Kotaku
Just to show I don't have knee-jerk Microsoft hate every time an Xbox crashes, here is an utterly retarded story that involves a bricked 360, fire, and Arkansas. Dangerous combination, in all.
We start with Carl Olson of Little Rock. I would call him a gamer but I'm not sure what game he was playing, as he tells us that his 360 had already gone into Rings O' Death mode. Maybe he was enjoying 30 seconds of startup screens, I don't know.
Anyway, instead of sending his bricked 360 in to be replaced, he left it plugged in, apparently. I thought the super-scorchy power supply issues were limited to the original Xbox only. But this guy's 360 power unit melted down and barbecued his house.
Now, I don't think anyone's home burning (to the tune of $10K in damage, insert joke about Arkansas property values here) is anything to treat flip. But the fire department called this guy out for not giving his console and the power supply enough space to dissipate heat. Add to that the fact that it was, by his own admission, smoked by RRoD and — still turned on? Can a power supply connected to a machine turned off still produce that much heat? I have no idea what to make of this.
Oh, and the Arkansas TV station reporting on this helpfully links to the original Xbox power supply recall of 2003. And we know he's playing a 360, not the original by the photos of his charred 360 titles. (Looks like MLB 2K6. So that's another $1.40 on top of the damages.)
Tons of sites are reporting this, Joystiq included, but my audit trail is below:
Gamers Beware: Xbox Could Be a Fire Hazard [KTHV Little Rock, via Kombo.com, via Newlaunches.com]
Comments
RRoD yes, burning house down? Nah.
That be your own fault, not the Xbawks'.
this is just stupid. he's simply trying to get attention. i bet he did it to collect insurance and i bet he's gonna sue microsoft now. what a tool
I'm already paranoid about frying the console, now I have to worry about frying the apartment?
Couldn't he have staged this and said the xbox crapped out and brunt his house down so he could get another console and alot of cash?
Burnin down the house! [Talkin Heads]
I don't think this is completely the xbox's fault, the guy must have done something retarted but why the need for a power brick in the first place, was it that hard to include it into the box itself?
@SigmundTheSeaMonster: beat me to it
I bet it was actually that he had a liquid cooled 360... filled with moonshine.
I can see this thread rapidly degenerating into flames. Certainly we should be careful with such a hot topic.
Does sound to me though that, if it is the the machine that burnt the house down, his incompetance is 99% to blame for it.
i would feel bad for him if he wasn't trying to get attention .-.
@ShaggE:
No no no no no. There's no need to get all freaked out about this story. Why? Because something fishy is going on. Who in their right mind would leave their RRO'D 360 on? Something just doesn't sound right. And the fact that the fire dept said that his console and the power supply did not have enough space to dissipate heat, kid must've had that shit crammed in his entertainment system I guess. No wonder why he got an RRO'D.
Some people just don't have any common sense. Take my ladies job for example. There's a computer box that's just for all of the video cameras in her store, well the manager came up to her and asked her to take a look at the box because it was making lots of noise. So she goes down to take a look, and of course ... the thing is crammed between a bunch of books magazines so the side vent holes are blocked ... and to make it even more funny, the top ventilation hole had a piece of paper taped to it that said "let's keep things nice and organized in here (or something like that)". So your normal person thinks that vents are nothing more than what racing stripes are to a car ... just for looks.
Hmm I think i;m gonna go ahead an unplug my X360 I haven't plaed in a few weeks now.
lol so he left the RROD on for who long before the power supply melted?
"The fire Marshall estimates more than $100,000 worth of property damage at the house that caught fire in Little Rock."
Perhaps? They updated the article? 10K seems a little low.
"Little Rock Fire Department Captain Jason Weaver says investigators traced the source to the power cord of an Xbox 360."
I guess it depends on which cord they mean. If its the AC line to the wall, then the adaptor is simply shorted somewhere. If its the DC line to the XBOX, then I guess flashing red rings takes a lot power.
