Multiple reports on Xbox360's failure rates.

[Darth Avlectus]

Well folks, the reports are in on the XBOX360 and their claims to failure rates vary quite a bit.

 

I know some of you here have had experience with the 360. So feel free to share your experiences and perhaps elaborate.

 

 

Seattle PI chiming in at 54.2% failure rate--parroting/referencing Game Informer.

http://blog.seattlepi.com/microsoft/archives/176741.asp

Interestingly the article comments:

Had the survey's participants been comprised entirely of Joystiq staffers, it would have been a bone-chilling 100 percent."

 

Gizmodo chiming in at 30%, so says retailers according to them.

http://gizmodo.com/271487/xbox-360-failure-rate-30-says-retailers

 

YAHOO! Tech claiming it is 16%.

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/patterson/12576/failure-rate-for-xbox-360-16-percent-report

 

Gamespot calling it 23.7%.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6216691.html

 

1up also saying 16%.

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3166259

 

Numbers of reports aside, what are YOUR statistics of your experiences with the console?

 

Mine: Received as a gift midway through 2008. Secondhand goods, its prior life saw a tour in Iraq in the 115+ degree heat and had failed before. Fixed up and refurbished it gave me ~6 months of life spread out over 1.5 years. Recently up and bit the dust. Debating whether to get it replaced or to open it up and do a breakdown/failure analysis of my own on the hardware. I'm no engineer, though, so I'm not sure I could create a better design.

 

Or possibly both analyze AND replace if I can possibly avoid destructively doing the analysis. (Anyone had previous experience here? ) I have no warranty anyways--never did.

 

I used it mostly to play GTAIV and DOA4. Watched a few movies, listened to some music in the background, played some of the built in games and demos. Did not actively use it.

[Rabish Bini]

Mine stopped recognizing game discs a few months after I got it, halfway through last year, i sent it in, got it back in two weeks and no problems since.

[Alkonium]

I've had mine for nearly a year, and aside from some easily fixed disc recognition issues (haven't had any for quite a while), it's been fine.

[True_Avery]

Only had 1 go down. Got it back in 2 weeks.

 

If this one goes down I know a guy who buys broken 360's and puts together brand new ones from parts of each. I just bring it to him and he'll make it brand new for like $20.

[Tobias Reiper]

I got the red ring, and basically it just kind of gathered dust all summer until I decided to call microsoft.

They asked me to plug it in (Now, I'm not an idiot, I had everything plugged in before my problems happened.), and it just decided to embarass me and start working.

But recently, da da da da! It stopped AGAIN, only this time with one section instead of 3.

[mimartin]

I got the red ring of death in 2007 while playing Mass Effect on a unit that was about 8 to 10 months old. Instead of waiting for it to return from warranty service, I purchased another unit. I got my fixed unit back in about 3 to 4 weeks and both units are still working perfectly.

[HK-42]

Had mine for maybe year and a half, and got red ring once however I just unplugged every thing then plugged it back in, and it worked. Last week I got a disk reading error, where it just went to open tray with discs in them, but I messed with it randomly, and again it worked.

 

However my brothers 360 got red ring and had to be sent in.

[Bimmerman]

I did the whole line up outside the store thing and bought mine on opening day. It did die, but it took two years of use to do so. I never had any issues with disc recognition. It died, I sent it back under warranty, and got a new one or mine fixed (not sure) two weeks later. I have no problems or ill will towards Microsoft for it....defects happen and I never used mine all that much anyway. I got the "new" one back and it's still going strong two (three?) years later.

 

I never used mine all that much though, maybe once or twice a week at best. When it died it wasn't any problem for me...I just didn't play Halo that week.

 

So for your statistics, I had a 50% failure rate. I'd buy another 360 in a heartbeat though.

[JediAthos]

I have a first generation 360 and I got the red ring of death this past year, but Microsoft was very good about handling the repair and I haven't had a single problem with it since. The more reports I read though, the more I'm beginning to believe I'm the exception and not the rule.

[cire992]

I had a first gen since '06, stopped reading discs this past january. Warranty was up so I bought a refurbed one during the summer. Died in 2 months, red ring. Friend got an elite as a birthday gift and lent me his old one (he got it last november). It red ringed last month. Until this past January I was the last of my friends save for my cousin who had never gotten a brick. Also we've gotten 2 bricked 360 test kits this year at work. That's a first.

 

I'm not an idiot, I'm not getting another one. Warranty or not, I expect things to work more than a year (at least) when I purchase them.

[Lynk Former]

People are honestly still talking about this? Shouldn't this be in the "old news" pile by now?

[Darth Avlectus]

Mine never wanted to read any other games or accept an OS update towards the end there.

 

If nothing else, you ultra dissatisfied people out there can take your dead console's HD/DVD drive out and...well do this: (This BBCode requires its accompanying plugin to work properly.)

 

That's right, BLUE LASER! Actually more like blue purple since it's ~405-415nm, if I'm not mistaken. So I'm seriously debating what I'm gonna do. Possible cheap replacement, or a blue laser to play with.

 

@ Lynk: What can I say? I'm a caveman.

[Ser'eck]

I have had my 360 for less than a year and the problems that I have had are like the system reading games as DVDs and not working, and just recently when turning on the system to play, everything in my profile was gone. I had no achievments, no games in my game library, and no saved game files. However, after turning the system off and back on again everything went back to normal.

[Lynk Former]

Got my 360 elite on the 19th of November 2008... still going strong, no problems at all.

[Astor]

Aside from one RROD two years ago (which was fixed for free and inside two weeks), i've had no problems.

[Jae Onasi]

I got mine in May, and it gets a lot of use. However, we have no problems, other than my cat wanting to sit on top of it because it's nice and warm after hours of use.

[Lynk Former]

Check your 360 for hairballs, Jae

[mimartin]

 

And when you are not home.

[Jae Onasi]

^^^

:rofl:

[Litofsky]

I've had mine for about two years, and it's gotten the ring only once. Besides that, it's gotten some pretty solid use.

[stingerhs]

i've owned two. the first was a unit i bought off a friend for the mere services of building his new computer. that unit was a pre-launch unit he won from a Mountain Dew contest, and by the time i got the unit, it was already well over a year old with a ton of usage. that one lasted about 2-3 months of abuse misuse loving care before it crapped out.

 

with my interest picking up in PC games at that time, i didn't replace the unit for about 6-8 months. that unit has seen very heavy use, but i've never had a problem with it. needless to say, it works just fine, and i've owned it i think for almost 2 years.

[Darth Avlectus]

I have had my 360 for less than a year and the problems that I have had are like the system reading games as DVDs and not working, and just recently when turning on the system to play, everything in my profile was gone. I had no achievments, no games in my game library, and no saved game files. However, after turning the system off and back on again everything went back to normal.

 

Well mine was like that except none of the profile blank outs. One or two people I knew had the same sort of deal. An issue with the motherboard, I guess.

[Quanon]

Got my Elite almost 2 years, just when they dropped the prices the first time.

No troubles what so-ever. And I do play a lot on it, depending which game I bought.

 

Still, I would be bumped if it died on me, I understand the frustrations, you pay quiet a nice bit of money for this tech-game box, so I expect it to work properly.