OK, I'm not trying to stir anything up here, I'm just trying to get a feel for how many bad machines there are out there. To that end, I'd like everyone who has a 360 to reply and tell me if your machine is working correctly or not, especially those who have working machines, since the most vocal people are always the ones with defective machines...
My story first - between my friends and I, we bought 6 machines at the Zero Hour event. Of the 6, my machine has a dead hard drive, another machine is working but is rather flaky (seen some strange behavior - the drive may also be scratching discs, as my friend's copy of Condemned is now unplayably scratched, but we don't know if the drive caused it - the machine has also had problems booting games and being turned off...), one seems to be good, and I haven't heard yet about the status of the other three.
I'll also put some of the more common failures up here and (if possible) how to fix them yourself...
Lower right segment flashing red - Error code E67 - "Contact Xbox Customer Support" screen: You seem to have a bad hard drive. Remove the hard drive and see if the machine boots correctly without it. If it does, you'll need to replace your hard drive.
All four segments flashing red - no video: Hey! Plug in your video cable!
Xbox doesn't power on: Check the power brick. The light on it should be orange if in standby, green if the console is on. If the light is red, that means something bad has happened - try unplugging the power brick from the wall until the light fades out to reset it, then try plugging it in again to see if it will go into standby.
Three segments flashing red - no video: This is probably a power supply (low voltage) problem, people have reported fixing this by cleaning the contacts on the power brick. Don't forget to unplug everything before you start cleaning the contacts.
Also check to make sure that the power supply cable is fully seated in the console, and check the color of the light on the power brick. You may be able to fix this yourself by unplugging the power supply from the wall for a few minutes and plugging it back in. This error also seems to occur if the wall power glitches or browns out (power outage seems to cause all but the upper right quadrant to flash)...
Two lights on left flashing red: Console is overheated, let it cool off before trying to play again, and see if you can place the console somewhere with better ventilation...
Error E71, E79: I haven't seen these myself, but I suspect these are caused by thermal problems from reading what people say about them...
Error E68: I am not sure what this is but I saw this once when I switched the video cable from HD to SD with the power on (got the error when the console rebooted)...it cleared up when I cycled the power, however.
Xbox refuses to be turned off (console powers down, then powers back on a few seconds later): My theory on this is that there is a microcontroller that controls power to the system. After certain events (like a firmware flash) the console will tell the microcontroller to power the system down, then power it back on. I think that somehow this chip can get confused into always powering the system back up when it's turned off. To fix this, turn the system off, and then disconnect the power cord from the back of the machine before it turns back on...this seemed to fix it for my friend, anyway.
If all else fails and you have to call Xbox customer service (1-800-4MY-XBOX):
If your console requires replacement, they'll send you a prepaid box, and they claim the turnaround on repairs is 3 days or less (not including transit time - you're overnighting your box to them, and they overnight it back).
If part of your console fails, they may simply send you a replacement, they now say that end users shouldn't have to mail stuff back on their own (despite what they told me earlier). If you do have to mail stuff back, they should send you a prepaid box...
If you guys have seen other problems or have a solution to a problem, post, and share it with the rest of us...hopefully it's just a small minority that is having trouble.
My story first - between my friends and I, we bought 6 machines at the Zero Hour event. Of the 6, my machine has a dead hard drive, another machine is working but is rather flaky (seen some strange behavior - the drive may also be scratching discs, as my friend's copy of Condemned is now unplayably scratched, but we don't know if the drive caused it - the machine has also had problems booting games and being turned off...), one seems to be good, and I haven't heard yet about the status of the other three.
I'll also put some of the more common failures up here and (if possible) how to fix them yourself...
Lower right segment flashing red - Error code E67 - "Contact Xbox Customer Support" screen: You seem to have a bad hard drive. Remove the hard drive and see if the machine boots correctly without it. If it does, you'll need to replace your hard drive.
All four segments flashing red - no video: Hey! Plug in your video cable!
Xbox doesn't power on: Check the power brick. The light on it should be orange if in standby, green if the console is on. If the light is red, that means something bad has happened - try unplugging the power brick from the wall until the light fades out to reset it, then try plugging it in again to see if it will go into standby.
Three segments flashing red - no video: This is probably a power supply (low voltage) problem, people have reported fixing this by cleaning the contacts on the power brick. Don't forget to unplug everything before you start cleaning the contacts.
Also check to make sure that the power supply cable is fully seated in the console, and check the color of the light on the power brick. You may be able to fix this yourself by unplugging the power supply from the wall for a few minutes and plugging it back in. This error also seems to occur if the wall power glitches or browns out (power outage seems to cause all but the upper right quadrant to flash)...Two lights on left flashing red: Console is overheated, let it cool off before trying to play again, and see if you can place the console somewhere with better ventilation...
Error E71, E79: I haven't seen these myself, but I suspect these are caused by thermal problems from reading what people say about them...
Error E68: I am not sure what this is but I saw this once when I switched the video cable from HD to SD with the power on (got the error when the console rebooted)...it cleared up when I cycled the power, however.
Xbox refuses to be turned off (console powers down, then powers back on a few seconds later): My theory on this is that there is a microcontroller that controls power to the system. After certain events (like a firmware flash) the console will tell the microcontroller to power the system down, then power it back on. I think that somehow this chip can get confused into always powering the system back up when it's turned off. To fix this, turn the system off, and then disconnect the power cord from the back of the machine before it turns back on...this seemed to fix it for my friend, anyway.
If all else fails and you have to call Xbox customer service (1-800-4MY-XBOX):
If your console requires replacement, they'll send you a prepaid box, and they claim the turnaround on repairs is 3 days or less (not including transit time - you're overnighting your box to them, and they overnight it back).
If part of your console fails, they may simply send you a replacement, they now say that end users shouldn't have to mail stuff back on their own (despite what they told me earlier). If you do have to mail stuff back, they should send you a prepaid box...
If you guys have seen other problems or have a solution to a problem, post, and share it with the rest of us...hopefully it's just a small minority that is having trouble.
