• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

"My Xbox 360 Died and I Lived to tell the story" Official Thread

mattiewheels

And then the LORD David Bowie saith to his Son, Jonny Depp: 'Go, and spread my image amongst the cosmos. For every living thing is in anguish and only the LIGHT shall give them reprieve.'
TheWolf said:
mine died after a couple of months. i got an older one back for free a couple weeks later with a Hitachi drive when the one i sent it was a Samsung.

if it breaks again and i have to pay money to get it fixed, someone is getting killed.
how can you tell if the drive's a samsung, btw? is it inscribed on the tray? (looks at tray...)
 

Lo-Volt

Member
mattiewheels said:
how can you tell if the drive's a samsung, btw? is it inscribed on the tray? (looks at tray...)

022806%20073.jpg
 
My first one was defective out of the box at launch. A few hours of play and it would freeze up. The only friend of mine who got one then had his work fine for a week and then he got the red ring problem. At least there's some variety to the deaths the system can experience.
 

Oneself

Member
My launch unit died last May. I got a new one on the same day and I'm freaking out everytime I start the damn thing.. it must take like 10 seconds until the image appears on screen. BTW, I started it tonight and there was no image on display, I checked if everything was connected correctly, and it was, so I shut it down then started it again.. and it worked fine. Strange.
 

JB1981

Member
I still can't believe that my launch unit works, and works well!

It's frozen up here and there, usually online (probably a network thing) .. but it seems to have gotten better the longer I've had it. And with the most recent update, the system functions much faster, liked they turned on an extra processor or something! Long live my launch unit!
Code:
knocks on wood furiously
 
Mine kept freezing each time I played a game last Sunday. Got my 360 in December and it was working fine until last Sunday, when every game I played, it would freeze within minutes. Called Microsoft Sunday, received box from them Friday, and I sent off the 360 today. Anyone know how long it typically takes before they send back the 360? I want to play Dead Rising. :(
 
Lo-Volt said:
I called them because I thought that was happening to me, but all 360 DVDs have rings close to the center, apparently? I called Microsoft about this as suggested in a previous post. Short story short, they blamed me for it and wouldn't help me. 'Oh, the only way that could happen is if you moved it while it was spinning.'

My rings are definitely towards the very outer edge of the disc and they definitely weren't there before I put them in the 360. Now I'm scared to play any game until I figure out exactly what is going on.
 

mattiewheels

And then the LORD David Bowie saith to his Son, Jonny Depp: 'Go, and spread my image amongst the cosmos. For every living thing is in anguish and only the LIGHT shall give them reprieve.'
Lo-Volt said:
http://www.llamma.com/xbox360/repair/dvd_drive/022806%20073.jpg[IMG][/QUOTE]
hey, thanks.

now, what makes the samsung drive better than the hitachi? is it just what they used in the second wave models?
 

Lo-Volt

Member
Stoney Mason said:
My rings are definitely towards the very outer edge of the disc and they definitely weren't there before I put them in the 360. Now I'm scared to play any game until I figure out exactly what is going on.

That's a different story, but I fear they may give you the same answer they had for me. :-| Sorry if it turns out that badly, but unless you have some replacement plan or extended warranty, I don't know what you could do...

mattiewheels: I personally don't know enough about them to answer, although they do sound a bit differently. For me, at least, the Samsung (360 made in January) came earlier; my recent replacement (360 made in May) was a Hitachi.
 

trmas

Banned
My original 360 died two weeks ago. Hooray for the Best Buy replacement plan. This is obviously common too, because the lady at Best Buy took one look, simlpy said go get another one, and took the unit with no questions. She says it's a common occurence - she personally sees at least one 360 a week, and I live in a small town!

This thing is manufactured like complete crap. I'm done with MS after this generation, because I've now had bad experiences with the 360 and the original XBox crapping out on me. Complete and total half-assed construction.

Anyone who buys this machine without a warranty is a moron.
 

Amir0x

Banned
Himuro said:
Can someone explain this wine coolers joke?

Short story:

EGM92 had like 5 or 6 of his Xbox360s broken, and he kept making threads about it. He was getting pretty pissed, like anyone would if they had six 360s in a row broken. This part, at least, was true.

So one day he posted a picture of his 360, to prove that he wasn't making it all up. Everyone looks at the picture and is like "uhm, you idiot, you have your 360 on top of a subwoofer. No wonder it keeps breaking." And so we have a good laugh. But then he comes back with the implausible excuse: "that's not a subwoofer, that's a wine cooler. I swear, a Thompson brand winecooler." Later on someone finds an picture of the RCA Subwoofer that was in EGM92's picture, and it was an exact replica of what was in the photo. Thus: EGM92 made up the wine cooler excuse to cover his own stupidity. He kept the story going for a while, saying he'd take a picture once his camera got back from Fujifilms :)lol), etc etc

But basically, that's the story. EGM92 kept having 360's breaking claiming it was Microsoft's shoddy hardware, and while it might have contributed the reality was he had his 360s on top of a giant subwoofer (and he tried to claim it was a wine cooler). :p
 

VALIS

Member
My brand new 360 that I bought last week and used all of two times has died already. Allow me to blow off some steam

GYAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH MOTHER****ING RAT **** COCK EATING ASS SNIFFING PIECE OF SHIT BOX ASSEMBLED BY DRUNK RETARDED MONKEYS!!!!!

