What Are Your Biggest Pet Peaves With Console Hardware?

Post by **racketboy** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 12:33 pm

My biggest pet peeve is the loud fan and GD-ROM drive in the Dreamcast.
It's a shame such a little and useful machine has to be so loud.

Anybody else have similar annoyances?

Post by **abeisgreat** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 12:44 pm

Oh god yes. I FREAKING HATE! Controllers for any console that dont *click* when you press the button. i dont know why. but if i dont here the controller I cant play it.

Post by **Mozgus** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 12:47 pm

The fan on DC is pretty quiet compared to 360 at least. Maybe yours is drying up and need to be oiled.

Maybe my biggest one is DREs. They were by far the biggest reason why I largely ignored PS2. Seeing my friends so miserable over the years when DREs start popping up in a game with no way to recover from it and no way to even save. They were so random, with no permanent fixes.

Post by **abeisgreat** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 12:48 pm

whats a DRE?

Post by **Perseid** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 12:53 pm

Mozgus wrote:The fan on DC is pretty quiet compared to 360 at least. Maybe yours is drying up and need to be oiled.

Maybe my biggest one is DREs. They were by far the biggest reason why I largely ignored PS2. Seeing my friends so miserable over the years when DREs start popping up in a game with no way to recover from it and no way to even save. They were so random, with no permanent fixes.

I am on my second PS2. My first PS2 I had for probably 3 years and never had a DRE(disc read error) until the day it suddenly died. My new PS2, which is modded, never gives me DREs even on backups.

Perhaps your friends weren't keeping good care of their discs because the PS2 is not very tolerant of scratches and fingerprints. But it doesn't just randomly spit disc errors unless the hardware is dying.

Post by **racketboy** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 12:55 pm

Mozgus wrote:The fan on DC is pretty quiet compared to 360 at least. Maybe yours is drying up and need to be oiled.

Maybe my biggest one is DREs. They were by far the biggest reason why I largely ignored PS2. Seeing my friends so miserable over the years when DREs start popping up in a game with no way to recover from it and no way to even save. They were so random, with no permanent fixes.

Well the drive is louder, but the fan is no louder now than when I bought it new.
I guess I'm just used to quiet consoles.

The heat and noise is actually one of the main reasons I'm holding off on a 360, so I hope they do a significant hardware revision before moving onto the next XBox.

Post by **Mozgus** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 1:29 pm

Perseid wrote:
Mozgus wrote:The fan on DC is pretty quiet compared to 360 at least. Maybe yours is drying up and need to be oiled.

Maybe my biggest one is DREs. They were by far the biggest reason why I largely ignored PS2. Seeing my friends so miserable over the years when DREs start popping up in a game with no way to recover from it and no way to even save. They were so random, with no permanent fixes.
I am on my second PS2. My first PS2 I had for probably 3 years and never had a DRE(disc read error) until the day it suddenly died. My new PS2, which is modded, never gives me DREs even on backups.

Perhaps your friends weren't keeping good care of their discs because the PS2 is not very tolerant of scratches and fingerprints. But it doesn't just randomly spit disc errors unless the hardware is dying.

You wouldn't be on your 2nd PS2 if it was a good system. My friends dont lock their hardware away in a safe but they dont trash them either. And yes, I've seen PS2s give DREs countless times on seemingly perfect discs. Your one experience does not compare to the multiple experiences I've witnessed.

Funny thing is, I recently gave Halo 2 another chance on single player at a guy's house and it gave a DRE as well. I just laughed, got up, and walked away.

Post by **extrarice** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 2:17 pm

I'd have to say DREs also. Since it's proprietary hardware, it's not a simple matter of user-serviceable drive replacement. It's the downside of using optical media for games - the mechanics required to read from optical vs. solid-state media (like cartridges) wear out rather quickly.

Thankfully I've only had DRE troubles with a first-gen PS2, which was given to me.

Post by **nightwalker** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 2:29 pm

abeisgreat wrote:whats a DRE?

Disc Read Error

I would have to say the blowing of cartridge's. That was the mos that pisses me off.

Post by **RadarScope1** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 3:27 pm

On the 360 noise - It's truly been reduced. I bought a new 360 a month ago. It has a fairly quiet fan and the BenQ drive is pretty quiet. The drive makes a moderate amount of noise when booting a disc-based game, then calms down and you never hear it again. I know the older ones are loud and hot, but honestly if you buy a new 360 right now it's not going to be very loud. And I don't play games with the TV volume cranked, either.

That said my pet peeve these days for new hardware is there's too many damn SKUs. This size hard drive and that A/V connector type and does it or doesn't it have BC ... ugh. Just make a good box and stick with it! I really believe that's one reason why Wii is selling. You know what you're getting.