Crash reports hit Xbox 360

Some owners of the newly released games console say they've seen problems with the Microsoft device.

The story "Crash reports hit Xbox 360" published November 23, 2005 at 3:15 AM is no longer available on CNET News.

Content from Reuters expires after 30 days.

[shadowself]

If this were...

Apple people already would be talking about filing a class action lawsuit and forcing a recall.

Xbox 360 specific discussion forums are polling as high as almost 15% of the machines being bad. Assuming there's some anti-Microsoft trolling going on that likely would still put the failure rate at more than 10%.

[FutureGuy]

Read the whole artical !!!!

Microsoft offered to replace the faulty Xboxs, Apple didn't volunter to replace scratched iPods.

[jdoyle55]

class action suit pending

I have been in touch with a lawyer..the consumer protection agency, and my state attorney's office. Microsoft has for too long had the mentality of distributing inferior products and fixing them later..it's gotta stop.

[PCCRomeo]

Shouldn't Have Bought the First Systems...

You would think these people would have known better. Never buy the first releases of a new product. By this time next year the Xbox 360 will run more flawlessly and will cost a lot less.

[sanenazok]

Exactly

Especially a MS product, even though it seems highly likely that any fault is actually with the game being played. If there's any blame to go around to the xbox then it will probably end up with ATI. Just watch.

[Anonymous1234567890]

Re: Shouldn't Have Bought the First Systems...

Heh, but if nobody bought the first systems then how would the bugs be found? We should be happy with these early adopters, as they're saving you the hassle of potential problems when you eventually do buy. :)

[frank bruce]

RE> Shouldn't Have Bought the First Systems...

If you want quality turn to Six Sigma manufacturing practices. In electronics, but specially in mass production like MS is doing with the 360 (and Sony will do with the PS3) it is quite hard to achieve that degree of perfection, you can always expect a 3% of defects, 5% will always be the first day, and in the end above 20%
I will wait for generation II of the 360, hoping most bugs are squashed.

[Gleeplewinky]

... especially a Microsoft product...

Let's face it. They've a habit of turning out
faulty products until at least the 3rd generation
of the product. This is simply the XBox 360
public beta period. Fully functional units will
ship in early 2007.

Really. Nobody took Windows seriously until 3.11.
MS Office was out for several years before it was
a contender...

[gravrdr]

true that

plus there will be more games out and the price WILL be that much lower to compete with the PS3. Sony knew what they were doing when they decided to wait till next year to ship the PS3.

[pr3z]

Sound Advice

I've been anticipating this 360, I even offered to do things unimaginable just to get me one. I feel really let down. Sound advice for your own sake please make sure you keep the box safe so you can return the junk.

[David Arbogast]

oh please...

We're supposed to believe that, yesterday, you would have done unimaginable things to obtain an XBox, but after reading a News.com article suggesting that there may be isolated instances of product failures, you now think they are junk? Sounds more like a troll to me. Every mass produced product has defects and bad units. If you really want an XBox 360, you can get one. If it has problems, you can get it replaced for free. My guess, is that you never wanted one.

[mcunix]

Gee, what a surprise...

MS hurried a product out the door that doesn't work...

[Rolndubbs]

Gee, what an idiot

Yeah, so a few isolated issues with a very small number of units means you can generalize and say that all the products don't work. Every first gen console launch has quality issues, look at the 1st gen ps2's, they had so many laser issues with them. Apple's nano's has/had screen quality issues. Try thinking a little befure you decide to start trolling these posts simply because you don't like MS.

[amosxmos]

Xbox 360 Demons

Put a Bible on top of the Xbox 360 and all problems will be solved.

Or get the Bill Gates Xbox package on ebay:

<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&#38;item=8236921835" target="_newWindow">http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&#38;item=8236921835</a>

[epiccollision]

1st generation products

if you expect quality ....NEVER buy a frist generation product...the first run line of electronics are usually the most problem plagued...and fustrating because a replacement is almost impossible to get in any sort of timely manner...forget the hype, i'd rather have reliability...i've spent way too much replacing faulty fist generation products(you hear that sony, motorola) partially because their fault rate after the warranty expires is incredible and if you have a unit repaired, it never quite works right again and with usually fail just outside the warranty period... arrgggh consumer protection sux

[radimage]

Good point

Same goes with all products.
Wait until the bugs are worked out

[bigesta]

Down laod the new firm ware.

Most problems should be fixed when updating your box to the new firm ware. The box's are loaded with 1888 and you should be asked as soon as you go on live if you want to update to the newest firmware. I haven't had any issues with any of my games since i did this.

[whizz]

Hmmm. New firmware didn't make difference for my 360.

Still hangs ... in Halo 2 Campaign mode. Surely they tested that game?!?

Seems to hang around the same place in the Campaign and since it is at a time when there is a lot of graphics traffic, could this be a graphics driver bug?

