Unlucky INQ reader on 5th Xbox 360
AN UNLUCKY INQ reader has written in to describe his Xbox 360 woes.
The unfortunate gamer, is now on his fifth console, after a plethora of problems with four previous boxes, all of which suffered problems not directly attributable to the infamous Red-Ring-Of-Death.
Simon's first 360 started experiencing problems three months in, when it refused to eject a game disc, and produced some odd noises. Fortunately the drive finally popped-out, and he was able to replace his game with the title of his choice.
Lo and behold, the same noises occurred, and on examining his discs, both were chipped, scratched and broken - an example of which, he documented below.
Fortunately, after Currys refused to believe the console had chewed his games up, further testing revealed he was telling the truth, and the company replaced his console.
After another six months, his new console produced the standard disc-read error "To play this disc, please put it in a Xbox 360 Console". Currys also replaced this - and another, shortly after, which experienced exactly the same problems.
Now on his fourth Xbox 360, after some time, it started to have graphical problems (shown below), with various glitches, texture corruption etc, and he would also infrequently get an error code "74" or even just a blank screen from his console on-boot.
Unfortunately, his local store had no 360s left upon this incident, and he had to take a train to another store to get his fifth Xbox 360, since the console was released.
Simon now states his fifth console has some odd start-up problems where he has to reset his console several times before it works.
This is a tale of woe, familiar to many Xbox 360 owners, yet the majority of his problems aren't even the standard bug-bear - the RROD issue. We feel your pain.
Microsoft, if you're reading, and want to get in contact with the owner, drop the INQ an email. µ
Share this:
Business Intelligence Software
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Enterprise Accounting Software
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
Enterprise Systems Management
Built my first PC in 88/89 a 12MHz 286 job, from then till 2005 I had only had one HDD fail, one motherboard fail and one memory module doa. 

Since 2005 I've had four motherboards fail, five PSU's fail and two HDD's die. All these latest ones were all within warranty periods. To top it all I just got a two gig memory kit RMA return that was faulty out the box too. 

I remember the 60/70's when the Japanese flooded the market with cheap, well made and reliable solid state electronics, Now we just get cheap.
you would have to be an idiot to buy an Xbox360. Not only because it's the worst consumer product every, with regards to reliability (or lack of). But because buying Xbox means you fully endorse Microsofts rushing the product to market to beat Sony, at the expense of bothering to test it.

There is plenty of evidence that shows Microsoft knew about the 360 problems before launch, but carried on anyway, as customers are stupid, and will buy anything.

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3169798

Sorry, but if you have ever bought an Xbox, you have just lost the right to complain about the quality of a Microsoft product ever again. Cleary Microsoft will also try this stunt next time too, simply because you went ahead and bought anyway. Microsoft should not be rewarded with Xbox sales because they went ahead and knowingly launched a faulty product..
http://www.product-reviews.net/2008/11/20/microsoft-rep-knew-xbox-360-rrod-with-new-xbox-experience/

Carried on launching NXE despite knowing it would kill consoles (I assume they looked forward to the revenue from purchases of replacement 360s).

Sounds like the time know knowingly launched a faulty console on the world, because they were so desperate to get in before Sony.

http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/17508/Takahashi-Microsoft-Knew-About-RROD-Before-Launch/
Could he be the one?

*Integr8d bows in reverence
a real fanboy ^_^ . Must be an idiot to keep going deeper into that sh***. 

DUDE BUY PS3 OR WII !!!
Why oh why did dumb consumers make the X360 a successful machine when no one in its sane mind should waste money on it?
I'm not questioning the console's ability to provide good entertainment, but why waste money on something so expensive that melts, scratches disks, makes an unbearable noise, and doesn't have a fair warranty for all these problems? Why are people so dumb not to realize that 3 years warranty is very little? Why weren't all consoles recalled and a version with a fixed design manufactured?

Because YOU are dumb! You gave your money without demanding something with the bare minimum quality from the manufacturer. And now there's no reason why future electronics manufacturers shouldn't copy Microsoft's tactics. Who are probably copying Apple's tactics.
There are far too many dumb people in the world to make it profitable for them.

Sigh.

Kudos to The Inq for trying to enlighten those who still didn't get it.
I'm calling BS on this. I don't doubt this guy has ruined five 360's, but I think the problem is him. Is he one of those kooks that has a 4 level powerstrip cascade set up? Or one who has all of his electonics locked up tight in a pretty looking hutch, with a kilowatt of heat being generated and no exit.

