Microsoft Owns Up To 360 Defects 101
Next Generation reports on Microsoft's acceptance of responsibility for early 360 defects. While originally claiming that system failures were well within the norm for consumer electronics, they've now adopted a more service-friendly attitude. From the article: "Upon further investigation, it was further discovered that the bulk of the units were isolated to a group that was part of the initial manufacturing run of the console. Returns for repair are coming in for a variety reasons and it's a higher rate than we are satisfied with. We've made the decision to comp repairs for consoles manufactured before January 1, and provide refunds to the small group of customers who have already paid for repairs."
Yeah (Score:5, Funny)
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You're looking at that comment from the wrong end of the telescope. They meant that of all the machines released, only x% failed.
I suppose that could have been a joke, but regarding MS around here, it's hard to tell.
That's not a very good apology. (Score:4, Interesting)
Yeah, we know what they mean and it's bullshit. Of all the brick style power supplies and wall warts you have owned, how many ever melted? None? That's what most people would say because melting is not normal for consumer electronics. That M$ managed to ship one that did means they shorted several qualifying steps required for a UL listing with obviously dangerous results. Once again they suck, they don't care and they are going to lie to you about it.
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I was mod-bombed to the point of being banned once because I pointed out a scenario where Apple's hold on the market prevented an interesting feature from being added to the iPod. I get your point though, I shouldn't generalize because of a few noisy people.
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Still, I wonder if you'd care to take the time to comment on other pieces of exploding hardware [slashdot.org]? I wonder, actually, since you seem to be such the big IBM champion if you would like to refer to them as Once again they suck, they don't care and they are going to lie to you about it. Go ahead, I'd love to see that.
I absolutely love how these posts of yours get modded up.
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Thinkpad 600, holy shit! I have one of those and love it but the battery has always sucked [slashdot.org]. I'm not too surprised that the made in China replacement could have some of the same cells and same problems other batteries made at the same time have. Mine replacement battery, which holds a charge just good enough for sleep mode, is too old to be part of the exploding lot. I looked around but was unable to find a NiCd re
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We can't look back through your posting history further than about last week, because we're not subscribers.
Anyway, so IBM ships faulty shit - your reaction is "well, that stuff is always faulty whoever makes it". Microsoft (sorry, M$) ships faulty shit - your reaction is "OMFG M$ SUXX0RZ THEY DO
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Add to that, they cover over M$=B$ with even more M$=B$, only a few customers were affected, what happened to the infamous microsoft, xbox sold out, marketing campaign. Now it turns out there were only a few customers.
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The power supply was designed and manufactured by Delta Electronics, one of the largest manufacturers of power supplies in the world. It is UL listed.
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What about my warranty? (Score:2, Informative)
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"Warranties" purchased in addition to an item are useless. Stores started pushing them and selling them because they found out from Sears almost no one ever makes any claims on these extended "warranties." It isn't really a warranty at all. It is a service contract.
A real warranty is essentially just a guarantee that a vendor will fix any defects if they are found within a certain amount of time. It is to assure customers the product won't fall apart too soon after buying the thing. You don't really buy t
Re: What about my warranty? (Score:2)
My initial response was 'no way', but then I recalled they had an extended offer for something like 12 months 'extended cover' which they included in the box and seemed to be pushing quite heavily. Caveat emptor applies here I think, for two reasons:
1) In most western countries companies are under obligation to resolve issues caused by inherent serious design flaws in their products (typically as long as the flaws are disco
Only 360? (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Only 360? (Score:5, Funny)
Think about the phrase, "Microsoft Owns Up To 360 Defects." Not the conversation, just the headline. Now think about the response, "Only 360? Last time I heard, they had thousands of defects..."
Now look up. No, higher. See that? That's the joke, going far, far over your head.
Oh, never mind.
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Red Ring of Death (Score:2, Informative)
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It's fixable if you're good with a heat gun (for soldering jobs). The error is very common - and it's not just from one batch. Microsoft will have to admit to this error again and again in the months to come.
How to fix it yourself: http://www.xboxhacker.net/forums/index.php?topic=1 193.0 [xboxhacker.net]
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The sad thing about this is that even the units that haven't failed yet have been through excessive thermal stress and cycling and have been compromised. The integrity of even the working units is degraded and they all are likely to experience continued elevated failure rates. Microsoft should provide free replacement/repair if any of these units ever fails. (ever meaning within some reasonable
why cold solder joints of course. (Score:1)
have you seen the reflow video on youtube?
they use a hot air gun to heat up the 360 mobo, and then it starts working again.
and my box was made in feb20/2006 - _after_ the january "early adopter" phase...
(my code was 0100, many others have the 0102 code...)
m$ removed the video from their forums. (Score:1)
on the xbox.com forums
on the thread where everyone was complaining about the rings o death...
(this was an 8 page thread, with lots of info and data about people's 0102 and 0100 code related deaths)...
someone posted the video of the "hot air gun" motherboard fix... (presumably reflowing bad solder joints)
next...
m$ support posted they don't recommend people fixing their own box.
then...
the entire thread was removed.
mysteriously....
(i also heard m$ had trouble with the new RoHS process that was just
Great! The software's next? (Score:1, Offtopic)
No, Transcode360 (or any form of transcoding) isn't good enough.
Maybe it wasn't designed for that (Score:2)
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But that doesn't really matter, since Microsoft decided that that wasn't good enough. Instead they use the Media Center PC to decode the video and then stream it via some form of RDP. That's why it makes no sense at all that it doesn't work.
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Then buy something else that does exactly what you're looking for.
