Sunday, May 24, 2009

Are Xbox 360 Problems Stressing You Out?

By Jozel Max

No Xbox 360 problems? Then count yourself as one of the lucky ones. With a failure rating of more then 50%, most consumers have experienced at least one problem with their console.

These problems can be anything from the "Red Ring of Death", to just simple game freezing. Some consumers experience disks being scratched while others see "bricking". Whether the problems are acceptable or not, they are still a headache.

Imagine you have been playing for 4 hours straight. You have been working on completing an extremely hard area in the game, and then suddenly the game freezes! Rebooting doesn't fix the problem. You take the disk out and see scratches on your new disk. Your console has either missing pads near the reader, or your drive doesn't secure the disk in place. This is unfortunately very common, more common when the console is positioned on the side.

Nothing could be more frustrating then having paid anywhere from $300 to $700 for a game console and having it become no more useful then a brick. That is what happens when a dashboard update is applied and causes the hardware to fail. It becomes "bricked", completely useless. This problem costs $99 or more if the console is not under warranty because you have to send it in to Microsoft.

You have settled in for a nice long marathon playing your newest game but when you boot up your Xbox 360, you only see 3 red lights lit up around the power light. Because of the red ring shape the lights look like, this has become known as the "Red Ring of Death". When you see that, don't expect to be playing your new game anytime soon. You will have to send in your console to Microsoft and wait an average of 8 weeks to get it or a replacement back. Thankfully since this is so common of an issue, Microsoft has extended the 1-year warranty these consoles come with to 3-years. Due to faulty design, core digital and general hardware failures happen too often.

Because the Xbox 360 is so problematic and is known for failures, lawsuits are common. Not long after it was released, the first lawsuit was filed. When the November 1, 2006 patch was released, a lawsuit was file because of "bricking". Applying the updated "bricked" many consoles.

Though it has been over 3 years since the Xbox 360 first came out, the many issues still around continues to bring about more lawsuits. In October of 2008, a class action lawsuit was filed against Microsoft. The lawsuit was brought about by Californian consumers, which claimed that Microsoft knew about the faulty consoles but continued to manufacture them anyway. Microsoft also refuses to give the actual console failure rates.

The industry will accept 3-5% failure ratings, but Microsoft has done little about their 50% rating. With it being more then 3 years since the release of this console, it is surprising that it has been allowed to stay so high. Bring back the stability that consumers could expect with the previous gaming systems!

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