Do the new 360s still self destruct?

[XYXZYZ]

Does the Xbox 360 Arcade Edition or whatever it is suffer from spontaneous combustion or did they remedy that with the nano-whatsitz thing? I want a 360, but I'll be damned if I pay real money for this "red ring" bullshit Microshaft has been peddling so far.

[digitalpress]

From every scrap of information I've been able to gather, ALL Arcade Edition and all of the Pro Editions packed with the Forza/Ultimate Alliance game have the re-designed board.

The problem is that MS is hush hush on this, so all gathered info is from actual users, which adds human error to the equation. On the other hand, no conflicting evidence as of yet. I'll be watching this thread as eagerly as you.

[Poofta!]

dont know about the pros and arcades, but the halo edition was the first appearance of the 65nano cpu. im not sure if even the elites have that.

[briskbc]

I've been wanting to ask the same thing but I was debating whether or not it was too soon. I would really like to get another 360 but I'm waiting until I hear the problem is fixed. The last one I had was dead out of the box. I sold the replacement (eb warranty) immediately. The final broken system was my 5th in 10 months.

Sorry, I know I've mentioned all that before in another thread but I'll be damned if it doesn't still amaze and anger me.

[gepeto]

Not anymore since they disabled the check engine light.
Seriously.

They said check the power supply or the box if it says 175w at the back it's the falcon.

If it is 230w it is the original.

Remember the greatest lie ever told was (they said). 2nd greatest is (the instructions are pretty straight forward:)

[Slate]

Your best bet is to check the manufacturing date. If it was made after october 1st 2007 you should be very safe. (There is a little flap on the top of the box that you can look through)

[Streetball 21]

I hope my XB360 (Pro) doesn't self destruct. I just bought mine a few days after Christmas.

[Nitrosport]

I've had my original 360 for a year now and aside from a few lockups and weird cd tray issues, it's still working.......knock on wood.

[NinjaJoey23]

Here's an alternative question to ask: Who has had a 360 for 6+ months that is still running fine? I bought an elite in April and it's fine, but a friend of mine who also bought an elite in April has caught the RRoD. Who has the oldest functional 360? Any launch consoles still going?

[diskoboy]

I also think if you got an pro console w/HDMI, you got the falcon mobo.

[Nitrosport]

Here's an alternative question to ask: Who has had a 360 for 6+ months that is still running fine? I bought an elite in April and it's fine, but a friend of mine who also bought an elite in April has caught the RRoD. Who has the oldest functional 360? Any launch consoles still going?

The only launch consoles that are still running have probably been used scarcely. I know tons of people that have been through a multitude of consoles already.

[Half Japanese]

Here's an alternative question to ask: Who has had a 360 for 6+ months that is still running fine? I bought an elite in April and it's fine, but a friend of mine who also bought an elite in April has caught the RRoD. Who has the oldest functional 360? Any launch consoles still going?

As someone who stood by with doubts when people started reporting RRoD errors en masse, particularly because I owned several Playstation 2 consoles that all worked fine (sold and rebought the console a few times) when people were bitching left and right about disc read errors, I can assure you that the problem does exist and is not the result of poor maintenance or anything other than manufacturing issues. Mine just died in the middle of the Sega Rally Revo demo. It's actually the first console I've ever had that just plain shit the bed. Fortunately the 3-year RRoD service policy was in place when mine died.

I'm not saying I thought people were lying when they initially started reporting faulty worksmanship on the 360/ps2/etc., it had just never happened to me until the 360, which I had owned for about a year when it happened.

[NinjaJoey23]

I'm just dreading the day when mine dies. Do they at least give you back one with an updated mobo?

[Princess-Isabela]

I've had 4 360's(been buying them, then selling them because all games that were interesting me at the time got beaten by me), and not one ever gave me any problems.
there are so many awesome games, I won't sell it this time (RockBand dlc is so awesome).

[zdan80]

The only launch consoles that are still running have probably been used scarcely. I know tons of people that have been through a multitude of consoles already.

My wife bought me mine christmas of 2006 and I have red ringed only once when I accidentally unseated the AV cord.