Yep, the mere possibility of having another product available precludes any possible comment about the featureset in the original product.
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Don't be fooled, slashdot has many lying astroturfers [wikipedia.org] fraudulently misrepresenting company propaganda as third party opinion. FUD [wikipedia.org] too.
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Oh wait, yeah it is actually possible. Except I think that the only way you could get MS or Apple to stop pushing their pet formats is if you remove the crutch of software patents. The rate of innovation and improvement in software means that most patented formats will be rather obsolete and inefficient by the time 20 years are up. And then there's the whole issue of allowing patents on compression, which is b
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I can install the codecs my self. And they work just fine. Thumbnails are created, so I know it can read the video files. But it won't play them.
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AVI as you mentioned is just a container (Score:2)
Transcoding (lossless) is a much better solution - you know it plays on your PC - you know it'll stream across exactly the same to any extender you have. I only want to have to install codecs in one place and I'm sure MS aren't falling over themselves to let every codec maker install their stuff on their lovely 360s.
Current problem is that all we have is Transco
made the decision to comp repairs (Score:1)
"comp" is a verb? Since when? Perhaps it's a Microsoft patented word, like IsNot?
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Yep.
"Comp: Complimentary or free items and or services casinos give gamblers in gratitude for their business."
Some jokes you can't write because they just drop into your lap.
KFG
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"Comp: To give a complimentary or free item and/or service to e.g. a gambler (by a casino) for their business."
davidh
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Mea Culpa.
KFG
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Re:comp isn't verb; it's a legally-enforced Tradem (Score:1)
It's a nasty habit we picked up from the British. Myself I like to read people like Chaucer, Shakespeare, Kipling, Carroll and Milne. You wouldn't believe the crap they pull on a perfectly good language.
They've been a terrible influence on me.
KFG
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KFG
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Internet: Bringing us new ways to express ourselves since the first dude said "fuck it, I'm not going to spellcheck this crap" and pressed "SEND"
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Sad (Score:3, Interesting)
I've got to say I was surprised and disappointed when I heard their story. But then again, I find the idea that MS considers a 1 in 20 defect rate of boxes in the hands of the consumer abysmal. Stuff happens, but that's just pathetic.
One more reason for me to wait for a redesign of the unit or a re-spin of the silicon to a smaller process. Maybe by then things will be better.
I've never had problems with my XBox (non-360). I've never had problems with any of my consoles (even my initial batch PS and PS2s).
Anyone know Dell's defect rate (hardware only, in the first year)? I can't possibly be as bad as MS claims is OK (5%) or what they actually have (15%).
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So 15% is within normal by that standard.
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A surevy like this will self select for a higher than average failure rate. The people most likely to post are those that have had an issue. People who's machines just work would be less likely to be looking for defect information or post in a surevey about defects.
You might as well use my personal purchases of Powerbooks as the definative sample - I've bought 4 over 10+ years. None have had a hardware failure in the first 12 months, one has had a failure in the first 3 years. It was the clock battery on a
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I'm not sure how the survey was conducted, they don't say. A proper survey is completely random, you ask random people if they have an Apple laptop, what name, year etc and if it ever needed repairs. Survey by people who volunteer their experience is near worthless, as you said. You can't derive any sort of meaningful information from them.
I tend to believe the reliability of Apple notebooks is not great though, based on my own experience. I've own a powerbook, an ibook and now a MBP. All three were in h
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Great news for those that had to replace one (Score:3, Interesting)
Why didn't this make the front page... (Score:5, Insightful)
Maybe because the important stories are about microsoft's fuckups while the unimportant ones are those where they acknowledge their problems and address them.
Regardless, shouldn't this info be given the frontpage considering all the apparent 360 owners who are fixing their problems with strings, etc., and who could use the free service or refund?
360 Defects? (Score:2, Funny)
Actually... (Score:2, Informative)
'within the norm for consumer electronics'? (Score:2)
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Good point, though I would rephrase it as "when egos get too big, there seems to be a warping of reality for them." The first Macintosh team at Apple discovered this when dealing with Steve Jobs, and adopted a Star Trek term to describe this confounding phenomenon:
http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macin tosh&stor [folklore.org]
Early adopters could not be reached for comment (Score:1)
you know ... (Score:2, Insightful)
Honestly.
The single biggest thing that turned me off of Microsoft was the refusal to admit their mistakes. When I worked as a tech support rep for business clients, I can't even begin to count the number of times that I'd research a bug to find a MS knowledgebase article claiming ``this behavior is by design'' meaning it was a defect that they never intended to fix.
If they had openly admitted their defects, strove
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A few words about this (Score:3, Interesting)
and they damn well deserve it for rushing the thing out in the first place, the Xbox 1 is only 4 and a bit years old, don't fuck your first adopters by releasing it's replacement so quickly and dropping the original like a bag of shit with no support anymore.
Even Sony damn well supported the PS1 pretty well after the PS2 came out.
Fuckers.
Hey Sony, listen up.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Why can't MS and Sony take a lesson from Nintendo? They're the only company that actually spends time engineering hardware that actually works. Only bad Nintendo experience I've ever had was the horrible N64 controller. I was lucky if one of those lasted me longer than a month.
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Quality is hard, MS-shilling is easy (Score:3, Insightful)
> I appreciate that MS rushed production to get it out a year earlier than the other systems, as I was jonesing for a new system. I also appreciate that this rush is what produced the defective hardware.
So, in other words, Micro$oft is at it again: they rush a product through production, get it to market before it's ready, and -- what a surprise! -- it's got nasty bugs in it. Summary: M$ fucks things up some more.
> Although the delay in compensa
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