Microsoft fixing Xbox 360 smoking wheels

Interesting that this thing gets the full recall treatment considering I've never heard of anything being wrong with them. Probably because smoking is a bit worse than just some red rings.

WTF is wrong with MS! seriously? original xbox consoles burning houses down, 360s RRoDing left and right, disc scratches, cheaply made parts/accessories malfunctioning ("oh snap, my headset snapped!"), and now the Racing Wheel of Death?

all this sh*t is making Windows XP's stability issues seem heavenly in comparison. and people say console gaming is more convenient than Vista gaming!

Well MS have officially outdone the PS2 in terms of quality.

This really pisses me off. I can't believe the crappy quality coming from MS. I've had two of their wheels on the PC and those were well built and I never had any problems with it. I also never had any issues with the original Xbox either and that was a launch system.

I've had my 360 replaced already and now I'm also going to have to have my wheel replaced as well WTF!!

I love my 360 and it gets used every day (games & media center + movies), but come on already. It's not like they can't afford to make quality products.

this is just a big mistake. the smoke and burning is for realism when you're pushing your car beyond it's limits. burn baby burn!

I am on the phone with them now on this, initially it was news to her ( the customer service rep) but after a little searching she found notes for her on it. Yeah Microsoft get your hardware people up to the task. This is embarrasing to you and more importantly unnecessarily annoying and inconvienant to us.

Yeah I'm not one to troll or anything but the truth is it is things like this that have kept me from buying a 360. MS really needs to get their act togther with their hardware people.

Like the post said although owners of the system are enjoying it for the games, things like this really hurts public opinion and while that may not have the biggest impact right now, it will certainly be in people's minds come the release of the next system. If its reliability isn't marketed people might hold off from purchasing the product early on just to make sure the bugs are worked out.

I've never seen any overheating or smoking from the Steering Wheel. I also sure as heck didn't hear about this as often as the RRoD. Who do we have to contact to get the new AC/DC adapter just to be safe?

I think this is overblown.

This is actually a new feature. When you do burnouts smoke comes out of the wheel. Way to go, super realistic gaming. Now go burn some rubber.

China makes quality products, such as toys, dog food and XBOX 360 hardware.

Seriously folks, what is going on over at Microsoft hardware?

Finally done, they gave me this website.
http://www.xbox.com/NR/rdonlyres/4C5B5CE6-3081-4CB4-B263-2FDB794D0B34/0/wheelcontrollerfulfillment.pdf

Shamefull in my opinion. Shameful.
They say just use the battery.

*sigh* I wonder what's next for Microsoft.... Controllers exploding?

This feature has been added for extra realism during the bike races in PGR4.

You want proof?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fHlqcs4o38

Microsoft/Xbox should thank the lucky stars for Xbox Live/Halo/Gears, cuz without that, the 360 would've failed. I never would've thought that a shotty console like the 360 continues to survive, and now first party accessories smoking?!?! Deep pockets or not, this can't go on ANY longer. Sega please come back to the hardware biz, I rather have you guys than Micro$oft any day.

We apologise again for the fault in the racing wheel. Those responsible for sacking the people who have just been sacked, have been sacked.

Another wonderful product!!

I don't care what U say...360 RULZ.

I've sent mine back 4 times, but I still don't carez. So wut!!!

Microsoft still ROOLZ and you dorks don't know wut the hell UR talking bout.

GOWBIOSHOCKGOWBIOSHOCKGOWBIOSHOCKGOWBIOSHOCKGOWBIOSHOCKGOWBIOSHOCK

Come on guys, as you can see from this pic, Microsoft's Head of Hardware Division is really doing his best. Give the guy a break will ya:

http://wii.advancedmn.com/images/content/misc/monkey_office_man.jpg

So this is the part where the people who don't have one, or the issues, act like its a big deal and babies are dying, the world is crumbling, and their gf left them because of it. Relax.

My wheel is doing just fine, and if they are fixing the issue in broken ones then it doesn't warrant another bitch session by the nonowner elite that are fanboys.

This is a shame, really: Microsoft's input devices are usually quite solid--just take a look at their PC peripherals.

If the RRoD thing hadn't happened, this wouldn't be viewed as such a problem. Microsoft fixes wheels, the (probably few) people who shelled out for them get them replaced, everyone's okay. But with the RRoD, Microsoft really couldn't afford to have another hardware issue, and here it is. I'm not saying it's going to cause a catastrophic drop in sales, but these things do pile up on the potential consumer's mind.

