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My THIRD 360 just died

post #1 of 858
5/25/07 at 12:30am
Thread Starter 
A seen before in this thread:
http://chud.com/forums/showthread.ph...light=dead+360

I've gone through a fair number of 360 repairs. Well, just barely a year later, and my third console has died. I don't have the rings of death, but the damn thing freezes on boot. It happened for the first time a couple of days ago during the Forza demo. Then during a mive. Then during Marvel UA. Now it won't boot at all. Lovely pattern.

I'm also out of warranty.

Do I pay for another repair/refurb, or upgrade to the Elite? Leaning towards the Elite, since I'll likely be getting a 1080p TV with HDMI by the end of the year and I already have the HD-DVD add-on. Someone talk me out of it...
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post #2 of 858
5/25/07 at 12:30am
Thread Starter 
I can't edit my posts, so I'll just say that "mive" was meant to be "movie".
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post #3 of 858
5/25/07 at 12:45am
i just wanna say, im on my second 360 after it crashed 3 weeks ago. I am still surprised that the majority of gamers have just come to terms with this issue as being a part of owning an xbox. Before the 360, I never EVER had any issues with my consoles, save for the "blow in your cartridge" NES trick.

it is still utterly ridiculous that the 360 is running on such unstable architecture that its so prone to crashing. MS has put some stop gap issues in with the warranty extension, but its ridiculously inconvenient to send them your box...and pay almost half the cost of what you originally spent to get it fixed.

The 360 has had a killer lineup of games, but the hardware still leaves a lot to be desired.
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post #4 of 858
5/25/07 at 1:12am
Wow, you know, maybe it's just not meant to be.
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post #5 of 858
5/25/07 at 1:13am
They seem to be about as reliable as the PS2... but worse.
I know people who went through 3 of those, but it took like 5 years for that to happen, and they treated their systems like shit. Everyone who seems to have issues with the 360 treat their systems like gold. There's a problem here.

I still want one, and will want one even more after Halo 3 and Half-Life 2 are out, but damn. I'm scared. I keep telling my friends with 360's that the things are ticking time bombs. I wish I was joking.

Best of luck Eric. I would personally consider that a 3rd strike, and go with a PS3 or Wii.
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post #6 of 858
5/25/07 at 1:22am
I wouldn't give Microsoft another dime for one of their consoles. Three dead 360s in a year? That's ridiculous.

It's your money of course, but if it were me I'd buy something else.
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post #7 of 858
5/25/07 at 1:23am
Thread Starter 
I love my games, and I love Xbox LIVE, and I love playing Halo with chewers, and I love the marketplace, and demos, and the arcade, and I have the HD-DVD add-on, so I'm not really interested in jumping ship to the PS3. I'll probably get a Wii around Christmas.

So if I send it in for repairs, it'll be $150. And I'll probably get a refurbished unit back.

vs the Elite for just north of $500 after taxes.

And what I get for my $350 extra is:
-110 extra gigs of space
-HDMI, with the added benefit of, finally, upscaling regular DVDs
-a fresh start on the warranty and free repairs for when it dies too in about 4-5 months.

I'm thinking I'll just send it in again and put that extra $350 towards a bigger TV when I get one.

'course it had to happen during the Halo 3 beta. Going to plug it back in again and see how it does after its cooling off period...
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post #8 of 858
5/25/07 at 3:49am
Sorry to hear about that Eric.

I'm getting fed up with this new console generation. I'm no longer an early adopter (been burned by my beta, laserdisc player and turbo Grafix 16 in the basement), but I was so close to caving in and finally buying a 360. Though everytime I get ready to another thread pops up with a chewer saying their's bricked.

I've been a staunch Sony guy all my life and love my PS2 (which coincidently, I'm on my third in 3 years. It's a lot easier to swallow forking over $120 for a new system than $500). My roomate just bought a PS3 and though Resistance and Motorstorm rock, the console just doesn't do anything for me.

