Xbox is dead, share your console death stories

[Inconspicuous Trenchcoat]

I maek larst! Not all broke, but whatever.

SNES - One day I turned it on to play Pilot Wings and I discovered that it was displaying the four quadrants of the image in the wrong corners (e.g. it was putting the bottom right quadrant of the game in the top left). I tried several other games and had the same problem. I was sad. The NES worked, so it's not the TV.

GBA - The battery cover broke off. Duct tape held in the batteries for its remaining years of usage.

Xbox (The Original Game Playing Drink Holder) - Sometimes it fails to get past the boot up graphic, and the DVD tray won't close without jiggling and shoving it; it also needs physical guidance for the tray to open up.

Gamecube - Disc tray cover doesn't always hinge closed. You have to lightly tap it down just right for it to catch. The player 4 controller port is spotty.

Everything else I've owned still works fine: Gameboy, Gameboy Pocket, PS1, PS2 etc.

 

[Exius Xavarus]

I've never had a console die, but my old PS2 was a major criminal when it came to the eye getting dusty. So I'd have to take the top off the console to expose the eye so I could clean it every so often.

That's actually the only problem I've ever had with a console. I got my PS3 Christmas 2010 and it's still running real smooth-like.

 

[scorptatious]

Well I had a PS3 die on me before. It had a physical copy of Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee still inside. :'(

If it was dead dead did u not just pry it out? or failing that, smash it out?

Didn't think of it at the time. :/

Ah well, I got a downloaded version of the game on my new PS3, so it's all good.

 

[SonicWaffle]

So share your stories of console death and hours of save game lost.

Not to sound like I'm bragging (or tempting fate!) but I don't really have any. My Xbox has been working fine for almost five years now, my old PS2 is chugging along, even my N64 still works. I guess I'm just lucky.

With games, I recently lost all my progress on Hitman: Absolution somehow, but I'd only done the tutorial and the first level. I did keep thinking I was losing my Oblivion saves and did the same bit about four times, until I realised the 'continue' option was fucking up and loading an old autosave every time instead of the most recent save...

 

[Voulan]

My first PS3 died a few months ago. It was the 80GB model and I'd had it for only 4 years. I think I actually went a little insane when I found out. It stopped reading disks, so the system didn't actually die, so to speak, but I couldn't play anything on it. Since my warranty was well and truly out, I got my Dad to help me try and fix it, since this was apparently a common problem. The issue was that there weren't fix issues specifically for my 80GB one, so when we pulled it apart we ripped off an important part, as instructed by the video, it was a reattachable part in the later models, but not in mine. So now it really can't read disks. It can power on and such, though, so I refuse to throw it out. I did the hard drive transfer of all my saves (apart from games that wouldn't allow it), synched my trophies, and got a new 250GB one (which thankfully my parents got for me, since I couldn't afford a new $500 console).

I am so paranoid the same thing will happen to this one though. Meanwhile, my Sega Genesis and PS2 still work wonderfully after over 10 years of rigorous service. They don't build them like they used to, huh? The funny thing was, the guy that sold my new PS3 to me was also saying how his PS2 still works, even when one time he left it on continuously for 3 weeks straight because he lost a memory card and wanted to play through one of his games.

R.I.P. 8/8/12, my dear friend.

 

[Berithil]

Our first PS3 (one of the fat ones from launch) died on us a 3 years ago. It was the Yellow Light of Death. Since it was past warranty, I decided to open it up and try to fix it myself. Surprise, surprise, I managed to get it working again. It lasted about 2 months before it yellow light'd again, at which point I just said "Screw it, let's just get a new one."

Alas, we lost all our save files, and our backwards compatibility (stupid Sony *fuming*).

 

[-Ezio-]

Our first PS3 (one of the fat ones from launch) died on us a 3 years ago. It was the Yellow Light of Death. Since it was past warranty, I decided to open it up and try to fix it myself. Surprise, surprise, I managed to get it working again. It lasted about 2 months before it yellow light'd again, at which point I just said "Screw it, let's just get a new one."

Alas, we lost all our save files, and our backwards compatibility (stupid Sony *fuming*).

got it working huh?

my YLOD came when i was starting a new Oblivion character. just finished creation and then BOOM. no way i could get it working again coz the cooling system literally exploded.

 

[DeimosMasque]

Never had an Xbox flat out die read ring style. Worst I had was it started doing the dreaded "Open Tray" where it just was never reading discs due to dirty lens or misalignment of the lens. I managed to open it up repeatedly and keep it running for about 7 more months before no amount of cajoling would work.

