Something about the current generation of Consoles has been bugging me

[Warforger]

I don't usually post here, but recently my Xbox RRoD'd, and I went to my old Xbox and played some games I neglected and the thought came to me, why do the current generation consoles have so many problems? I mean the PS3 has its own version the YLoD, not as bad though but the same causes i.e. overheating, as well as the network breaching but that's a different story. I don't know much about the Wii so I'll leave it alone. But still, I don't recall the N64 or PS1 having massive failure like this, I know others didn't function very well at launch and died shortly after like the Sega CD or the Atari I think 5600? But those were mostly because it was rushed out, I'm sure the 360 and PS3 were developed with time and care. Not to mention, the PS2 and Xbox never had that many problems, they both played games just fine, no overheating, no constant freezing and crashing they played fine, moving one the PS1 and N64 were the most succesful consoles of their generations and had no major breakdowns like the RRoD, before that the SNES and Genesis same story, before that the Master System and NES, none of those had any major problems as do the current consoles. The PC's always had these problems really, so I'm guessing since the new generation of consoles are basically just PC's I'm going to blame it on that. Anyone else notice this?

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

The long and the short of it is that each generation of hardware has been more complicated than the last, and as a result, had a lot more things that could go wrong. The Sega Saturn was a lot easier to kill than the Genesis, the PS2 was a lot easier to kill than the PS1, and the PS3 dies even easier than the PS2. The more moving parts you add, and the more problems you have with heat management, the more likely something is to fail.

 

[emeraldrafael]

The GC can have its laser go bad, but thats all I can really think of.

id ont know, i guess cause companies are using cheap products? I know PCs can overheat easily as consoles and go bad just as quick. so far, i'v never had a problem with my PS3, but then again, I took mine apart and made it better.

 

[Ordinaryundone]

Also, don't forget that older consoles had their own unique foibles. Remember how dust would collect in the connections between the carts and the system and you had to blow it out, or it wouldn't work? Also, pins would bend, preventing you from plugging in controllers, or even playing games.

As for this generation, as a previous poster said, its mostly a combo of cheap hardware and the desire for space economy that causes overheating problems.

 

[x434343]

The more moving parts you add, and the more problems you have with heat management, the more likely something is to fail.

Its all silicone, circutry, and electric DC impulses coupled with resistors. The only moving parts should be the disk drive, and the internal fans. Yes, I'll actually even mention the hard drives, because those have moving parts, but nothing should really be moving. And even then, we're only adding one more part max (Dunno what's added with the XBox 360, but Wii has an internal drive and PS3 has an internal hard drive.) Therefore, there is LESS moving parts. More resistors, though.

 

[thenamelessloser]

I think it may be due to the fact that consoles may be built to try to be more environmentally friendly. This could be completely wrong just got the idea because Nintendo consoles such as the wii and gamecube are more durable than the ones by the other companies and Nintendo got low ratings from some environmental organization. Maybe Sony and Microsoft are just as bad environment wise though...

 

[DarthFennec]

The more complex something is, the higher the chance of failure. Your microwave never fails because all it does is microwave. Same with your DVD player. If a piece of machinery can only do one thing, and that's the thing it was built to do, then it will only have problems in extremely rare cases. The XBox and PS2 basically play movies and games, and neither had a high failure rate. But the XBox 360 and PS3 are basically genera purpose machines, and they can do a lot of different things, so there's a high chance they'll fuck up. It's pretty simple: the more stuff something can do, the more complex it is, and the more bug prone it'll be.

 

[TheComedown]

The PC's always had these problems really, so I'm guessing since the new generation of consoles are basically just PC's I'm going to blame it on that. Anyone else notice this?

This is straight up ignorance and stupidity.

PCs literally can't RRoD or YLoD, we have the one the only, BSoD which actually provides a bit more information other then HA I'm bricked, and occur mostly due to driver errors which is a very simple fix.

As someone mentioned above each generation of console is getting more complicated so of course there will be a problem or two.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

The more moving parts you add, and the more problems you have with heat management, the more likely something is to fail.

Its all silicone, circutry, and electric DC impulses coupled with resistors. The only moving parts should be the disk drive, and the internal fans. Yes, I'll actually even mention the hard drives, because those have moving parts, but nothing should really be moving. And even then, we're only adding one more part max (Dunno what's added with the XBox 360, but Wii has an internal drive and PS3 has an internal hard drive.) Therefore, there is LESS moving parts. More resistors, though.

