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xbox 360
Put That RROD 360 To Good Use!
Faced with a red-ringed 360, a user is left with a few options. They could brave Microsoft customer support and send it back. Or...they could make a fighting stick out of it. More » -
microsoft
Have Microsoft Stopped Sending Out Boxes For 360 Repairs?
It's been standard practice for a while now that, if your 360 broke, Microsoft would send you a box, so you could send your console back in. But a Consumerist report today claims otherwise. More » -
jasper
Now You Can Be Certain You've Bought a Jasper
The newer, cooler, less red-ring-of-deathy Jasper configuration of the 360 has been out since the holidays. If you want make damn sure that's what you're buying, Newegg is offering them virtually by name. More » -
better business
Sam's Club Will Swap RRoD'd 360s, Refund Difference if Necessary
Keep this in mind if you're console-shopping on Black Friday. Via Consumerist comes word that Sam's Club, dealt with courteously and calmly, replaced a red-ring-of-death Xbox 360 with a working unit, let the poor guy keep his hard drive so he didn't lose his games and gamesaves, and, since all they had were cheaper bundles, refunded him the difference in cost. And, I might add, did all this without the BS replacement plan that some other big box retailers require for just such a swap. More » -
rrod
Microsoft Hit With Class Action Over RROD
Somewhere in Redmond there must a be a huge warehouse stuffed to the rafters with class action notices and a random legal claims against Microsoft. The hapless multinational has been walloped with another suit - this time from consumers who are a little ticked off about the Red Ring of Death. More » -
xbox 360
Game Tester Fired For Going On Record About Xbox 360 Defects
VentureBeat's Dean Takahashi recently published an exhaustive history of the manufacturing issues that have surrounded the Xbox 360, resulting in still unknown numbers of defective consoles and a $1 billion price tag for Microsoft's games division. Hypersensitive readers who pined for the day when we could all just "move on" from the story weren't the only invested parties who took issue with the exposé. One of Microsoft's own contract employees was fired for his participation in the story.
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microsoft
The History Of The Defective Xbox 360
How, exactly, did Microsoft wind up shipping a notoriously defective Xbox 360, resulting in thousands upon thousands of gamers burning through temporarily working consoles and over a billion dollars in warranty expenses? That's largely answered in Venture Beat's massive feature on the birthing pains of the console, one designed under the gun and hastily revised with a software "ship and patch" philosophy. More » -
xbox 360
Get Your 360 Fixed - Quickly - In Four Easy Steps
If you own a 360, odds are you've had to call Xbox support at least once. Maybe even more than once. And if you have, odds are also high you had a thoroughly unpleasant experience doing so. Next time you need to call them (or, for the lucky few, the first time), then, arm yourself with this quick and easy (and paraphrased) guide to getting shit done, courtesy of Consumerist reader Jason:1. Call 1-800-4-MY-XBOX
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gta iv rrod
Live GTA IV Player's Xbox 360 Goes RRoD
When you steal a game before release and broadcast its play over Justin TV for seven consecutive hours, sometimes, apparently, your console will RRoD. Is it karma? Sony sabotage? Or just shoddy Xbox 360 craftsmanship? We'll let the commenters sort that little life lesson out. More » -
contests
Owen's Xbox: We Have a Winner!
"Guess the Date Owen's Xbox Returns" is officially over. Corey Goupil correctly guessed April 7, winning a Rock Band hoodie and some other great schwag. But really, there's only one winner here: Me. I got my Xbox back yesterday, delivered to my office. More » -
xbox 360
Pretty Sure This Violates the Warranty
From reader Michael Hurt comes this: a watercooled Xbox 360. As casemods go, this one looks like someone locked the A-Team in a barn, Murdoch and B.A. improvised with some aquarium tank hose and an aerator, and the gang saved the day. I love it when a plan comes together. More » -
xbox 360
How To Get Around Microsoft's Shitty DRM
It's a safe assumption: many of you will have been jerked around by Microsoft's bum digital rights management setup for the 360. You've bought content, lost a console, and now can't play arcade games or use DLC unless you're online. Chin up, eh? Courtesy of Consumerist reader James, there's a way around it! James called up Microsoft support and hassled them about transferring the license from his old console to his new, replacement one. VoilĂ ! The content was tagged to his new 360 instead of the old one, and James can play with the stuff he paid for whenever and wherever he likes. As should always have been the case. Only downside? There's two: it took 32 days for Microsoft to transfer the license, and there's no way of confirming whether this was due to some new Microsoft policy or the fact James is an expert at complaining. More » -
xbox 360
More Details On The 360's "16%" Failure Rate
360 warranty issuers SquareTrade are still at it. Fresh off claims that they'd "nailed" the 360's failure rate at 16%, and a subsequent "who are you?" from Microsoft, they're now showing off the details of their study into the console's failure rates, and claiming that the final figure is probably even higher. Apparently they got their 16% figure from a sample group of 1040 consoles sold between April and July 2007, of which 171 consoles died. Interestingly, they claim only 102 of those were due to red rings: the other 40% were done over by things like video card failures, HDD freezes and my personal favourite, disc read errors. SquareTrade also say that because their sample numbers don't include customers who returned their consoles to Microsoft, the actual failure rate is probably higher than 16%. Which it probably is! If we ever find out the actual numbers, and they're not in the 30-40% range, then I'll wolf down humble pie til my sides split. More » -
gdc 08
Microsoft Lights Up GDC With Red Ring of Death
Microsoft kicked off GDC with red! Here, the BBC spotted this Xbox 360 demo kiosk that has been RRoD'd. No way to know if this console was made before things were "bad" or after things got "good." But think about it this way: All those other GDC Xbox 360s are working fine! So now all that there's left for you to do is go check your Xbox 360, make sure it still works and pray. More » -
xbox 360
16% Failure Rate Is News To Microsoft
Over the past few days, stories have been circling around the place that the failure rate for the 360 had been "nailed" at 16%. This figure was taken from SquareTrade, who claimed to have issued warranties for the cosole, and was based on a sample group of 1000 360s. Today, Microsoft have hit back at these claims, saying they've never heard of SquareTrade:We have not seen the report, and are unfamiliar with the agency that filed it. Based on the enthusiast community's feedback yesterday, the methodology of this report is suspect.
