360 Arcade $179 Elite $275 Shipped @Amazon.com

If I have a bad Xbox, is it better to have a creep on Craig's list fix it for $40 or just get a new arcade for 180. The arcades have a 3 year warranty, so it is at least somewhat tempting.
 
I'd spend the extra money, knowing you'd be getting a system with newer internals and the MS warranty. Plus, you really wanna meet up with some creep who fixes game consoles in his mother's basement?
 
I bought this last week(at 200) when they had it bundled with The Force Unleashed and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen(which I'm trading in at Amazon for $32) and I just got off the phone with Amazon, they are refunding me 20 dollars. So it is a great deal. :]
Thanks OP.
 
This is tempting for me. My Xbox RROD last weekend right before my big Christmas break when I have lots of time for gaming. It would be nice to have a spare Xbox. Can I easily interchange the same HD between the two?

I do have a PS3 and a backlog of about 30 games for it so I got plenty to keep me busy till the Xbox gets repaired. $180 is still pretty high for such a junky piece of hardware.
 
[quote name='kingkiller33']This is tempting for me. My Xbox RROD last weekend right before my big Christmas break when I have lots of time for gaming. It would be nice to have a spare Xbox. Can I easily interchange the same HD between the two?

I do have a PS3 and a backlog of about 30 games for it so I got plenty to keep me busy till the Xbox gets repaired. $180 is still pretty high for such a junky piece of hardware.[/QUOTE]
Why is it junky? It has a Jasper chip. And yes you can just remove the HD from the old Xbox and put it on this new one(I did.) All your games/downloads will be there as soon as you log in. Just make sure you redownload everything to get the licenses back. Not a full download, but about ~100kb's each. This is only so you can use your downloaded crap offline, but it's not necessary if you never go offline.
 
[quote name='kingkiller33']This is tempting for me. My Xbox RROD last weekend right before my big Christmas break when I have lots of time for gaming. It would be nice to have a spare Xbox. Can I easily interchange the same HD between the two?

I do have a PS3 and a backlog of about 30 games for it so I got plenty to keep me busy till the Xbox gets repaired. $180 is still pretty high for such a junky piece of hardware.[/QUOTE]

I swear as much as I want a 360 (and I want to get one since I want to play some of the exclusives -- Halo 3, Dead of Alive 4, Tales of Vesperia, and yes -- Onechanbara -- yes, I'm shallow), it seems like every post related to the console has suffered a RROD. I sometimes have a hard time believing this console fails that much. On the Net, you would think 9 out of 10 360s die. It's either the 360 is that unreliable or Sony fanboys are masquerading as 360 owners to spread lies about their 3rd, 4th or 5th RROD.

Microsoft insists Jasper pretty much solved the problem. Are there Jasper owners here who've suffered the RROD? And seriously, anyone here NOT have their 360 die?
 
[quote name='romeogbs19']I swear as much as I want a 360 (and I want to get one since I want to play some of the exclusives -- Halo 3, Dead of Alive 4, Tales of Vesperia, and yes -- Onechanbara -- yes, I'm shallow), it seems like every post related to the console has suffered a RROD. I sometimes have a hard time believing this console fails that much. On the Net, you would think 9 out of 10 360s die. It's either the 360 is that unreliable or Sony fanboys are masquerading as 360 owners to spread lies about their 3rd, 4th or 5th RROD.

Microsoft insists Jasper pretty much solved the problem. Are there Jasper owners here who've suffered the RROD? And seriously, anyone here NOT have their 360 die?[/QUOTE]

I had two 360's RROD on me. The first was a launch console. When it died I bought an Elite with the Falcon chip which everyone was saying fixed the RROD problem. Guess what? Wrong. Except this time is was a two light error which was an "overheating issue" not covered by the three year warranty. I was an Xbox fan boy for years but now I switched over to the dark side (PS3). lol.
 