It is heavily used too, I play a lot of rock band and gh :P

[RASTAN]

I hope my XB360 (Pro) doesn't self destruct. I just bought mine a few days after Christmas.

Yeah tell me about it bro. I've been holding off on buying an X360 simply because I lack the patience most gamers still have. I simply won't purchase something only to have it go kaput 2 weeks later and have to ship it in. I know peeps who have gone through (6) systems already, I can't understand their "patience" factor on this in all honesty. Once I know that the Falcon systems are out and about and my purchase is going to be around 5 + years from now, then I can finally go online and start killin' some doodz in COD4 and stuff. Until then... like Chuck Norris... I wait.
:drinking:

[Cobra Commander]

My friend bought his little brother a 360 almost 2 years ago. The thing is still running like a champ. It takes everything a 10 year old can throw at it; and with games like RAW 2007 and Madden, that's quite a bit.
My girlfriend bought an Arcade for me for Christmas, and I've played it every day so far for a couple of hours each day....so far so good....

[Streetball 21]

Yeah tell me about it bro. I've been holding off on buying an X360 simply because I lack the patience most gamers still have. I simply won't purchase something only to have it go kaput 2 weeks later and have to ship it in. I know peeps who have gone through (6) systems already, I can't understand their "patience" factor on this in all honesty. Once I know that the Falcon systems are out and about and my purchase is going to be around 5 + years from now, then I can finally go online and start killin' some doodz in COD4 and stuff. Until then... like Chuck Norris... I wait.
:drinking:

It was a hard decision, but I was in a position to get it so ended up doing it. I just hope I dont get the dreaded red light. We'll just have to wait and see!

[Leo_A]

Mine is 14 months old, but gets used fairly little as my gamerscore shows.

[zektor]

I am personally debating on whether or not to try the 360 again. I had some pretty bad experience with my past 360 en devours, with the red ring occurring for me multiple times on multiple units. Anybody who knows me also knows that I BABY my electronics, and I definitely did no wrong to the console...although it seemed to love to do wrong to me. The thing that kills me is that the games for the most part were fantastic....and I do miss them. But, I am not so sure I am willing to take an expensive chance again just yet. I'll wait some more I suppose until I feel confident enough that the problem(s) have been resolved.

[Niku-Sama]

Not anymore since they disabled the check engine light.
Seriously.

They said check the power supply or the box if it says 175w at the back it's the falcon.

If it is 230w it is the original.

Remember the greatest lie ever told was (they said). 2nd greatest is (the instructions are pretty straight forward:)

this is really the only way to do this since they took the manufacture date off the outside of the boxes, well that and one other thing to go by.

check for 175W and check for Lot 740 and above and that can almost gaurentee a smaller core xbox.

i bought mine before x-mas and it was lot 744 so i am sure every one (unless they dont sell which incase the store sucks) should have burned through probally to about lot 748 now. i say that because i had herd about the smaller cores about a month before i got mine and it was already to lot 744

[Mianrtcv]

After seeing this thread I'm glad 2 places by me had no 360's in stock. Both places in Long Island , NY. I have some gift certs and received a couple of games for xmas (buddy forgot I gave it away and didnt get another yet). Now however my paranoia is in full motherfunking swing! Nice! After all these years I have had an original xbox die, an atari 2600 jr and intellivision. I gave away my original xbox 360 still running to date... Thanks MS... you are an MF...

[Graham Mitchell]

Got an Elite 2nd week in December. I didn't buy a store policy plan cuz I'm a gamblin' man, but I kind of figured by now I'd be in the clear since the problems were running rampant about a year ago.

However, in the box there were some fliers about an extended warranty you could buy for $60, but you had to buy it within like 30 days of purchasing the console. That kind of hacked me off. For one thing, I just paid about $600 to get this f-ing thing, now you want me to cough up another $60 to ensure I'll be able to keep playing it? Second of all, the machine should be reliable enough to not have to do this in the first place.

They're charging triple what Best Buy charges for an extended warranty. And, when your system croaks (which I'm hoping is no longer inevitable) and you're actually required to use this service, you can't just walk in to the store and get another one. You have to play the shipping/ups game. You'll probably be without a machine for 2 weeks and when they deliver you a new one, they'll either leave it sitting outside your place for someone to steal or send it to some fucking processing facility an hour away from your house that you must get to before 7pm on a Friday night. Screw that.