Got an Slim and have had no problems since.

 

[Berithil]

Our first PS3 (one of the fat ones from launch) died on us a 3 years ago. It was the Yellow Light of Death. Since it was past warranty, I decided to open it up and try to fix it myself. Surprise, surprise, I managed to get it working again. It lasted about 2 months before it yellow light'd again, at which point I just said "Screw it, let's just get a new one."

Alas, we lost all our save files, and our backwards compatibility (stupid Sony *fuming*).

got it working huh?

my YLOD came when i was starting a new Oblivion character. just finished creation and then BOOM. no way i could get it working again coz the cooling system literally exploded.

Yeah. After reading a bit online, I found out that I should replace the heat sink and "re-flow" the circuit board with a heat gun.

I admit, I was just following the instructions online without being exactly sure of what I was doing at the time, but it worked... for a little while.

But if the cooling system actually exploded, I'm not sure you can do much to fix that

 

[floppylobster]

My Xbox 360 has died and been replaced twice. No other console I've ever owned has died. And I still have my consoles from the 80s.

I did once however, accidentally wipe my entire town from Gamecube Animal Crossing.


Because of the short cycle of consoles usually the electronics survive. In the future, as long as the next one's not worse, the Xbox 360 will always be defined by the RRoD problem. The original Xbox is indestructible and will even play scratched DVD movies without skipping.

 

[Eponet]

Yesterday I tried to run my Nintendo 64, and it wouldn't wake up. RIP You lived a good life.

No save data lost since the data is on the game cartridges, but unless I can find a replacement, every single one of my games effectively became unplayable.

 

[StupidNincompoop]

Got my first 360 around 2008, RROD'd on me around 2010 even though i'd taken perfect care of it and never played it for more than a hour- it broke when i was playing guitar hero 3. My brother then gave me his old 360 which he'd had since 2007, had that for a few months and that one also died even though i was being even more cautious with that one.

Other than the 360, the only other consoles i've ever had problems with were the ps1 which i THINK broke on me randomly when i tried to play it once a few years ago after years of no use (i might be just confusing it with something else though and that might have never happened)

And i have 2 N64's, the first of which is slightly broken in that when you're trying to play a game on it, the console will be acting as though you're moving the toggle stick very slightly to the left when you're not (other N64 is fine still, even had bought resident evil 2 in 2010, it arrived with the plastic in the mdidle broken and yet it still played fine). Also technically doesn't count but my dreamcast scart plug was broken a long time ago and so it probably would need a new scart plug if it were to ever work again.

Oh, and not really a console, but one of my brothers had a game gear. I've never seen it working though because the screen doesn't work on it.

 

[gamernerdtg2]

Y'know, I'm gonna go against this, and say that I've actually never had a console shut down on me. I've had isues with my 360 lately that include problems with the tray opening (easy fix) and disc scratching (don't move the 360).
The PS3 has frozen on me a few times while browsing, but never while playing a game.

LOL I will never forget the good old NES days of blowing on the cartridges and whatnot. Strange that the Atari games didn't have that same issue, but the NES did...hmmm.

 

[Shia-Neko-Chan]

Back when I was a raving nintendo fanboy, I waited out in front of a wal-mart for 16 hours for midnight release.

for 2-3 years, I waited for something interesting to come out on the console and was slowly losing interest.

finally, one day, I read on the escapist that Nintendo put out a new patch to get rid of hackers and console modders.

"I'm safe!" I thought "I could never think about modding one of my consoles. Fire away, Nintendo, even though hackers already know how to unbrick their consoles!"

and then within a week, my console was bricked.

I called Nintendo and explained to them my situation and they told me I have to pay 75 dollars for them to fix it.

"Wait a second!" I interrupted "See, I didn't break the console, you did! You sent out an anti-hacker patch and mine threw a false positive, which resulted in my wii being bricked."

"It's still 75 dollars"

"uh huh."

And that was the straw that broke the camel's back. I was no longer a Nintendo fan.

I then posted the story on the escapist in a similar thread to this one and a nintendo fanboy told me that I must have done something to make my console brick, even though I took the best care of my console possible. I never moved it or let it fall off of anything, I never exposed it to high temperatures or low temperatures and it was protected from surge.

Still, my first XBox 360 (which is still alive to this day) outlasted it and I'm stuck without a Nintendo Wii, not that that's a bad thing. I really couldn't care less about the console, even if I did want to try No More Heroes 2.