[quote name='romeogbs19']I swear as much as I want a 360 (and I want to get one since I want to play some of the exclusives -- Halo 3, Dead of Alive 4, Tales of Vesperia, and yes -- Onechanbara -- yes, I'm shallow), it seems like every post related to the console has suffered a RROD. I sometimes have a hard time believing this console fails that much. On the Net, you would think 9 out of 10 360s die. It's either the 360 is that unreliable or Sony fanboys are masquerading as 360 owners to spread lies about their 3rd, 4th or 5th RROD.

Microsoft insists Jasper pretty much solved the problem. Are there Jasper owners here who've suffered the RROD? And seriously, anyone here NOT have their 360 die?[/QUOTE]
Yes, the Jaspers don't get the RROD. I've had a "RROD prone" falcon 360 for a little less than a year and it hasn't died. If you just have to take care of the console IT WILL STAY ALIVE. A lot of 360 users drop their console or wrap it or do something causing it to eventually overheat, so just read the quick guide in this post on how to prevent it.
 
[quote name='Nebenator']Yes, the Jaspers don't get the RROD. I've had a "RROD prone" falcon 360 for a little less than a year and it hasn't died. If you just have to take care of the console IT WILL STAY ALIVE. A lot of 360 users drop their console or wrap it or do something causing it to eventually overheat, but just read a quick guide in this post on how to prevent it.[/QUOTE]

I have to disagree about preventing the problem on a Falcon chip.
As I said, mine crapped out due to overheating. I cleaned it weekly and was kept in an open enviroment (No blockage of airflow). Still died.
 
[quote name='Nebenator']Yes, the Jaspers don't get the RROD. I've had a "RROD prone" falcon 360 for a little less than a year and it hasn't died. If you just have to take care of the console IT WILL STAY ALIVE. A lot of 360 users drop their console or wrap it or do something causing it to eventually overheat, so just read the quick guide in this post on how to prevent it.[/QUOTE]

I think you mean that the Jaspers are less prone to red-ringing. All electronics, even the most well-constructed ones, can fail. It would appear that the Jaspers are the most reliable revision of the 360, yet, but there is no hard data on how just on reliable. Considering the jaded history of the 360's reliability, I would say that it's hard to have any faith in MS's hardware this generation.

As far as "just" taking care of it, that's not entirely true, either. Again, every piece of electronics has some kind of failure rate. Some 360s or PS3s or Wiis or whatever that go out onto the market are simply flawed. Something went wrong in the manufacturing process. They are ticking timebombs, and no matter what you do, whatever flaw is present will eventually kick in. You might extend the life of the system by taking care of it, but whatever is wrong with it will win in the end.
 
[quote name='1HiTekTexan']I have to disagree about preventing the problem on a Falcon chip.
As I said, mine crapped out due to overheating. I cleaned it weekly and was kept in an open enviroment (No blockage of airflow). Still died.[/QUOTE]

Everything here, too? (I don't mean to sound cocky, I just want to know if what I'm doing works)
Keep the 360 vertical BUT DON'T LET IT FALL (more air-vents on its sides)
Put the 360 over a flat, dustless floor. If you have carpet flooring put it over its own box
Keep its bulky power adapter over a flat object (a book would work fine)
Plug the power cord into a safe port, electricity saving adapters work best
If you are going to plug it into a standard adapter try not to share it with too many electronics (the 360 is an energy hog)
If you have other energy hogs on the same standard adapter, consider plugging it into the wall
Keep it in a well ventilated are
Fans and coolers DO help, as long as they have their own power supple (ie, they don't have to take it from the 360). I recommend the Intercooler TS
Click to expand...
 
[quote name='tekzor']+hard drive/ ughhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Still gona cost a lot[/QUOTE]
You can find some good 20gb ones on ebay for $15-$25. My friends always manage to find them for roughly that price. I use the 20gb and i still have 7gb of memory left. (I had my 360 since launch 2005.)

BTW: nice find op
 
[quote name='bigdaddybruce44']I think you mean that the Jaspers are less prone to red-ringing. All electronics, even the most well-constructed ones, can fail. It would appear that the Jaspers are the most reliable revision of the 360, yet, but there is no hard data on how just on reliable. Considering the jaded history of the 360's reliability, I would say that it's hard to have any faith in MS's hardware this generation.

