No XBox 360 problems? Then count yourself as one of the fortunate ones. With a malfunction rating of more then 50%, most users have undergone at least one problem with their system.
The problems range from disks being damaged, to “bricking”, or possibly perhaps the “Red Ring of Death”. Some conditions like games freezing can be irritating, but most people often allow them.
Have you been playing your well-liked game on your Xbox, and suddenly it freezes up on you? You reset the console to only realize that it freezes again. Taking out the disk you notice that there are now grazes on it. Sadly, this is typical with this console. As many as 1 in 9 consoles positioned flat, and 3 in 9 put on their sides have damaged disks. This is due usually to two issues, a pad lost near the reader in the disk drive, or the drive not securing the disk in place before playing.
Another issue Xbox 360′s have is “bricking”. “Bricking” is a term used within the field due to the brick shape of most electronics. Since a brick is crap when it comes to electronic devices, when items like a game console, DVD player or related gadget quits, it’s now “useless as a brick”. Some dashboard updates have caused “bricking”. The only solution for this is to connect to Microsoft to see about a substitution or repair your Xbox 360. If the console is no longer in warranty, the repair can cost anywhere from $99 and up.
The common problem with Xbox 360′s is the “Red Ring of Death”. This term comes from the three red lights that are on near the power light on the face of the console, forming a red ring. This is caused from either a general hardware problem or a major digital failure. Either of these conditions is not good. Both need your console to be sent in to Microsoft for fix or replacement. The average time to receive one after fix is eight weeks. Due to the commonality of this issue, Microsoft elongated the 1-year warranty that these consoles came with to 3 years from date of buying.
Because of the frequency of failures of the Xbox 360, there have been several lawsuits submitted. The first was right after the release of the console. Second was filed in November of 2006, only about a year after release. This lawsuit was because of the “bricking” that was observed after the November 1, 2006 release of a dashboard fix.
The most recent class action lawsuit made against Microsoft was in October of 2008 by Californian users. The filers claim that Microsoft knowingly made faulty consoles and that they denied to release the actual failure numbers of the consoles.
Xbox 360′s too often have problems. In an industry where only 3-5% is a reasonable failure rating, a rating of over 50% is outrageous! What happened to the game consoles that lasted for years and years without having any problems what so ever?