I was so close to picking up a 360, been dying to try Gears, Half Life 2, Dead Rising, Halo 2, Prey, and R6 Vegas. Then I go read more on their huge failure rate. Arrgh!
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post #9 of 858
5/25/07 at 3:57am
I think I might be one of the few people that can't relate to the PS2 problems everyone else is talking about...I've had the same PS2 for 4 years now.
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post #10 of 858
5/25/07 at 6:53am
Meh... I picked my 360 up in Korea last year and it's working fine. I use it as my primary DVD player.

Now - having said that - I need to go put some money into the dead pool for the d@mn thing...
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post #11 of 858
5/25/07 at 8:40am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jared Melton
I think I might be one of the few people that can't relate to the PS2 problems everyone else is talking about...I've had the same PS2 for 4 years now.
My PS2 is approaching it's seventh year of service. It's never so much as burped, even with all the heavy play it's gotten in the last year. My 360 is the only console that's ever had a meltdown. I don't have the patience , or money, to put up with repeat failures. If my replacement 360 dies out of warranty, the whole thing's going in the trash and I'm getting a PS3. It'll kill me not to be able to play Halo or Gears, but I'm not getting sucked into a money pit just to play a game.
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post #12 of 858
5/25/07 at 8:45am
It's a sign from God you should stop playing video games.
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post #13 of 858
5/25/07 at 9:05am
My launch PS2 is still doing great. Seeing all the problems with the 360 I don't if I'll ever get one, especially since money's a big issue for me these days.
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post #14 of 858
5/25/07 at 9:29am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Odd Creature
My launch PS2 is still doing great. Seeing all the problems with the 360 I don't if I'll ever get one, especially since money's a big issue for me these days.
Same here. I even took it apart to paint the case. My Atari 2600, Sega Genesis, Sega Saturn, PS1, and Dreamcast are all still alive and kicking. My NES, SNES, & Xbox have all bit it though.

What if you used your wads of cash to buy a new 360 from Wal-Mart and a few days later switch it out with your broken one and return it?

That's how we do it down south.
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post #15 of 858
5/25/07 at 10:16am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Eric Calkins
So if I send it in for repairs, it'll be $150. And I'll probably get a refurbished unit back.

vs the Elite for just north of $500 after taxes.

The 360 Elite, despite the extra cost, would be your best bet if stability is your main concern. It's less prone to the primary cause of the rings of death (circuit board warping) given all the epoxy they have holding down the chips.

Of course, you could just get a new core (since you'd have the HDD and wireless controller anyway) or premium and get Best Buy's replacement policy. The Microsoft refurbs seem quite shoddy in my experience. And waiting two weeks is just unacceptable sometimes, especially this holiday season.

The Elite + replacement plan route would end up costing about $180 more than the Core + replacement plan, which itself costs $210 more than just sending the unit back. Personally, I'd bite the bullet and get the system that has the best chances of survival.
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post #16 of 858
5/25/07 at 10:22am
You people are scaring me. I better even not look at my 360 funny.
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post #17 of 858
5/25/07 at 10:35am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Egg
My PS2 is approaching it's seventh year of service. It's never so much as burped, even with all the heavy play it's gotten in the last year. My 360 is the only console that's ever had a meltdown. I don't have the patience , or money, to put up with repeat failures. If my replacement 360 dies out of warranty, the whole thing's going in the trash and I'm getting a PS3. It'll kill me not to be able to play Halo or Gears, but I'm not getting sucked into a money pit just to play a game.
Agreed. What is so infuriating is that I waited until after the launch, until after the Christmas season to take the plunge thinking that the chance of coming up with a defective system would be next to impossible. Well after one defective system out of the box and one that crashed because, wait for it....it had the wrong regional coding, I'm on number three and just waiting for the day that crashes.

While I enjoy my 360, I still wonder if I should have held out for a PS3.

