360 Slim Fail Rate

raistlin

raistlin

CAGiversary!
I tried doing a search on the forums here, but kept getting blank result screens literally. So I'm sorry if this topic has been discussed to death.

I'm planning on picking up a new 360 soonish, but before I do I'm curious what kind of experience you guys have had with the fail rate. After googling for a bit it seems people have had mixed results with it. Is it true that the 3 year warranty is no longer available? I did find this article http://nofussreviews.com/survey-results-2011 - Supposedly they got 500k respondents for their survey, but I've never heard of'em so I don't know if it can be trusted.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
[quote name='shrike4242']Yes, the 3 year RROD warranty does not apply to the Xbox 360 Slim.[/QUOTE]

Do you have a slim, and have you experienced any problems with it?
 
They took the red lights out so it is technically impossible to red ring anyway. Supposedly if the system overheats it will shut itself down to prevent damage.

I have the Reach console and have had zero issues with it. I've had 5 of the Pro/Premium consoles since launch, 4 of which RROD at some point.
 
[quote name='Corvin']They took the red lights out so it is technically impossible to red ring anyway. Supposedly if the system overheats it will shut itself down to prevent damage.

I have the Reach console and have had zero issues with it. I've had 5 of the Pro/Premium consoles since launch, 4 of which RROD at some point.[/QUOTE]

Coolness, how long have you had that Reach console now approximately? And are you using it about every day?
 
the slim was just released last summer. and i traded in the old xbox for the slim. no problems with the slim. its small, fits in my bag, and very quiet
 
[quote name='giantqtipz']the slim was just released last summer. and i traded in the old xbox for the slim. no problems with the slim. its small, fits in my bag, and very quiet[/QUOTE]

Ah good to hear. I've gotta look into finding out what kind of extended warranty they offer as well now.
 
I got a slim on New Year's Day this year after my old model (bought in 2007, was the pre-falcon model--extra heat sinks but the original gpu chip) got the RROD on New Year's Eve.

Haven't had any problems with the slim yet.
 
*Knock on wood* Ive been thinking of getting a slim here soon but I still have an Arcade from like 3 or 4 years ago going strong.

I read they removed the red lights so yeah it can't RROD at all. Didn't know it's supposed to shut itself down for overheats.
 
[quote name='raistlin']Do you have a slim, and have you experienced any problems with it?[/QUOTE]I've had five non-slim 360s, two of which I still have at the moment.

First console (Pro 20GB) RROD'd, then was replaced at Costco via their warranty, under a year's time from purchase. Second console (Pro 20GB) RROD'd within two months of purchase, then was returned to Costco for a refund. Third console (Pro 20GB Jasper w/HDMI) is still alive to this day, having been sent to MS for a non-RROD repair a few months ago. Also still under MS extended warranty.

Fourth console (COD MW2 Super Elite, purchased at end of 2009) had a DVD-ROM drive failure (which is a RROD, though wasn't a system board failure) and was replaced with my current Super Elite which has worked without any issue. System also has a two year MS extended warranty on it.

I've never had a slim, though if either system I have now breaks, I'll replace it with a slim.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
its so small, i dont mind carrying it over to my friends houses when we have a gathering.

if youve never owned an xbox, might as well get the slim. its lovely

but in case youre wondering, ive gotten the RROD twice with my non-slim xbox, which i traded for the slim
 
Yeah, my slim gets daily use and I've had no problems. I've had it ... about a year now? Prior, my launch 360 red-ringed four times? Five? I lost count. So yeah, the slim seems pretty stable.
 
[quote name='giantqtipz']its so small, i dont mind carrying it over to my friends houses when we have a gathering.

if youve never owned an xbox, might as well get the slim. its lovely

but in case youre wondering, ive gotten the RROD twice with my non-slim xbox, which i traded for the slim[/QUOTE]

I bought a 360 shortly after launch but it was an impulse purchase. Decided to return it when I wasn't happy with the launch titles and none of the original Xbox games I bought worked on it.

Seems like if the fail rate was very high there would be a a lot of people talking about it on the net, also I would expect more people to come forward on this forum if that was the case.

I guess my minds made up, I'm gonna trade in my PS3 and get a new 360. I'm not sure how big of a HDD I should get for it. Does Live have very many full sized games for sale that are Gigabytes in size?
 
[quote name='raistlin']I bought a 360 shortly after launch but it was an impulse purchase. Decided to return it when I wasn't happy with the launch titles and none of the original Xbox games I bought worked on it.

Seems like if the fail rate was very high there would be a a lot of people talking about it on the net, also I would expect more people to come forward on this forum if that was the case.