Fair point, as when releasing the 16% figure, SquareTrade disclosed neither their methodology, nor the entirety of the report. More » -
xbox 360
Msoft: Don't Tell Bill Your 360 Problems
It was a little stunning to learn last week that at least one disgruntled Xbox 360 owner had decided to skip the regular channels when dealing with a burnt out 360 and instead went straight to Bill Gates. Even more stunning, Gates apparently knocked some heads and got the guy sorted out in record time (24 hours). More » -
microsoft
Emailing Bill Gates Results in New Xbox 360
What sucks worse than getting the Red Ring of Death? Getting the console fixed. Sure, there are some success stories regarding Xbox customer support. But there are some real headaches as well. Over at The Consumerist, tipster Jon took matters into his own hands. When his launch Xbox 360 crapped out, he emailed Bill Gates and customer service VP Kathleen Hogan. Within 24 hours, he got a reply from the escalation department saying that a new console was on its way. Jon tells The Consumerist: More » -
rumor
The Truth Behind The Red Ring Of Death
Jake Metcalf over at 8Bit Joystick.com has recently posted an interview with an "individual who has worked on the Xbox 360 project for many years", who goes into explicit detail about the extremely high failure rate of Xbox 360 consoles since the console's launch in 2005. While normally we take such anonymous interviews with a grain of salt, you may remember Metcalf as the man who broke the story on Bungie leaving Microsoft a week before any official word was released. His source details everything from the various reasons for failure, and how much Microsoft knew about the system's instability before the product was shipped. If there's truth behind this, it's downright disturbing. More » -
pumpkin
RRoD Is Truly Frightening
This, yes this, is what we've been waiting for: The Red Ring of Death jack-o'-lantern. According to reader Zhao: More » -
fashion, fashion, fashion
The Red Ring of Death T-Shirt
Are you one of the countless many who have suffered the indignity of those three red lights on your 360? Are you still waiting for your 360s triumphant return from the Microsoft repair center? Well, now you can wear your misery proudly on your chest with this Red Ring of death T-shirt until your 360 comes marching home again, a little worse for the wear but hopefully functioning normally. More » -
defective
Halo 3 Disc Read Errors Rampant
A storm is brewing in both the Xbox and Bungie forums, where over a hundred posters have now verified that their copies of Halo 3 are causing disc read errors. lockups, and even the dreaded RRoD on their Xbox 360 consoles. From what I can glean from skimming through the 22 pages of replies to the original poster's problem, most of the people affected purchased the standard edition, though a few are reporting having the problem on both the standard and the LE version of the game. Some believe the discs are corrupting the data on the hard disc itself, as some have had their game discs replaced twice or more now with similar results, and removing the hard disc seems to keep the error from occurring with some posters. Some can load the game fine and play it for short bursts before the problem occurs, while others are finding the issue limited to certain game modes. Check out the forum threads for more info on the problems had, and hopefully some official response will be given about the issue soon. More » -
wolf in sheep's clothes
Hey, Elites Crap Out Too
Just a reminder not to leave your Xbox 360 on all day in a plastic case. Not good for the machine! Rumors of better Elite performance aside, this must be the first conked Xbox 360 Elite I've seen. Bummer, because I quite like that sexy paint job. The platform's good fun, too. Shame about the quality. More » -
confirmed
Xbox 360 Falcon Chips Are Coming This Year
It's coming. Obviously. Later this year, Xbox 360s outfitted with 65-nm chips should be hitting store shelves according to The Xbox 360 Uncloaked author Dean Takahashi. Dubbed "Falcon," these chips are smaller than the current 90-nm processors and should use less energy. And that *should* lead to fewer Red Rings of Death. Well, theoretically! We won't know until these consoles are out in the wild, performing under real world conditions. However, Takahashi has confirmed that the chips are in the first batch of consoles currently being made, meaning that they could be there by fall. But Microsoft isn't going to disclose to customers which consoles have what. Takahashi points out: More » -
sign of the times
Bashcraft's 360 Finally Dies (How's Yours?)
The exciting and inevitable conclusion to the my-Xbox-360-starting-freezing post! On Saturday night, after playing the BioShock demo to death, I decided to fire up some Gears of War. I played for ten minutes and then it moved on from this world, leaving Red Rings of Death as a memento. To recap: I got the "checkerboard effect," and the next time I switched on a disc-based game, the box konked out. So Xbox Live Arcade games and free demos could be the answer to Microsoft's hardware woes! Or something. More »
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