Another XBox dies, yet again.

A little while back, I posted about my only slightly older than 1 year old XBox dying. I was a bit peeved, but I had faith in MS and the XBox, given I make my living from MSFT technology. So I bought a new XBox, and its been good.... until today.

Last night I was happily playing it. Turned it off. No dramas. Turned it on today. Service screen pops up showing error code 21, and the green eject button flashes red. Is it in warranty? Ofcourse not, not long out actually. The error code 21, as far as I can tell, means its in a bad way, I suspect the hard disk is somehow dead.

Now I love playing the games on the XBox, but I'll be stuffed if I am going to buy a 3rd XBox in as many years. I will try to fix it by combining my 2 dead XBox units, but I shouldn't have to (Note: Its not modded or anything like that. Its a plain vanilla XBox). I now feel embarassed that I have recommended these units to a number of friends and family. I have a large stockpile of games I am ready to now sell off. I have no doubt that the XBox 360 will contain a great number of technical advances, but I can't remain confident of its reliability, nor of the current Xbox's reliability. Unfortunately, I could no longer recommend them as a worthy purchase and even though I am a firm supporter of Microsoft in general, I could not remain condifent that the XBox is currently a good purchase due to reliability concerns, and that the XBox 360 will be any different. I would certainly not want to pay the larger XBox 360 price, to also have it die after a year.

Unfortunately, this previously staunch XBox supporter has left the building....

Ah well, such is life.

Note: I have a very old PS1 unit still happily playing games after being dropped, drooled on, discs scratched, hit and generally treated very badly. They dont make em like they used to...

9 Comments

  • I've had very similar problems, hopefully quality/reliability improves but I won't be getting a 360 for a long a while.

  • Spend the xtra $20 (Best Buy) and get an extended warranty well worth it. Saved my but on my playstation twice, my gamecube once. Also protects you if you get a lemon. I never liked the xbox that much so limited play is probably why I've never had a problem.

  • My friend has a peculiar xbox, too... his always freezes exactly five minutes after turning on. Reset it, and its good to go long term, but that initial "warm up" has always struck me as odd. (Most likely its a heat issue, some chip or connector not seated 100%)



    I've had a gen 1 xbox unit since the day it came out... never had a problem with it... still playing halo 2 way too often.



    On the other hand, the hard drive inside is making more noise than usual when loading up, which leads to to think that it may be on its last legs...

  • We used to go through about 2 a month at Acclaim Manchester, there was a time when we had more broken ones in the Stock room than we had working ones in the building.



    Usually it was the Power Supply that would go.

  • Wow, I'm still surprised when I search for xbox minutia and find that a lot of people are having troubles with them, which is totally different from my perspective.



    Good luck though.

  • Wow why cant microsoft make their systems right, i thought they fixed that problem but i c all these reports about xbox breaking after only one year. Get a ps3 no way id bother sending it in over and over agian

  • i will try to be breif as possible, i got the 3 three red light 3 month befor my warrenty ran out . ms took it and returned back to me very quick . one problem still had the same fault this went on a further three times all the time chipping away on my warrenty . when they took it the third time my warrenty ran our while they had the unit . they assured it would be fixed and apolagized for the mess around . lone behold it came back worse than ever . by this time i was mad , and rang them again they refused to take it coz there was no warrenty and called me a lyer saying this does not happen and i will be the first , i have had to seek legal advise from the office of fair trade and managed to get ms to take it back as jesture of good will , am still waiting for it to come back so fingers crossed i aint hopefull . the o.f.t say i have a strong case if it is still faulty and prepared to take it on . p.s the three red lights came on as soon as u turn it on so theres no excuse for not spotting the fault . NEVER BUY A XBOX 360 THEY ARE TRASH

  • ur abolutly rite...the xbox sucksi can't even turn it on!! i certainly have lost faith in microsoft now that i've seen how dumb their products are. i've had mine 4 three years and after only half a year of owning it the stupid thing started to have problems startin up in th future... i'd rather see my house burn down than buy a microsoft product

  • There an absoloute bag of t*ss, My first 360 broke once, sent it back. 5 week later it returns. Play happily for two days then boom RROD again. By this time i am just under 3 weeks outside warrantry i explain my situation to MS saying it has not been properly fixed and i have only had it back 2 days, They basically tell me to F off. By this time i am wanting a nice reliable PS3 with it blu ray player and all however i just can't afforade it. So off i trot to get another 360 thinking, they must have solved the tech issues now, they can't be selling machines they no are going to fail. So i get the Arcade package. I pay the scandal price for XBOX LIVE. Then i play for 3 months quite happily. I have a disc read error, I shut down the console and remove the disc to find it scratched to hell! I get straight on the blower to MS and demand my 360 fixed and a replacement disc. They say no way to the game as it is not a MS game it was COD4. They say they will pick my 360 up within the week. Well 2 weeks pass n no show. I ring and ask whats appening, they say they have no reccord of my case... I am quite annoyed as i have not been able to play games for a week. They come and pick it up. 2 weeks later its back in Perfect condition, running quiter than ever. I play fine for a further six months untill, yes uve guessed it RROD. They come and pick it up swiftly, I think at the time there customer service is improving. I am astounded when i get it back in 9 days.
    I open the white carboard box eager to play my copy of battlefield bad company. I get the xbox out plug it in and about to press the power on button when i notice a piece of paper in the box entitled: Xbox enthusiast. I read it quickly. It states that they will not repair my xbox as the outer casing has been atempted to be opened. I go furious, knowing i have never done anything other than play games on my 360. I ring them up and they put me on hold for 19 minutes before telling me my Warrantry is VOID and my xbox live subscription is cancelled with no money returned. So now i am stuck with two 360's both of which should be repaired, Both of which they will not even take back for paid repair. I have had enough of there lack luster attitude, they should stick to developing software and leave game consoles to a real console developer SONY. Surfice to say a ps3 will be coming my way as soon as i have the money, an example of sony's amazing customer service is where my mates ps3's HDD got damaged. They exchanged his ps3 on his doorstep for a brand new one with a bigger hard drive, they also give him two new controllers and a copy of F1:CE. It took him 6 days from his ps3 malfuctioning to him getting his new one, Awsome customer servie.

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