Too worried to buy...

Thunderscope

Thunderscope

CAGiversary!
I really want to get a 360 and Wii and I have the money to do so. I dont have any worries about getting a wii since its a Nintendo Built system, but after seeing SO many posts about their 360's dying I really don't want to pay $400 for a system that im gonna have to screw around with replacing time and time again. EVEN IF ITS FREE. The problem lies with me enjoying the 360, I play my friends all the time and its such a great system with great games. Now he hasnt had a problem with his yet, however we know many who have. So do I just pull a straw and buy or wait for a redesign to come.
 
With the 360 Just buy the extended warranty for the 360. I've had mine since April of last year, and have a lot of time into it (hundreds of hours). Its working fine with an intercooler attached. Mine is also a Dec05 build.
 
Oh come on. If you're that worried about it, buy it at a store with an in store warranty like Best Buy or Costco. It breaks, you bring it down there and get a new one. Because you're worried about potentially being without a 360 for a few weeks if it breaks you're just not going to get one and be without it for a long time? That's just not logical.
 
Your fears are pretty unwarranted. With all of the 360s out there I'd say the failure rate is probably right around 2% tops. You're going to find a larger amount of failures here mainly due to the skewed population towards owners of the machine.
 
The newer 360s seem to be better built than the launch units. It comes with a free 1 year warranty.

It's up to you if playing the games you want now (and if it does break, getting it replaced within a week or two) is more important than waiting for a redesign that may or may not happen.
 
Ive bought my in december and it was manufactured in october of 2006.

I have been playing with it frequently and have had no problems so far....i guess you should try and get one thats been manufactured as close as possible.
 
[quote name='nasum']Your fears are pretty unwarranted. With all of the 360s out there I'd say the failure rate is probably right around 2% tops. You're going to find a larger amount of failures here mainly due to the skewed population towards owners of the machine.[/quote]

Somehow I doubt it's only around 2%. It seems like everyone's 360s are breaking nowadays. Nontheless I got mine in Dec and it works fine, but its brand new so only time will tell.
 
[quote name='Rozz']Somehow I doubt it's only around 2%. It seems like everyone's 360s are breaking nowadays. Nontheless I got mine in Dec and it works fine, but its brand new so only time will tell.[/QUOTE]

Even if it 2%, that's way too high. It does seem like there's way too high of a failure rate for these things so late in the game with regular gamers. I'm sure there are a number more people who put up with their system breaking or that don't mention it on these forums.
 
Microsoft has already admitted they have a higher than normal failure rate, so it definitely isn't 2% (and statistically, I doubt we could all either have dead consoles or friends with dead consoles if it were 2%).

I'm not convinced they've completely gotten their act together, but hopefully the 45 micron chips and redesign will be more reliable.

The Playstation 3 and Wii haven't been flawless either, though they don't seem to be as widespread problems.
 
I got my 360 shortly after launch, like you I was paranoid about it so I coughed up th 60 dollars for the extended warrenty, of course not one problem at all with the system so yeah that was money wasted.
 
I understand your concerns; I bought mine from Dell.com in December and it came with a bad hard drive. Since I didn't want to jack around with the "sending it to MS" crap I just went down to Target, bought a HDD off the shelf, swapped mine, and returned it saying it was defective. Yeah it may be a bit deceitful, but it's going right back to MS where it should and I didn't have to wait for 4 weeks to play my NEW system (or pay to ship it back). After swapping the HDD it's been good as gold and I have NO regrets in my purchase (in fact I'm happier with the system than I thought I would be).

I would say call around to your different stores to see how they handle the warranty. If I'm not mistaken, extended warranties from places like GameStop allow you to bring the system into the store and they'll swap it right there which, IMO, is well worth the price.

I wouldn't worry about it, it's a great system and definately something worth spending the $$ on.
 
[quote name='furyk']Even if it 2%, that's way too high. [/QUOTE]
How do you know it's "way too high"? Do you know what a standard or acceptable failure rate is in the industry?
 
With any piece of electronic equipment you buy, you run the risk of purchasing a dud. It happens. You can't avoid it your entirely life. If it hasn't happened to you yet, it eventually will. If you want a 360, get a 360. Just make sure you get some kind of extended warranty to cover your butt.
 
