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127 Comments
- wageslaven, on 10/11/2007, -25/+103OH, JESUS. Again, MS has less than 3% failure. They've said this publicly (corporations get sued into oblivion, the SEC cuts off yer nuts and other serious consequences of such malfesense if you are dishonest in your financials about such things (like, say, "the "Warrenty costs" item on their ***** financial filings etcetc) -- so, anyway, its about 3% failure -- in line with electronics of this type.
Why all the fuss on this website? Because maligning MS is a digg pastime. It "helps" apple (how, i dont know). It "helps" Nintendo (how, I dont know). So, MS has 12,000,000 (ish) in the hands of users for something more than 12 months. Thats like 300,000 expected failed -- and apparently every one of them is here on Digg?
What about the 11,700,000 users *NOT* on Digg saying "oh, my console is broken"? They're not.
Want more personal anecdotal information? I've bought 4 units. 2 I have (premiums both). 2 in for my nephews. All for 10-ish months. NOT ONE has had so much as a blip - no crashes, not a single issue. Dead. Rock. Solid. Just like the other 97+% of XBox 360 owners, the other 11,700,000 Completely Trouble Free XBox 360s.
Im thinking instead of "nreynolds" having had 3 Xbox 360s, Im thinking he has a PS*3*. - charlescheese, on 10/11/2007, -14/+71If you're an unethical douche bag, that's what you'd do anyway.
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -16/+62hahahah...please people, don't bash a respectable gaming device. I am a fan of the PS3 but I do think that the Xbox 360 does offer some great games and great features.
- salmonmoose, on 10/11/2007, -3/+37I gather you wrap the 360 in a towel, switch it on, and let it burn out.
- NSMike, on 10/11/2007, -5/+35So let me get this straight...
Person A says: Be reasonable. Everything has some kind of failure rate.
Person B says: Yeah, but MY experience sucks, therefore it's a piece of garbage.
*The universe takes note of faulty syllogism #1*
Person C inserts thoughtless fanboy comment
Person D offers thoughtful logic on what the failure rate is, and notes the same as Person A - failures are expected.
Person B says: Yeah, but MY experience still sucked. Therefore, you're wrong.
*Universe notes second faulty syllogism*
Cycle continues until Person E interjects with a simple statement (fanboys are douchebags) that conveys three principles:
1. Arguing on the internet is pointless. In the end, no one cares.
2. Defending a specific console based on how much the other one sucks is pretty much the dumbest stance to take (politicians take note).
3. Pick something and stick with it because you like it, not because its predecessor did well or poorly.
You get the idea.
I hope this simplified view will help reveal how foolish all of this is. - Seifey, on 10/11/2007, -13/+43What is the "towel trick"?
Digg me down if this is a stupid question. - quomen, on 10/11/2007, -9/+37fanboys are all douchebags.
- DeathBorn, on 10/11/2007, -1/+25OH MAN! I thought this article was about finding a cure for death. Then I realized, "fixing the 360? Way more important."
- Ransomowris, on 10/11/2007, -4/+28There are a lot of problems which cause this red ring of death. This fix can't posssible fix all of them.
- toppgun, on 10/11/2007, -4/+19I love the sensationalism in the title
- jmaresca, on 10/11/2007, -28/+43Sup guys? Posting from my wii.
- HP844182, on 10/11/2007, -5/+20The Wii is better at graphics than the 360?
- Icebird, on 10/11/2007, -0/+14Did you just say the PS3 is better in terms of games? And that the Wii is better in graphics? ......
- Rickler, on 10/11/2007, -0/+13+ shipping and you have to wait
- Lazerous, on 10/11/2007, -0/+13That's really the grand fix? You pay 400 dollars for something that stops working mysteriously, and to fix it....you wrap it in a towel? I love Gears of War and Dead Rising as much as the next guy, but seriously? A towel? I'm glad mine doesn't have that ring yet.
