Nobody should buy a 360 ever.

You're exactly right. You won't get the same one back. I completely understand why they do this since I used to do technical support & RMA returns at Creative Labs. They're basically waiting for you to send them the console you claimed is bad before they ship out an already tested & refurbished unit. If you wanted to just go to the store to buy another unit you should have purchased the in-store warranty. And although those are great if you ever need to do a return, the cost is too much for me to stomach. I'd rather purchase a $30 1-year extended warranty directly from Microsoft right before my existing warranty expires. A lot easier on the pocket.

Tommy McClain

 

The problem I have with the whole issue is that any problems the PS3 might have are swept under the rug it seems as 'bad luck' and because any issues the PS3 might have are mitigated it makes the whole RROD fiasco stand out even more. The 80 PS3s -> 8 failures I quoted is from a trusted source and the sample size is big enough to indicate the failure rate is close to 10% +/- a few %. Because of this misconception I think it colours the response people have to any issues. If their PS3 dies its bad luck but if the Xbox 360 dies its treated differently. People will flat out not believe me when I say that I have had two PS3s die because they have been conditioned to believe that it has near perfect reliability.

 

80 is a large sample?

I would think not.

FWIW, I do believe you on the two dead PS3s, and I'm not surprised somebody's had that happen to them. Sony loves to cheap out on its' Playstation manufacturing, after all...

 

Last official figures I've seen from consumer organisations put PS3 at just over 1% I think, and Wii just under (or maybe more under, not sure). With 22 million PS3s sold and 50 million Wii's, that's still a lot of consoles though, so you're definitely going to read about failing machines on any forum. I haven't heard that as time passes by the PS3 number suddenly went up significantly. Even your 'trusted source' may simply have had a bad batch. I'm listening to a lot of podcasts, talk to a lot of PS3 owning people, and I see no reason yet to doubt that original failure rate, to be honest.

 

A 1.5% per year failure rate on a device which has two mechanical components standard (HDD + Optical drive) is something I struggle to believe on the merits of that alone. Thats ignoring the other components inside the machine. Considering that the PS3 is also a complicated computer system which produces a lot of heat, gets subjected to dust, cramped conditions with little ventilation etc I cannot believe that the failure rate could possibly be that low. Furthermore with the obligatory mentions of multiple failures, there should be almost noone who has a PS3 fail whose had it fail again at such an allegedly low failure rate.

 

I would have thought that the it would have been enough to give a 10-15% confidence level. This isn't a political poll afterall and the results are different enough from the 0.5-1-2% often bandied about that its worth consideration.

 

Until you can bring up histories of people having several PS3´s failing, and we are talking XBOX huge numbers, like 4+ hell 10+ then it can stay under the rug. You are the only one i have ever heard of I can guarantee you that with the internet Sony hate there is not the slightest chance that any serious PS3 problems would be "swept under the rug". There is a goddamn army out there ready to do whatever it "takes".

You pretty much nail it yourself, a PS3 breaking down is bad luck while a 360 it is really just a question of time.

But thing you have to give to Microsoft, eventhough they made a pisspoor job on the hardware they did a incredible job with their "fans". Rancid is one of the rare 360 customers that is actually fed up

 

If a PS3 breaking down is a 1:100 chance then having it happen twice is a 1:10000 chance and then the chance of meeting two other people on a forum with only an active user population of less than 10,000 is? All I know is that its difficult to tease out an accurate picture on either side, so my attempts so far have only been to reduce the overall FUD factor and perhaps find some reasonable answers on a forum which has a reasonable and respectful (usually) userbase. Any percieved 'sides' in this issue have an equally balanced 'otherside' spewing equal quantities of fud. Somewhere in the middle is the truth.

 

The topic is poorly named simply because if you don't buy a 360 you will miss out on some of the best gaming experiences this generation. However, you should factor in the unreliability into the purchasing decision, along with the strength of Microsoft's warranty - both are far from unknown quantities. The GPU is the main issue and its heat issues were only partially addressed in the Falcon refresh with a tweaked cooling assembly and I think that Jasper onwards will be the 360 that will last.

My US launch PS3 lasted less than one month before the GPU started showing sparklies, then died completely. Should nobody ever buy a PS3? The refurb I got from back from Sony (after shipping it back to my friend in the US to do the RMA) had a three month warranty. I know which one I worry about more...

 

So what are the chances of having a 360 fail 10 times? And what are the chances that several people, most likely 100´s experience the same thing. When these stories hit the WEB the general fan opinion was that the 360 didn´t have a construction flaw FUD in regards to the 360 is imho not FUD, it´s facts, they break. The PS3 is not a the machine that can run forever, it´s performing as should be expected from a modern electronic device today or we would know about it. Claiming anything else about the PS3 is pure FUD

 

Why is a thread with such a sensasionalist title still open? I don't really see the use of this thread, except for TS to vent steam.. I had hoped we were past the whole RROD thing? Old 360s break, you get a new one in a few weeks without hassle.

What's next, a PS3 still has no games thread?

 

I think I agree with you Ernst. I think the only bit of newness value left to discuss in this topic is for the people who bought their 360 3 years ago or more. For them, the special RROD warranty's run out.

But yeah, the thread has run its course.

 

Just putting this out there but Sony clearly states before you send the PS3 in that the PS3 you get back is covered by the original warranty or 90 days after return depending which is longer.

 

You had hoped? what exactly , that the RROD had magically gone away or that people would stop talking about it because? If everyone had shut up about these problems, Microsofts PR machine would have kept lying and there wouldn´t be a "hassle free 2 weeks exchange service".

And take your obvious flamebait somewhere else it´s comments like those that make threads like these die.

 

Ok then, can you point out to me what the news value of this thread is?

 

Just because it´s not news that 360´s break but something that happens everyday for alot of people, it doesn´t make it useless information how it influences a user with the current services that is provided now.

And it´s still to be seen if the new "jasper" (which i now can tell from others thanks to this thread) will outlast the older models.

If people shut up MS wouldn´t do stuff like this
http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/58147

 

Some people need to calm down. There's nothing wrong with the occassional rant. Those expecting this thread to die, it will when people stop posting in it

 

I think this thread should be renamed "Nobody should by a car, fridge, computer, laptop, TV, blender, or any mechanical/electrical device ever" because they all might break and ruin your weekend.

 

I think that's too long but yeah...

 

Fixed