[quote name='Rozz']Somehow I doubt it's only around 2%. It seems like everyone's 360s are breaking nowadays. Nontheless I got mine in Dec and it works fine, but its brand new so only time will tell.[/QUOTE]

One thing everyone forgets for every one person posting about their broken 360. There's 10 more with a machine in fine working order.
 
[quote name='CitizenB']One thing everyone forgets for every one person posting about their broken 360. There's 10 more with a machine in fine working order.[/quote]

Funny, ten of my friends have 360's and 7 of them have turned them in to MS because they were broken. And who knows if there really are 10 more in fine working order? All I know is that a huge amount of 360's are defective and thats bad news.
 
[quote name='coolsteel']I got my 360 shortly after launch, like you I was paranoid about it so I coughed up th 60 dollars for the extended warrenty, of course not one problem at all with the system so yeah that was money wasted.[/QUOTE]

How's it money wasted if your warranty is for 1 yr and you added an additional 2 yrs on top of it? You should still have close to 2 years of warranty left. You never know what might happen in the next 2 years, so it's better to be safe than sorry.


If you're gonna get a 360 I'd recommend getting a warranty plan. My 360 just died and it was a launch unit. Hopefully, it'll take less than 2 weeks to get fixed.
 
[quote name='Rozz']Funny, ten of my friends have 360's and 7 of them have turned them in to MS because they were broken. And who knows if there really are 10 more in fine working order? All I know is that a huge amount of 360's are defective and thats bad news.[/QUOTE]
Pets, smokers, floods, frequent directionally uncontrollable urination?
 
[quote name='Wolfpup']Microsoft has already admitted they have a higher than normal failure rate, so it definitely isn't 2% (and statistically, I doubt we could all either have dead consoles or friends with dead consoles if it were 2%).

I'm not convinced they've completely gotten their act together, but hopefully the 45 micron chips and redesign will be more reliable.

The Playstation 3 and Wii haven't been flawless either, though they don't seem to be as widespread problems.[/QUOTE]

They admitted the launch 360s had a higher than expected failure rate.
 
I'm waiting for the revamped version later this year with the cooler running processor. I've got plenty of previous-gen games + Wii to keep me happy until then
 
[quote name='chakan']I'm waiting for the revamped version later this year with the cooler running processor. I've got plenty of previous-gen games + Wii to keep me happy until then[/QUOTE]

Same here. If you can wait, wait. If you have to have one now then get the extended warranty if that worried about it.
 
[quote name='nasum']With all of the 360s out there I'd say the failure rate is probably right around 2% tops.[/QUOTE]
How about the failure rate of launch 360's that are regularly used by gamers? Because unless that 2% includes all of my close friends, many of my online aquaintances, and me, then it's highly unlikely the failure rate on the launch systems is only 2%.

Buy a motherfucking warrantee. How hard is that?

I had to wait 3 days before I had a chance to drive up to Best Buy and replace my failed unit. Big whoop. 45 minutes and $15 in gas later I had a brand new system up and running.

Besides, I expect the failure rate on the new revisions (not the brand new model, but the regular revisions Microsoft has produced since launch) is very low.

And yes, I agree Nintendo makes riddiculously quality products. The Wii is sturdy as hell and brilliantly put together. But Nintendo is exceptional. It shouldn't make you skip the absolutely fantastic experience that you get from owning a 360.

If I could go back and re-do my purchase on the launch 360, I'd have done it again, and boughten a few more games at launch.
 
I would venture to say we're easily looking at upwards of 15 - 20% failure rate overall. There's a *lot* of dead 360s out there. Out of the comparatively small circle of people I know around my town with 360s, about half (5/11) have had crashes of one kind or another.

The sad fact of the matter is, if you're serious about console gaming this gen, you've gotta get a 360. However, once I get through this battle, I'll probably never buy another MS product again. I just can't rationalize MS's absurd production problems, much less their Russian roulette "will-it-brick-it?" system patches. A company with the resources MS has at their disposal shouldn't be making these kinds of mistakes.

I guess my biggest frustration is there's so much that the 360 does so absolutely right that the whole package should have and arguably could have been perfect.
 
[quote name='Scobie']

I guess my biggest frustration is there's so much that the 360 does so absolutely right that the whole package should have and arguably could have been perfect.[/QUOTE]

AGREE

360 > all other consoles

but is that really saying much?

no... no it's not
 
Anyone know how long it takes Microsoft to send you a warranty certificate? I mailed my request and credit card number to them. I'm still waiting for them to provide a certificate and it's been 2 weeks.
 