What's next?
"When the towel trick doesn't work, set up speakers on all sides of the 360 and play 'Head like a hole' by Nine Inch Nails backwards 7 times consecutively. Then, before turning your 400 dollar xbox360 back on, flip it upside down and cover the bottom with quarters. Hit the power button and voila!!!" - dRuNk3nIrIsHmEn, on 10/11/2007, -0/+13$140
- kai05yang, on 10/11/2007, -3/+15@"This is getting pathetic...our brand new Xbox 360 console at Best Buy to show off Guitar Hero 2 is already dead...and it's been used since the game has been out..why can't they design a reliable console?!"
there is some stupid law in the U.S. that bans the sell of solder with lead to stuff sold to kids. so M.S. had to use unproven solder without lead to connect the gpu and cpu to the board.
speak to ur congressman, and tell him that this law is stupid, if kids want to eat lead solder and become "special", he/she should have the right to do so; this is a FREE country after all. - raiderj, on 10/11/2007, -0/+11I have successfully fixed a 360 with the red rings. The problem is partly due to the X-clamps, and partly due to a poor heatsink/fan shroud design. Essentially, the clamps cause a slight bend in the board, which coupled with poor heat dissipation on the GPU, leads to desoldered connections and the red rings.
The fix that I did took $5 in nuts and bolts from Lowe's, and $0.10 in aluminum tape. Replaced the X-clamps with the bolts, then placed some aluminum tape over the CPU/GPU to allow the fan shroud to pull air over the entire heatsink. Now the system runs great and pulls out much more hot air. Ever pulled out a game disc that feels like it's on fire? That's due to the poor fan shroud. With the fix, the discs are just barely warm to the touch.
Say what you will, but MS really designed the cooling system poorly. If they had made the shroud big enough to cover the entire heatsink, you'd not see any of these failures. - wageslaven, on 10/11/2007, -12/+23@nreynolds
"What does it mean"? I think it means that you'll find the PS3 has just as much failure (ie; Sony and Microsoft has no more or less ability to make "quality" electronics. 15 months from now, and/or when there are 12,000,000 consoles in the public, how many failures will there be? Unless Sony is some kind of magic company, it will be roughly 3%. Foxconn, ASUSTeK for SCEI makes the PS3. Just like MS, these are contract assembly shops (except SCEI obviously)...
There are plenty of PS3s with broken disc loaders. Others have mysterious screaming high-pitched whines. Others have been shipped just totally Dead-on-Arrival. _OF_COURSE_ there are going to be failures. - knodi, on 10/11/2007, -4/+15You can just call support. All Xbox 360 have a year warranty. If out of the year warranty they fix it for $75.
- Sabin, on 10/11/2007, -0/+10From what i have heard the reason for the majority of failures is that the heat from the CPU causes the PCB to wark slightly and the BGA solder points come loose. This is remarkably similar to what happened with some apple laptops (i think it was the G3 iBook). The solution there was to heat the chip to the point that the solder points reconnected. Since the page is down now i have no way to see what the fix for the 360 is. Am i even close?
- PathDaemon, on 10/11/2007, -4/+14Beating the hell out of it only works with Wiis.
Seriously, I've fixed one permanently with that. - SkippyDoorknob, on 10/11/2007, -0/+9You should never be without your towel.
- SfOwnsLa, on 10/11/2007, -34/+44Instead of a story on how to sorta fix a console, it would be great if M$ could make better long-lasting consoles.
- AVigorVermin, on 10/11/2007, -2/+11Are you guys seriously saying the 360 does not fail that often? Think about it...Microsoft installed a red ring of DEATH so that when it fails...you know about it. What other console manufacturer has spent money on letting people know when their product breaks?
- HeatVision, on 10/11/2007, -0/+8Actually, I think it's really smart to have diagnostic lights on the 360. Dell has it on their computers, it's damn handy if you have to fix those things.
