Official YakYak - My 360 died thread

[PVB]

Bearing in mind that technically I've had two fail; my original one, then the one that replaced it was dead from first switch on.


@swith: Don't let the bastards grind you down, get it replaced. That's an order.

[Stone]

Oi, who're you calling a bastard?

Stone

[disciple]

Well if the failure rate is indeed around 1/3 then I'm guessing this would make the XBox 360 the most unreliable console ever made!!

[PVB]

Oi, who're you calling a bastard?

Stone

Well, you know what they say; "Takes one to know one."

[Snakey]

There are 113 forum members listed on the 360 gamertag thread.

Yeah. And a shit load more who aren't...

On top of that none of these things are actually telling us the percentage of how many 360s have died, but how many people have had problems. Presumably most of the people who have had problems now have a replacement machine that hasn't died - so that's twice as many 360s, which should at least halve the figures. Then there's people like Flabio that have had three of them, only one is dead - and even then it was a dodgy drive i.e. an entirely different problem. Same goes for PVBs 'replacement' machine. Same, actually, probably goes for a lot of the reported problems. Just because you get the red lights doesn't mean it's dead - could be a badly connected HDD, PSU, lots of other reasons.

If the figures really are that high, then yeah, that's pretty bad. But I'm sure it's not. As I've said before, I know a lot of people with 360s and very few that have had any problems...

[aureole]

There are 113 forum members listed on the 360 gamertag thread.

Yeah. And a shit load more who aren't...

And presumably, there are more people who've had troubles with their 260 that haven't told us about them. We're not maintaining it's a scientific study, but from three different survey sets (all slightly flawed, but in different ways) we've got a guesstimate of a failure rate between 15-30%.

[my surveys -

1a) RLLM study - first results - ~50% fail. Flawed due to
1b) taking multiple failures as point of reference - circa 30%. Flaws - only concerns multiple failures - people could be doing something repeatedly stupid or service/refurb proceedure could be poor
2) YY study - ~20% fail rate - flawed due to estimated nature of "total" of Xboxes
3) Figures from my local GAME store - 20-30% return, including a day where all 10 360s sold were returned. Flaws - single shop only considered (could be dodgy batch)

]

On top of that none of these things are actually telling us the percentage of how many 360s have died, but how many people have had problems. Presumably most of the people who have had problems now have a replacement machine that hasn't died - so that's twice as many 360s, which should at least halve the figures.

Er, no. For a start PVB (at least) has had two replacement X360s. If the figure of 20% we're working with as the YY fail rate is true, then 20% of the 20 failures should have a second failure (as observed in the RLLM survey).

Then there's people like Flabio that have had three of them, only one is dead - and even then it was a dodgy drive i.e. an entirely different problem. Same goes for PVBs 'replacement' machine. Same, actually, probably goes for a lot of the reported problems. Just because you get the red lights doesn't mean it's dead - could be a badly connected HDD, PSU, lots of other reasons.

First - "only" one in three Xbox360's is dead? How on earth does that support the theory that there isn't a problem? That's a terrible failure rate, although in line with the 30% fail rate.

Second - we're not saying there's a single congenital failure that's causing this. Or at least, I'm not.They won't take re

Third- Xbox support will not accept returns until you're removed HDD and rerun and reseated the PSU several times.

If the figures really are that high, then yeah, that's pretty bad. But I'm sure it's not. As I've said before, I know a lot of people with 360s and very few that have had any problems...

How many friends and how many failures? I'd still wager it's above 3% as microsoft claim.

Given any of the numbers I've seen so far, I'd say the fail rate is definately about the "less than 3% recall rate" that Microsoft is quoting. The other thing I'll say is that the failures are not limited to 6 months after sale - they're distributed across the board.

[Snakey]

Er, no. For a start PVB (at least) has had two replacement X360s.

His second one was just the DVD drive cable that came lose in transit. This sort of thing can happen. It wasn't technically 'dead'.

First - "only" one in three Xbox360's is dead? How on earth does that support the theory that there isn't a problem? That's a terrible failure rate, although in line with the 30% fail rate.

Yes, but it's being counted as one dead box, not one dead and two working. I.E. 100% rather than 33%. Big difference.

Second - we're not saying there's a single congenital failure that's causing this.

Well most people are. But my point was that a dodgy DVD drive is a different thing entirely. It's made by another company at another factory, just like drives for everything else are. Just as much chance of getting the same problem in that new PC you bought, and says nothing about the 'build quality' of the console.

[Xstreme]

Well I'm shortly to be on my third 360. The guy in the shop confirmed they've had a nightmare with disgruntled customers who have ended up with faulty 360's. Way beyond anything they've experienced with any recent console. Which tells me there's something wrong here.

I'm generally pretty careful with my stuff and still have my old consoles in working order. One console going down is just bad luck. Two is becoming annoying. Third? There will be a cheap 360 with a few games up on ebay.

I'm certainly willing to bet that the failure rate is closer to 30% than Microsoft would have us believe.

[swith]

Right, so if I did want to have this piece of shit replaced, what do I have to do? How much money do I have to fork out? Do I have to leave the house in order to have it fixed?

Peevo?

[PVB]

Right, so if I did want to have this piece of shit replaced, what do I have to do? How much money do I have to fork out? Do I have to leave the house in order to have it fixed?

Peevo?

Phone MS support on 0800 587 1102
Hours of operation:
Monday-Friday: 09:00-22:00
Saturday: 09:00-20:00
Sunday: 09:00-17:00

Be firm but polite, explain the fault and go through their 'checklist', then get a returns number from them explaining that you need that as you're getting the shop you bought it from to replace the faulty console.

Don't take 'No' for an answer.

Good luck Marine!

[Ratsoap]

As long as yo have a box that the console will fit in you shouldn't have to leave the hoose. We just phoned up and some geezer showed up and collected the box, then came with a fixed one a few days later.

I was pretty impressed really.

[swith]

Roger that. cheers mate

[PVB]

As long as yo have a box that the console will fit in you shouldn't have to leave the hoose. We just phoned up and some geezer showed up and collected the box, then came with a fixed one a few days later.

I was pretty impressed really.

Taking it back to the shop should get him a new receipt as well though, so that's the better option.

[GeeZa]

But my point was that a dodgy DVD drive is a different thing entirely. It's made by another company at another factory, just like drives for everything else are. Just as much chance of getting the same problem in that new PC you bought, and says nothing about the 'build quality' of the console.

That's perhaps the silliest piece of apologetic nonsense I've read from you Snakey. Really awful with respect.

[Flabio]

There's every chance that my first one just had a dodgy cable connection. It was DOA, but it did come via ParcelFarce...

It rattled. Never a good sign with tech.