Microsoft fixing Xbox 360 smoking wheels


In all seriousness, Microsoft needs to publicly flog their hardware people. Microsoft now reports that they'll be offering a service to retrofit their official Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel following reports that the thing overheats and releases smoke. Unlike their refusal to say what's really wrong with the Xbox 360, Microsoft admits that a component in the wheel overheats when the AC/DC power adapter is used to power the wheel. Microsoft says you should contact them for the retrofit and not use the power adapter, but it's fine to just use the battery. They have also notified the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, no word yet on Microsoft Europe's plan.

"There have been no reported incidences of fire, personal injury or property damage resulting from the component failure in the wheel," Microsoft said in a statement. That's great, but it's definitely looking like the next iteration of the Xbox is going to have to scream engineering perfection for the sake of consumer confidence. Not only are the consoles going RRoD left and right, but now official peripherals are smoking. The next generation of Xbox is going to have to sell reliability above all else.

Tags: fire, fix, microsoftwheel, peripherals, smoke

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Joystiq Features





Featured Galleries (view all)

Trauma Team (2/10)
Ancients of Ooga (XBLA)
Need for Speed: Shift Ferrari Racing Pack
Rocket Knight character art
Calling (2.8.2010)
Age of Zombies (PSP and PS3 Minis)
Blaster Master: Overdrive (WiiWare)
Supreme Commander 2
Metro 2033 (02-04-10)

Team Joystiq

Chris Grant

Editor-in-Chief

RSS Feed

James Ransom-Wiley

Managing Editor

RSS Feed

Ludwig Kietzmann

Senior Editor

RSS Feed

Andrew Yoon

East Coast Editor

RSS Feed

Randy Nelson

West Coast Editor

RSS Feed

Justin McElroy

Reviews Editor

RSS Feed

Alexander Sliwinski

Contributing Editor

RSS Feed

Ben Gilbert

Contributing Editor

RSS Feed

David Hinkle

Contributing Editor

RSS Feed

Griffin McElroy

Contributing Editor

RSS Feed

JC Fletcher

Contributing Editor

RSS Feed

Kevin Kelly

Contributing Editor

RSS Feed

Mike Schramm

Contributing Editor

RSS Feed

Richard Mitchell

Contributing Editor

RSS Feed

Xav De Matos

Contributing Editor

RSS Feed

About Joystiq

Joystiq Podcast

New episodes every Friday! Now playing: Joystiq Podcast 125, for Friday, Jan., 29.



Archive | RSS | iTunes