Ex-Xbox Boss Reflects on "RRoD", How it Almost Killed Xbox

[fix-the-spade]

Did they ever sort out exactly what was causing all the failures? I mean, Microsoft isn't a neophyte in the hardware sector, but to see so many units have problems speaks of a serious design flaw.

The Xbox 360 Slim solved the issue, by totally redesigning the main board, GPU and processor.

Microsoft never admitted specifics, but the consensus is that Microsoft designed the 360's GPU chip in house instead of going to Nvidia or ATI. Either through inexperience or cheapness Microsoft did not properly test the chip's ability to cope with thermal stress and they also didn't get their manufacturing up to the kind of standard the big two employ for their chips, it's been alleged that in early production as much as two thirds of chipsets made were defective.

The end result of that was that the GPU of the 360 ran extremely hot, so hot that it would bend under the stress and pull itself out of it's soldered joints to the main board over time, leading to the RRoD. The various minor redesigns of the 360 never addressed the GPU design for whatever reason until the 360-S came out, the 360-S was essentially an all new console.

 

[loa]

I don't remember any of that "they took it back and repaired it free of charge" part, I remember peoples early-adopted 360 breaking just out of warranty and them just getting a new one or people binge-buying 360s as they were going through each.
People were actually putting up with that.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

$1 billion, huh? Yeah, a 30% failure rate will do that to ya.

 

[Trippy Turtle]

My launch-day 360 is still working fine, and I took horrible care of it.
I sometimes wonder if this RROD is a joke I'm not privy to along the lines of the drop bears.

I've left this bad boy on for weeks at a time, tripped on it, sat it on carpet for the majority of its life and still no issue. Same as the original Xbox. But those things were probably ready to be used as armor plating by the military.

 

[LTD]

I don't remember any of that "they took it back and repaired it free of charge" part, I remember peoples early-adopted 360 breaking just out of warranty and them just getting a new one or people binge-buying 360s as they were going through each.
People were actually putting up with that.

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/microsoft-extending-360-warranty-to-three-years/1100-6173633/

 

[LordMonty]

My flatmate went through seven, yes SEVEN! machines... and yet he still forgave them and now is on an XBONE they got it right somewhere as there fanboys are damned loyal beasts.

Seen more people jump ship this genreation over the microsoft BS than over the ring of death.(I've worked in game retail for more than 10 years). I think it is probally the social media age we now live in as was said above, the ring would've destroyed them if it had happened this genration.
It was silly when I worked the launch week, we had a wall covered in machines out back but within a week we had a wall of faulties and were running short of machines to swap for faulties let alone have any to sell, it was hell.

Alweays felt sorry for Sony they made a better machine in every way, just a shame it cost way too much to make and sell at the time. But i'm a pc gamer that only bacause I work in game retail own a very unloved ps3 and ps4 oh and a 3DS(gets the most use).

Consoles are odd, never sure how i feel about them really maybe they will just turn into true hybrid pc in the next generation or stagger on as a simple easy to use gaming platform they should always have been for those who can't cope with pc gaming's ever complex, improving, advancing technolgy and cost BS. I Love pc gaming but the rig i'm going to have to build for Star Citizen is going to bankrupt me.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

My flatmate went through seven, yes SEVEN! machines... and yet he still forgave them and now is on an XBONE they got it right somewhere as there fanboys are damned loyal beasts.

Seen more people jump ship this genreation over the microsoft BS than over the ring of death.(I've worked in game retail for more than 10 years). I think it is probally the social media age we now live in as was said above, the ring would've destroyed them if it had happened this genration.
It was silly when I worked the launch week, we had a wall covered in machines out back but within a week we had a wall of faulties and were running short of machines to swap for faulties let alone have any to sell, it was hell.

Alweays felt sorry for Sony they made a better machine in every way, just a shame it cost way too much to make and sell at the time. But i'm a pc gamer that only bacause I work in game retail own a very unloved ps3 and ps4 oh and a 3DS(gets the most use).

Consoles are odd, never sure how i feel about them really maybe they will just turn into true hybrid pc in the next generation or stagger on as a simple easy to use gaming platform they should always have been for those who can't cope with pc gaming's ever complex, improving, advancing technolgy and cost BS. I Love pc gaming but the rig i'm going to have to build for Star Citizen is going to bankrupt me.

Well, to be quite fair, this time, the Xbox One is now built like a ****ing tank. I saw an Xbox One getting burnt with Gasoline 2-3 times and it STILL ran. And THEN,


In case you don't want to watch the video, they dropped the Xbox One from a massive height and it STILL ran. Guy was up and playing games on it in seconds just after the drop.

And also, the PS3 was so NOT a better machine in every way. For one, dat Cell processor was effing hard to design games for. All that power was locked behind its arcane code. And the UI was not as good at all as the Xbox 360's. And on top of that, although it may seem like a small thing, you can play music when playing games on the 360. With the PS3, it's either one or the other.

 

[Link XL1]

no one knew why it was happening?! people used WET towels?! bullshit, ill tell you exactly why it happened. if you crack open your 360 and look at the backside of the motherboard you'll see these things that look like pink foam squares. they're supposedly heat syncs, and what happened is they melted because all the things generating heat had copper syncs running to the tiny little fan in the back. this was horribly insufficient in terms of heat management. so those little pink squares melted all over the board and jacked up your 360.

the solution? peel the pink squares off and replace them with two pennies sealed in electrical tape. then towel trick your 360 into thinking the problem has been solved (because it has).

a couple of pennies solved the problem. just throwing that out there

 

[crotchdot]

"...the unreasonably high failure rates of Xbox 360 consoles that no-one could figure out".

Nobody except the xbox insiders who came out and confirmed that the 360 was knowingly rushed to market with a high failure rate because Microsoft attributed the success of the PS2 over the original xbox with being first to market.

 

[Norithics]

I went through seven of these things. They will never get my business again. Ever.

 

[Itsuki93]

I got a 360 a month or 2 after they came out, still working to this day. I consider myself very lucky