[quote name='Indiana']Anyone know how long it takes Microsoft to send you a warranty certificate? I mailed my request and credit card number to them. I'm still waiting for them to provide a certificate and it's been 2 weeks.[/QUOTE]

I think I got mine 2-3 months later?
 
First off my non-launch 360 that I got at the beginning of last year is flawless.

If I were to base my decision solely on firsthand knowledge I'd say that 50% of launch 360's are fucked and maybe 15% of non-launch 360's. A little high but not completely unreasonable if you ignore the garbage units from launch. I hope MS still pays for shipping both ways to replace defective units. That was a good policy.

You should wait at this point if you're looking at getting a 360. Unless you can get it for uber cheap don't bother and wait for the redesign. Then wait another 2 weeks so you can make sure that the first gen redesigns aren't trash :)
 
Unless you wait for the redesign (and even then, maybe not), there's going to be a risk factor involved (what it is, no one can tell you, because no one really knows). If it means that much to you, don't buy it, enjoy your Wii, wait to hear about a revision, and then buy (it'll most likely be cheaper at that point as well).

I don't think any of the next-gen systems are at the point of really needing to buy yet.
 
Im gonna kill the next person that makes a thread like this...I have a Nov 2005 launch system and havent had any problems....No stop with these bitching posts
 
[quote name='slickkill77']Im gonna kill the next person that makes a thread like this...I have a Nov 2005 launch system and havent had any problems....No stop with these bitching posts[/quote]

Ok, we'll stop bitching about a system that appears to be breaking down in mass quantaties :roll:

My 360 is fine, but it's not fine how many people's 360s have broken thus far.
 
When is the "revamped" 360 rumored to come out? I want to get a 360 again, and i know im gona want a 360 before Halo 3 is out at least. Anyone know?
 
[quote name='Damian']How do you know it's "way too high"? Do you know what a standard or acceptable failure rate is in the industry?[/QUOTE]

I know that 1 in every 50 Xboxs breaking would be pretty fucking ridiculous. That's enough for a mass recall on almost any other major tech product out there. The last major recall I remember was when Apple back in August with over 1.8 million laptop batteries after nine overheated and the Dell recall of 4.1 million batteries back in June. Yes, a fire hazard is not the same thing as a broken 360, but if there was the potential for one lawsuit out of this, every single one of these things would be recalled. Also, let's not forget the Wii strap recalls which while much cheaper was also fixed within a few weeks.
 
The breakdown rate HAS to be above 2%. I got an Xbox 360 at launch and it broke a month or two later. The replacement broke again in about the same amount of time. My last unit worked good until about a week and half ago and it just stopped reading discs. That's three faulty consoles in a bit over a year.

I love the games, I love live, and I love how the console looks, but these things have been made like shit. Hopefully the new models are better.

And now I have to pay to ship this heavy ass thing back to Microsoft whenever it breaks (which seems like quite a common occurence).

The PS2 with DRE's were higher quality than these pieces.
 
Google Sez:

"Crecente agrees, but after running an unscientific poll on his site that showed 20 percent of readers who own 360s experiencing problems, and others showing upward of 10 percent, questions just how widespread the problem is."

FEELING LUCKY, PUNK?


[By the way, I'm going to go out and buy one Friday. SO if you decide to get one, you won't be alone.]
 
[quote name='Thunderscope']I really want to get a 360 and Wii and I have the money to do so. I dont have any worries about getting a wii since its a Nintendo Built system, but after seeing SO many posts about their 360's dying I really don't want to pay $400 for a system that im gonna have to screw around with replacing time and time again. EVEN IF ITS FREE. The problem lies with me enjoying the 360, I play my friends all the time and its such a great system with great games. Now he hasnt had a problem with his yet, however we know many who have. So do I just pull a straw and buy or wait for a redesign to come.[/quote]

Just buy it at Costco, if it craps out take it back.
 
[quote name='furyk']I know that 1 in every 50 Xboxs breaking would be pretty fucking ridiculous. That's enough for a mass recall on almost any other major tech product out there.[/QUOTE]
No, it's not. 1 in 50 would be a fantastic failure rate of 2%. While it's hard to find companies admitting to specific failure rates I've found numerous examples of companies like MS and Apple comparing their failure rates to what they claim is an industry standard of 5%. Also backing that up is a Gartner study putting PC failure rates at 5% in year one out to 12 % in year four. Laptops range from 15-20%.