- Brereton55, on 10/11/2007, -3/+11At least the repair center is decent well it was for me at least
- ravage386, on 10/11/2007, -1/+9@nsmike
A golf clap for you, my good sir. - droversoul, on 10/11/2007, -0/+8Death cure eh? Phoenix down?
- phoque, on 10/11/2007, -1/+9You meant BIOS beeps.
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -13/+21This is getting pathetic...our brand new Xbox 360 console at Best Buy to show off Guitar Hero 2 is already dead...and it's been used since the game has been out..why can't they design a reliable console?!
- hbeierg, on 10/11/2007, -0/+7I think that as something to do with it and the solder points disconnecting. my brother has fixed a mac book by taking a butane torch to it to fix the problem
- zzz@tkz, on 10/14/2007, -0/+6...they're not all "rings of death". They're the console's way of displaying errors.
- coit, on 10/11/2007, -0/+6All I can say is: Thank god for COSTCO!
Just exchanged mine for a new (and quieter) one yesterday. POS was not even 4 months old when I got the red ring of incompetent manufacturing. - StingerMS, on 10/11/2007, -2/+7Why do people always do that?
- mrASSMAN, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5That's 4 lights. 3 lights is what you need to be worried about..
- Icebird, on 10/11/2007, -1/+6The heat re-solders points in the 360. Isn't it obvious?
- hightower77, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5Hey guys, I just got this great new BMW, but to get it to run, I have to run it with no coolant first, then I can put the coolant back in and drive normally.
/sarcasm
Does that sound absurd to anyone else? It's kinda what you're doing to "fix" your new console. - TDR25, on 10/11/2007, -1/+6@avigorvermin
"Are you guys seriously saying the 360 does not fail that often? Think about it...Microsoft installed a red ring of DEATH so that when it fails...you know about it. What other console manufacturer has spent money on letting people know when their product breaks?"
That comment was not only true, but ***** hilarious as well. Couldn't have said it better myself. - Xpoc, on 10/11/2007, -2/+6There are several reasons why the 360's have been breaking. My guess that this fix will only work on the consoles that have warped mobo's because of the deat. Because the mobo warps, it often disconnects the GPU from it's heat sink. There was also a nifty fix that required opening up the console and placing small erasers under the mobo to push it back together with the heat sink.
I love my 360 but I will admit that it is not built too well. Some friends and I won 6 of them back before launch in the hex 168 contest. Out of the six that we won, 4 of them have failed so far. by my count, that's a 66% failure rate. Although I doubt it is this high in actuality, it is definitely higher than 3%. That number applied to launch. - supafuzz, on 10/11/2007, -4/+8http://thexboxdomain.net/2007/01/15/the-towel-trick-fixes-360s/
- juicys, on 10/11/2007, -0/+4i thought this conversation was supposed to be about the article. maybe i was wrong?
- Xpoc, on 10/11/2007, -1/+5Whoops, forgot to say that us was the towels that must heat the 360 up enough to a point where the mobo warps again to come back into contact with the GPU heat sink. Seems like a nifty trick and I might try it if my second console dies.
- zweben, on 10/11/2007, -6/+9Anyone have any idea why this works?
- NSMike, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3@Puffball -
See my previous comment, principle #1. - rogue352, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Still rather sad that you technically modded your console to fix the problem.. why microsoft couldnt have done all this themselves is beyond our knowledge.
- yensed, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4Here is a video I found on youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=hjjinHmEoss
The one posted in the article was much better and was also on youtube. But I can't seem to find it. - XdigitalXdeathX, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Wow, big man on campus. You're so amazing with your cuss words.
/sarcasm - GeminiAce, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3I don't believe this works. It's just propagating "the towel trick".
- alx242, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Yeah this sounds reaaaaally good for your 360...Covering up your electronics to allow it to over-heat a "little" bit is always good for it's components, go ahead try it just for fun...:)
/sarcasm -
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