As far as "just" taking care of it, that's not entirely true, either. Again, every piece of electronics has some kind of failure rate. Some 360s or PS3s or Wiis or whatever that go out onto the market are simply flawed. Something went wrong in the manufacturing process. They are ticking timebombs, and no matter what you do, whatever flaw is present will eventually kick in. You might extend the life of the system by taking care of it, but whatever is wrong with it will win in the end.[/QUOTE]
Right, every electronic dies. In my opinion, "alive" is matching the life of a Wii or PS3 to disprove the fanboys and faulty 360 jokes.
 
Keeping the 360 vertical is not a good idea. You're covering up the large vent. You're better off laying it horizontally and placing something underneath the system to keep it off the ground but without covering up the two vents on the bottom edges. I used some old CD cases that I taped together into a makeshift stand. Having it vertical can also probably lead to disc damage, either from carelessness in putting in or taking out the discs or from the fact sometimes the discs simply don't spin correctly when the drive is vertical. I know a lot of people who have complained have getting a bunch of discs scratched when they had the system vertical, but they stopped experiencing the problem once they went horizontal.
 
[quote name='Nebenator']Yes, the Jaspers don't get the RROD. I've had a "RROD prone" falcon 360 for a little less than a year and it hasn't died. If you just have to take care of the console IT WILL STAY ALIVE. A lot of 360 users drop their console or wrap it or do something causing it to eventually overheat, so just read the quick guide in this post on how to prevent it.[/QUOTE]

Wrong!
You can talk to it. Kiss it good night, and treat it like a precious diamond. Guess what? It will still die!
It's a flawed system. It'll take longer for your Jasper system to die, but it will eventually die as well. Enjoy it while it works, and forget about the fact that it will eventually die.
 
[quote name='bigdaddybruce44']Keeping the 360 vertical is not a good idea. You're covering up the vent on the bottom. You're better off laying it horizontally and placed something underneath the system to keep it off the ground without covering up the two lines vents on the bottom edges. I used some old CD cases.[/QUOTE]
There are more vents on the sides than the bottom. But yes, having all the vents open by lifting only middle on the console while having it lay horizontally is the best way to keep the console safe. My problem with this is that if you attach a fan, the fan may cause the console to move while you are playing, which in turn may move the disk inside it causing disk errors unless the console is able to lay still even with a fan attached to it.
 
[quote name='Nebenator']Everything here, too? (I don't mean to sound cocky, I just want to know if what I'm doing works)[/QUOTE]

Yes everything listed. Although I never saw that list before. I had an Intercooler on both systems. I NEVER used either of them standing vertically. It's ridiculous that you would have to do all of that anyways.
Honestly, Would you buy a product that came with those directions?
Just the fact that thousands if not millons of these "prevention" lists exist on the web. I'm not trying to bash the 360. The CAG asked a question and I answered it. I may even break down and get another 360 someday. Alot depends on the failure rate of the Jasper chip. I got burned for $400 on the Falcon chip and will not be burned again.
 
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[quote name='dragonjud']Wrong!
You can talk to it. Kiss it good night, and treat it like a precious diamond. Guess what? It will still die!
It's a flawed system. It'll take longer for your Jasper system to die, but it will eventually die as well. Enjoy it while it works, and forget about the fact that it will eventually die.[/QUOTE]

See? Comments like these sound like they're coming from a PS3 fanboy. My original Xbox still works wonders and it seems to be a solid piece of hardware. Again, I plan on getting a 360 but probably not for another 6-12 mos. It's just a shame that the 360's reliability is so often questioned. I just don't know what to think about this whole RROD thing b/c it's so prevalent on all these boards.

I'm interested in a PS3 but none of its exclusives appeal to me. As much as I enjoyed my PS2 last gen (and I have a huge library for it), the PS brand this gen seems sorely lacking in comparison to its competition. I guess outside of the blu-ray (which is an attractive feature), most if not all of the key franchise titles are also on the 360 so I don't particularly see any advantage.