That's two in two weeks. At least this one gets fixed for free.
 

Diseased Yak

Gold Member
Basically Dead Rising killed my 360. It's an early December model, less than 1 month after launch, and has been going relatively fine since then. The only trouble I've had previous to DR was the occassional crash in Oblivion. All other games ran flawlessly.

However, Dead Rising, being the powerhouse it is, gives me a DDE when I get past 30 minutes of straight play. Some faulty part is causing it to overheat, I'm thinking. Anyway, I'm getting the coffin in this next week and will be without my 360 for a week or more, but at least I had the extended warranty....
 

Kolgar

Member
I just bought a 360 yesterday. The build date is May 6, 2006. Surprising, I thought it'd be more recent.

Got the warranty, but it still better not break on me.
 

Luisito

Member
I have question about the extended warranty, guys. Last decemeber I filled out the form and mail it. Few day later the money was deducted from my bank account so they receive the form with no problem. Ok, my question is do they mail you some letter or something saying that they receive the form or guidelines about the warranty? Maybe they don't send anything so i was just curious. So if my Xbox 360 stops working, I just called and give them my xbox 360 serial number or credit card number to get the warranty?
 
Kolgar said:
I just bought a 360 yesterday. The build date is May 6, 2006. Surprising, I thought it'd be more recent.

Got the warranty, but it still better not break on me.

Where did you buy it from?
 

Suikoguy

I whinny my fervor lowly, for his length is not as great as those of the Hylian war stallions
Luisito said:
I have question about the extended warranty, guys. Last decemeber I filled out the form and mail it. Few day later the money was deducted from my bank account so they receive the form with no problem. Ok, my question is do they mail you some letter or something saying that they receive the form or guidelines about the warranty? Maybe they don't send anything so i was just curious. So if my Xbox 360 stops working, I just called and give them my xbox 360 serial number or credit card number to get the warranty?

I never got anything either, interestingly they needed no receipt
 

Spencerr

Banned
I had to call and give the heavily accented CSR my reference number and ask for the status of my repair. They gave me a UPS tracking number.
 

BuddyC

Member
Luisito said:
I have question about the extended warranty, guys. Last decemeber I filled out the form and mail it. Few day later the money was deducted from my bank account so they receive the form with no problem. Ok, my question is do they mail you some letter or something saying that they receive the form or guidelines about the warranty? Maybe they don't send anything so i was just curious. So if my Xbox 360 stops working, I just called and give them my xbox 360 serial number or credit card number to get the warranty?
I did the same thing with my original Xbox and never received anything as well. But when I started having problems and needed it to be repaired, they just pulled up my account with the extended warranty. It's been a while, but I'm pretty sure all they needed was my name.
 

gkryhewy

Member
Big Nate said:
However, Dead Rising, being the powerhouse it is, gives me a DDE when I get past 30 minutes of straight play. Some faulty part is causing it to overheat, I'm thinking.

How odd... when I got my "new" (replacement) 360 last week, the first thing I did was download and play the DR demo. After I quit (roughly 30 minutes later), I received "game could not start" errors when trying to launch the Ninety-Nine Nights and SF2 demos as well as Disc Read Errors when trying to play disc games. If I leave the system off for awhile, these errors disappear. The same symptoms occur with the full DR game.

After going back and forth with customer service over several phone calls, neither they nor I came up with any clear cause of the problem, but I have another coffin on the way in any case. I wonder if there might be something about DR that really is bringing out the worst in certain systems.
 

Dave Long

Banned
The more I see people saying how much these things fail, the more I think Microsoft is due for a class action lawsuit in the near future.
 
My 360 is dying, if not dead, also. Locks up at the dash, when playing DVDs, screen will sometimes freeze and look very pixelated accompanied by a horrific screeching sound, 3 rings of death (NW, SW and SE) etc. I am not happy.

Spoke to the MS CSR and her supervisor. $129 for out-of-warranty repair. After some discussion, he offered me 25% off. Sorry. I'm willing to pay $32.25 in shipping charges. I'll have to call tomorrow, but I am not spending $530 for a game console that is only nine months old.
 

TheOMan

Tagged as I see fit
Dave Long said:
The more I see people saying how much these things fail, the more I think Microsoft is due for a class action lawsuit in the near future.

Really just a matter of time on this one. Sigh, and I want a 360 badly :(.
 
I wonder if there might be something about DR that really is bringing out the worst in certain systems.

Yeah, I'm beginning to wonder that myself. I bought my 360 in December and never had the system freeze when playing any games until I downloaded the Dead Rising demo. Two days after downloading the Dead Rising demo, that was when my 360 kept freezing on me.

So, for over 7 months straight, I had zero problems with my 360, in terms of it freezing when playing any game. Two days after downloading Dead Rising, my system went kaput. Probably coincidence, but I have to say hmmmm here.....
 