From what I've researched 5% does seem to be about accurate as an average acceptable figure for failure rates. Whether MS is above or below that no one can say. Everyone spouting anecdotal evidence is just talking out their ass and you usually find that things "everyone knows" are rarely true.
 
Another week. Another "I'm scared" thread. Sigh.

However, a friend of mines, launch 360, has a 1 Red ring now, but MS is replacing it for free.
 
[quote name='BackInBlack']When is the "revamped" 360 rumored to come out? I want to get a 360 again, and i know im gona want a 360 before Halo 3 is out at least. Anyone know?[/QUOTE]

I assume a revamped one won't even come out till Late 2007 which should release with the DVR capable 360 they were talking about at CES.
 
Get a warranty. I mean, an instore warranty where you just replace it for a new one. That way you can just get a new console on the spot. What sucks though, is that I think you'd need to keep buying the warranty over and over again for each console...but I'm not sure. I'd probably just buy a warranty on each one that breaks, assuming they're not expensive. How much does a warranty for the 360 cost you at places like GS?
 
your concern is like saying you don't want to own a car because people get in accidents with them all the time.......

....just get the 360....the internet makes 1 problem with something seem like hundreds of problems.....as someone said, the failure rate is probably 2 % or less...

my system that i got 1 month after the 360 was released is still working just fine...no problems at all.....
 
[quote name='Rozz']Funny, ten of my friends have 360's and 7 of them have turned them in to MS because they were broken. And who knows if there really are 10 more in fine working order? All I know is that a huge amount of 360's are defective and thats bad news.[/quote]

Rozz, define "huge". You think that somehow because 7 of your friend's 360's have failed that this is somehow a "huge" problem? You do nothing but complain about how "the 360 is such a failure and so many mass quantities are failing". Give it up already. Electronics aren't perfect and just because you read that people on the Internet are having problems (where people often bitch the most) this does not represent the MAJORITY of the systems.

If this was such a "huge" problem like everyone claimed, don't you think there would be a recall by now? Like a few members have said, you never hear posts about people who have a 360 and it works fine. You always hear the ones that want to bitch the most.

If every single registered CAG (let's estimate at 80k members) had an Xbox 360 and every one of those systems failed it would still represent a whopping 0.008% of failure in all 360's (saying 10 million exist in the wild). Most of you guys base all your facts on what you read on teh interwebs and fail to realize that OF COURSE you are going to hear the most complaints from people online. Do you see threads of the countless numbers of people saying their systems are actually working? No.

If this was truely a big deal, then there would have been a recall by now.

Every single "next gen" console will have problems. It's the nature of the beast. Electronics aren't perfect.

OP. Buy the extended warranty. Microsoft sells a 1 year and 2 year warranty.
 
[quote name='getmyrunon']I don't think any of the next-gen systems are at the point of really needing to buy yet.[/QUOTE]
I think the 360 has been a must have for any hardcore gamer for the past six months.

Knowing what I've played now, I'd die if I didn't have a 360.
 
[quote name='PyroGamer']I think the 360 has been a must have for any hardcore gamer for the past six months.

Knowing what I've played now, I'd die if I didn't have a 360.[/QUOTE]

If you're a gamer that doesn't play on PC, the 360 was a must have system as soon as Oblivion came out. Since then, the hits have just kept on coming.
 
You know, I'm honestly getting sick of 2 things

1) Hearing about how "crappy" MS and Sony products are. If they are that bad, why buy them? Your going to spend $500 on an Xbox 360 after the warrenty, just in case it dies? Sorry, I think we get skewed ideas from message boards. I think most people who have an issue posts.

2) That "Nintendo" quality is so much better. Sorry, I've had one system crap out on my in my life, and it was my Cube. I've seen other posts too. There is a difference, if someone posts about a Sony or MS product having issues, everyone jumps on board, if you make a post, my Gamecube died, YOU did something wrong to it and you are a bad system owner. Heck, I was told I didn't even deserve to have a Gamecube if mine broke. Sorry, Nintendo may make fine products, but they aren't that much better.