I'm willing to call Microsoft on anything that remotely seems like their fault, but at this point you're talking odds.
its common. my brother-in-law is also on his 5th or 6th box with same type problems. I am still on my original since it came out and haven't had a single problem. Am I lucky or is he unlucky? From hearing all these problems, I think I must be lucky.
its too bad to hear that this guy has had repeated problems with his X360. I have had my X360 for a year now and have absolutely no problem. I use it all the time and it never gives me any grief at all. There seems to be a lot of XBOX haters out here - I don't know why - it's an excellent product and the NXE makes it that much better.
DON'T turn it straight off after a lenghty gaming session ffs, SIT ON THE DASHBOARD for a couple of minutes to let the system cool down properly 1st.

I'm only on my 2nd 360 in 2 years (no RROD, just graphical corruption after a CoD4 marathon) AND have had no NEX (abbreviated properly for M$ buffoons) issues...YET!
Wow, fanboys really jumped on this one, huh????? I'm on my 3rd and if I have to go the the 100th I will as it still has kick ass games!!!!! see didn't even have to bash a another console!!!! image that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Unforunately, it's not BS. It was verified pre-publishing. 5 isn't the worst number, xbox-scene.com has one poster on his 11th, and I've received many emails stating user's also on their 4th, 5th or 6th Xbox, and complaining of similar problems.
This don't surprise me one bit everyone i know with an xbox has had it fail at a year old one of my workmates 360.s only went for 8 months before he had to send it back .Microsoft is doing like all companys and building dor Maximum profit rather than quality .U have never had one pc die on me thats why its my gaming platform of choice .
Every console has problems and millions of 360's users have had their 360 without any problems at all. I have a launch system that runs fine. Also had a one year old one that got a RROD. It's luck of the draw. Of course the PS3 is perfect according to the fanboys. Doesn't matter that I run a repair shop and now that the PS3 is 2 years old, the number of PS3 repairs that are coming in is starting to climb and climb. Dead bluray lasers are big one. Fixed about half a dozen dead bluray lasers in the past month, and those things are not cheap. PS3 hard drives dying, by the boatload! Ton's of pissed of customers because their PS3 hard drive dies and they loose all the saved games. But, ya, they're perfect.
you dont seem to realize that sony PS3 is not better than the Xbox360, my friend work in a electronic store and have the same amount of return for the PS3 .. The PS3 is not better . 
Anyway nothing beats a computer for gaming ...
I always find it strange that the internet is awash wish people claiming to have gone through anywhere up to about 7 Xboxs 360s, yet i know more than a dozen friends, family and colleagues with 360s and none of us has had a failure, the nearest any of them has come to a fault is my nephews launch model which sometime needs a couple of attempts before it reads certain discs but is fine once it's reconized it.
Not one failure of any kind, be it RROD, laser, HDD or anything.
I don't like to accuse individual people of lying since i don't know their personal circumstances but there must be alot of fanboy mistruths or badly modded consoles about because i've never been that lucky with electrical goods and all 12 consoles i know of and no failures doesn't seem to tie in at all with what i'm reading on the internet.
My first 360 had the same issue as the last problem he had. No video, and or video corruption. Luckily I took mine apart and fixed it because the issue isn't with the main processing components, but the image processor responsible for outputting a video signal in the various formats.

I have seen at least five threads on the official forums filled to the brink with 360s that work fine, but don't put out any video signals at all. Worst of all their three year warranty program only dictates the 3RROD problem and as this chip isn't fault checked like the CPU, GPU, and Memory it isn't tied into any fault checks.
How come folks seem to be getting all different replacements?

When mine RROD'd a couple of months ago the exact same 360 came back (serial no. etc) all fixed within 12 days.

However, one snippet of gossip I can impart is when the UPS chap came to collect my 360 I did ask him how many of these he gets to collect.

He sighed and said that he only covered half the city but collected on average 8 to 15 a week! This isnt London by the way.

Oh and I can moan if I like as I won my 360!
I love how some of you just blame the guy. I am on my 5th xbox360 either because of the RRoD problem or bad disc readers.
My machine sits on top of a cabinet sitting right under the AC vent and still dies ...it isn't anything I'm doing ...it has everything to do with the 360.
My original xbox never had a problem and I haven't had ANY issues with my ps3.
As far as claims that the ps3 has the same amount of problems ...nice try fanboy! When I have an xbox360 fail ...my UPS drivers laughs and asks who has a dead 360 when he brings in the empty box to my office. UPS drive told me that his route alone he averages 10 empty boxes a week for dead 360's ...but there isn't a problem with 360's it's just the ppl that don't know how to use one ...keep believing that!