I enjoy DOA and Halo so the 360 will likely be the first next-gen console I pick up -- but again, not for another 6-12 mos. Hopefully, there will be more positive Jasper data by then.
 
[quote name='romeogbs19']See? Comments like these sound like they're coming from a PS3 fanboy. [/QUOTE]

You would think so, but no, I own a ps3, and own a x360. My stepson has 1, and so does my brother in law. They all have died at some point or another.
I barely played mine but it eventually died after 2 years of use. My stepson's died about a year after he purchased it, but that one got a little more abuse.

If I happened to be a fanboy, I would've just given up on it, and sold it and kept my ps3. But, since I had an extended warranty, and it has enough exclusive games, I keep it around. Not to mention that, unfortunately, some ps3 games just get horrible conversions as opposed to the x360 versions (even a few coming...looking at you Bayonetta!)
 
To be honest I believe a lot of the errors on the consoles just depends on the luck of the draw.

I had my original 360 for 3.5 years before it finally caught on to the apparent mainstream issue. I sent it in and got it back in 2 weeks and it is still working. And this is coming from a console that has suffered frequent use, moves/trips, and the wrath of my toddler niece.

In turn both my Wii and my Bro's PS3 suffered errors in some way before my 360. My Wii just stopped working (Probably a power cord issue) but it still had a 90 day warranty so I didn't care to send it in and my brother's PS3 HDMI port went out.

The only reason I bought a new 360 was to cut down on a bit of noise, to get a bigger HDD, and I wanted an HDMI port. I am ultimately glad with all systems, I guess I just got lucky on getting by the whole constant RROD issue without much hassle.
 
[quote name='romeogbs19']I swear as much as I want a 360 (and I want to get one since I want to play some of the exclusives -- Halo 3, Dead of Alive 4, Tales of Vesperia, and yes -- Onechanbara -- yes, I'm shallow), it seems like every post related to the console has suffered a RROD. I sometimes have a hard time believing this console fails that much. On the Net, you would think 9 out of 10 360s die. It's either the 360 is that unreliable or Sony fanboys are masquerading as 360 owners to spread lies about their 3rd, 4th or 5th RROD.

Microsoft insists Jasper pretty much solved the problem. Are there Jasper owners here who've suffered the RROD? And seriously, anyone here NOT have their 360 die?[/QUOTE]

Agreed. I only want a 360 mainly for L4D 1 and/or 2. My PC isn't good enough to handle those types of games.
 
I agree with he luck part. I'm on my 3rd ps3 and my launch xbox is still chugging along. Based on what I see everywhere it should be the other way around...
 
Sharing my 360 with my brother for the past year. It endured 10 to 14 hours of game play on a DAILY basis and still going strong. I too sometimes wonder how SO many people on the internet can have so much trouble with it. I guess it really is bad luck. Mentioning luck, I will probably post this and get a RROD in 7 days.. Let's hope not :p
 
SquareTrade, the electronics warranty company, issued a report in the summer about the failure rates of the 360, PS3, and Wii. According to their numbers, the 360 had nearly a 25% failure rate, the PS3 had a 10% rate, and the Wii about 3%. Honestly, I think that 25% number is probably off, too, considering the sheer amount of problems the earlier 360 consoles had, but even those numbers speak pretty poorly of Microsoft's quality control concerning the 360.
 
[quote name='romeogbs19']See? Comments like these sound like they're coming from a PS3 fanboy. My original Xbox still works wonders and it seems to be a solid piece of hardware. Again, I plan on getting a 360 but probably not for another 6-12 mos. It's just a shame that the 360's reliability is so often questioned. I just don't know what to think about this whole RROD thing b/c it's so prevalent on all these boards. [/QUOTE]

How does this sound like a PS3 fanboy? Nothing in his post indicated anything about his preference for the PS3. The reason why he's so assertive about it is because the previous poster implied that Jaspers NEVER fail... which is a ludicrous claim.