ETA: Nordling, don't even think bad thoughts about your 360. It can read your mind.
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post #18 of 858
5/25/07 at 10:42am
My big theory (theory because my knowledge of hardware and engineering adds up to a grand total of none whatsoever) is that the reason there are so many 360 crashes is that the processor runs hot in a tiny compartment and without enough ventilation (and I'm not talking, "Oh, I encased my 360 in shag carpeting and now it doesn't work for some reason; I'm saying that it couldn't hurt to give it its own room) the thing overheats and dies. My hope is that the new 35nm processors they're putting in to replace the 60nm will solve this problem.

But again: pure theory and speculation derived from my hope that when I finally buy a 360, it won't be as hateful towards me as my PlayStation 2.
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post #19 of 858
5/25/07 at 10:46am
Is it possible to get failure rate statistics for the 360? Those aren't the sorts of things Microsoft would be gung-ho on publishing, I guess, but I'm curious. My curiosity wants numbers.

Oh, and in general, undirected 360 anger: mine had a disc-read error last night just as I finished a Hitman level with a Ghost rating on hard. Before it saved my career. Fuck.
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post #20 of 858
5/25/07 at 10:51am
Peter Moore recently said that the number "may be a little bit higher" than the 3% which Microsoft intially disclosed.

Some outlets have placed it somewhere beteen 30% - 50% (which seems to be a bit of an overestimate).
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post #21 of 858
5/25/07 at 10:57am
With the house payment, bills, food and shit, it took me a good six months or so to get enough grease for a 360 without feeling terribly guilty about it. So if it breaks that's gonna seriously piss me off, warranty or no.
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post #22 of 858
5/25/07 at 11:31am
Does Microsoft offer an extended warranty at the end of the regular year of service? Hell, does anyone know if there is a statute of limitations on Costco returns?
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post #23 of 858
5/25/07 at 11:52am
Just got my Elite < a month ago. I've been taking it with me on business trips. Maybe I shouldn't do that? This thread makes me nervous to breathe on it, even.
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post #24 of 858
5/25/07 at 11:54am
I remember at launch you were able to pay 60 dollars to get either a year or two years, keep in mind this was when the warranty was only for 3 months from MSFT. I'm on my second and a half unit..I say half because I'm actually on my third, but I got it replaced just because it was making funny noises, not because it shit the bed. I'm actually on my third PS2 too, but that was a full console lifespan, we're only a year and a half into the 360s. I don't understand why I have a working Nintendo, SNES, Sega CD, Saturn, and Dreamcast downstairs but the newer machines can't hold their liquor, and all over a design flaw that (360 and ps2) should have been caught way before it went to market.
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post #25 of 858
5/25/07 at 1:47pm
I'm on my third and it kills me to keep giving those cunts money, but there are so many great games out and coming out for the 360 that I can't help myself.
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post #26 of 858
5/25/07 at 1:57pm
Yeah at launch my system came with a little form you could fill out for an extended 2 year Microsoft warranty. I did end up getting it, but honestly I regret the whole process.

If I could do it again I'd stick to buying from Best Buy or some other store that offered a two year-ish instant replacement policy. It would have cost just as much as the Microsoft one, without having to wait two weeks for a cruddy refurb.