I guess my minds made up, I'm gonna trade in my PS3 and get a new 360. I'm not sure how big of a HDD I should get for it. Does Live have very many full sized games for sale that are Gigabytes in size?[/QUOTE]

It depends on how much DLC, Games on Demand (Full disc game download), game installs, Arcade games, music, videos, demos, etc you choose to download. There is quite a lot of content on XBL.

I'm not sure what the sizes of the HDDs are for the slim console, I think the smallest may be 120GB. I think that would be right on the money.

Unless you were using a rather large HDD in your PS3. Then if you feel better about getting the 250GB, then go for it.

Oh, and don't forget that you can use flash drives for extra storage. Feel free to correct me, guys, but I think you can use up to two flash drives, with no more than 16GB each being used for Xbox 360 storage.
 
I'm pretty sure the only slim skis out there are 250gb and 4th, with or without Kinect.

You'll want the 250 as you can't do much of anything with only 4gb of space.
 
[quote name='raistlin']Coolness, how long have you had that Reach console now approximately? And are you using it about every day?[/QUOTE]

Since 9/14, release day. I wouldn't say I use it daily, but easily 15-20+ hours a week.
 
The only problem I've ever had with my slim is that the dashboard is slow as shit, moreso than with my original, both online and off and it's not my connection. It's more of a minor gripe than anything. My original fat Xbox E74'd so now I'm really paranoid to leave my slim on for any great period of time, which is silly of me but can't hurt, either.
 
I don't have a slim model, but the poll results so far seem acceptable to what the Xbox 360 failure rate should be. I've seen videos of slims failing or Red Dot of Death and pictures in threads here.

I'd get a slim if I had the money and my current elite were to fail.
 
Reposting from somewhere else that people were talking about failed 360's:
On July 5th 2007 Microsoft reserved over $1B ($1.05-$1.15B) for the RROD issue. It cost them ~$100 to repair a console and their global shipment numbers were close to 10MM units at that time, so they probably reserved for 100% of 10-11MM consoles to fail and require repairing. They basically announced to the world that they expected 100% of consoles to fail, they just didn’t state it in terms that a 20 year old GI or IGN intern could understand so the gaming press didn't report this.

 A general rate of failure for complex electronics is 2-5% in the first year, 5-10% in years 2-3 and increases from there start to vary greatly depending on the product, but it averages 10-15% through year 4. Anything in line with those numbers is normal.

 If you are curious about expected failure rates for products in the future, you can check out the cost of warranties on Squaretrade. They are in the business of predicting how common a failure is expected to be in the future. Right now the warranty for a new Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3 is the exact same price. They're charging $48 for a 3 year warranty on a $300 console, so they're probably expecting ~8% of all consoles to fail in that time.
 
I've got a Jasper that's been running great for 2 years. I try to install all games to the hard drive to try to extend the life of the disc drive and curb overheating. Thing sounds like a jet engine though. I use my PS3 for Netflix and Hulu because that thing is quiet as a mouse. How does the 360 slim compare noise-wise?
 
[quote name='n4styn4t3'] How does the 360 slim compare noise-wise?[/QUOTE]


Seriously QUIET they were not kidding when they said whisper quiet. The only real noise you hear is if your playing a game from disc, you will hear the disc drive spinning up and whatnot.

I was so surprised how quiet it is when I got mine last year.
 
Thanks for all of your input. It looks like 360 may get a cut in price after E3, so I've decided to wait until then. It'll be great getting the best revision of the 360 at an even more bargain price.
 
[quote name='Yamato']It depends on how much DLC, Games on Demand (Full disc game download), game installs, Arcade games, music, videos, demos, etc you choose to download. There is quite a lot of content on XBL.

I'm not sure what the sizes of the HDDs are for the slim console, I think the smallest may be 120GB. I think that would be right on the money.

Unless you were using a rather large HDD in your PS3. Then if you feel better about getting the 250GB, then go for it.

Oh, and don't forget that you can use flash drives for extra storage. Feel free to correct me, guys, but I think you can use up to two flash drives, with no more than 16GB each being used for Xbox 360 storage.[/QUOTE]

I've got a 120GB external drive I'd like to use. Too bad the limit is 16GB on flash...otherwise I'd just buy the 4GB 360 model.
 
I had the Slim since June, experiencing the occasional freeze here and there (what console doesn't?).

FYI the 4GB Slim hard drive is not considered a true hard drive, it's more like an internal USB stick. I tried to play Fire Fight online (Halo Reach) and I get a message "you need a hard drive to play in this playlist".

If you are going to upgrade to the Slim, buy the 4GB model because you can use your older hard drive. The old and Slim hard drives are the same, they just have different cases. Unscrew your old hard drive case and take out the actual hard drive. There is a false bottom on the Slim 360 where you can literally plug in the old hard drive (space was meant for Slim hard drive). I have done this my self and saved some money. You can look for a guide on youtube.
 