After all, in the Windows space, graphics driver bugs cause the majority of all blue screens. So, why not in the 360's OS too?

[Llib Setag]

XBOX 360 = RETURN TO CITIZEN GATES

Now you know WHY it's called 360...

Turn right around &#38; take it back to the XBox store who returns it
to Microsoft, who "repairs or replaces it at their discretion" then
returns it to you...REPEAT.

Endless "do loop" of Microsoft monopoly.

Every person I know in Seattle that stood in long lines to get
their *******' XBox that Citizen Gates was autographing at
midnight has been "*******'" about their box for days because of
overheating, crashing, stuttering &#38; underperforming due to lack
of quality control testing &#38; "Computing Assurance" as Mr. Bill
had promised for all future Microsoft products...

BUYER BEWARE!

[ordaj]

I said never again after the first X-Box

The DVD drive failed on the first X-Box I purchased for my son and subsequently found out it was going to cost around a $100 to fix. This was ridiculous, so I sent it in to one of those sites that give you cash for used X-Boxes and I swore I'd never buy another X-Box. I bought a Sony Playstion. No problems. Looks like the same crappy scenario is playing out.

[tron12]

Microcrap Products

I do not understand why people still buy Microsoft products
knowing the track record Microsoft has. I will never buy another
Microsoft product again. I wonder if Apple will come out with a
video game console, there computers and OS X are great I am sure
that a game console from them would be incredible.

[ThrashCristianson]

XBOX 360 USING POWER PC CHIP

Read the article, Xbox 360 basically is a G5

[rfairley]

Fix found

This is a relatively rare problem, but the reason people are seeing such a variety of different crash situations, is because it's not the console, it's the power supply. It's overheating. Check this out:

<a class="jive-link-external" href="http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=27930" target="_newWindow">http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=27930</a>

Thanks,
[e-mail]

[Peter Bonte]

power supply

Lol, its an easy fix for MS but replacing a million power supply's
is still going to cost them dearly. I bet they knew the problem
but went ahead to get there deadline.

MS and deadlines, they either succeed with faulty hardware or its
a never ending story. :/

[paulejohnson]

This is really crazy!!!

I purchased the Xbox premium after waiting in line for 12 hours,only to find out it SUCKS! I had it on for only 3 minutes and it crashed playing the game Made for speed Most Wanted! The screen just froze up?? Than an error message came across the screen,it happen four times in less than a 1/2 hour!

I called Microsoft and they said return it to SAMS ClUB where I purchased it from,and they wouldnt guarantee me a new one later on ,once the problem is fixed,So I did and a full refund was granted!Now I ahve no system at all! I sold my regular Xbox on ebay three days prior!!!

A waste of Money! Looks Like PS3!

A VERY SAD CUSTOMER HERE!!

[paulejohnson]

SOMETHING NEEDS TO BE DONE HERE!

CALLING IN SICK TO WORK TO GET A XBOX 360.... 740.00

GETTING A COLD FROM WAITING IN LINE FOR COLD REMEDIES..... 40.00

GET A PIECE OF **** XBOX 360 PRICELESS!

[Jus2H8onU]

it's not just the power supply!

I have had my power supply off the ground from the get go! My problem is with the hard drive. I was playing some Tiger Woods Golf and it froze. I restarted the system and it would only go as far as the Xbox 360 logo. Then the screen went black and a message appeared. The message stated, "System Error, contact xbox support". It was in 7 different languages. I tried many times to restart it but nothing. wouldn't do anything. And on the ring of light, the lower left light was flashing red!
I called 1-800-4my-xbox, and after an hour of waiting I finally got through. The guy sounded like he had no clue what was going on. He then proceeded to tell me that I would need to ship my system back to them, (of course they would pay for the shipping). But then I got cut off before I could get my ticket number. After waiting another hour on the phone, I started messing with the 360. I took the hard drive off and it started right up with no problem. but as soon as I put it back on it did the samething. I went and purchased a memory card so that I could save my games and get online atleast untill they shipped me a box to ship my system back to them!

I mean this is a nightmare. You want so bad to get your videogame console out first to make money and win the console race and totally forget about the people that got you here. I spent almost $3'000 on a tv, surround sound, 360 accessories, 9 games, and the console. I feel like I have been morally raped!

I have alway's lived by the code, "You can have good parts or fast parts, but you can't have them both"! In this case we know which route Microsoft took!

Mike

[Jus2H8onU]

oops!

one thing I said was wrong! the red light flashing was in the lower right side of the ring of light!!! oh and the black screen with 7 different languages, at the bottom there was an error code, E 67! don't know what that means!!!

[Dark Omega]

Perfectly happy with mine

I have not had a single problem with mine and since I bought it, it has hardly even been shut off, if I'm not playing it then one of my roommates is. Sometimes I come home from work and people I don't even know are playing it (roommates friends I hope) The games I've played on it are Perfect Dark, NFSMW, King Kong, Project Gotham, Gun, and NHL. The system has not crashed or did anything it wasn't suppose to. No heating problem and I don't even have it setup in a great airflow place. Sorry for all you who are having problems, my 360 is a blast.