AZ Greg

Member
It's interesting that people are claming Dead Rising is the cause for 360 deaths. It's almost like the inital playing of new software on the 360 is a risk to the systems health. If the system doesn't have any problems after the first few hours then you're good to go, but if it starts acting glitchy after playing the game for a short time then your 360 is in trouble. I recall people claiming "X" game or "X" demo being the cause for their 360s death. It's usually the higher profile games or demos that most everybody plays when we hear this. EA demos, FNR3, GRAW, Oblivion, and now Dead Rising.

I bought my 360 at the end of December and it ran perfectly up until mid-June. And coincidentally it was right after I started playing Ninja Gaiden Black that my 360 started acting up. It'll be interesting if we see claims of "Gears of War killed my 360" etc.
 

negitoro7

Member
So is there any truth to post-May 2006 units being different and less prone to system death? I'm looking to pick one up next month on my bday.
 
Mine just arrived at the repair center today, anyone know how long it usually takes for them to turn it around and ship it back?
 
GitarooMan said:
Mine just arrived at the repair center today, anyone know how long it usually takes for them to turn it around and ship it back?
I think it's dependant on how close you live to the center and if they're going to fix it or just replace the unit. I had to have mine fixed when the DVD drive kacked, the rep over the phone said 3 weeks for repair time, but I gave the broken 360 to the Purolator guy at 12:00 friday and had a replacement unit in my hands by 12:00 Wensday.
 

Meier

Member
My 360 is out for delivery now in McAllen. Hopefully that means I'll have received my replacement in time for the free Texas Hold'Em.
 

rs7k

Member
Mine was made in February, is that bad? It hasn't acted up wierd or anything yet, but sometimes the drive sounds like it's clicking (especially in Oblivion) and there's always a delay in the framerate when that happens. Like, I'll go up to someone, press A to talk, and the drive gets noisy for a good second, maybe two, then I'll hear the person talking.
 
Where is the manufacure date located? I'm curious about mine now.

Did anyone notice the sticker on the front of the disc tray that said something like "Do not move console with disc in drive." Any chance that could be connected to the damaged discs some of you are getting?
 

C4Lukins

Junior Member
We bought a friend a Core for his wedding. The manufacturing date was March. The first thing he tried was the Saints Row demo disk, it glitched over and over again withen the first minute, he couldn't get past the first cut scene. It works fine on my 360. He then bought a harddrive, attached it, and immediatly got the the ring of death. He then traded in both and got a premium which works fine. Not much of a story, but it was my first experience with a defective 360.

The manufacturing date by the way is on the back of the 360 itself.
 
I am pretty sure that the May xboxes are safe. I don't know about the April ones though; if anybody knows what it's like with an April Xbox let me know, cause I got mine today after having to deal with an ebay scammer and some crappy overstock service.
 

rs7k

Member
All I know is I don't understand the hate the 360 gets for getting too hot. My Gamecube and especially my Dreamcast got much much hotter. The discs coming out of my 360 aren't even close to warm. Maybe I'm just lucky (or I don't live in Texas).
 

Dave Long

Banned
I'm still sitting here with my broken one because I'm not sure I want to hand over another $100 on top of all the money I've spent on games. The thing is, if I don't fix it, I lose access to my Live Arcade games I purchased... forever. I can't even sell them off like I can the rest of the parts and pieces of the 360.

The whole situation is asinine and the 90-day warranty says to me that they knew they were going to have people with problems and that they were going to do everything in their power to make sure they didn't have to pay for them.
 
Last month when I started a game, every now and then I'd get 1 red circle but turning the Xbox 360 off and on again always fixed the problem. Now just yesterday whenever I tried to play a game any game I played froze after playing for about 5 minutes. Now when I try to start up my 360 I get the infamous 3 red circles:( I bought it at Wal-Mart about a month after it came out, how much should I expect I'll have to pay to get Microsoft to fix it?
 

rs7k

Member
It's around $130, non-negotiable unless you bitch your way up to the top. Personally, if my 360 breaks, I won't fix it. I have plenty of games for current system like PS2 and the first Xbox, and plenty more to discover. I bought mine on eBay brand new before I realized there was no warranty on it. But hey, at least I got a great deal on it.
 

mattiewheels

And then the LORD David Bowie saith to his Son, Jonny Depp: 'Go, and spread my image amongst the cosmos. For every living thing is in anguish and only the LIGHT shall give them reprieve.'
jeez, you people are scaring me. i don't have the money for an extended warranty, but mine'll give me the flashing red ring once in a while. this just seems so widespread...
 

rs7k

Member
Happens to me too with a Samsung drive. I wouldn't be concerned usually since my PS2 did the exact same thing, but it's a lot more frequent with the 360.
 

Lo-Volt

Member
Slayven said:
Anyone's 360 click when the disc starts spinning. It's just one click but should i be concerned over it?

If it keeps happening, then you should be concerned. My first 360 (R.I.P.) started doing that before the symptoms became more serious.
 

BlueTsunami

there is joy in sucking dick
Spencerr said:
Sometimes I can get it to turn on..... but it's doing this beep and then freezing.

What make was that 360 that just died? Was it a December model or one of the newer revisions?
 
Top Bottom