[GrandAmChandler]

Just make sure the power input on the side of the box says "175w" It clearly states this in fine print on the box. If you find one that says this (almost all now do) then you have one with a new falcon chip.

EDIT: Looks like someone beat me to it!

[Borman]

Theres still problems with the new ones, they arent invinsible, but it does seem to be a bit less frequent. For now. Theyve only been out a few months so

[Cryomancer]

Friend of mine got one PRE-launch via the pepsi contest. Still works fine. Not sure if he gets TONS of play into it, but he does definetly use it.

[Slate]

Well I'm on my second 360. I just decided to upgrade to an elite, My first one still works except the DVD Drive sticks so I'm going to get it fixed. And I had my first 360 since August 15th 2006 and it never showed me the 3 red rings. (I even left it on for two days on two seperate occasions)

[Nesmaster]

Mine will be 2 years old in April, and it's still going strong. Considering how much I use it I'm surprised, really. Easily has more use on it in <2 years than both my Gamecube AND PS2 combined saw in the ~6 and ~5 years I've owned those, respectively.

As far as getting a Falcon, you should be pretty safe. Most places should be on lot 747 or so, and they became pretty commonplace around lot 740.

[gepeto]

Well I'm on my second 360. I just decided to upgrade to an elite, My first one still works except the DVD Drive sticks so I'm going to get it fixed. And I had my first 360 since August 15th 2006 and it never showed me the 3 red rings. (I even left it on for two days on two seperate occasions)

Send the dvd sticker back. I just sent mine in at first it wasn't bad I was like it is alright then it started to get worse to the point where even If I opened the tray via controller it would stick.

On another note. I bought a Hdmi console thinking I got a new cpu but Later I checked the power 230:(

Mfg date 8/05/2007

[carlcarlson]

So are the lot # and wattage only referred to on the box? I have a unit that was sent to me by Microsoft, and though I would assume it's got the old chip, I'd like to check it if I can. Is there any way to do that?

[alxbly]

Here's an alternative question to ask: Who has had a 360 for 6+ months that is still running fine? I bought an elite in April and it's fine, but a friend of mine who also bought an elite in April has caught the RRoD. Who has the oldest functional 360? Any launch consoles still going?
Got my 360 in early April 2007 and it still going strong 9 months later... not that that is anything to brag about; consoles should have a lifespan of at least 3-5 years. My 360 gets used heavily, and although I'll be gutted when it eventually dies, I'll just replace it with an Elite that will hopefully have the Falcon board.

[Niku-Sama]

So are the lot # and wattage only referred to on the box? I have a unit that was sent to me by Microsoft, and though I would assume it's got the old chip, I'd like to check it if I can. Is there any way to do that?

check on the back of the console, theres a sticker with a barcode on it, its on there. manufacture date should be on there too but its not on the out side of the boxes any more

[Cryomancer]

Well, forget what I posted, his just now went out on him. Too bad, he was having a good run with a pre-launch system. Hopefully everything will go ok with his replacement.

[venturousviking]

From every scrap of information I've been able to gather, ALL Arcade Edition and all of the Pro Editions packed with the Forza/Ultimate Alliance game have the re-designed board.


Got my first 360 which was the Pro edition with the pack-ins I believe in August or September...can't remember. I did the flashlight trick on it and I could see the copper pipe so it definitely was the older model. Plus it would get hot as hell. I had it about 2 months before it displayed the rings. I took it back to Walmart to trade it in since it was less than 90 days. This time I checked the package and got the one with the lower wattage PSU. This new one runs noticeably quieter and much much cooler. Time will tell I guess.

[thegardentool]

I bought my original in January 2006 and it lasted until May 2006. I got a replacement in July 2006 that lasted about 15 minutes. My third has lasted since late July 2006 with zero problems, no freezing, disk-read errors or anything.

[s1lence]

My brothers launch system is still working fine, granted he swapped cases.

My older 360 is a replacement system, I have had it for over a year without a single problem. My first one died from a child pulling it off of a shelf, not from mechanical failure.

