Metropol

Just wanted a quick rant about my Xbox!

I bought it back in February, and have been happily playing it for 7 months now, until the dreaded red lights appeared on the front of the system on 8th September. So I rang up Xbox Customer Services and told them, and they said that there were hardware issues and that I needed to send it away to them. They covered the cost of the postage and the repair, and also threw in a month's xbox live membership.

I was pretty happy with that, and last week I got it back - a pretty good turnaround I thought. I got a letter back with the xbox saying that there was a motherboard failure and this had been replaced.

But I was playing it again yesterday, and the same thing happened again - the box froze, wouldn't start up properly, threw up an E71 error and then the bloody red lights came up on the machine again.

So I called up again and complained about the evidently shoddy repair job. They apologised and I've got to send the box away again. To compensate they're sending me a free game, and another month's xbox live membership.

I can't really fault the customer service team as they were friendly and efficient (even the one who was in New York!!), but Microsoft really need to sort their hardware out and fix the damn things properly.

Has anybody else had any similar experiences like this?

Anyone who's ever used a Microsoft operating system feels your pain.

Downgrading to Vista from XP is the kind of thing a mental would do. At least until the first service pack has been released. Pro Tools isn't available on Vista yet, so there's another good reason for not downgrading to Vista - for at least another year, anyway.

I always had you down as more of an Amateur Tool anyway Jamez

Very similar experience, as is that of the majority of those I speak to.
Currently on my third system since August 06 - first was randomly overheating, second was ring of death and my current one I suspect is on its way out as the disc tray is making some unpleasant sounds.

The good news is MS have finally half-acknowledged that this was shitiness by design, and have changed the manufacture of all future consoles. This started in about July this year, but what I don't know is if these are going into the pool of refurb consoles they've been sending out as replacements (which is what mine have been, basically you open the box and know you're getting something that will see you through another couple of months) or what.

Ultimately though, it should be better from here on in. In theory.

There's a known "trick" for the ring of death were you wrap the 360 in two towels to the welding inside melts a bit or something, as that is usually the case. However it may cause fire or explosion so attempt at your own risk.