Racketboy

I don't get it either. I love the xbox for it's quality of games and experience that I get from it but I read about some people buying one and when that goes, buying a second or sometimes even a third one. Why do we continue to support that? The only reason I got mine was because it was brand new for $100 (a friend won it and didn't want it). If it dies on me and it's out of warranty....that's it. I won't support a poorly made product like that.

i only have one because I get everything. I got it last out off all of the consoles this gen because I was waiting for them to make a version that ran cooler and hopefully has less problems. I dont understand why they cant fix the problems in units sent in when they know what the problem is .

I thankfully haven't had a problem yet, although I'm fully expecting the RROD to pimp slap me soon enough.

As far as why I personally chose to buy a 360... I guess it mainly has to do with convenience. All of my friends play on XBL, so it was easy to buy a 360 so that I could play games like Call of Duty and Left 4 Dead with them. I really do like the Xbox Live service, and the Xbox Live Arcade is one of my favorite things to mess with currently. There a quite a few good games that have been released for it recently, such as Lucidity, 'Splosion Man, and Defense Grid.

I really just wish that Microsoft would own up to the problem. The extended warranty on the RROD is a nice start, but the problem is big enough to warrant a mass recall IMO.

Bought mine brand new from microcenter, spent way too much time trying to get the hdmi to fit next to the optical/av out (which is retarded in and of itself that i would have to do that), get everything ready to go...and you guessed it -freaking RROD. The first time i turned it on! The ONLY reason i even bothered with exchanging it is because most of my friends play online with xbox.

The reason they are failing is becuase of the poor lead-free solder they are forced to use to achieve rohs complience. It is illegal to sell electronics that have lead-based solder applied during manufacturing. Now the problem is, lead-free solder and BGA (ball grid arrays) as a combination are generally shit, when excess heat warps the motherboard, the connections simply crack. This same fault will plague PS3s and 360s because they have similar construction. The only way to fix it permanently is to reflux the BGA and reflow solder. This can only be effectively done with a BGA workstation, I don't know about you but I don't have easy access to one of those.

I personally don't know what else Microsoft can do about this problem, short of completely redesigning the system (as in a completely new SKU with a different case and everything) and putting in as smaller nanometer process chips as possible to cut down on excess heat. However, if the system gets hot enough to warp the motherboard, guess what, the problem is going to happen again and again because the lead-free solder they have to use sucks shit.

But since all electronics for a long time now have had to be lead-free, I don't think that fully explains the problem or lets them off the hook. Their failure rate is abysmal compared to other consoles, to other electronics that get hot while in use, to other BGA devices, etc. It's not just the lack of lead - there are just poor design decisions all around and cheap, shitty parts as well.

The cynical side of me wonders if this isn't an intentional design flaw so that when the 720 comes around and MS stops making 360s, they can wrap up any repairs they are obligated to perform under warranty and then make people either pay ungodly repair prices or just buy the new machine. Seeing how quickly they stopped selling/fully supporting the oXbox when the 360 came along, this wouldn't shock me.

Im kinda late in the discussion but I had the rrod in december 26 2007 (yeah right after christmas so you know how pissed I was) while giving my first play of guitar hero 3 . So Ive sent it back and a new one arrived on february and I still got it. This doesnt goes in here but you guys gona get a laught about it. Two months ago I busted my sfIV copy. The people that are in my friends list may have seen that Im a sf junkie hehe. I call microsoft for the program of scratch discs and guess what yep they said no about that one. So what did I did? Flashed the firmware to play my original backup of sfIV because I had to pay $35 plus tax for a used one on gamestop. So yesterday I turn on my console and wam Im ban from live. I didnt called customer service just cancelled my subscription and now I wont buy anything more from microsoft Ill just stick with my ps3 that has been working flawlessly from day one. I was so pissed I threw the 360 to the thrash so is somebody lives in Puerto Rico you can go to my garbage can and find a fully functional 360.

I am not sure why USA residents complain, Where I am there is NO free fixing. You simply lose your money. All you have to do is wait a couple of weeks.
The only solution here is to buy another, which can RROD too.

Personally I like the xbox due to the community and games. I wan to play Gears and Fable not GT and MGS. Plus most people online are using XBL not a ps3(at least where I am).

But in all honesty, no one should be buying 360's any more.
The ps3 is equal in price, the slim looks better, no RROD, it has Blueray, and plays psx games, and it got wireless connection standard(360's is $100 I believe).

All people complain about the RROD, then some others come to say they had their 360 for 4 years with nothing happening. I think some people are lying about not getting RRODs. I would chose the 360, but the hardware is crap.(currently owning a 360 which RRODed and got it fixed, no ps3 ever)

Well, that's just the thing. It's NOT convenient having a machine that is so unreliable. A year or two ago, if 2 or 3 of your friends would've said "ENOUGH" and got PS3s, then it would be convenient to use PSN instead of XBL and you wouldn't be running a high risk of your system dying. I'm really not trying to be a drone for Sony here, but a proponent for smart shopping instead of buying what everyone else has.


You claim that the PS3 and 360 have a similar build, but I don't hear about nearly as many PS3s yellow-lighting it as I do 360s RRODing. Whatever Sony did in building the PS3 to be relatively reliable, they did it much better than the competition did (unlike the last gen with the early PS2 models..., and before that with early PS1s...).


I just with they'd port the Fable games to the PS3. My PC isn't up to spec!