My Arcade 360 has the falcon chipset and its been just fine.

[Hep038]

Like my launch PS2 my 360 is running fine. And like the other poster, it was left on for 3 days. Cleaning lady hit the power button while I was out of town. But I did get a HD fail 1 time but never had it happen again.

[dylan0228]

I bought a launch 360 the day it came out & it still works. I use it heavily, but only for games. No Music CD`s or Movie DVD`s. No point in wasting some if it`s life span on watching a movie!

[RyanMurf]

I have the xbox 360 arcade system. It does have the 65Nm chip set. The way I found out was the manufacture date and the new heatsink set it has. also by the fact that its about 50% cooler. The best way is to look on the bottom of the system with a flash light and see if it has the copper heatsink or the new square silver heatsink. If it has the new heat sink it has the new chipset.

http://forums.xbox.com/1/15804553/ShowPost.aspx#15804553

this guide will show you every possible way to find out if you have the new chipset.

[Poorfamily]

We bought ours in the middle of December. Gamestop assured us it was one of the new models. Well, had 10+ RRoD over the next three weeks! Never a pattern to it. Once it was on start-up, once while signing up for Live. My boy could play Rock Band for hours and never have it shut down.

Sometimes we could turn it right back on, sometimes we had to remove the power cord first, but it always started back up.

Finally checked the error code and it said it was a bad power supply! Filled out the online form for a repair, got my mailing box in the mail. I called MS and told them it looked like a bad supply. They didn't care, just send back the console only.

So now I'm waiting for a new console which will probably die as well since it's a bad power supply. MS didn't care. So another round of repairs coming up.....

Oh yeah, the USB door on the front had a broken/missing spring right out of the box!

[RyanMurf]

Why wouldn't you just go out and buy a new power supply and spare the month turn around period?

[mnbren05]

Bought my 360 in late March 2007 and it has run beautifully. No issues at all really. (knock on wood) The only scare I have had was the damn ring of red lights that popped up once when the power supply came loose on the back. (I remember screaming "No dammit! Live!" As I frantically tore the cables off of it and reconnected everything)

Now as for a launch title. My friends fraternity, at Kent State, bought a launch console (I waited in line with my friend for it at Wal-Mart) and they play Madden, NBA Live, Halo, and Gears throughout most of the day. Their poor pro system has been subjected to someitmes near non-stop use since launch and the only problem comes from the trey that only opens and closes from the Xbox dashboard. Some people are just lucky.

[Poorfamily]

Why wouldn't you just go out and buy a new power supply and spare the month turn around period?

For one thing I understand there's a chance the console may be damaged from the bad power supply. As long as it's under warranty I'm going to get it repaired/replaced until it's right.

Power supplies run around $60 (unless someone can point me in the direction of a cheaper alternative) and hard to find in my area. I might get one as a back-up but I'm still going to make MS live up to their end. Besides I've got the Wii, PS2 and original Xbox to keep me company.

[gepeto]

A Great article from a Ms secret insider on the failure rate. I thought it was very informative.
If it turned on and booted with a disc it was shipped.

[Azraelscross]

my arcade is like a month old and seems to be fine so far.*knocks on wood*. HDMI*which i hope one day will be used* and all

[Damaramu]

I bought a Pro with the Ultimate Alliance/Forza 2 bundle. It's definitely not one of the newer models. It has HDMI though, and it was manufactured in July '07. I bought it, IIRC, in October.

I have it sitting horizontally. At first, I just had it sitting on the surface of my desk. I noticed it got pretty warm quickly. I then decided to prop it up for maximum air flow (about an inch or two off the desk). The bottom of the case BARELY gets warm now.

Of course, I use the 360 only moderately. On top of that, I bought the machine from Target and purchased the extended warranty (3 years on top of the manufacturer's warranty, IIRC). Oh yeah, MS stuck a new sticker over the original that's on the box...so I had to peel that off so I could look at the power information.

[sisko]

I hadn't realized that they changed the power supplies with the new motherboard. Are the new ones keyed differently so you cant use the 230W supply on a 175W console, and vice versa?