^I was planning on doing that, but I'm afraid of breaking something while unscrewing/connecting the hard drive to a slim model. Maybe, Microsoft will start selling kits that include a screw driver or a 4GB flash drive and a slim hard drive shell for the price of transfer cable.
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']I'm pretty sure the only slim skis out there are 250gb and 4th, with or without Kinect.

You'll want the 250 as you can't do much of anything with only 4gb of space.[/QUOTE]

it's real easy to slip a 20, 60, 120, 250 into the 4g slim
 
Every person I know who has ever owned a 360 (that wasn't a slim) has had theirs die at some point and several times. My 2006 360 died twice and was sent in to MS for repair. Got rid of it when Gamestop had that Slim Trade in promo so I got my slim at launch.

I've never really had a problem with it honestly. I heard it warns you and shuts down if it is going to overheat but mine has never done that. I guess I have never really pushed it to that point. My slim is not as quiet as other people have suggested. I don't know if it's my slim or if all slims are like this. It sounds like a large fan (as opposed to a jet engine like my old 360). I don't hear it at all when a game is installed though. Which I do for the games I play regularly.
 
The slim is great, but in spite of what others have said, it isn't really all that quiet. It's relatively quiet, compared to the older 360s, though it's about the same as the Jasper 360 that I replaced with it, and that's a disappointment. Well, the console itself, it is quieter, yes, but the power supply is now the noise generator. When you're hearing it drone, that's the power supply, not the console. I suppose that at least gives you the option of putting the power supply somewhere behind some stuff to block out some of the noise, but that hasn't really been an option for me, and you really wouldn't want to put it in a confined space because of course it's making that noise because it gets hot and the fan is running.

Mind you, I still would highly recommend the Slim over an older Xbox, but it isn't as quiet as it should be.

EDIT: also, you can get cheap hard drive cases for the slim on ebay. If you want it quick, you'll pay more to buy from a US resident, but it works well. Get one of the snap together ones. Taking the hard drive out of an older style case is easy. Look on Youtube for a guide.
 
I got my slim the day Best Buy got their first shipment in. So, I've had mine like 11 months. I've had zero problems with it and I use my 360 a ton.

I got my first 360 just after it first launched. Had various problems with that one of course. I do have an old style Modern Warfare 2 360 in my office still. I don't use it as much, but haven't had problems with it in the 18+ months I've had it.
 
my friends xbox just rrd. he stole it from work so really it served him right lol. i went to take a look at it and he had it like sideways in a book case with no vents on teh side, was like no wonder lol. he also borred my ps3 once and he couldnt get past this one window part in uncahrted, i told him it's prob overheating and got to lay it flat on the freaking ground with how the cd spins. after he did that no problems hehe. swear i leave my xbox on all day but i at least give it good ventilation. no wonder all these xboxes rrd hehe.
 
[quote name='Hoffer']I got my slim the day Best Buy got their first shipment in. So, I've had mine like 11 months. I've had zero problems with it and I use my 360 a ton.

I got my first 360 just after it first launched. Had various problems with that one of course. I do have an old style Modern Warfare 2 360 in my office still. I don't use it as much, but haven't had problems with it in the 18+ months I've had it.[/QUOTE]

Good to hear you haven't had any issues. Just out of curiosity, how much HDD memory did your slim come with?
 
On my third slim but think I'm just unlucky! First slim had a knackered disc drive, second had an overheating problem. Had my third a few months now, no problems so far, whereas the others failed within days.
 
I just got my Slim yesterday, a 4gb model with a 250gb hard drive. It felt a lot cheaper and more hollow than I expected, especially compared to my PS3 Slim I got rid of. Is it just me, or do other 360 Slim owners feel like that the console's build quality is not that amazing? It creaks a bit if I pick it up by the sides, and just doesn't feel very *solid*.
 
[quote name='Mikerrrr']I just got my Slim yesterday, a 4gb model with a 250gb hard drive. It felt a lot cheaper and more hollow than I expected, especially compared to my PS3 Slim I got rid of. Is it just me, or do other 360 Slim owners feel like that the console's build quality is not that amazing? It creaks a bit if I pick it up by the sides, and just doesn't feel very *solid*.[/QUOTE]
A lot of the components do snap together with plastic tabs. Worse than the original? A bit. Worse than the PS3? Don't know.
 
I've gone through a number of consoles but only had an RROD on my "original" pro system. It RROD'ed in June 2007 during the halo 3 beta, and again last year when I was about to trade it in for the new slim at gamestop. I also had a disc drive read problem with the pro system. I've owned 3 arcade units and never had a problem other than occasional freezing that was game specific not console.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top