XBOX 360 Slim: Dying, scamming and enraging customers already...

[Jasper Jeffs]

Ugh, I hate the Xbox. I have one and it's fucking depressing, I have to install everything to the HDD otherwise it'll scratch my games and make noises equivalent to that of nails on a chalkboard, I have to tell whoever cleans my room to just leave the Xbox the fuck alone just in case it blows up, last Christmas I moved it downstairs so everyone could use it and it RROD'd, I moved it about 20 feet, what the fuck happened in that space? Plus, everything is overpriced to fuck, HDD's are a joke and I swear the headsets are made to break within a month, so I have to buy another for £12, I've had about 5 wired ones and 2 wireless ones break on me, and I'm the kinda guy that'll wake you up in your sleep just to put my game back in the box.. oh, and what the fuck is up with Microsoft Points? You might only need 20p's worth, but no, you've gotta buy £8's worth, it's ridiculous.

... rant aside, I'm not surprised people are having problems with the Slim, and I can only imagine how annoying it is to contact customer support. I rang up to ask why I couldn't connect to the Skate 2 servers (I'm apparently under-aged, yet I can play every other EA and XBL game without problem) after being told by EA to contact MS about my problem, they said contact EA, who then said contact MS again, lolwut. I'm probably just gonna sell my Xbox for a PS3, fucking fail console in my eyes.

 

[Judgement101]

Microsoft, embodiment of evil since [Insert year Microsoft was founded]

 

[Shycte]

Mine is working perfectly thank you for asking. I'm very happy with it, good looking and quiet is a mouse.

Besides, if you have a warranty, don't worry about it bricking.

Only people that don't do anything else really need to worry.

 

[lacktheknack]

It's not so much "contempt for the customer", just failure to test thoroughly before release.

It's a side effect of deadlines and expensive pieces of complexity.

 

[migo]

I'm not surprised at all. I mean the reduction of the 3 year warranty to 1 year is worrying in itself. The length of the warranty is supposed to represent the quality. MS extended the warranty to 3 years because it was just that bad, but dropping it back to 1 suggests it's back at launch 360 quality levels. Removing the LEDs for the RRoD and replacing them with a single red dot also reeks of just curing the symptom rather than the problem. Also, the original 360 had a problem with scratched discs, and at launch it was obvious that the S made it worse.

In short, Microsoft has managed to deftly undo all the work they did to fix the rep of the 360 with the launch of the new one. I wonder if they discovered that they actually made more money off the faulty 360s than off the newer more reliable ones.

I've gone through 4 Xbox 360's since it's been released, and they all have RROD. I know the feeling quite well of having to send it in right when a boss new game comes out, and I can definitely feel the pain for the Red Dotter's. However, I've never scratched a single disc on any Xbox I've ever owned, nor my friend's. If you take care to remove the disc before moving the Xbox, or just make sure not to bump the Xbox, it wont scratch.

In the old Xbox 360, yes you can be careful. With the new one, it'll destroy your discs rather than just scratching them.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

Yes which is why if you have any of these the console should be put in a position when this would not happen. If you were that worried or in danger of it the area the console is in could easily be moddified with would of any solid object to prevent it from moving.

I'm sorry but I still think it is unnaceptable for this problem to exist in this day and age.

If every electronic device we owned was built to this standard, people would walk around thier houses like Irish dancers, afraid to move thier arms.

Not really my phone does not have any moving parts while it is on. In fact the only thing that does is my iPod that I carry around with me. If you don't think the problem should exist then write to Microsoft for being a greedy business. That is all this is just greedy business practise. So unfortunately it is p to the cunsomer to overcome these inbuilt faults. Just to add to this it is not only Microsoft that does things like this. Most HD tvs have a chip in them and shuts them down after a certain amount of hours being on and Stand By counts as being on. This is so you have to go and get it repaired or changed. While this needs to be done every so often the fact it is forced is insane. I have had non HD tv in my family for over 15 years and they still work fine.

 

[mynamesleon]

When they released the new xbox's I assumed the marketing ploy we be something along the lines of: "the new xbox 360, the way it should've been". I didn't realise the new ones have even more problems than the old ones.
I've switched to ps3 anyway after having 2 rrod's on my old elites, then an overheating issue on the 3rd one which has had a year's cool down time and is apparently still overheated... It's nice to know I made the right choice by moving off the microsoft bandwagon though.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Not really my phone does not have any moving parts while it is on. In fact the only thing that does is my iPod that I carry around with me. .

..yet my old CD Walkman used to go jogging with me and never skip or scratch discs, despite having numerous moving parts... and that was 10 years ago.

The tech is there to avoid it.

