Xbox 360 Ring of Death blues again

Posted Mar 25, 2007 at 7:52PM by QJ Staff Listed in: Xbox 360 Tags: Microsoft, Ring of Death

Now it's no secret that the Xbox 360 jumped the gun in the console wars, being released ahead of competitors' own consoles in almost every region on the planet. But could it be that Microsoft actually released their next-gen console a little too prematurely for its own good?

Blogger Caspian once adored his Xbox 360. But after the dreaded three lights appeared after re-inserting his Gears of War DVD, he was terrified that he finally became one of many victims of the Red Ring of Death. Despite repeated RRoD occurrences with his local Toys 'R' Us 360 demo station and even the death his own brother's Xbox console, he didn't realize that it could also happen to him. Karma - gotta love that notion.

But even before the Ring of Death enveloped his 360 in darkness, he also had an issue with the hard drive, which Microsoft required him to pay for (plus tax) to get it replaced. In fact, he goes so far as to say, "Usually, I gawk at the prospect of spending US$ 600 on a PS3, but whoÂ’s the sucker now? IÂ’ve invested over US$ 500 now on my 360, and got a little over a yearÂ’s gaming to show for it."

But some Ring of Death issues are recoverable, as we've noticed before. It's not so much of a bad thing if you're knowledgeable in hardware care. If the hardware was faulty in the first place and the warranty expired, well, as most PC hardware enthusiasts would sum it up, you were screwed. And if Microsoft is aiming for the non-gamer bracket as they claim that they want to do, they're going to have to compensate for the non-gamer's lack of knowledge in the hardcore techie side.

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Comments

# duh — Guest 2007-03-25 14:20

Its microsoft.. they make a living on making subpar products.. duh.. lol, I still laugh at people who say that this isn't a big problem...

# We all know Microsux at making consoles. — Guest 2007-03-25 14:55

That's the reason you should have gotten a PS3. XBOX 360 is a piece of SHlT!!! Ps3 for the win!

# 5 xboxes — Guest 2007-03-25 15:02

ive gone through 5 xboxes(all red rings, some before i even got to play them!) now i got a ps3 and it pwns my 360.now the xbox is collecting more dust than my ps3 does! ps3 ftw!!!

# lolz — Guest 2007-03-25 15:35

according to the official playstation foruns, you can check that PS3 is having far more problems than x360 did...

...broken hard disks ot of the box...

...un-synced FMV's in games (SONIC, and anothers)

...problems playing PS1 games

...Problems playing PS2 games.

...Problems playing regular DVDs

...AND BRICK'AGE!

# no — Guest 2007-03-25 15:42

i hate you all including your mothers you are all fanboys. all the sane people realise the dreamcast is the best console ftwomg. seeing as it has the best game ever on it...... tbh

# xbox — Guest 2007-03-25 15:43

ive had my xbox for over a year and ive had no RRoD, not 'please clean disc' errors or anything.. the only problem ive had is with oblivion because thats buggy as hell.. go ahead and buy a PS3... enjoy ur exclusive games, enjoy having no money to eat at the end of the week, enjoy playing car racing games with no rumble, enjoy your new amazing virtual HOME wow! lets put furniture in my new home YAY! cant wait for that one! so exciting...

# exploding ps3 — Guest 2007-03-25 16:18

My PS3 exploded and set my house on fire, so now I have a 360.

# tsk tsk — Vecha 2007-03-25 16:31

do people not remember the ps1 and ps2? dieing after a year?

guess what sony fanboys. The year isn't up yet. just wait till this nov.

# no problem here — Guest 2007-03-25 16:37

i own 2 xbox 360 and no problem here. i even run one as a game server...

# I wonder... — Shatterdome 2007-03-25 17:51

Why every blogger or person with web access get's a story done on him when he gets a defect ?

Even still, out of 10 million 360's, the handful of stories you see blogged about, which then get blown out of proportion, makes for a well under the acceptable 4%

I also have a launch 360 that's been used for an average of 5-7 hrs a day since launch....why not blog about me and the huge success I've had....and also on the other 9,998,000 people.....

# problems.. — Guest 2007-03-25 18:26

it seems to plague those that have had the problem already..

I've gone through 3 xbox 360s now... when it works.. I LOVE IT...

but I'm just kind of tired of it not being reliable.. I'll buy a new one next year ..

i'm letting my xbox live account end this month.... this is MS is in trouble..

too many of us have machines that dont work.. and we dont care...

BUT... Sony isn't completely innocent either..

My PSP wont read UMDs anymore... at all... all of the sudden it stopped working....

(lil more than pissed off lol)

this is why I love my PC.. if something breaks.. I can fix it .. no hassles.. no support tech team to bother me

# I agree — Guest 2007-03-25 20:05

My ps2 gave me the "disk read error" after 1 year of ownership, my psp is very picky with what UMD's it chooses to read, and my xbox 360 is still going strong. It makes me sick to see fanboys jump on any excuse they can get to slam another system. Both my PS3 and my xbox 360 run smooth. Just because I had a bad history with sony doesnt mean I'm going to become a MS fanboy. I love all my consoles, electronics fail period. It all comes down to customer support. If either my 306 or ps3 dies, I'll have to wait to see how I feel about the support I get.