@dead_red_eyes: I was being sarcastic. :P
This guy should take his complaints to The Consumerist as they're willing to believe anything as long as the villain is an evil company :|
I honestly don't know as I'm not a fire investigator and the truth usually comes out after one of those guys investigates more serious cases of arson; I'm not sure if all cases are investigated. I'm also saying this guy is probably functioning under the second definition of 'relative humidity" if he seriously thinks that he may gain something if the story is as he stated.
With all that, the guy could've burned his house with almost any other home appliance.
Starting with a toaster or maybe a microwave.
Also, let me guess. He stashed his X-Box 360 in a closed cabinet with booze and packs of cotton all together, right?
I wonder was the 360 wrapped in a towel when it caught fire and the guy doesn't want to admit it?
Wow. Go on and blame the victim.
"The piece of electronics equipment he bought was showing a red light. It was simply insanity that he didn't unplug it before his house burned down."
Its not exactly common sense to think that anything showing a red light immediately becomes a fire hazard or must be unplugged.
Hell, some people might even think, "It is showing red lights. I'll leave it on for a while and see if it goes away."
I'm sure that sounds stupid to someone who has been intimately following the 360 failures on Kotaku, but come on...
@ShaggE:
Just goes to show that you can't really convey sarcasm thru text, unless you use tags ...
[sarcasm] _________ [/sarcasm]
.... or you lay the sarcasm on nice and thick.
Maybe he was using the RRoD as a nightlight.
There's a lot of Arkansas hate in this post. Yes, this guy is an idiot but couldn't this happen anywhere? We're not all rednecks, ya know. Aside from that, I'm sure he thought maybe it'd fix itself if he left it on and then he'd be able to play some more Smackdown Vs. Raw.
This guy might be a doofus - I don't have the facts, but I will wonder if by 'leaving it on' he really meant just leaving it plugged in.
But barring some EXTREME misuse on the customers part, most electronics and appliances have to pass testing that basically says 'IF someone is dumb enough to not vent me properly, I won't set fire to everything he owns'
@dead_red_eyes: Yeah, it was a little vague. My communication skills seem to be in the shitter today.
Aww Arkansas hate :D It's funny to see this on here as I live in Arkansas. Jokes about our property value cute =), lets joke about your homeless editors?
@Gannoc:
Hmm... Well then, I guess I will go and stand in the street while the walk sign turns to green, figuring it will turn green again eventually anyways... There is a reason for a bold display of red light in both events, and one would think its common sense to get out of the road, turn the device off, stop, etc. They are nearly universal in meaning, red=bad/stop/no/etc.
Unless Arkansas has adopted a new color for that use..
@OrionnoirO:
*while the walk sign turns to red*
lmao
Ah now I get it, this is Microsoft's ultimate way of covering up the RROD problem. The console self-destructs after it RROD's. Cool.
@OrionnoirO:
You don't get it do you? He's not talking about red lights in the middle of the damn freeway, he's talking about a complicated high-end piece of electronics that poses a fire hazard.
There was an Xbox recall in 2003? I'm just learning of this.
@Piraat, Kid_Kitten: Jokes. They were jokes. If you don't have a sense of humor, shrug it off and move along.
How many people have done home fixes on RROD'ed consoles and continued using them? Is this suddenly a stupid idea because hindsight is 20/20? How many people have stupidly wrapped a bricked 360 in towels and turned it on? - now that IS dangerous!
Even in a failure state, a device should not burst into flames. This is extremely rare on the 360, but should probably get a lot of attention considering how the last generation was also known to ignite.
This is the Consumerist we're talking about? The same blog that aired the dust killed my PS3 story that turned out to be a hoax instigated by a Fox undercover reporter? That Consumerist?
@Edmon: Too... many... puns...
"insert joke about Arkansas property values here"
As an Arkansan, I am deeply offended, sir.
Deeply.
@OrionnoirO: Funny, about half the consumer electronics and appliances in my home have red lights to indicate that they're on or simply plugged in. (The other half either have no indications, or in the case of all of my computer hardware, have blue LEDs)
Also, most people are goddamned stupid idiots. Who's to say this guy knows a computer chip from a potato chip?
