Stupid Microsoft Rant

[brykasch]

Well its not as widespread as some here would like to think, alot of the errors are hard driver errors, mainly caused by games (KOTOR and MORROWIND ORIGINAL). The original thompson drive could be problematic but it is way to small a number to warrant a recall. Remember the supposed problem in Japan, and never was bad as reported. All consoles have failure rates on certain parts. They will replace the drive on the box for 1 year, thats the warranty I had with mine, they may have changed it since then. but either way I have ha dmuch beeter luck with ms than the ps2 (sent back dre, sent back not compatible with the ps2 network adapter)

[fahrvergnugen]

My concern is, and the reason I'm somewhat supportive of the original poster, is that a CD system should last longer then a year!

Everything is so cheaply made these days. I'd rather pay more money to have a product that works for 5-10 years and have a warrenty for that long then to buy a new one every year or two. I can't tell you how many microwaves, toasters, TV's, raidos, VCR's, etc. that I've gone through the last 20 years -- even with minor use!

I'll drink to that. I'd gladly pay another $20 or even $50 at purchase for a machine with a 5-year warranty. Sadly no competition == no opportunity, except for retailer warranties that tend to have unsatisfactory mail-away service plans.

[SoulBlazer]

How is their no competition? There really is'nt a monopoly in any field, except a few that are kinda close to one (Microsoft being a good example).

I can think of at least 10 companies that make the products I mentioned in my first post, and all of them make slightly different quality of products with different prices and different success rates.

Even the best of them will only last a few years, though. As I said eariler, my parents still have a Quasar TV that works despite being almost 20 years old.

[omnedon]

Well its not as widespread as some here would like to think, alot of the errors are hard driver errors, mainly caused by games (KOTOR and MORROWIND ORIGINAL).

The 75 installed Xbox DVDroms I invoiced in the last 8 months says different. Almost never does the refresh disc solve these problems. It always erases all the saves though. People just 'looooooovvvve' that.

The HD refresh has solved DRE problems for me once. And that was someone trying to use a savegame hack (and failing). I'm not making this stuff up. :)

[sisko]

I'll drink to that. I'd gladly pay another $20 or even $50 at purchase for a machine with a 5-year warranty. Sadly no competition == no opportunity, except for retailer warranties that tend to have unsatisfactory mail-away service plans.

I'll agree with that statement. Most mail away service plans have completely bizarre conditions that must be met before they even CONSIDER repairing the merchandise. Then the repair usually takes forever (months +). 9 times out of 10, its simply not worth the hassle. I know, I used to sell them :)

Oh and, fahrvergnugen. Its quite obvious that we have opposing view points. That's fine, I respect that. But we also don't need to resort to name calling. It's just not nice, kthanks? :)