Let's see here: a modern console has the disc tray, the motor that runs the fan, the motor that spins the disc, the motor that moves the laser, and the hard drive. A console from last gen had all of that with the exception, depending on the system, of the hard drive or the fan. The generation before that had no fan or hard drive, one system lacked a disc drive, and the other two had disc drives that opened manually, instead of with the use of a motor. The generation before that, the only real moving parts were the power switch, the reset button, and in the case of the original model Sega Genesis, the volume slider. In addition to this, each generation has had been more powerful, and the hardware has generated more heat. My PS1 got hotter than my Genesis or NES ever did, the PS2 generated enough heat to require a fan, and the current generation regularly fails due to overheating.

So how are there less moving parts with the current generation, exactly?

 

[Baneat]

The PC's always had these problems really, so I'm guessing since the new generation of consoles are basically just PC's I'm going to blame it on that. Anyone else notice this?

This is straight up ignorance and stupidity.

PCs literally can't RRoD or YLoD, we have the one the only, BSoD which actually provides a bit more information other then HA I'm bricked, and occur mostly due to driver errors which is a very simple fix.

As someone mentioned above each generation of console is getting more complicated so of course there will be a problem or two.

You can burn out components from dust
You can ESD them to death when upgrading
Your fans can fail, it just happens, and often an RMA is needed
Your cheapo PSU can fuck up, go smokey and blitz every component

Looooads of shit can happen to a PC, the fact is, though, you can avoid them with the right steps, and they're easier to fix. You can avoid the xbox ones too,

But guess what? It involves recasing it in a special PC case (Made by Lian-Li most notably) - removing the processor, reapplying decent paste, possibly resoldering points due to the shitty non-lead solder on it - and the GPU

At the end of the day, you want an Xbox that acts like a PC in fixability and heat reliability? It needs to become a shitty PC.


Far more moving parts in this gen than PSX<, and considerably more than PS2/Xbox/GC

 

[Wintermoot]

the reason so many newer console,s break down is due to their complexity (lot,s of parts=lot,s of things that can break down).
The 360,s RROD is caused by MS cheeping out on cooling paste.

yes very teganc

 

[TheComedown]

The PC's always had these problems really, so I'm guessing since the new generation of consoles are basically just PC's I'm going to blame it on that. Anyone else notice this?

This is straight up ignorance and stupidity.

PCs literally can't RRoD or YLoD, we have the one the only, BSoD which actually provides a bit more information other then HA I'm bricked, and occur mostly due to driver errors which is a very simple fix.

As someone mentioned above each generation of console is getting more complicated so of course there will be a problem or two.

You can burn out components from dust
You can ESD them to death when upgrading
Your fans can fail, it just happens, and often an RMA is needed
Your cheapo PSU can fuck up, go smokey and blitz every component

Looooads of shit can happen to a PC, the fact is, though, you can avoid them with the right steps, and they're easier to fix. You can avoid the xbox ones too,

But guess what? It involves recasing it in a special PC case (Made by Lian-Li most notably) - removing the processor, reapplying decent paste, possibly resoldering points due to the shitty non-lead solder on it - and the GPU

At the end of the day, you want an Xbox that acts like a PC in fixability and heat reliability? It needs to become a shitty PC.


Far more moving parts in this gen than PSX<, and considerably more than PS2/Xbox/GC

Yeah loads of shit can happen to PCs, 90% of said shit is VERY simple to avoid with just a little bit of care. Recasing? resoldering points? Fucking what cheap arse motherboard you buy in the first place? If you take care in researching and buying the pc, or buying the parts and doing it yourself not only to you end up with something a shit load more powerful and flexible then an xbox, it will also last a shit load longer.

 

[Smooth Operator]

What was your point exactly? Every console breaks and so do these? Now what?

Anyway the consoles are always designed with alot of precision and care by the engineers, but the last word comes from management, they just look at the numbers and replace all the reliable parts with the cheapest "maybe it will work for two years" shit.

 

[Baneat]

The PC's always had these problems really, so I'm guessing since the new generation of consoles are basically just PC's I'm going to blame it on that. Anyone else notice this?

This is straight up ignorance and stupidity.

PCs literally can't RRoD or YLoD, we have the one the only, BSoD which actually provides a bit more information other then HA I'm bricked, and occur mostly due to driver errors which is a very simple fix.

As someone mentioned above each generation of console is getting more complicated so of course there will be a problem or two.