People still pound on TVs and stuff (Even computers sometimes...) as the first step in troubleshooting. I rule out NOTHING.
@Americo:
Cause I was totally being serious.
@fuchikoma: You are the winner at this point.
@Bakachan: Second place.
wow! this is insane... 360s are dangerous! I have been afraid of them ever since it chewed up my game!
I wonder if the actual outlet itself was what triggered it.
@AqueousBeef: "this is just stupid. he's simply trying to get attention. i bet he did it to collect insurance and i bet he's gonna sue microsoft now. what a tool"
Who on Earth has enough time to burn down a part of their house on the off chance they can collect, what, 10K?!
I don't think that makes much sense at all. Even if he DID collect that money, part of his house is still fucked up. He'd have to spend the money to rebuild the house anyway.
@katboi: "...why the need for a power brick in the first place, was it that hard to include it into the box itself?"
They probably didn't integrate the power supply in the 360's case because it was already having enough problems with its CPUs generating too much heat.
@OrionnoirO: "red=bad/stop/no/etc."
The PS2, PS3, Wii and NES all have red lights that don't mean bad things. There is no established legal standard as to what colours lights should be in given situations on electronic consumer goods. This argument is spurious.
Sorry to be late to the party on this, but what is this thing about wrapping your 360 in towels? Are these wet towels or some other desperate attempt to achieve cooling? That sounds like that Fail-Picture of the guy rinsing his CPU.
Lawsuit in t- 5...4...3...2...
First off it is a light that normally doesn't come on during normal usage and its not working properly then I wouldn't keep it on no matter what it is.
It just a lack of common sense like the people who complain that they always get the wrong order and think it is beneth them to check their orders before they leave the store.
What probally happen is the 360 was stuffed into a small area, the brick cloged up which caused the RRoD (there is some sort of cooling system in the brick and the breathing holes get clog easily. And it sounded like he left it on for an extended period of time where the heat built up and the brick melted and caused the fire.
I only quickly scanned the article since Person being an idiot causing injury and damage isn't really earth shattering news.
We had that huge storm here in Texas on April 17th and it did something to my 360. It will come on and boot to the dash but no light will ever show up on the console (no power, green ring) and you can plug in a wired USB guitar from rock band and play games with it. No wireless control will work at all. none will sync up. Anyone know how to fix it? Here is a link to the crazy hail from the storm.
click
Geez, when I told those kids on Xbox Live to die in a fire, I didn't mean it literally.
I'm surprised no one's gotten their "but the other guys" speeches out about Sony's laptop batteries (ignoring that the laptops are not made by SCEI, but still, same parent company)
All the xbots lost their prime chance at misdirection. I'll help you: Sony Laptop batteries.
News
Microsoft just extended the warranty from 3 years for the RROD to 3 years for the RROD + Home Fires.
@bobtheduck: you should be called bobyousuck
I. Have. Got. Red. Rings. Of. Death.
Burning down the house!
It sounds like this guy was trying the towel trick and it went horribly awry.
Instead of buying flammable liquids, arsonists should just buy their enemies Xbox 360s.
@neoraul20: Man, I'm drowning in your wit. Question, though, are you an xboy or a sony boy? I'm actually the latter. Being a fan doesn't mean you gloss over the dark periods of their recent history, though.
[imgs.xkcd.com]
All kinds of power supplies can cause something like this. The other day, I mistakingly used an old Mega Drive power supply on a VGA converter box, and it almost burst into flames. Stupid mistakes can cause something like this, I guess.
-insert obligatory response about should have bought a PS3/Wii, they never would have burned down your house...Blah, blah, blah Microsoft..
"He's on fire!"[/NBA Jam]
How much anyone wanna but that he left the xBox ON while it red-ringed hoping that one day he'd come home from work and it would have loaded the dashboard?
True the homeowner did not properly provide adequate ventilation for that unit. However, why isn't the console properly designed to avoid these issues to begin with? It is because MS wants to save a few bucks and not do the job right.
Typical MS quality (reflects on both their h/w (farmed out) and their software.