Firmware Update May Break Your Old Xbox 360 [UPDATE]

[BanthaFodder]

First the PSN hackers, now this... are people actively TRYING to make Nintendo look better by comparison?

Except Microsoft actually ends up looking GOOD due to their quick response and generosity. Just look at these comments, half of them WANT their Xbox to go belly up (I know I do).

so lemme get this straight...
I read an article in 2009... so that means I never go outside?
and a survey... SURVEY... as in, a collection of information from multiple people... is a bullshit statistic?
and Microsoft isn't being "generous". they don't want to lose customers, so they're obviously not going to tell someone tough shit if their 360 red rings. I recall my friend red ringed once. he had to go through hell to get Microsoft to take a look at it (he had to pay for shipping, they wouldn't respond on time, etc.), and what's more is he had to do this THREE TIMES. each and every replacement they sent didn't work.
I'm just saying, I'd be more impressed if they actually FIXED the red ring with the slim (which they didn't do, they just took out the red LEDs, now it's a yellow light or something), but that's just me.
I was just poking fun before (mostly at all the huttburts who basically reacted to the PSN outage with "THIS IS BS, HOW DAAAARRRRRE THEY, I'M GETTING A 360, FUCK THIS AND FUCK SONY, EVEN THOUGH THIS COULD EASILY HAPPEN TO ANYONE AND I'VE HAD NO PREVIOUS PROBLEMS WITH THEM!!!"), didn't want to start a flame war (I kinda figured people'd figure out it was just ribbing), but I'm just sayin, don't really get your logic here man...

 

[Saelune]

This is why paying for Live is not so bad....assuming your 360 breaks. (I dont recall any update though, but like many others, I could use a new 360)

 

[WanderingFool]

Well, I have to see if my Xbox bricks with this update, If it does, new Xbox, if it doesnt, whatever, I still get the update.

 

[iblis666]

hmm ive one of the original 360s that i use as a spare just in case my new 250gb slim ever has a problem and now they tell me my old one may have a problem even though i havent plugged it in in more than 6 months god talk about an inconvenience

 

[Ghengis John]

Oh boy! I have a crusty barely working "original" Xbox, with no HDMI or anything. Time to update to see if my lotto ticket gets me a new slim...

Hilarious .

I hope my old Xbox gets owned by the firmware.

Here's hoping! Wish me luck Escapist.

Good luck!

 

[Yopaz]

I looked into it more, and can this topic be updated?

Namely, this -> http://majornelson.com/2011/05/18/clearing-up-some-confusion

The firmware update is an old update, not the upcoming update, which was just speculation on the part of news sites. So if your xbox works now, the update which has the rolling update 19th-30th, will not harm your xbox.

If you already have existing issues with your xbox not reading discs, this affects you, and you should email them to see if you're eligable.

So in short, and capslock'd, for the people who just skim things,

THE NEW UPDATE WILL NOT HARM YOUR XBOX.
THIS IS AN OLDER ISSUE WHICH MS ARE ADDRESSING.

If this new information could be updated in the news post, that would be awesome!

The article here did state it was a recent update and not an upcoming update. The reason most are freaking out about it is that not everyone keeps their console connected to the internet at all time since... well, they don't have a Slim and often needs long cables to connect it. Since this is inconvenient most don't really connect unless they want to play online or download something.

 

[bader0]

The sad thing is when people flame how xboxs brick I mean sure they spaz out and die, but the support process is so fast its almost mind blowing.

Ive sent mine back 2 times one rrod and one E74 and I mean its was pretty much call on a sunday get a box on monday sent out on monday new xbox by Wednesday. Free month of gold and a free faceplate.

I mean it is painless.

yeah im a ps3 owner and im fairly jelous that ms actually seems to want to keep their customers as opposed to sony. i mean seriously, and xbox faces a critical hardware error you have a new on in 3 days. ps3 servers go down, they stay down for over 9 thousand years

 

[JedivsPaper]

Im confused HOW do you know if the update breaks your 360 without playing new releases on it, does MS contact you?

 

[vivster]

anything to up the numbers of shipped consoles eh?^^

 

[Bobbity]

I sincerely hope that mine bricks. Trying to manage 15 gigs of memory is getting old, and fast.

 

[Jonabob87]

Another sensationalist article title. Well done Escapist.

And I was just about to plug my 360 back into the internet after god knows how long of playing offline (Dorm network doesn't allow for game consoles to connect to the net) so I could update it and pick up some long wanted DLC.

Think I'll just wait another year now so whatever is bricking them gets fixed.

Did you even read the article? A minuscule number of consoles will become unable to read certain games due to an upgrade in disk format.

Microsoft will replace affected consoles with a free Xbox 360 S 250gb.

Yes actually I did, and even if it's a small number of consoles I'd rather not take the risk of my system being bricked; even if they're going to replace it with a slim. I've got no desire to lose all my game data and what not because they couldn't be arsed to simply fix the issue and release an update that remedies it.

The assumption that I didn't read the article is a bit on the knee jerk side don't you think? Just because my view on the matter differs from the rest doesn't mean I didn't read it. I just don't like the prospect of my system getting bricked and prefer to ensure the safety of the console I originally bought. I have an older Xbox 360 and thus fall into the population of users at risk. If I choose to not suddenly get all excited I might win the "Brick Your System" lottery and instead opt to go the sane route of taking steps to make sure my system doesn't get bricked then that's my decision.

You want to call out The Escapist for sensationalist article headings yet you're just as quick to jump to conclusions the minute you see someone with a comment that's not to your liking.

Like I said, it's an upgrade to support a different disk format. Obviously certain types of drive wouldn't support this update. This is not something that can be remedied with an update unless you removed the upgraded disc capacity, which would then render the console unable to play any games using that new format.

So you honestly read that article and came away with the impression that the update will brick 360's? It says "The update caused some consoles to face disc error messages, claiming the inserted disc is "unreadable" or "unsupported" -- an unforeseen and unwelcome side-effect."

This means that certain discs will not play, not that the console will be bricked. I honestly don't know how this could have been made any clearer.

The only part of the console that will be affected in any adverse way is the disk drive. Your data would not be in any danger.

It's not that your comment was "not to my liking" it's that you'd skimmed over the article and assumed something the article never said. i.e. Bricking your Xbox.

 

[v3n0mat3]

Well, we shall see if mine is affected.

Update:Nope.

 

[punipunipyo]

wow, they didn't need hackers to screw up their costumer relation.... I kinda feel bad for Microsoft...

screw up? Are you kidding? I'm assuming you didn't actually read the article, every affected customer gets a FREE 250gigabyte 360 SLIM!

Everyone here is praying it bricks their 360

Though they didn't quite say how long will it take to sent out the new(replacement) X360, and how long till receive, all the software, data (I hope this data, including the account info are all server saved...), but yeah, read it, didn't think the sudden brick down made anyone happy, guess if you were all for getting a free upgrade, I guess you COULD be a little bit excited when it brick on you... kinda like when PSN got hacked, and you were one who never play online, nor makes ANY purchases using PSN except with pre pay cards... getting a "welcome pack" (2 free full games) with no risk... is kinda cool, i guess I wonder how much $$ is at work here...