# bigx you are a hoax — Constantinecy 2007-03-25 20:06

Common man stop liying. If something like that happen it would be all over the news trust me MS would make sure of that.

And by the way from what I here about Xbox problem issues then I wouldnt be amazed if your house ended up in a blaze. So no hard feelings just be carefull with that... Red ring of hell.

# dfsgdsfg — Guest 2007-03-25 20:07

.... PS3 exclusive games?.......... yeah.... enjoy those..... lmao

# 4567 — Guest 2007-03-25 20:09

ive had the red ring of light for 3 hrs, now it works fine, however ive moved the system from vertical to horizontal, plus i think it was the components cables, for some reason it feels loose now, also i have something rattling around in the console when i shake the system.

# I thought it was just some stupid Sonybot rant — Guest 2007-03-25 20:47

And then when I fired it up one day (with Dead Rising in the tray, no less) the ROD popped up. Tried the whole stupid "Do this if your Xbox is malfunctioning BS", but that didn't work out. The replacement wasn't very difficult, but paying $140 to fix a product that should've come problem-free isn't cool. I already spent around $300 for games and a controller, so selling isn't much of an option. I'm just praying that nothing else happens to this one...'knock on wood'

# A blogger makes for your news ???? — Guest 2007-03-26 01:30

A blogger!! says something(his view) so you think its news ???,(you could print news from 10 bloggers that say the opposite) I wonder how many blogs say exactly the same sort of thing about PS3 problems?.Who cares about bloggers the real picture is most people have no problems with their system, it wouldnt be around 10.5 million 360 sold if people were seeing their relatives friends neighbors etc with these so called problems. Its proberly mainly wishful thinking by people who call MS evil etc.

# Should be intresting when a PS3 blog emerges — Guest 2007-03-26 01:35

I dread to think of the responses once a couple of blogs are printed that show any PS3 problems.

# ... — Guest 2007-03-26 03:20

What your forgetting is that this is only with a small section of PS3 owners, whereas with the 360 there is a lot of problems which are major with the console. These that you listed are minor problems (apart from brickage) and can be easly repaired.

# xbox, and xbox360 — Guest 2007-03-26 04:01

i've had both the original and the 360 ive had to take them both back for the same reason read disc error b/c the laser was broken now the playstation i had problems with was the original plus i have all three next gen consoles and no problems with ninty but i dont prefer any of them

# damn — Guest 2007-03-26 04:39

The PS3 raped my dog and burnt my eggs! DOWN WITH THE PS3. Now I have an x360 and it babysits my kids. How could anything beat that!

# All Your Base Are Belong To Sony — Guest 2007-03-26 07:31

The Xbox 360 raped several small children and their mothers. It also exploded in several people's faces as they crept up to it to inspect it after seeing the infamous RRoD. They got third degree burns. The Xbox 360 also has a little Billybot spyware program on it that allows Bill Gates to brainwash you whilst you play. He actually tries to make you think that you didnt waste your money on the *****eBox 360 and that the RRoD is a sign for good. He tries to make you think that the PS3 is bad. And the scary thing is, some people believe it...

PS3 For The Win! PS3 PWNS ALL! All Your Base Are Belong To PS3. For Great Justice! This is Living! PLAY B3YOND!

# ***** you — Guest 2007-03-26 11:08

your a *****ing idiot ps3 sux so many problems with it more than ps3 by the way it lost ff13 and soon mgs 4

# I have all three sat in front of me... — Guest 2007-03-26 11:14

...and though it pains me to say, the only one thats given me any bother is the 360... Hence I have a PS3, a Wii and a 360 right in front of me now as I type... and a dead 360 behind me. Which was an engagement present from my fiancée and will likely never work again.

So yeah, sadly I'm down on Microsoft this week... Really down on them.

# ***** — Guest 2007-03-26 11:16

you idiot

# z0mg? — Guest 2007-03-26 11:42

My xbox360 works fine never had one problem love it kthx. I just wish people wouldn't fight over which console is better and get over it, i like them both just i don't own a ps3. But, the last sony product i bought (ps2) gave me a disc read error, i tried everything sony told me to do and it never worked but oh well.

# Emulation — Guest 2007-03-26 14:24

I don't think you can really say "problems playing PS1 + PS2 games" is really a problem. Emulation takes time and it's no one's fault. Xbox 360 couldn't play Xbox games in the begining because they had emulation issues.

As for bricking, you can brick almost anything. It's a common but small risk. Just don't go unplugging things at random moments and you should be fine.

# ***** — Guest 2007-03-27 06:59

***** is the only word that comes to mind, proper *****.

# take care of it — Guest 2007-03-27 08:09

if you get the red ring more than once, then you're definitely not taking care of your xbox360 properly. I know someone who leaves disks in the console and carries it up stairs (jumping up each step) and then almost dropping the console onto the couch.

He got the red ring 3 times, and still hasn't learned.

Just take care of your xbox, and it won't break. The same goes for any piece of hardware.

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