You can burn out components from dust
You can ESD them to death when upgrading
Your fans can fail, it just happens, and often an RMA is needed
Your cheapo PSU can fuck up, go smokey and blitz every component

Looooads of shit can happen to a PC, the fact is, though, you can avoid them with the right steps, and they're easier to fix. You can avoid the xbox ones too,

But guess what? It involves recasing it in a special PC case (Made by Lian-Li most notably) - removing the processor, reapplying decent paste, possibly resoldering points due to the shitty non-lead solder on it - and the GPU

At the end of the day, you want an Xbox that acts like a PC in fixability and heat reliability? It needs to become a shitty PC.


Far more moving parts in this gen than PSX<, and considerably more than PS2/Xbox/GC

Yeah loads of shit can happen to PCs, 90% of said shit is VERY simple to avoid with just a little bit of care. Recasing? resoldering points? Fucking what cheap arse motherboard you buy in the first place? If you take care in researching and buying the pc, or buying the parts and doing it yourself not only to you end up with something a shit load more powerful and flexible then an xbox, it will also last a shit load longer.

It's called the jasper motherboard, and I was referring to the Xbox one..

My PC's an ASrock k10N71 FullHD hSli Rev 3.0 (Wow, off the top of my head)

The points on it have real solder, not xbox solder which causes allsorts..

To say PC's are immune to hardware fails, but Xboxes aren't is untrue, you can avoid a lot of xbox errors by cleaning it, but it's a fucking chore, OR: put it in a special PC case and touch up the corners they cut building it

Have you ever seen the xbox thermal paste? It's literally thicker than tarmacadam, and harder to scrape off for some AS5

 

[EHKOS]

The PS2 had it's set of problems, with the blue back discs, the fat ones longevity, etc.

 

[FlyAwayAutumn]

the reason so many newer console,s break down is due to their complexity (lot,s of parts=lot,s of things that can break down).
The 360,s RROD is caused by MS cheeping out on cooling paste.

yes very teganc

Why did you put commas instead of apostrophes?

Anyway. All I can say is it was a simpler time. Literally, consoles have gotten more complex and are more prone to break down. Simple as that. More complex, more errors.

 

[LostAlone]

It's called the jasper motherboard, and I was referring to the Xbox one..

My PC's an ASrock k10N71 FullHD hSli Rev 3.0 (Wow, off the top of my head)

The points on it have real solder, not xbox solder which causes allsorts..

To say PC's are immune to hardware fails, but Xboxes aren't is untrue, you can avoid a lot of xbox errors by cleaning it, but it's a fucking chore, OR: put it in a special PC case and touch up the corners they cut building it

Have you ever seen the xbox thermal paste? It's literally thicker than tarmacadam, and harder to scrape off for some AS5

Indeed. All technology has problems with heat. Thing is though that PCs have adequate cooling, or at least are designed to have enough. Even console sized cases have WAY more fan power to keep it going, even if more would be better. You'll notice just a stock CPU cooler is a 60mm+ fan on a BIG block of aluminium. The 360 has a teeeny little fan and a shitty heatsink.

As I recall, the classic RRoD happens because the continued heating and cooling (causing the mobo to expand and contract) causes the heatsink to come unstuck and thus fry the CPU. I mean... thats crazy. What kind of designer makes a product where the core frikkin components are physically deforming due to heat :S.

Also, to make it worse, cleaning or even accessing the boards to clean stuff and try to keep the console alive involves pulling the case apart which invalidates the warranty!!

Anyways, if you want your 360 to not die, go get yourself a proper 360 heatsink set from iFixit.com and you're laughing. I have no idea why MS didn't revise it tho.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Have you ever seen the xbox thermal paste? It's literally thicker than tarmacadam, and harder to scrape off for some AS5

That's... fucking retarded, to be honest. Thermal paste is supposed to form a very thin thermally conductive layer between the CPU and the heat exchange unit (HSF/waterblock, etc). It gets less efficient the thicker it is.

 

[Baneat]

As I recall, the classic RRoD happens because the continued heating and cooling (causing the mobo to expand and contract) causes the heatsink to come unstuck and thus fry the CPU. I mean... thats crazy. What kind of designer makes a product where the core frikkin components are physically deforming due to heat :S.

Not necessarily, I cracked it open to replace the paste because I thought this was what happened, there was full contact on the paste and replacing it with AS5 after an hour of scraping the old shite off did nothing to fix it.


They're fucking mass-produced junk, I got a lnib xbox 360 replacement for 50 quid.