[AZ Legend]

Your best bet is to check the manufacturing date. If it was made after october 1st 2007 you should be very safe. (There is a little flap on the top of the box that you can look through)

My box just broke after being replaced in 12-06 that was also the manu. date. I hope i get a new one that works. That is my second box ive gone through. Amazing they havnt gotten it right yet. Come on Microsoft!!

[icbrkr]

My second one just died - disc read error. It was replaced with a refurbished one in July and they told me "well, you only have 90 days on the refurbished one so you'll have to cough up $100 to get it fixed". What? I'll be on my 3rd one in 1 year, 2 months and I have to pay *more* money? You're kidding right?

[josekortez]

I'm on my second one, received in October of 2006.

The first one knocked out all the electricity in my last apartment which was followed by a Red Ring of Death.

The newer one hasn't had any problems, and I am using the Intercooler with it and giving it plenty of room to cool off by setting it on top of a Rubbermaid tub with nothing else in front of or behind it. I also plug it into a power strip whenever I use it.

I don't play for longer than one hour in a sitting on any games, just because...

[DJ Daishi]

my launch 360 was taken down by the dreaded fall update. probably would've still worked if it never have happened.

[freckledpeas]

I had my 360 "red ring" on me a few months ago (before the Microsoft warranty announcement). Luckily, there were some guides on the Internet which showed me how to fix it... I love the Internet. :)

[DJ Daishi]

I had my 360 "red ring" on me a few months ago (before the Microsoft warranty announcement). Luckily, there were some guides on the Internet which showed me how to fix it... I love the Internet. :)

lol, did you wrap a towel around your 360?

[Rob2600]

lol, did you wrap a towel around your 360?

I keep reading about a towel trick and it doesn't make any sense. How would wrapping a towel around a broken Xbox 360 fix it?

[RyanMurf]

temporarily remelts broken solder joints back into place but then shortly after as in very shortly the points brake again. In reality it is actually making things worse every time you do it.

[Rob2600]

temporarily remelts broken solder joints back into place but then shortly after as in very shortly the points brake again. In reality it is actually making things worse every time you do it.

In that case, why not just put the Xbox 360 in an oven?

[RyanMurf]

Hey if you wana try it.. then let me know what happened.LOL

nah you can just send it back to MS when you have problems like that because your covered for 3 years from DOP.

[XYXZYZ]

Just giving this thread a bump, anyone had problems with new 360s bought since January?

[josekortez]

Mine is still working, and I've been using it for at least one hour per night with the Intercooler attached. Some people think I'm crazy for using the Intercooler, but I haven't had any problems with it so far. This is my second 360.

[ProgrammingAce]

Mine is still working, and I've been using it for at least one hour per night with the Intercooler attached. Some people think I'm crazy for using the Intercooler, but I haven't had any problems with it so far. This is my second 360.


I don't think i can put this any more plainly. if you value your 360, you'll ditch the intercooler. The intercooler draws it's power straight from the 360's power supply, which then provides less voltage then required to the console.

[COUNT SMRIFNACK]

Not all do. I have (but don't use) one that has it's own power supply. It still didn't help my 360 from only lasting 9 months though. So I don't bother with it anymore. The refurbished unit I got from MS red ringed in less than 2 weeks as well.:bad-words:

[Mianrtcv]

Not all do. I have (but don't use) one that has it's own power supply. It still didn't help my 360 from only lasting 9 months though. So I don't bother with it anymore. The refurbished unit I got from MS red ringed in less than 2 weeks as well.:bad-words:

Still no redesign? I guess that is how they are able to stay profitable.

[josekortez]

I don't think i can put this any more plainly. if you value your 360, you'll ditch the intercooler. The intercooler draws it's power straight from the 360's power supply, which then provides less voltage then required to the console.

ProgrammingAce, don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to kill my 360, but overheating is what killed my first one. I'm not a techie, so what is the long or short-term consequence of the voltage problem by using the Intercooler?

It can't do any worse than a Red Ring of Death and shutting down all the electricity in my apartment, which is what happened with my original 360 just before it went to the Great Beyond.

Sadly, I think it's going to be Intercooler or nothing, in which case I'm wasting several good games and an expensive-@$$ game system, IMO.