The argument of "screw this failure rate, buy a PS3 instead" would be compelling if I wanted to play just any games in general. But since something like 80% of the titles I enjoy are on the Xbox, there's really no other choice. For that $600 PS3 money, I'd just buy a 360 Elite with an instant replacement plan and sell off whatever I could from the dead 360 to help mitigate the cost. It would be $120 cheaper more or less, depending on ebay.
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post #27 of 858
5/25/07 at 3:20pm
I figure if I trade in my 360, HD-DVD player, games, and extra crap, I can walk away with a PS3 for little to no money. If I have to send off for a 4th 360, the lack of PS3 games might not seem so bad.
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post #28 of 858
5/25/07 at 3:45pm
I'm on my 4th Xbox 360. Fortunately, this one has lasted quite a while so maybe I'm in the clear for a bit. I enjoy playing my 360 too much to even think about giving it up, plus I have too many friends that play on Live as well. It's a frustrating pain when they break, but I've gotten my money's worth (and then some) out of the 360's.
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post #29 of 858
5/25/07 at 4:13pm
Is upgrading to the Elite even possible? Didn't they sell out of the Elites pretty much right away? Or does everyone else here know something I don't.
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post #30 of 858
5/25/07 at 4:15pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MrMushnik
Is upgrading to the Elite even possible? Didn't they sell out of the Elites pretty much right away? Or does everyone else here know something I don't.
I didn't think they were that hard to get, I've seen them around. Certainly much easier than coming across a Wii in the wild.
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post #31 of 858
5/25/07 at 4:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Justin Kelly
I didn't think they were that hard to get, I've seen them around. Certainly much easier than coming across a Wii in the wild.
Weird. They completely vanished from the Baltimore area, at least from the stores I checked, within that first week.
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post #32 of 858
5/25/07 at 5:52pm
Thread Starter 
I just got off the phone with support. My other calls have all been pretty smooth, and the first rep I talked to was nice, but since this is my third repair they had to escalate to a supervisor.

From what I could decipher through the haze of non-standard grammar (seriously, the accent was no problem, but this guy's sentences were structured so strangely), they're escalating it further and having yet another specialist call me back "because of the inconvenience."

I wish they had just sent me the box so I could send it in and get it over with, but maybe I can bitch enough at this higher tier of support to get them to fix/replace it for free or upgrade me to an Elite for a discount...
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post #33 of 858
5/25/07 at 5:55pm
That's funny. My 360 didn't come with Kool-Aid.

This thread shows why Microsoft can't be arsed to fix the flaws in the 360's design.

Why should they, when people are paying $150 a pop in order to replace their system with a barely functional used one and after they've done that for three or four times they just end up buying the new, more expensive model?
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post #34 of 858
5/25/07 at 6:34pm
Thread Starter 
Kool Aid? Well, what are the alternatives? I have a library of games that I love, outstanding-looking exclusives are coming down the pipeline (Halo 3, Mass Effect, Fable 2), and, as I mentioned before, this thing is my HD-DVD player and I've got about half a dozen HD-DVDs now.

I'd have to give up on the exclusives and, what? Trade it all in for a PS3? The PS3 may be a great machine in a few years when it has a software library to speak of. And then what do I do with my HD-DVD's? Fork out for a standalone player when I've got a Blu-ray player already?

The Wii looks like a fun machine, but not something I'd want as my main gaming rig.

And I have an iMac. I don't see myself going back to PC gaming, even with boot camp.

I guess I could just give up this hobby that I love. Or game exclusively on a DS. That I don't own.

I will say that I've calmed down and have no intention of buying an Elite right now. I'll grudgingly give them the $150 this one time. My other repairs were both free. If it dies again...shit man, I don't know. Time to take up gardening, I guess.
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post #35 of 858
5/25/07 at 6:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Eric Calkins
Kool Aid? Well, what are the alternatives?
You have the same alternative as anyone in a free market: stop buying.
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post #36 of 858
5/25/07 at 8:43pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mastronikolas
That's funny. My 360 didn't come with Kool-Aid.

This thread shows why Microsoft can't be arsed to fix the flaws in the 360's design.

Why should they, when people are paying $150 a pop in order to replace their system with a barely functional used one and after they've done that for three or four times they just end up buying the new, more expensive model?
Really most of us here are talking about what to do when the warranty expires and we're faced with that first $150 bill. We may have had refurbs under the warranty process, but that's far different than paying $450-$600 for repairs.
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post #37 of 858
5/25/07 at 9:29pm
Really if the thing can't run flawlesly for several years then I wouldn't even think about buying it. I've never had a game system fail on me. If I knew what box contains my ancient Atari 2600 I bet I'd discover it still works.
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post #38 of 858
5/26/07 at 11:33am
Mother. Fucker. I suppose I might be jumping the gun but it appears the new (refurbished) 360 I received from Microsoft YESTERDAY is dying.

