Manifesto Of The Red Ring Of Death: How Not To Launch A Console

If you wanted to know the ins and outs of why the famous "Red Ring of Death" that has plagued the Xbox 360, you might want to check this article out. It certainly is a long read but if you own a 360, you owe it to yourself to go through it.

After I read it I wasn't sure if I should praise the engineers who had to pick up this mess, or shake my head for a disaster that could've been averted. Let this be a lesson to everyone that sometimes, going cheap can cost you in the long run.

In Microsoft's case, the cost was huge!!!

[via Crunchgear]

Microsoft Loses $1 Billion In Xbox 360 Warranty Repair

Have you ever made a really bad decision?

Well Microsoft is certainly feeling the effects of this one, as word comes that the "Red ring of death" has cost the company about a billion dollars in warranty repairs. And the kicker is that it didn't have to, according to research vice president and chief analyst at Gartner. Microsoft chose to go the cheap route with their graphics chips and not go with a application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) vender. Microsoft figured they would design it themselves and had Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing make it.

That call saved them tens of Millions of dollars in design costs..... Yeah, that's what I was thinking too!

Dumb!!!

[EETimes via Gizmodo]

Rumor: Insider reveals reason for RROD.

I just read this article about the Red Ring of Death for the Xbox 360. And as the article suggests, I think that it may be a credible source. But it also brings to mind something that I've been saying all along. People are being complete idiots about their placement of their 360s. I can understand that it might have a terrible heat sink. But a lot of products on the market have the same problem, anyone have a DVR cable box from Motorola? If you even place a small box on the top of this terribly designed box, count on it shutting down on you. As I have said in the past, make sure that you have ample air flow around your amplifier, cable box, game system, computer and you won't have overheating problems. I still remember people complained about projection TVs breaking down and overheating when I was working at Video Concepts, 9 times out of 10 when we went on a service call, they either had it placed in an enclosure that did not circulate the air, or they put a cloth over the back of the TV to keep dust out. (BTW not the best idea when heat is involved).

[Via Joystick and other sources]

Repair Times For Xbox 360's Are Up: Big Time

Well I think this was to be expected!!!

With Microsoft increasing their warranty on the Xbox 360 to 3 years, everyone has sent theirs in for repair. So you can imagine that the turn around time to get the systems back has increased from 2 weeks to 4-6 weeks. That will suck when it comes 'Halo 3' time and you have to send in your console. You can blame Microsoft for the hardware issues that they created, but they are trying to correct the issue.

But hiring more people for the repair department might be in order Microsoft!

[Kotaku via Gizmodo]

UK: Xbox 360 Is Unreliable

In an another episode of as the Xbox burns, the UK checks in with these gems.

According to Micromart which is an independent repair service in the UK, has refused to fix anymore Xbox 360s stating that it has to many issues. The problem seems to be with the motherboard, and the problems that it frequently has. The buzz around the net is that this is a larger problem than anyone thought.

Microsoft has stated that the Xbox has a 3% failure rate, which is within their level of acceptable limits. But as reported right here, there have been claims of up to 30% of the Xbox 360s are failing. This is an issue!!!

Come on Microsoft, you're off to a nice start in the console market. Don't screw it up now!!!

Check out the rest after the jump. [Shacknews via G4TV]

Retailers: 30% of Xbox 360 suck!

Since the day the Xbox 360 was released, it had been plagued with hardware issues usually stemming from insufficient cooling. I'm sure that some of you know the "red ring of death". But I had know idea that retailers are saying that 30% of the Xbox 360 sold are coming back in for repair, and usually right after the year warranty has expired.

Some customers who have sent in there Xbox 360 to be repaired are reporting that they receive back a refurbished unit, not the one that they originally sent in. One customer who received a dirty Xbox in return, didn't take to kindly to this practice and contacted Microsoft directly:

"I called the support number to query this and after being put on hold for some time the consultant advised me that the console I received was a "refurbished" Xbox and I was then asked if I was having problems with the console? .

I said no however questioned why my console wasn't returned to me and why I was sent a second hand box instead. The consultant then said "Sir if you have any problem with this console then to quote the reference number and call them back. I advised that I wasn't satisfied with this as I don't know the history of the replacement box and would be taking this further."

Can't blame the guy for not wanting someone else's old Xbox, especially when you've taken care of yours.

Read the entire article after the jump. [Smarthouse via Gizmodo]