All this news makes me feel incredibly lucky that my launch day 360 is still kicking. Then again, the RRoD rate is still probably less than 50%, it's just high enough and problematic enough to warrant high media attention.

i hope MS gets sued now, this is out of control

"In all seriousness, Microsoft needs to publicly flog their hardware people." This is the funnies statement I have read in a long time. I read gamer blogs all the time and I have my own. therunningriot.com

I just wanted to say that. But it is true. Enough already. I love the 360 and it is great that Microsoft is standing up and fixing without having the consumer pay but some quality control would be a little more convenient here.

Should be sued for what exactly? I don't see any liability here. They are fizing the products. Some of us went through law school already and dont jump on the sue wagon for every one of life's inconveniences.

I understand that Borland, but we dont know the nature of the problem yet.

I have all three systems of this generation - and none have failed. So I fail to get all excited or to jump down MS' throat right now.

Its not defensiveness here, its that I get annoyed with people all screaming like the defect is hurting them when they don't even own the product - yeah, its the internet and that happens, doesn't mean I have to enjoy it.

I have one of the very first ones, and I used it a lot in Forza 2 and never saw any problem like this. I am now somewhat nervous that I left it plugged in for a month straight, even when I left the house.

The wheel is a turd anyway. Locking out all other wheels gave them the opportunity to sell us a crappy one at a high price and they took full advantage of it. As pointed out above, MS themselves did far better with previous wheels.

More here:
http://mrtheawesome.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=8306241&publicUserId=5710934

MS, please reconsider your peripherals strategy. Every time you release a poor quality peripheral like the wireless headset or the wireless racing wheel, you make short term money but you disappoint your customers in the long term.

Oh great. More fuel to the fire for fans that love PS3 and that will boast it's quality. In any case... WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING MICROSOFT?!?! They should fire all personel in charge of QUALITY CONTROL. This is ridiculous. I'm a huge fan of the 360 and it's services, but if this HARDWARE QUALITY becomes a consistent issue, so much for making money in their GAMES division. Geez!!!

I didnt know Racing Wheels could go RRoD too,Now that is innovation,take that Nintendo.

Hey how come nobody there has covered the VGChartz announcement that Wii has now outsold 360 worldwide? Just surprised, is all.

FLOG EM! FLOG EM! FLOG EM!

"Hey how come nobody there has covered the VGChartz announcement that Wii has now outsold 360 worldwide?"

Maybe because VGChartz is hardly a reputable source? They pull their numbers out of their ass.

They're probably close on that one, but to say an "announcement" from them about this means anything is not really the case. Anybody can make an "announcement" about anything. When we get some official numbers, then it'll be worth reporting.

Wow,guess MS was trying too hard on auto realism,lol.

"All this news makes me feel incredibly lucky that my launch day 360 is still kicking. Then again, the RRoD rate is still probably less than 50%, it's just high enough and problematic enough to warrant high media attention."

Exactly what sort of failure rate to you find acceptable? Because half are still great, it's not bad? Even a 10% failure rate in such a product is absurdly high and about five or ten times higher than it should be.

As for ElmersGlue... I don't think you understand the point of a product recall. If they recall cars because they migh thave an exploding gas tank, you don't say "well, mine hasn't exploded and killed me yet, so I'm okay".

Considering this is Microsoft, "king of quality", why is anyone surprised?

I suspect that in the not so distant future, the 360 will be a business school case study on how a company can quickly destroy it's reputation with cheaply made equipment and rushed to market designs.

Well,

I just got a call from MS support on this stupid steering wheel. I saw the thing about the retrofit kit and called because I have 2 small kids and didn't need a fire on my hands. So the guy basically calls me at 8 pm to tell me that when there is a retrofit kit available I will receive one. I told him that was not acceptable and wanted a supervisor. I get this lady "Marie" who basically didn't want to hear it.

Basically, I wanted a new working wheel, or I wanted my money back. I told her that these things should be recalled and I had already sent my 360 to get fixed and I got hung up on for my troubles. I will admit, I got a little heated, they called me from India at 8pm and woke my kids up. I told her I have a case number would post this all over the net so nobody gets hurt by this thing.

I think its terrible that they wont issue a recall, this retrofit is a lie. I asked her to send me a picture of it if it exists and she said she couldn't do that. Basically, don't use that force feed back until they fix this thing. I did ask her If I bought a new wheel from the store If it would have the same problem and she hung up on me.

Unreal how they treat people, I bought a $400 system and that didn't work now a $150 wheel and that doesn't work either.