This time, the screen freezes but with weird artifacts all over the place. The first time there was a gray checkerboard and my controller wouldn't stop rumbling.
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post #39 of 858
5/26/07 at 3:14pm
Three red lights, baby! Woohoo!
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post #40 of 858
5/26/07 at 3:23pm
I still think you guys are pulling a Macready on your 360s...
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post #41 of 858
5/26/07 at 4:11pm
I was planning to buy a 360, but after reading about the number of problems with it, I think I'll just stick to LOTRO. $15 a month gives me more entertainment than the $90+ I pay for cable tv each month as it is. I'm not shelling out $ for a gaming system that might work for a while.
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post #42 of 858
5/26/07 at 4:43pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by gravedigger
Mother. Fucker. I suppose I might be jumping the gun but it appears the new (refurbished) 360 I received from Microsoft YESTERDAY is dying.

This time, the screen freezes but with weird artifacts all over the place. The first time there was a gray checkerboard and my controller wouldn't stop rumbling.
Been there brother. Isn't that some shit?
It's a damn shame the only game I really give a damn about is only coming to the 360, because it is a shitty piece of electronics.
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post #43 of 858
5/26/07 at 5:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by gravedigger
Mother. Fucker. I suppose I might be jumping the gun but it appears the new (refurbished) 360 I received from Microsoft YESTERDAY is dying.
Holy shit! Man, that's fucked. Don't even know what to say. I thought two dead machines in a year and a half was nuts.
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post #44 of 858
5/26/07 at 10:36pm
It has to be their worthless refurb center. Back around Christmas I had just sent away my launch console for repair, got the refurb back, and it too died quickly (within two weeks). My current one has been working since then.
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post #45 of 858
5/26/07 at 11:29pm
360 refurbs are ticking timebombs. There has to be a better way for them to help their customers.
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post #46 of 858
5/27/07 at 1:57am
I decided not to deal with (scream at) the poor bastards in India and just made it Costco's problem again. They were champs about it, even letting me keep my original hard drive, even though the manager guy looked at me like I was trying to do something shady.

For those of you playing along at home, this brings my grand total of 360's up to FOUR in the two months I've owned it. I don't want to jinx this one but it runs noticeably smoother right out of the box than any of the other machines I've had.
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post #47 of 858
5/27/07 at 3:09am
What years you were born?
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post #48 of 858
5/27/07 at 9:31pm
....still on my first 360 after 1 year, 2 months, runs fine, and gets everday usage either playing games or acting as a music hub for my sound system.

sounds like you and the 360 just weren't meant to be. which blows.
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post #49 of 858
5/27/07 at 10:57pm
Guess my 360 didn't want to be left out, 3 red lights last night! Third 360 will be heading back to Texas. The tech guy told me that I would get an actual new unit this time, no refurb, and that a manager type would be calling me this week to discuss "other" compensation. I'm at least going to ask for an Elite upgrade.

Now I have to decide, do I just keep it and wait around for it to break again, or sell everything for a PS3. PS3 has a bunch of great games coming out, the online service is free, and they DON'T FUCKING BREAK.

Anyone know if the rumble is back in on PS3, or are they still working on that?
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post #50 of 858
5/28/07 at 12:44am
Quote:
Originally Posted by otisthecat
Now I have to decide, do I just keep it and wait around for it to break again, or sell everything for a PS3. PS3 has a bunch of great games coming out, the online service is free, and they DON'T FUCKING BREAK.
Nearly as often anyways. Plus, you'll be able to master Ninja Gaiden all over again.
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