News Specialist refuses to repair 360s

O RLY?

 

Errr...PS1 and PS2 disc drives?

 

That's not quite the same thing

with the PS1/PS2 the lasers wore out rather quickly, everything else was still fine, but the lasers wore out
And tbh, the lasers wont last forever anyway, but i agree that on the PS1/PS2 the lasers didn't last as long as you would want

 

Also, the first Playstation console was still using a somewhat new optical technology (compact disc).

Heat, isn't a new issue; Megasoft screwed up big time.

 

Oh yeah and fixing a PS1/PS2 laser is like £10 parts + labour (and its easy enough for you to do yourself), the 360's seem irreplaceable (or at least the whole motherboard needs replacing) so your talking about at least £100 if not a new console altogether

 

I used to work in a shop that repaired PC's as well as consoles. I think I've actually mentioned this issue before. While on the phone with MS tech support, a manager once said the failure rate was 4%. It's more. Sadly, even if it wasn't, thats pretty high. The last few months I worked there (that's a story in itself....lawsuits are fun....) I spent most of my time doing 360 repairs. The store itself used two 360's for business. In there end, there was a 100% failure rate across five consoles.

Best way to take care of a 360s is to keep it horizontal and in a completely open area. Preferably with air-con. If the warranty is void (and most probably are.... 90 days my @$%), a simple and cost-effective preventative measure is to pull the fans off the fan controller and splice them into the 12v for the DVD-ROM. They are loud at full speed but move enough air to keep the console alive. If the fan controller can somehow be software controlled, a simple live update would probably save thousands of consoles. I did a simple test once. I took Gears of War and put it in a console that I rigged with a multimeter and a temperature probe. I set the game up in a loop by putting a spring between the joysticks so the dude would run around in circles. Not the most intense thing but it did the job. The temperature of the heatsink rose pretty fast, as expected. On the other hand, the fans didn't change much at all. The max I remember seeing was around 6 volts. The console was getting to an extremely high temp and yet the fans where throttled back. I wish I still had my data but it was in a spreadsheet on a USB drive that was stolen. Still, its a repeatable test for someone with a console.

I've told lots of people about the issues. The response I most commonly get is "My console is fine and nobody I know has a broken console." And thats all well and good. The problem is not in the majority. However, to quote my own response to a statement similar to the one I exampled, "Most don't go bad but there is enough of the ones that do for a little bit of fuss." The failure rate is just too high to be not be cause for concern. When pictures surfaced recently of new and repaired 360's being shipped with a new heatsink and heat pipe assembly, I saw that as unofficial acknowledgment. I don't have a major in thermal properties. I don't pretend to know about the cost/design aspects of a product like this. But I do know the heatsink sucks. Compounding the problem is that the fans don't. There is plenty of room inside the 360 for better cooling and even additional fans. Even the new heatsink seems like more of a band-aid with weakened adhesive than a real solution.

Good luck, 360 owners.

 

Sony had a lot of issues before they released the PS3... but except for a possible few minor quirks, the thing runs fine.

Microsoft however, felt they had to move quick, and move cheap. They were making a loss on each XBOX360, and want to see a profit as soon as possible.... which is fine of course. But not at the cost of the consumers.

Somehow these last 2 years, Microsoft have given people the impression that they'll do anything for money:
- Vista: problems with drivers, taking out the important features like WinFS, 1.000.000 times pressing "Allow" before opening a textdocument.
- 360: Heatingproblems, scratched DVD's, Heatsinkproblems, loudness, various softwareproblems.

They said they learned from the mistakes with the first XBOX, but I really doubt it at this point in time.

 

flabber: driver problems are not Microsofts fault. Microsoft do not make drivers, manufacturers make drivers.

 

most consoles (especially when released) are usually partially subsidised by the maker, the same thing happened with the PS2/PS3 and the Xbox and 360, i think the Wii and the GC are too as well

because they all know, if they shave £100 off or something, they are going to sell more, and by charging £10 extra on each game, they will make their money back soon enough

 

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The ps3 has had one major flaw before it's launch. It's $600!!!!

 

its also a significantly more powerful console, infact, considering the F@H scores it may well beat a high end PC aswell

 

Rings Of Death!!!

Just had my first 360 red ring, oddly it kinda still works, not reading from memory card anymore not even seeing one in either slot seems to be the problem so far, that and the fact that the controllers do not connect upon boot up every time which means reset has to be done....

The red ring was lit in all but the top right corner of the ring, and was continually flashing, the console seemed as if it was off, no fans were spinning, and the green power symbol was still lit in constant green....