Archive for: RROD
Xbox 360 slim owners listen up: Forget about the RRoD. It is effectively dead and buried. In its place is the RDoD (Red Dot of Death). The new 360 slim units won’t make use of the colored ring of death any longer, as Microsoft has opted for a more straightforward and less cryptic hardware failure indicator — a simple red dot.
Yes, instead of one, two, three, or four red slivers, now all we’ve got to go on is a single LED. It’s easy for Microsoft from a manufacturer’s standpoint as they can simply label hardware problems as general as possible, leaving the worrying, guessing, and home-made repairs out of the loop and picking up the slack with pay-for warranty repairs.
Regardless, Microsoft made a lot of improvements in heat output, cooling efficiency, and sound isolation turning the once butt of many jokes Xbox 360 into a more serious and *hopefully* durable console. As is customary with this sort of thing, time will be the ultimate revealer of truth…
Have you had to send your 360 back for a RRoD, or for any reason? Do you find that cardboard box ugly and a bit tacky? Well, never fear, Alexis Vanamois has designed a final burial bin for that hunk o’ garbage.
So if you have a RRoD xbox lying around, and can’t bare to see it thrown away, why not grab one of these to allow for a comfortable afterlife. It even has a slot for a controller! I would say for those of you out there that had your console banned earlier this year might want to pick one of these up, since I’m assuming you went out and purchased another one.
Gizmodo
- September 21, 2009 7:07 am
PS3 owners, have you experienced any issues with your console, specifically an illuminated yellow light that signals your unit is as good as dead? If you do, you’re not alone according to BBC and apparently even Sony, though the latter will beg to differ. After a BBC Watchdog program investigating the (increasing?) number of “Yellow Light of Death” occurrences on Sony’s PS3 went live, Sony naturally responded not so lovingly strongly denying the claims. First off, what exactly is the problem? The reason the show highlighting this YLoD even went on air was because over 150 PS3 owners had contacted BBC on the matter stating that their unit stopped working after a yellow light on the PS3 lit up rendering their console a big fancy paperweight. BBC goes even further in their documentary stating that of 2.5m PS3′s sold in the UK since March 2007, up to 12,500 PS3′s have been returned because of this so called YLoD. While not as widespread as the Xbox 360′s RRoD that made it’s rounds a couple years ago, the YLoD appears to be a legitimate problem. Or is it?
- September 2, 2009 11:58 am
If you were unfortunate enough to experienced the Red Ring of Death on your beloved Xbox 360 and even more unfortunate enough to have it happen a 2nd or 3rd time, maybe it’s time you start sporting your hard earned achievement with a rather fitting t-shirt that proudly announces to the world your gaming prowess. That’s right, an actual t-shirt that shows an Xbox live achievement bubble complete with congratulatory wording for the RRoD. While it isn’t exactly a gamers most proud or favorite moment when their 360 starts throwing out cries for help in in the way of blinking red lights and frantic fan noises, now that the problem has been more or less remedied with the usage of smaller components inside the unit which reduce the heat output, we can all look back, laugh, and have a good time. Right? Of course, none other than Think Geek was responsible for this stroke of genius.
Source: Geeky-Gadgets
If you wanted a slap in the face to rocket you back into the sad sick little world that *used* to be the Xbox 360, a non-scientific poll (paper only) conducted by Game Informer revealed that the failure rate on Xbox 360′s (presumably pre-die shrink to the smaller more efficient processors) was 54%! I don’t care who you are or what company you run, a 54% failure rate is beyond god awful. Of course, such claims can’t be verified by Redmond themselves as such data is locked away in some secret vault guarded by fire breathing dragons and a mean sea turtle who won’t hold anything back. It’s no secret no matter how much Microsoft wants to deny that the 360 was rushed to market. Soon after release RRoD (Red Rings of Death) issues were popping up left and right. It was so bad if you remember, that Microsoft had to end up spending several billion dollars extending warranties for RRoD victims. So far, my Xbox 360 has had RRoD syndrome twice. Adding insult to injury, Microsoft also managed to snatch up the award for worst customer service and longest service times with replacement/refurbished 360′s taking over a month to return home.
Since undergoing the die shrink which brought smaller, more efficient, less heat radiating processors, the RRoD problems seems to have been greatly diminished. Still, having a product that had a failure rate claimed to be so high is certainly not a consumer confidence builder. By the way, just to compare, the PS3′s failure rate is/was around 11% with the Wii bringing up the rear at a much more dependable 7%. Of course, a percentage point or two could be attributed to the 360′s generally longer playing times. But that’s a huge stretch to say the least and certainly doesn’t account for mountain of trouble that not so long ago plagued the system.
So we all know I’ve been at deaths door twice. Have you see RRoD on your 360? If so is it a return appearance or is it your first?
Source: CrunchGear, Consumerist
While the whole RRoD (Red Ring of Death) scare has now been quelled, with new stories drastically lower than a mere year ago, some would think that the problem is gone and that Xbox 360 users are safe to venture into the world of non-stop gaming filled with Red Bull full nights and bed ridden days. If you were the owner of an the older “First Gen” 360 units, you may be all too familiar with the 90 nm chips that were inside those units. It was that size that led to high number of RRoD (Red Ring of Death) issues that were caused by over heating problems inside the unit. The newer “2nd Gen” units use a smaller, more heat friendly 65 nm chip which is much more resiliant to the stresses and turmoils of long hours of Xbox 360 gaming. Even though units sent in for repair were being given a second lease on life, exactly how long does that least last? Take note: Second lease on life lasts approximately 1 year…
It seems as if only yesterday, the “Red Rings of Death” were in the forefront of tech news. Xbox 360 users from far and wide were experiencing system maiming glitches in which the only solution was to wait a small eternity to get your fixed unit back. Microsoft so far has payed dearly for the ‘ol RRoD to the tune of $1 billion+ to make good on their warranty claims. With RRoD behind them, all was looking peachy for them. That was until E74 started appearing. What is “E74″ you ask. E74 is an issue in which the Xbox 360 has either a faulty AV connector, or a more frequently common loosened AHA/HANA scaling chip. It displays an error in the form of one red light on the bottom left of your Xbox (shown above). Either way, it isn’t good news for Microsoft who just can’t seem to get the whole build quality thing down right.
Now it is worth noting that E74 “Red Arc of Death” *Engadget* isn’t new per say, it’s just that the number of reports of RAoD since October have been steadily rising making for another epidemic of broken Xbox’s and long waits for avid gamers. A possible culprit is the NXE (New Xbox Experience) update that was pushed out back in Novemeber. However, the reports of E74 started rising before the NXE update so it may be a bigger problem after all. Poor Microsoft. I feel bad for Xbox users who may have been hit by RRoD and possibly get hit again by E74. So have you been lucky enough to have an Xbox that has withstood these nasty problems? Or have you been bitten once or twice? Let us know below!
Source: Engadget
- February 17, 2009 3:37 pm
What can I say, I have a poetic side from time to time and thought I would share it with you. It’s the least I could do. According to an interview between Edge and Aaron Greenburg, the basic underlying message is that the whole RROD fiasco with Microsoft and the Xbox 360 is finished. Not finished as in no more cases, but finished as in Microsoft has improved their repair techniques so that their are far fewer second timers. For some words to mentally chew on concerning the whole interview come on inside!