Honestly, if you're going to worry about it and you don't want to get it fixed for free, then I'd say don't buy one. Why buy a system that you almost want to see break so you can justify coming in and making some huge post on how you knew you shouldn't get one, and now you have there hassles. Just get your Wii and be happy. Also, don't feel bad when you miss some of the best games that this generation has to offer. I'll enjoy them for you.
 
[quote name='lordxixor101']You know, I'm honestly getting sick of 2 things

1) Hearing about how "crappy" MS and Sony products are. If they are that bad, why buy them? Your going to spend $500 on an Xbox 360 after the warrenty, just in case it dies? Sorry, I think we get skewed ideas from message boards. I think most people who have an issue posts. [/quote]
Well the original Xbox was a tank and I had 2 that never failed me, even after hundreds and probably thousands of hours of halo. I've had THREE Xbox 360 breakdowns in just over a year and I've put a lot less time into each one than I did regularly on my original Xbox.

I had to send my Ps2 back to Sony 3 or 4 times. Hell, once I sent them a system with a DRE and they sent me back a system that didn't work at all, which was just delightful.

[quote name='lordxixor101']You know, I'm honestly getting sick of 2 things 2) That "Nintendo" quality is so much better. Sorry, I've had one system crap out on my in my life, and it was my Cube. I've seen other posts too. There is a difference, if someone posts about a Sony or MS product having issues, everyone jumps on board, if you make a post, my Gamecube died, YOU did something wrong to it and you are a bad system owner. Heck, I was told I didn't even deserve to have a Gamecube if mine broke. Sorry, Nintendo may make fine products, but they aren't that much better.[/quote]
Yeah, they are that much better. You are certainly in the minority here.If you had a PS2 and/or Xbox 260 from launch and both still work perfectly, than you are extremely lucky. I've had every single Nintendo made system released in the States (including the Virtual Boy and every single Game Boy from the Color to the Micro) and I have NEVER had one break, not once in over 15 years. I dropped my DS a few times, and it was still flawless. My cousin dropped my Girlfriends DS Lite onto the tile really hard and the hinges didn't even break. I'm sure I'm not the only one that will vouch for Nintendo's extremely high quality.

EGM and other publications have done tests where they put Nintendo systems through hell, and they usually still work!


[quote name='lordxixor101'] Honestly, if you're going to worry about it and you don't want to get it fixed for free, then I'd say don't buy one. Why buy a system that you almost want to see break so you can justify coming in and making some huge post on how you knew you shouldn't get one, and now you have there hassles. Just get your Wii and be happy. Also, don't feel bad when you miss some of the best games that this generation has to offer. I'll enjoy them for you.[/quote]
He has every reason to worry. I love the games (Gears, Oblivion, SC:DA, Ghost Recon, NBA2k7, Dead Rising etc.) on the Xbox 360 and I would have bought one even if I knew this would happen, but this system is very poorly made. Three breakdowns in a year would NEVER happen with a well made product, except by some freak accident.

Personally I think the OP should get one, at least when they come out with the updated version. There are simply too many great games on the system that you shouldn't pass up, and Halo 3 is coming out sometime this year.
 
To be fair, I don't have launch systems. It doesn't have anything to do with the quality of the machines, it has to do with the cost/games. I bought my PS2 and 360 a year in. My Xbox 360 was with the Sega GT/JSRF packin, so about 2 years in.

Though, I think things get overblown. I had the dreaded "Thompson's" drive for the Xbox, basically meaning that I wouldn't be able to play Morrowind GOTY, since it would kill the system. I played through it, it crashed a few times (so did everyone's), but it was playable.

I think some people who have had multiple issues may have other problems. Likfe the person who has 7 out of 10 friends had to return theirs. I really wonder if part of that is the store/stores that they are buying from (maybe the delivery company treated many of them badly).

But, take the PS2, did I have DRE's, yes. But, I was able to clean the lens with a lens cleaner, and it started working like new. Of everyone I know that had a PS2, only one broke down, and let's just say the guy didn't have it under the best conditions (it's in a basement with so much smoke, I gagged, and his cat has used it as a litterbox on more than one occasion, overall, I'm impressed the thing held up as well as it did.

I'm not saying that they don't break, I'm sure they do. Electronics have a defect rate. I just think that the fear people have is unfounded. Even if launch systems had issues, the ones being sold now may not. People fear that it's a real crapshoot to get a good one, I think if you go to a solid store, odds are far more on your side that your system will be a good one.
 
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