 

[Dexiro]

I'm suprised anyone puts up with this stuff. Seriously the few exclusives that Xbox has left will probably get ported to other platforms eventually like the rest of them.

I think the Xbox is a nice console, i just don't think it's worth it when you can get the same from other platforms without having Microsoft ripping you off all the time.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

consoles, having problems? As a PC gamer I find this deliciously ironic. That is while I'm not being whipped by the microsoft overlords that control PC gaming. (damn you windows!)

Different slaves to the same abusive master, that's all.

And please... try not to take pleasure in our suffering!

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Mine is working perfectly thank you for asking. I'm very happy with it, good looking and quiet is a mouse.

Besides, if you have a warranty, don't worry about it bricking.

Only people that don't do anything else really need to worry.

Good, it's encouraging to hear that. I do like my one, it's a pretty little thing (and the new controllers rock)

 

[MagicMouse]

Having been very kindly given a b-day gift of money towards a 360 Slim by a good friend, I was happy to trade in my old 360 for the sleek, whisper quiet machine.

The good news is it runs nicely - barely audible unless you get right next to it.

But people have been having problems...

The most worrying one is here:


We were all happy to hear the RROD was gone, but in fact the wolf is wearing black sheep's clothing. It has, if numerous Youtube videos, Google links and customer complaints are to be believed, been replaced by... drum roll...

The Red Dot Of Death (copyright Micro$oft 2010)

The second problem was one I myself had. The component AV cable does not support HD, and it is cynically designed in such a way that a piece of jutting plastic blocks you from using a HDMI cable at the same time.

Why, you ask?

Well...this means the only way you can hook up your sound system or headphones is by buying a Micro$oft HD adapter.

Also... it does not ship with ANY HD connectors. That's right, you have to buy another cable separately if you want HD gaming. Thankfully Micro$oft have, in their wonderfully generous and altruistic company, boxed these two cables for us in a handy package costing 25 euros.

Also, once again, if you so much as breathe on the machine while playing a game, it will eat your disc for breakfast and give it back to you utterly destroyed.

Add to this the fact that the comically overpriced Kinect appears to be spouting up new issues every day such as not working for people wearing baggy clothes or - shock horror: sitting down! I mean, what kind of gamer likes to sit down, eh? Sheesh!

Don't get me wrong... I love my little XBOX Slim and will play it every day. But MicroSoft have once again demonstrated their utter contempt for their customers. Given the obscene number of problems I had with my old 360 (all of which Micro$oft support were useless with), it felt like salt in an old wound.

So for discussion's sake, have people bought the slim? What do you think of it and have you had any problems?

Umm Yeah...

Whilst trying to bring my monitor out of sleep mode I seem to have clicked the report button on your post on accident. Sorry!!

@Mods, please disregard that report.

@OP: I'm sure that the failure rate is much lower than people are making it out to be. However it is still funny that the new boxes have similar problems.

 

[migo]

Mine is working perfectly thank you for asking. I'm very happy with it, good looking and quiet is a mouse.

Besides, if you have a warranty, don't worry about it bricking.

Only people that don't do anything else really need to worry.

If it has an RDoD it hasn't failed, it's just protecting itself, so your warranty won't cover it. Plus, having to buy an extended warranty for a product is silly.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

..yet my old CD Walkman used to go jogging with me and never skip or scratch discs, despite having numerous moving parts... and that was 10 years ago.

The tech is there to avoid it.

I think the important word their is Walkman. That is made to be moved around with you. I see you point but a 360 or any console is not supposed to be moved it is supposed to be a stationary object. The fact that it is probably cheaper to make them with this flaw will make it so that they will always be made with this flaw. The electric engine has been around for over a 100 years yet be still used the fossil fuel engines. Just because something better is there does not mean it will be used.

 

[Irridium]

So it seems they're going the PS3 route of keeping everything separate so you have to pay for everything. Can't say I'm surprised.

So it seems another Microsoft console has major problems. You'd think that they would learn after the first time they released a console with many hardware flaws.

 

[MagicMouse]

If u want HDMI and components in at the same time take a screwdriver/knife and break the plastic housing in half. It won't hurt your cables and it works for me.

I was considering that but I don't want to void my warranty just yet...

EDIT:

Are you using a Slim or an Elite?

Because the plastic casing is different on the Slim, not sure it's as easy to break off.

I am using an Arcade with hd components actually. And I don't think that would void your warranty for your actual box. When I sent my box in I'm pretty sure they said don't send cables. Also, if you do have to send it in with cables, at worst all you will have to do is spend the 10 dollars an new cables and send it in with those.

You can't lose really.