[Mamma's Boy]

x box problems

I find the comparison of the x Box crashing to the i Pod scratching a really silly thing. There is no comparison as far as I am concerned between the two. If Microsoft released this box prematurely just to capture the Christmas market, then shame on them. If your i Pod is getting scratched, then you probably have a bunch of other scratched stuff as well. Its your nature to be rough on stuff and things. I have a three year old cell phone that does not have a scratch on it, and my son has the same phone a year old and you can not even tell what the brand is its so scratched.

[mhouse]

(1 out of 4 XBOX 360 users now reports failure)

According to most news, blog and store reports out there, an average of 1 out of 4 legacy XBOX 360 users reports many versions of the failure issues being described lately. I think expect for ethics and anti-trust issues, Microsoft is a company that needs to reevaluate its quality control processes.

[Joe_nuge]

Some advice from me

Since xbox 360 really doesnt have many games to choose from just yet, if you havent already purchased an xbox 360 i would wait until atleast after christmas to buy one. This will give microsoft time to fix the bugs of the system while also producing more games to choose from. Another bonus of this is after the huge demand for the system goes down the price should as well.

[pallikhera]

Amen brother

We lower our expeectations thats why manufacturers lower there quality.If all of you who have defective Xboxes return them and get your money back microsoft
will learn a lesson.They should thoroughly test products and then release them to market place.
In a way microsoft conned there loyal customers there idea is to earn as much cash possible before competiton kicks in by Sony and others

[jbe3rd]

Ah, but...

Ah, but it is a moron who stood in line to sell it on ebay for a 1000 dollar profit? ;)

Apple... help us now!!!!!!!

Please make a video game console for us. Please...

[AuriRahimzadeh]

They did...

They did. It was called Pippin. It failed *miserably*. The product was purchased by Bandai. It ran a PowerPC 603 (not even a 603e!). I believe the speed was 75 MHz... very few were ever made. Quite a collectors item!

Best,

Auri Rahimzadeh
Author, Hacking the PSP
Author, Geek My Ride
Co-Author, Hacking Digital Cameras

[mikekrause]

Yeah - so they can put a defective hard drive or battery in it!

Apple makes cool stuff - no doubt. But, they ship crap just like Microsquash does. Just look at the problems they have had with defective batteries and hard drives in their IPods.

Apple could do so much more if they'd fix their yield problems.

[AuriRahimzadeh]

No problems here

I haven't had any trouble, and I've been playing my XBox for days. Streaming music from my PC, playing DVDs (it upconverts DVDs to hi-def nicely!), and the game play is a lot of fun (although I expect much better games to come - with destructible environments, please!). I've heard of overheating issues - make sure that power brick gets plenty of air, as stated very clearly in the manual (who reads those? &lt;grin&gt;).

I have been impressed by the interface, although the download manager needs to show the progress of downloads instead of just pausing them when you hit the Guide button.

The 360 has truly become a media hub in my home, nevertheless. Video sharing needs to be improved.

All in all, I'm impressed. I'm already looking at what "else" can be done with it! Where's the web browser - hopefully coming soon?

Best,

Auri Rahimzadeh
Author, Hacking the PSP
Author, Geek My Ride
Co-Author, Hacking Digital Cameras

[aemarques]

Upscaling DVD?

Sorry, but the Xbox360 does NOT upscales DVD to high-def! Not mine, anyway. Is yours a special one? ;-)

[Kissmyne]

Not Surprised

Being as Microsoft does have a history of launching products both too soon and of a poor quality, I am not at all surprised that the XBOX 360 bombed. I never considered buying an XBOX 360, and this along with Microsofts "grand" history justifies why.

I hope Sony, and Nintendo learn from Microsoft's mistakes and continue making quality products. As for Microsoft, I feel that is beyond their ability.

[Thorax232]

No Kidding

When I think of "The Man" I think of Bill Gates, the greedy little corporate owner who couldn't care less about his products or his customers. All Microsoft cares about is getting their product out and making money, they don't care about the game industry. They were so caught up on getting this thing out early and advertising like crazy to make it the biggest thing this season they failed to miss one thing, the gamers, the ones that matter. The only people who will get the XBOX 360 are the spoiled brats who don't know anything about the system and the hardcore XBOX fans. Which will get Microsoft enough profits but it they really want to beat Sony and Nintendo in next generation they're going to have to step it up a knotch.

[sunergeos]

I like what MS is telling people who call...

"...problems can be expected with a machine as complex as the
XBoox." I heard it reported over the weekend.

So let me see here, MS is saying that we are to expect problems
because they still have not found a way to build quality into their
products. In other words, it;s too hard for them.