Tag Archives: rrod

They’re like popcorn, really – you just can’t stop.

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The BBC is reporting that numerous Xbox 360 users are having issues with their consoles when connecting their brand-new Kinect devices to the system.
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Albert Penello, senior director of global marketing for Xbox 360, has said that Microsoft wants to put the console’s hardware failure issues behind it.

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Microsoft’s confident enough with its latest console that it has took out the red LED’s entirely, meaning that the infamous Red Ring of Death is no more.

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A survey conducted by CNET UK has shown that 60 percent of Xbox 360 owners polled experienced hardware failure compared to 16 percent of PS3 user and 6 percent of Wii owners.

Of the 1,128 UK-based participants, 562 owned a Xbox 360s, 473 owned a PS3 and 591 had a Wii, some owning more than one.

The survey also indicated that Xbox 360 failures are more likely to occur within 12 months of purchase, and 47 percent reporting console failure inside a year with 72 percent of users taking advantage of the warranty and 15 percent trying to fix the problem themselves.

CNET says the survey does not “represent a random or necessarily representative sample”.

Full story through the link.

Via Gamespot.

Thanks, freedoms_stain.

Xbox 360 production boss Aaron Greenberg has told Gamespot that 360′s RROD and E74 hardware disasters are now largely in the past.

“We’ve been working hard to make improvements in the products we’re currently making, so I really feel like most of this is well behind us,” he said.

Greenberg added that production advancements have given 360 greatly enhanced stability.

“I can tell you the consoles we’re making today have lower-heat chips and better cooling, and we’re seeing fantastic quality in those consoles today,” he said.

“That said, I know people have had issues with systems which were bought earlier in the life cycle and that’s part of the reason why we implemented our unprecedented three-year warranty for anyone who gets the three red-ring flashing light error or the E74 error.”

More through there. Thanks, rrod360lol.

Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg seems to think that the RROD days will soon just be a horrible memory in the history of gaming.

Speaking in an interview with Edge, the Microsoft bossman says, “We’ve improved that [repair] process. It’s very quick, and they may upgrade your system with the latest technology. So that works really well.

“What it comes down to is isolating and figuring out the issue, fixing the issue, and the more that we can fix the issue, and know it’s fixed, then we’re good going forward. We’ve put the worst behind us on this, but we know there are a few lagging systems, and so we want to take those and make it right.”

What these hardware updates are exactly is unknown: Greenberg says isn’t at liberty to divulge the specifications.

Oh dear. English newspaper The Daily Mirror is reporting that Xbox 360 Elite consoles are also suffering from the now infamous RroD.

The report also says that Microsoft will face a £500 million bill to rectify the problem, although we’re assuming that’s just the $1 billion figure approximated on the warrantee extension last year.

Microsoft has issued a statement which simply says:

“The majority of Xbox 360 owners enjoy a great experience with their console.

“Anyone with a problem should call Xbox customer service.”

E3 is getting more mouth-watering by the minute.

By Mike Bowden

Speaking at the Design Automation Conference in California this week, Bryan Lewis, research vice president and chief analyst at Gartner, said that the reason Microsoft was forced to admit Xbox 360′s hardware faults and spend $1 billion on a recall was because the firm wanted to avoid paying a third party to help make the console’s GPU.

“Microsoft wanted to avoid an ASIC vendor,” said Lewis, designed the chip by itself, cut a traditional manufacturer out of the process and went straight to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.

When the RROD problem got out of hand, Microsoft struck a deal with an unnamed ASIC vendor – probably ATI – and issued the recall.

Lewis added: “Had Microsoft left the graphics processor design to an ASIC vendor in the first place, would they have been able to avoid this problem? Probably. The ASIC vendor could have been able to design a graphics processor that dissipates much less power.”

Thanks to EETimes.

According to this, SquareTrade, the company that made headlines earlier this month for claiming that Xbox 360 has a hardware failure rate of around 16 percent, has now made a statement saying the actual figure it likely to be higher.

Because of the date range studied, SquareTrade said it was unlikely that any modified 360s – announced by Microsoft in July to combat overheating problems – were included in the initial 1,000-strong sample of warrantees.

Because the report only tracked the sample for between six and 10 months after warranty purchase, SquareTrade said the failure rate may be low. If tracking would have continued for 24 to 36 months, the company said “the fail rate is certain to go up.”

See here.

Microsoft’s responded to a warranty firm that claimed that 16 percent of Xbox 360s it covered end up broken, based on a sample of 1,000 machines. Unsurprisingly, Microsoft wasn’t exactly impressed.

“We have not seen the report, and are unfamiliar with the agency that filed it,” said a spokesperson, here. “Based on the enthusiast community’s feedback yesterday, the methodology of this report is suspect.”

No other figures have been offered by Microsoft as to an overall failure rate for the machine.

According to this, warrantee firm SquareTrade has reported that, based on 1,000 warrantees, Xbox 360 has a current failure of 16.4 percent, 60 percent of which is the much-publicised red ring of death issue.

SquareTrade CEO Steve Abernethy added a cheery note to the findings: “It is reasonable to believe these failure rates will increase over time, since the Xbox 360 failure issues tend to increase with prolonged use where overheating appears the main culprit.”

Full thing through the link.

According to this, a row appears to be developing between Microsoft and EB Australia. The retailer is seemingly throwing a “bit of a fanny” in private over the fact that Microsoft is allegedly refusing to honour AU$ 10 million on faulty Xbox 360s. From the story:

According to the transcript, EB Australia has $10 million worth of defective Xbox 360s gathering dust, as Microsoft is unwilling to take them back. As a result, EB is no longer stocking the 360, except as second-hand or pre-owned units. A search of the EB Games website for “xbox 360″ confirms this.

“There have been threats of EB dropping the Xbox range all together,” says the transcript.

To recoup its losses, EB is trying to repair the defective units and offer them as second-hand. However these units are often returned dead, the transcript states. It also mentions that EB lost $85 per console sold once Microsoft introduced the standard three-year warranty, as EB was unable to offer its own.

Microsoft has since issued a “no comment” on the situation. Kotaku AU will no doubt stay with this to the death, so we’ll let you know what happens.