 

[Mr pokey lope]

My younger brother is one of those people who pretend that the controller is a steering wheel when playing driving games. While taking a hard corner in NFS he yanked it out of its crappy vertical stand by the controller cable and smashed up the disk drive against the floor. After 6 years I still haven't forgiven him. It makes me glad that the PS3 has wireless controllers.

Sorry about yours though. At least I still had my memory cards.

 

[Zeraki]

When my SNES died... that was a sad, sad day.

I was feeling nostalgic and thinking of getting Star Fox: Assault for the Game Cube. So I look up reviews and what I saw I really didn't like, it actually made me want to play the original more than anything. So I dig out my old SNES, hook it up, put in Star Fox and flipped on the power... and nothing. I took the cartridge out, blew in it tried it again and nothing.

So I looked up the problem I was having and what it sounded like was that the pin connector for the cartridge went bad. so I bought the parts I needed, opened up the console, cleaned it out and took the pin connector out... just to find out the one I had was not compatible with my model. It was actually heartbreaking that after everything i tried, there was just no saving my first console.

Though that SNES lasted me a good 14-15 years... so I definitely got a lot of enjoyment out of it.

1992-2006

----

I also had my old Xbox 360 die on me... it lasted a good 6 years though so I should consider myself lucky it lasted that long. Thankfully I was able to salvage my save files. If I had lost all my Mass Effect saves I would have been pissed.

2006-2011

 

[Grottnikk]

My Intellivision died back in the 90's. Oh, all those pretty little cartridges with their red and blue and green labels... Now, so much detritus in my attic.

 

[The White Hunter]

Dang, how did you fit all that in a 4GB console?!

Anyway, I guess I've been lucky enough to not have a console die on me. However, I've had to put perfectly good consoles away because they're "old". For example, my PS2 is still working just fine but because I don't enough room or outlets to hook up all my systems at the same time, I must put some of them away. I ended up buying a 60GB (BC) PS3. It's very old now so I try to back up my files through PS+.

But...it still pains me to have my PS2 in my closet. When less and less PS2 games were being released, I was sort of forced to get a PS3. I was peer pressured by society!

Power strips are your friend, I have a daisy chain of two running behind my computer desk that house a PC, Wii, Gamecube, PS2 and a Dreamcast, and soon it will also house a Wii U, though that requires sacrificing the multitap/stand combo my PS2 rests upon. PS3 lives under my TV since it's too gigantic to fit elsewhere.

OT: My PS3 once died a sad death from disk drive failure, everything worked fine but disc reading, Had to send it away, I didn't really lose anything but it was a pain in the ass backign it all up before shipping it off.

The only time I've lost a save was when my internal batter died in my pokemon gold cartridge and I lost 200 hour save when I was like fucking 9 at the time. I wept tears of great sorrow that day. My poor Meganium :'( lost too a cheap battery.

 

[The White Hunter]

When my SNES died... that was a sad, sad day.

I was feeling nostalgic and thinking of getting Star Fox: Assault for the Game Cube. So I look up reviews and what I saw I really didn't like, it actually made me want to play the original more than anything. So I dig out my old SNES, hook it up, put in Star Fox and flipped on the power... and nothing. I took the cartridge out, blew in it tried it again and nothing.

So I looked up the problem I was having and what it sounded like was that the pin connector for the cartridge went bad. so I bought the parts I needed, opened up the console, cleaned it out and took the pin connector out... just to find out the one I had was not compatible with my model. It was actually heartbreaking that after everything i tried, there was just no saving my first console.

Though that SNES lasted me a good 14-15 years... so I definitely got a lot of enjoyment out of it.

1992-2006

----

I also had my old Xbox 360 die on me... it lasted a good 6 years though so I should consider myself lucky it lasted that long.

2006-2011

Your story of a fallen SNES saddens me greatly. May it rest in peace. Hopefully someday you'll find a way to resurrect or replace it.

I know I would be devastated if I one day went to play my Mega Drive, slotted in Sonic 3, turned that power switch on, and it was dead. Fuck I'd have to have a funeral for it...

 

[The White Hunter]

And is also my response to those people who believe that the RROD error ONLY happens when owners mistreat their 360's. To you, I present my mysterious case of being sold a brand new dead console/aka The case of the Deadbox 360.

I had a friend who kept his 360 running in a drawer 24-7 and in the 5 years I knew the guy it never once hiccuped, literally it was in the drawer of his desk and never turned off.

Another friend had his ina well venitlated spot witha good foot of space to the back, and no obstruction anywhere else on top of his desk, and BAM, dead within a year.

Some of those things are just built to die, we tried to fix it and it's not possible,t he motherboard basically melted.