*thread split* 360 Warranty/Repair experiences
- Thread starter speedsix
- Start date
Mine is still back up and running so I may phone and delay shipping it off to be fixed. I am also positive the machine was suffering from a hardware error of somekind, most likely the GPU.
Symptoms:
- 5min after playing COD 4 the screen froze with graphical errors.
- Reboots is fine. 5 into another game of COD4 the system crashes with graphical errors. This time in a checker-board pattern.
- Reboots fine and I put in Halo 3. I was unable to even start the game and the system locked solid and I was forced to do a hard reboot.
- This time the system boots with RROD (hardware failure pattern).
Call support and agreed to send in box.
The next day I decided to give the box another go and it worked perfectly. I was able to put in multiple hours of COD4 and Halo 3 with no errors. The same for the next few nights.
I am about ready call back into support and cancel the service call. I do not want to send it in and have their techs test it and have no errors and just send it back. If the system is working at the moment I feel I jsut wait it out until it decides to bit the big bullet and die properly.
I do have an extended warranty with MS so no worries on losing out on a free repair when the machine decides to crap-out.
Thats almost the exact same thing my friend's 360 did before it got an RROD
I bought a new 360 pro recently (mfg'd Feb 2008). It is both cooler and quieter than my other 360 pro (mfg'd Feb 2006), which is still kicking. 
I'm not sure how many Elites are being sold, so I suppose there could still be some faulty ones in the channel. I would think one's best bet for a reliable 360 is to go with a pro. Judging from my new one, MS has definitly made some improvements.
I'm not sure how many Elites are being sold, so I suppose there could still be some faulty ones in the channel. I would think one's best bet for a reliable 360 is to go with a pro. Judging from my new one, MS has definitly made some improvements.
RancidLunchmeat
Veteran
Well, it's good that I revived it then, isn't it? The comments from the start are definitely different than the recent ones.
By the way.. how do you check manufacturing date or chipset on the console?
By the way.. how do you check manufacturing date or chipset on the console?
2008-01-18 for my Elite.
God, on pulling it out of the shelf to check the date I hadn't realised how light it is compared to the PS3. Not that it matters. But it was a one handed move.
Quick update on my RRoD return: MS received it and sent it back. However, between when the courier tracking indicates they dropped it off and when I received the "we've sent it back" email from Microsoft it was only a couple hours. The logical assumption I think is that they replaced it instead of trying to repair it, but what are my chances of getting a new unit with HDMI and not an older HDMI-less refurbed unit?
Wait, you can extend the extended warranty?
Yeah, I done it with the original Xbox when I got it in 2002. They always put a flyer in the box about extending the warranty for an additional $30. Only catch is you have to do it during the time of your first initial 1 year warranty.
Tommy McClain
Pretty low. They'll normally replace yours with one that has the same functionality.
My launch unit finally died a while ago. My repair experience was really good, and I didn't even really have any downtime, since I just grabbed one of our retail units we had lying around at work for a couple of weeks. The unit they sent back to me is significantly quieter. A definite upgrade, those launch units were LOUD.
Either the sample size for Falcon's isn't big enough yet (though it's been shipping for, what, 8 or 9 months now?), or they are simply more robust. I wish I had followed the whole thing more closely last year when I bought mine, I would have waited till the fall and made sure to get a Falcon.
Just out of curiosity, how failure prone are the Wii and the PS3 these days? I know the Wii had some disc read troubles, but I can't recall ever hearing anything about the PS3.
There's a fairly extensive thread at neogaf on ps3 failures. It's nowhere near as large as the one for the 360, but its far from immune to failure.
My friend's 40GB PS3 had a BRD failure within warranty, and he got a store swap. Sony have publicly said they have lower than average returns. It's apparent from the PS3 engineering that it ought to last, so apart from some unfortunate component failures which are inevitable, it should be a robust system, and low internet feedback regards failure points to that. You'd expect the same of Wii too, being little and simple in there. The most fragile parts are the drives., which do seem the area for most issues, as you'd expect.
I would say scratches discs only through misuse. As long as you're not moving the console with a disc playing in the drive you should be fine. I've done that by accidently knocking over the unit in its vertical postion(standing on thick carpet) with Halo 3. Plus, just to be safe I'd never transport any console with a disc in the drive anyway.
Tommy McClain
I looked into it some more. Somebody determined that some drives were missing cushion pads on the inside roof of the drive. Supposedly this is to keep the disc from wobbling during high speeds. Without them it would scratch the discs. I'm not totally sure it's an issue any longer. Largely the complaints of scratched discs seem to have subsided. Whether or not Microsoft done anything about it is unknown. Microsoft was suppose to answer the European Commission for Consumers within a week on what the cause was. That was year ago and I never heard a follow-up.
Tommy McClain