The failure rate of the Jasper is significantly less than that of the earlier models, but that's not saying a whole lot since the earlier models were completely shit configuration. That's not opinion. That's fact. The RROD has never and will never be blown out of proportion. It can't be. The fact that Microsoft had to go out of its way to make amends to pissed off consumers across the country with a warranty extension proves as much. I don't know a single person who owns a 360 and has not experienced at least one RROD (most have experienced two or more, including myself), to put it in perspective. Also to put it in perspective, I'm considering taking part in this deal because my launch 360 just RROD'd again last week.

The two people in this thread who have never had a RROD are in the vast minority. It's nowhere close to "bad luck." You guys are having "good luck." You are the exception. Not everyone else. Oh, and bigpimpin24, I think that mine first crapped out at around a year and a half of extended use.

Regardless, I'd still suggest getting a 360, as you've indicated your game preference... just be prepared for hardware failure. It can happen to anyone.
 
Every single person that I know has had their 360 crap out on them. I will not buy the 360's successor.
 
[quote name='VA']Every single person that I know has had their 360 crap out on them. I will not buy the 360's successor.[/QUOTE]

this... everyone i know who's bought a 360 is on their 2nd or 3rd one... i know a few who've had up to 5...
 
Already had 2 xbox's rrod and die completely on me. My jasper elite just rrod'd today (it still works. Just had to turn it on/off a couple times -scare). I don't play for more than 1 or 2 hours at a time. I install games onto the hard drive. There's an external fan helping keep cool half the time when I play for an extended period of time...Seriously, 360s may be "good" but they are built like shit. Still love my xbox though.

This will probably be my first and last MS console. I'm jumping back to the Sony ship in February anyway.
 
Since we're all throwing out anecdotes, everyone I know w/ a 360 is still on their first one. That includes a friend w/ a launch console w/ close to 20K gamerscore who also uses it as an MCE. Actually, I'm the only one w/ anything newer than a Zephyr (I have a Falcon Pro, Christmas of 2007). See, anecdotes can work both ways.

Back on topic, I picked one up on this sale to use in the living room as an MCE / Netflix / Last.fm box.
 
So far I've had 4 360s die on me. 2 Xenons, and 2 Falcons - the former with the RROD, the latter both died with the E74 error. When the second Falcon died, I just went out and bought a Jasper Arcade (since I knew they would just be sending me another Falcon), and will probably sell the repaired/refurbished system. Every single one of them was run in an open space, and on top of that I had them all sitting on Antec laptop coolers to improve airflow. They all failed right around the 1 year mark.

The people saying "mine still works, you guys must just abuse yours" really don't know what they're talking about - I probably treat my hardware more delicately than 90% of console owners, and before the 360 I have never had a console die on me, even owning pretty much every system from the original Atari 2600 through to the present. I also don't know anyone who hasn't had at least one 360 fail on them. There are people out there with launch units that still run, but among people that regularly use the system, they're a definite minority.

I like Live, and the software library has some excellent titles, but every hardware version up to the Jasper is highly unreliable. It remains to be seen whether the Jasper will suffer from the same problems - although they did (finally) address the heat being generating by the GPU with the Jasper, which is a promising sign.

As far as being a "fanboy" or promoting one console over another... I have all of the current generation consoles, and to be honest I really could not care less about the success or failure of any of them relative to the others. It's better for all of us if they do equally well, since it promotes competition and will benefit the consumers most in the end. Not to mention the fact that getting angry over someone preferring a different bit of shiny plastic than the one you prefer is fairly idiotic.
 
So regretting I didn't do the MW2 bundle with LFD2 and Infamous(?) at the MS store a month or so ago for $350(?). After than and the Arcade+$100 Amazon GC, I am jaded for console deals. If it's not more than 30% off retail I can't wood.
 
The MS Store deal came with Assassin's Creed 2, Dragon Age Origins, and a 3-month XBL Gold sub. Infamous is a PS3 game. And yeah, that deal was pretty sick.
 
On 360 #3 over here, I've never had a system crap out (my release date PS2 still works fine), 360s just arent built to last. Which sucks, since my system of choice this gen (outside of the DS).
 