And aren't all 360s ticking time-bombs? And no, I'm not a PS3 or Wii fanboy.

[ProgrammingAce]

I don't think the whole intercooler thing is a great idea, but if you're going to use one, use the Pelican one. It draws power from the USB ports instead of drawing off the main.

[TheDomesticInstitution]

Back from the dead. Anyone have any experiences to share on a recently (new) purchased 360's? Are new ones still RROD-ing? I guess I could search around the nets a bit... But any first hand user experience here on DP?

[Graham Mitchell]

Well, I'm not red-ringing, but I have an elite manufactured on October of '07. A couple of weeks ago, after playing some CD's, I put Bully in the drive and it freaked out. It made some awful noises. After that, I had lock-up issues for about a week. Mass Effect is the worsed offender. It seems to freeze every time I open the equipment menu and switch to Talia. Strange.

[mezrabad]

I puchased one at the end of February and it's been running great. I've put in over 100 hours on Final Fantasy XI alone. My experience has been very positive, though it would've been nice for them to have made the internet connection wireless like the Wii.

[briskbc]

It has been a year since I sold mine off. I'm hoping things are better now. The price of the Arcade console is tempting me. Have complaints for RROD decreased? Is it more likely a cheap component will fail first?

[Nature Boy]

Here's an alternative question to ask: Who has had a 360 for 6+ months that is still running fine? I bought an elite in April and it's fine, but a friend of mine who also bought an elite in April has caught the RRoD. Who has the oldest functional 360? Any launch consoles still going?

I've had mine 18 months (March 2007). I've had a RRoD come up because my HD wasn't properly attached (I think my kids might've fiddled with it) but that's it as far as the RRoD goes.

(Man did I panic when I saw it though! :) )

I've wondered if my laser was a little flaky, as I've had a few disc read errors in the past. Haven't seen any in awhile (touch wood), but I still think about it when a disc seems to be taking it's sweet time loading.


Mass Effect is the worse offender

I found that too. No game seemed to present the disc read error more than Mass Effect. I actually swapped my first copy thinking it was the disc. Maybe it was that first pressing, as I still had issues with the second disc I tried (although far fewer).

[ubersaurus]

I've had my current one since July 07, and it's still kicking fine. Except with Mass Effect. God, does it hate Mass Effect. So many DREs.

Course, I think that means I missed the window for the redesigned machines, but this one seems to be doing ok.

[maxlords]

My first Xbox was from early 2006 and it never died but began to have minor video output issues (a rolling line of purple) around Xmas 2007. Interestingly enough about the time I started playing Mass Effect and Conan it also started to have loading issues and would freeze intermittently during load screens. Never got an RROD on it though. I sent it back, got a new refurb and haven't had an issue since. I don't play mine heavily though.

[TheRealist50]

I've had the RROD and got my 360 back around Feb. of this year. Do you think these new refurbished consoles still could have that problem? or is this one of those things where I can keep sending it back and it will never be fully fixed until I buy a new one?

[PapaStu]

Perkar's Halo 3 360 died this morning playing Soul Calibur IV. Not a RRoD, but from the sounds of it, started off as a GPU error that cascaded to a complete death.

[SegaAges]

As for cooling, one of my hardware buddies had a good idea, uses the idea, and has not had a problem with his 360 yet (he has had it for about 1 year).

He got one of those docking station laptop coolers and put his 360 horizontal on top of it. The laptop cooler has its own power source as well.

[Drifter 2000]

I had my first 360 for two and a half years before it broke down a few weeks ago. Since I was looking for a new unit with HDMI I decided to buy one of the new 60GB Pro models.

I've had it for about a week and it red ringed on me two nights ago. This was different than the first one though...my first 360 had the light rotate three times around the power button before going solid red. The new Pro just had three of the bars light up then it went solid red.

Oddly enough I switched out the new power cable for my old one and the system started up fine as kind. Switched back to the old cable and everything worked fine again. I haven't played since then but I fully expect the system to kick the bucket any day. What really irritates me is that I just had my Arcade games licensed over to the new system which is something you can only do once every year. Since I'll be taking this Pro back to EB Games and exchange it I'll be unable to relicense my games again.