No Xbox 360 problems? Then count yourself as one of the lucky ones. With a failure rating of more then 50%, most consumers have experienced at least one problem with their console.
The problems range from disks being scratched, to "bricking", or possibly even the "Red Ring of Death". Some problems like games freezing can be annoying, but most people often accept them.
Have you been playing your favorite game on your Xbox, and suddenly it freezes up on you? You reset the console to only find that it freezes again. Taking out the disk you find that there are now scratches on it. Unfortunately, this is common with this console. As many as 1 in 9 consoles positioned flat, and 3 in 9 positioned on their sides have scratched disks. This is due most often to two issues, a pad missing near the reader in the disk drive, or the drive not securing the disk in place before running.
Another issue Xbox 360's have is "bricking". "Bricking" is a term used within the industry due to the brick shape of most electronics. Since a brick is useless when it comes to electronics, when items like a game console, DVD player or similar quits, it's now "useless as a brick". Some dashboard updates have caused "bricking". The only fix for this is to contact Microsoft to see about a replacement or repair. If the console is out of warranty, the repair could cost anywhere from $99 and up.
The most common problem with Xbox 360's is the "Red Ring of Death". The name for this issue comes from the three red lights that are on around the power light on the face of the console, forming a red ring. This is caused from either a general hardware failure or a core digital failure. Either of these problems is not good. Both require your console to be sent in to Microsoft for repair or replacement. The average turn around to receive one back is eight weeks. Due to the commonality of this issue, Microsoft extended the 1-year warranty that these consoles came with to 3 years from date of purchase.
Because of the frequency of failures with the Xbox 360, there have been several lawsuits filed. The first was soon after the release of the console. Another was filed in November of 2006, only about a year after release. This lawsuit was due to the "bricking" that was experienced after the November 1, 2006 release of a dashboard patch.
The most recent class action lawsuit filed against Microsoft was in October of 2008 by Californian consumers. The filers claim that Microsoft knowingly manufactured faulty consoles and that they refused to release the actual failure rates of the consoles.
Xbox 360's too often have problems. In an industry where only 3-5% is an acceptable failure rating, a rating of over 50% is outrageous! What happened to the game consoles that lasted for years and years without any problems what so ever?
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