[quote name='Caswell']Since we're all throwing out anecdotes, everyone I know w/ a 360 is still on their first one. That includes a friend w/ a launch console w/ close to 20K gamerscore who also uses it as an MCE. Actually, I'm the only one w/ anything newer than a Zephyr (I have a Falcon Pro, Christmas of 2007). See, anecdotes can work both ways.

Back on topic, I picked one up on this sale to use in the living room as an MCE / Netflix / Last.fm box.[/QUOTE]

Here's the problem with your anecdote. It doesn't invalidate any of our anecdotes.

Failure rate of a $300 (then) system being what it is, even with your friends' perfect system records, is inexcusable. There will always be outliers. Even if the failure rate is not the majority (it may not be), but rather 20%, are we to say that as long as Caswell and his buddies still have their launch systems it can't be all that bad?

We've all heard more failure stories than success stories with the 360s... but that's also because people with failure stories tend to be more vocal. Despite this, the sheer volume of failure/complaints out there still makes it a real problem... and Microsoft acknowledges this, so there's no real point in arguing otherwise.
 
[quote name='GuardianE']Here's the problem with your anecdote. It doesn't invalidate any of our anecdotes.[/QUOTE]

It, and the actual statistics we've seen showing failure rates around 25%, certainly invalidate the anecdotes where people draw the conclusion that every single 360 ever made is going to fail within its relevant lifespan.

[quote name='therpson']Is this the lowest price we've seen in the last few months??[/QUOTE]

Aside from the $100 gift card promo at Wal-Mart shortly before Thanksgiving, the lowest I've seen an Arcade for of $160 when Amazon screwed up their sale pricing (was supposed to be $180 then as well). I'm not on top of every deal, but I've been on the fence about another 360 as an MCE so I've paid attention to prices for the past six months or so.
 
[quote name='sengar']So far I've had 4 360s die on me. 2 Xenons, and 2 Falcons - the former with the RROD, the latter both died with the E74 error. When the second Falcon died, I just went out and bought a Jasper Arcade (since I knew they would just be sending me another Falcon), and will probably sell the repaired/refurbished system. Every single one of them was run in an open space, and on top of that I had them all sitting on Antec laptop coolers to improve airflow. They all failed right around the 1 year mark.

The people saying "mine still works, you guys must just abuse yours" really don't know what they're talking about - I probably treat my hardware more delicately than 90% of console owners, and before the 360 I have never had a console die on me, even owning pretty much every system from the original Atari 2600 through to the present. I also don't know anyone who hasn't had at least one 360 fail on them. There are people out there with launch units that still run, but among people that regularly use the system, they're a definite minority.

I like Live, and the software library has some excellent titles, but every hardware version up to the Jasper is highly unreliable. It remains to be seen whether the Jasper will suffer from the same problems - although they did (finally) address the heat being generating by the GPU with the Jasper, which is a promising sign.

As far as being a "fanboy" or promoting one console over another... I have all of the current generation consoles, and to be honest I really could not care less about the success or failure of any of them relative to the others. It's better for all of us if they do equally well, since it promotes competition and will benefit the consumers most in the end. Not to mention the fact that getting angry over someone preferring a different bit of shiny plastic than the one you prefer is fairly idiotic.[/QUOTE]
Great post. My 2nd 360 just E74'd on me and the refurb they sent me is as loud as a damn airplane and it scratches the hell out of my discs even after they're installed. When this one decides crap out, I'm done and I am just sticking with my ps3.
 
It definitely isnt bad luck or fanboy PR. The Xbox did indeed have a 50%+ failure rate at launch. For the record, I have 3 friends that purchased the 360 at launch and they all play a few hours a day. All of them had at least 1 failure. One of them had 3 failures.

The good news is that MS has been very easy to deal with and they even extended the warranty to a bit over a year for one of my friends. They paid for all the shipping costs and even sent a free month of live for each exchange. Their tech support is another story but their return service is good.

I just purchased my Xbox 2 months ago and so far so good. No crashes or hiccups and it sees at least 4 hours of use every day by various family members.
 
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