The hugely scientific B3D hardware failure poll 2011 edition

How many consoles have you got through?


  • Total voters
    115
My EU launch PS3 died aout a year ago, but is now working after I fixed it. Haven't really used it much, as I bought a new Slim that is still working.
My EU launch Wii is still working.
My EU launch PS2 is still working, though it's been sitting practically idle after I bought the PS3.
 
My EU Phat PS3 has been trucking along since launch. No problems aside from some very weird behaviour playing borderlands, but that might have been the game as it was ages ago.

Wii keeps on going too, though barely gets used at all.
 
Do we count only our own owned machines, or all the machines we worked with?
Just our own. TheChefO suggested an alternativ poll for actually gauging reliability, but this particularly take was more just about what consoles we're getting through, and seeing how many are needing to buy more than one machine in a generation.
 
I have a EU launch PS3 which still works like a charm.
About 15-20 hours of gaming has been done on it each week since I bought it.

4 launch PS3's at work also still work (they haven't been doing anything for the last 2 years or so though), and they have been folding for about 2 years, 24/7.
 
It's hardware failures, software failures can be fixed without shipping the units back. The hardware in most cases is largely identical to what you buy in stores (360 dev kits and ps3 test kits), therefore if they failed in our lab then they will fail in your home. Most of them were used by q/a, and all they did was use it to play the games. Nothing fancy, just boot the games and play them, and poof they broke. It's unacceptable really, but the good news is that all of us in the biz at the time saw the failures ahead of time and were largely able to sell off our units. Except my launch ps3 which broke while my auction was live on ebay :(

I wonder if it's only(or mainly) US launch ps3's that self destruct. EU launch ps3 I bought still work. Also numbers in this poll tell a story.
 
All the hardware irregardless is built on the same assembly lines with the same processes of the time, be they dev test kit or retail box. If the cpu or optical drive fails on one, it will fail on the other because they are the same.

Not true. ^_^
It depends on the components used, and design, production run, sorting, QA to pick out faulty units, etc.
 
I wonder if it's only(or mainly) US launch ps3's that self destruct. EU launch ps3 I bought still work. Also numbers in this poll tell a story.
Except my experience of 5 dead PS3's among 3 users shows EU PS3's aren't better - unless the UK got a different batch. This is where a proper survey of model number failures would be needed. If such a survey did find one region more liable to failure than another, there'd be hell to pay on the part of the console company!
 
My launch X360 refuses to die. It still happily turns on and runs games despite being quite old now.

Unsurprisingly my X360 S also is running just fine. I wish my launch 360 would die already so I would feel better about buying the X360 S. :p

Regards,
SB
 
Not true. ^_^
It depends on the components used, and design, production run, sorting, QA to pick out faulty units, etc.

Note I'm not talking about this one:

http://img170.echo.cx/img170/3736/ps3devkit6aq.jpg

...or this one:

http://toptoy-3ds.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/dump-v3.60+-keys.jpg

...I'm talking about this one:

http://ps3media.ign.com/ps3/image/article/743/743979/ps3-test-kit-interrogation-20061103005829987_640w.jpg

...which internally is much the same as the retail boxes.
 

This is not PS3 or 360 specific but I have dev units that look identical from the outside but have pre-release components ('specially prelaunch).

The other way is to develop on retail units directly like iOS devices.
 
I don't treat the Wii very well.
I don't play with it at home, only take it with me to parties and stuff, so it's most of the time inside a plastic bag along with all the controllers, adapters and games and that bag gets thrown around a lot.
Nonetheless, it always works flawlessly.

It's a sturdy console, I can tell that much.
 
Wow, the 360 numbers are not surprising considering how much peeps here use their consoles, how long the console has been available, and (big 'duh!') the RRoD issues and how much it cost MS (over $1B) and how much pub it still gets / how much "RRoD" is built into gamer lingo. No, the shocker is how many PS3's have failed and how it pretty much has passed under the radar. People really don't talk about it but by going by the percentages here the PS3 really deviates from past Sony platforms.

Can those who owned PS1s and PS2s and have followed reliability issues comment? I never had issues with my PS1 and didn't really know of any major issues. I had read about disk drive issues on the PS2 but it didn't seem to be as significant as the numbers people posting here... or was it? Did this gen take a big nose dive in general or were past issues underreported? And is the PS3 passing under the radar because of the magnitude of the 360?
 
the shocker is how many PS3's have failed and how it pretty much has passed under the radar. People really don't talk about it but by going by the percentages here the PS3 really deviates from past Sony platforms

Google yellow light of death(YLOD) ps3 and you will see plenty of hits. Another big one has been the blu-ray drives failing(which is possible to fix by replacing the head if one is handy enough).
 
Wow, the 360 numbers are not surprising considering how much peeps here use their consoles, how long the console has been available, and (big 'duh!') the RRoD issues and how much it cost MS (over $1B) and how much pub it still gets / how much "RRoD" is built into gamer lingo. No, the shocker is how many PS3's have failed and how it pretty much has passed under the radar. People really don't talk about it but by going by the percentages here the PS3 really deviates from past Sony platforms.

Can those who owned PS1s and PS2s and have followed reliability issues comment? I never had issues with my PS1 and didn't really know of any major issues. I had read about disk drive issues on the PS2 but it didn't seem to be as significant as the numbers people posting here... or was it? Did this gen take a big nose dive in general or were past issues underreported? And is the PS3 passing under the radar because of the magnitude of the 360?

PS1 and PS2 both died on me.

PS1 started having disc read issues after about 2 years so I had to turn it sideways sometimes to get it to read discs. After a year or so of that, it then had to be flipped upside down or sideways to read discs at all. Then a year after that, it was toast.

~4 years

PS2 had very light usage, bought in Dec 2002, died unexpectedly in early 2006.

~4 years

xb360 lasted a year before RRoD.

Refurb unit lasted 6 months.

Refurb unit2 still going as far as I know.

Current slim been going for a year now.


PS2 had a few hardware issues for those that don't remember:
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2005/09/13/sony_ps2_power_recall/
http://www.geek.com/articles/games/latest-ps2-has-compatibility-issues-20051024
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=7139

I also remember the Japanese ps2 launch units having issues with DVD's but it seems most of the news has been archived on the issue.
 
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My launch PS1 had disc drive issues about 2 years or so in. Had to turn it upside down to play until a friend did some adjustments with a screwdriver.
 
My Wii's been boxed up for 18 months and counting. Kind of in the mood to check if it's still working ...

... mmmh. Nah.
 
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