 360 and it died in early February, just a month out of the extended warranty. It's a great system with some excellent featuers and games, but the customer service aspect of it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. ($139 repair fee.. It's practically a punishment for being an early adopter.) I've filed a BBB complaint and have pre-signed up on one of the class action lawsuits that are starting up. It seems that I have to go that route to have Microsoft pay for the shoddy manufacturing processes used on the launch versions.

Great games, great onlnie features, horrible customer service. Sounds just like Microsoft..

I am getting sick of these RED RING OF DEATH Articles......1/2 the comments are Sony Fanboys, and the other 1/2 are the small percentage of 360 owners that have had problems.

I have 4 360s....all from 1st and 2nd shipments.....I have 20 friends with Launch units.....

None of us have had any problems....But even if we did have any problems we were smart enough to get the 3-4 Best Buy PRP, buy the 2 year Extended Warranty (IN THE BOX) or buy with a credit card (doubles your warranty).

The complainers out there seem to think that Early Adopters aren't taking a risk when you are buying new technology.

There is always a percentage of failure rate....nothing is 100%. (See PS1, PS2 for prime examples of that)

Quit your whining and be smarter next time on 1st Gen Hardware.....DUH

why do certain posters get mad at the people who are complaining about their problem? and i don't mean the hardware failure is the biggest problem. i mean the way m$ is treating them is a problem. they charge you $140 to repair a problem that is prevalent at worst, they seem to arbitrarily decide who does and doesn't have to pay for shipping or even the full repair amount (and then act like they're doing you a favor), and they ship them crap units in return thereby limiting their chances of having the same problem fixed for the same failure on the same hardware under the same terms it was originally repaired. and i love how some people have x number of friends who have all had problems and others have even more friends who have never had a problem. as usual, the truth probably lies somewhere in betweeen. everybody knows somebody who knows somebody who's been affected. like an earlier poster said, come back from the dark side and get back on the side you started on, the consumer's.

This article was posted the same day that I experienced my red ring of death. And now the xbox website is down for "maintenance". Coincidence? Or a worldwide epidemic is underway. Perhaps they just somehow know that I just started an xbox live gold membership, bought an extra controller and headset, and signed up for gamefly. Might be time to just cash in the chips and get a PS3 if they don't treat me well. At least then I'll have a Blue Ray player.

I don't understand all these people claiming that this is the worst system built so far. I own the following systems: NES, SNES, Genesis, CDX, Nomad, TurboGrafx, PS1, Nintendo 64, PS2, Gamecube, DS, PSP, Dreamcast, Wii, Xbox & 360.

I am on my third PS1, and my second PS2, which is on about to crap out on me, and my second Dreamcast. My Nomad and PSP lock up from time to time, however all my other systems work just fine. From my own experiences, it seems like Sony has the worst built systems.

I bought my 360 in January 2007 "premium" package with wireless and 20gb hard drive. 3 months later the hard drive died. We sent the HD back and received a USED HD that was packaged in a USPS priority mail box and only protected with a half a sheet of bubble wrap!! Needless to say the dang thing didn't work. I just got off of the phone with some chick in the PHILLIPEANS, (GRRRRR) who tried to tell me it would be another two weeks for them to get me another NEW hard drive. I refused to accept that for an answer!! After about 2 hours... I'm getting one sent Next day.

Issues:

1. Made in Asia, means (crap!)
2. Call center in Asia (Crap!!)
3. Poor customer service (CRAP!!)

No more! From now on if I call customer service and it is outside the USA. I'll not buy what they are selling. PERIOD. I've already started doing this. I pulled all my investments from Fidelity for this reason.

I chose Gateway because call centers and techs are in the USA. Now I hear that Micron (Crucial) is building a plant in China.... which will eventually mean the plant in BOISE will be shut down and jobs shipped over seas.

Listen UP Corporate America... We're tired of it.

I bought my 360 in nov 06 and my friend his in december 06 his bricked in jan 06 and they gave him a new unit mine bricked just last week may 07 and so has his replacement system. 6 months is not a long time for a consoles lifespan especially since the cost is so high. I am disapointed with the console for sure and I am not really sure I want to keep sending the system back for repairs. Mass effect will be cool but I doubt I will be playing it on the 360, maybe the pc :/

I don't have a xBox 360, but I do have a lauch PS2 that has worked great all these years without any problems what so ever.

I have wrestled with the idea of buying a 360, some of the exclusive titles are really compelling. I play FFXI and 2 360 users in one of my LSs were on 360 and got the red rings and took quite a while before they were back up and running.

yeah i had one that my brother gave to me and then it had the RROD and i took it back and got it replaced and then two months later it broke down on me again. And they want me to pay like 50 bucks for another warrenty. Money that i don't have to be spending.

Too all the eople who are saying shut up unless you can show its newer units giving the 3 red rings duhhh just look at the picture at the head of this forum its an elite unit i would say thats preaty new wouldnt you and by way i have had two 360s go down after they did the spring update so i have to say there is some connection not to mention all this 3 ring stuff didnt start back up again till after everyone consoles did the spring update

My 360 died yesterday. Manufacture date 2006-01-10, purchased 2006-03-23 (Australian launch). Now M$ reckons I have to spend $200+ P&H for them to repair/replace it. I've got about $1,500 woth of games and accessories for the 360, so (a) I pay the $200, or (b) everything else becomes worthless. They say the PS3 is expensive, not when you factor in $200 every 14 months for repairs. I love my (working) 360. Just wished it never went away!!

Mine died this week 3 months outside of one year warranty - three rings. I'm only paying the $140 repair cost so I can sell it and get a ps3. Already have games on ebay.

$300 for a console that only lasts just over a year and has been freezing up? Not my idea of gaming fun. I go to Bill's competor SONY and the reliable PS3 (which I have owned a previous PS2). I want gaming fun, not freezing up games and the dreaded red three rings of death (on a hardware failure) for and additionl $140 to fix.

To Ill trooper.

I don't normally respond to old topics however I've been searching the net for some info on using a power conditioner / surge protector all day.

The links you've posted above to support your view on using a surge protector are completley misleading.

On none of those links do they recommend not using one.

Quote;

From the official microsoft site;

"Do not overload your wall outlet, extension cord, power strip, or other electrical receptacle. Confirm that they are rated to handle the total current (in amps [A]) drawn by the Xbox 360 console (indicated on the power supply unit) and any other devices that are on the same circuit."

From one of the other links you've provided;

"I don't see why a surge protector would damage your 360. The tech person may have been confused about your question or simply did not know the answer."

"I've had my 360's plugged into an APC surge for one year, the console has been on at least eight hours per day since launch, zero problems! And I'll tell you, I trust APC far further than I would trust customer service! Just my $.02"

-

I just wanted to add my name to the list of those who have had the rings of death. I guess I have been lucky as out of every console I have owned (SNES, PS1, N64, DC, GC and Wii) this is first one to fail. I love the 360, its the first time I have enjoyed true on line gaming and for now I dont see a compelling reason to buy a ps3. I had the 360 from launch (think it was around 2nd Dec 05 ??!) and it has just given up. I tried the towel trick but this only fixed the unit for an hour or so. Microsoft support have told me it is out of warrenty so I need to pay. Just a bit annoyed I have to pay and also go through the lengthy return process, especially as it seems to be a common issue inherent in the design.