Having Xbox 360 Problems? You’re Not The Only One. But you can Repair This Problem.
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.
From “bricking’ to game freezes, the “Red Ring of Death” to scratched disks, the problems are common and often very frustrating. Anyone can have one of these issues, and they can happen at anytime without warning.
Though most come to accept it, having your favorite game freeze up on you in the middle of an important quest or right when you finally make it to that monster that you been working so hard to get to, it can be very frustrating. It’s even worse when you take out the disk to realize that it has been scratched to the point of no longer being playable. This is actually a fairly common issue. It is caused from either the disk not being secure in the drive or the pads at the reader missing. This happens more often when the console is positioned on its side, rather then laid flat.
Another issue Xbox 360’s have is “bricking”. “Bricking” is a term used within the industry due to the brick shape of most electronics. Since a brick is useless when it comes to electronics, when items like a game console, DVD player or similar quits, it’s now “useless as a brick”. Some dashboard updates have caused “bricking”. The only fix for this is to contact Microsoft to see about a replacement or repair. If the console is out of warranty, the repair could cost anywhere from $99 and up.
The most common problem with Xbox 360’s is the “Red Ring of Death”. The name for this issue comes from the three red lights that are on around the power light on the face of the console, forming a red ring. This is caused from either a general hardware failure or a core digital failure. Either of these problems is not good. Both require your console to be sent in to Microsoft for repair or replacement. The average turn around to receive one back is eight weeks. Due to the commonality of this issue, Microsoft extended the 1-year warranty that these consoles came with to 3 years from date of purchase.
Because of the frequency of failures with the Xbox 360, there have been several lawsuits filed. The first was soon after the release of the console. Another was filed in November of 2006, only about a year after release. This lawsuit was due to the “bricking” that was experienced after the November 1, 2006 release of a dashboard patch.
One of the latest class action suits was filed October of 2008. California consumers who claimed Microsoft knew they were manufacturing and selling faulty consoles filed it. Though Microsoft will not release their actual failure rating, it is estimated to be over 50%. This probably will not be the last of lawsuits that Microsoft will see about their gaming system.
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!