just saw 2 broken PS3's at Walmart

Not sure if any of you care or not but I just stopped at my local walmart here in ohio and they have 2 PS3s on display. One on a endcap that just shows demos, and another set up for playing.

The endcap one was on some off road game but was frozen up making loud noise and the playable one was stuck in a inf. load loop. I watched it for 5 min and it just sat at the loading screen.

I dont know about you guys, but those can only be 3 days old at max and they are the first ones ive seen in person and both were busted (or overheating)

Think I will stick with my 360 and maybe get a wii. The walmart didnt have any wiis up for display but they had a lot of wii games on the shelf. :thumbsup:

 

Well its first gen hardware Ive heard of *A LOT* of defective 360s too. And if Sony's warranty is as good as Microsoft's regarding replacement consoles, it doesnt really matter either i think.

 

Still, you should NEVER have to put up with something braking just after buying it no matter if it's first gen or not. These problems should be fixed before hand. Microsoft and Sony know this and should be ashamed of themselves. Offering a replacement straight away shouldn't even come in to it. Imagine if you just bought a car then the thing fucked up a few days later. You wouldn't be a very happy man, now would you.

Yakumo

 

I agree with yakumo. Just because its the first batch dosent give sony the right to screw them up and use people as test subjects. I know the 360 has alot of problems but I have yet to see a broken one in person. Mine has and still does work great. But I just find it disturbing that I walk into walmart to see what all the fuss is about and BOTH units that are BRAND NEW are broken!

They were in sealed chambers with all kinds of breathing room to. Its not like they were cooking on a stove or anything either.

 

I see this argument posted so many times its not funny. People don't seem to realize the simple fact that the reason why we have such incredible advancements in technology at such low prices at such large scales is precisely because they are able to manufacture these consoles so cheaply and NOT at a 100% success rate. End of discussion. If you want the product to work 100% and have a guarantee, then the price will be several thousand dollars per console (I'm talking msrp, not scalping) and production would be on a scale to several hundred to several thousand which will make people complain. Conversly you can have an initial huge production rate of millions, lower the price of the console, and you'll see failure rates of higher than 3-5% and people will complain even more.

My 360, as well as many people I know, busted not long after getting it. I could be pissed off and blame MS and pitch a temper tantrum like so many people did on the xbox forums, but I know better. Yes, it sucks that my 360 is dead, but thats what it takes to have something so advanced at such a low cost. Thats what life is like. I'll just buy more parts and fix it. Roll with the punches, be happy that such a product like the PS3 even exists, and send it back to be fixed when it breaks.

P.S. If anyone would like me to post links and prices to ISO certified components that have guaranteed 0% rate of failures in order to illustrate my point, I'll be glad to.

 

I don't care. You shouldn't have to replace ANYTHING a few days after buying it. How about Nintendo's items? They are like tanks (apart from the western NES) and Sega's Saturn was well built just like the Mega Drive. Building stuff on the cheap shouldn't equal piss poor quality but it does along with mor money for the fat cats.

yakumo

 

a.) we haven't really seen the wii in action yet b.) Last time I checked, Ninty isn't really using bleeding edge technology like everyone else c.) If the ps2,xbox,gc ownership really is roughly 50%, 25%, 25% respectivly, then I fix just as many gc's as I do any other consoles. Their lasers break too, google "gamecube no disc error" if you need proof.

The more complex the system, the higher the liklihood of malfunction. That should be pretty much a given. Anyone want to take a guess at just how much more complex current gen systems are than the stuff from the n64/saturn/psx era?

In this case its less about building stuff on the cheap rather than the final testing phases. Want an lcd with a guarantee of no dead pixels, then pay hundreds of dollars more for ones that guarantee this through rigourous testing. Also if you're trying to infer capitalism is the source of our problems, then thats just plain wrong. Capitalism is what allows systems like this to be produced, failure rates are a side effect that allows things like this to be offered at the price that it is.

Edit: I'm not trying to start a flame war. It sucks when stuff you buy doesn't work. As I've pointed out, its happened to me before in this situation. I'm not standing up for the corportations. I'm simply trying to offer a better perspective on why things like this happen. If I could get one person to read this and make them understand why and prevent yet another OZMGD'S TEH PSEX3 IS TEH SUK DOWNZ WITS SNOY!1!1 M$ YUS IS NXT! internet post, then all the better for all of us. I expect Sony, like MS to rectify these problems within reason which I feel makes up for it.

 

My PS3 hasnt had a major problem yet I havent heard of anyone else having problems outside retailers who pack the system into tiny overheating cases.

Only thing I have is the controller drops out for 2-3 seconds sometimes which is very annoying and needs to be fixed.

 

Maybe they were demo discs. I've had many a dodgy demo crash my PS1 and some have crashed my PS2 in the past. Same with the Gamecube.

 

Noone has mentioned the infamous dreamcast power-supply connector happy-suprise-restart aswell as the controller-board-resistor blowout on the same console so far?
I also believe there has been quite a lot of issues with GD-ROM drives for dreamcast...

The restarts due to the connection to the power supply has happened to 3 out of 4 of my systems, but it is easy to fix.
The controller-port-resistor death has happened to me once as well, and is easily fixable if you know what to do and how to do it.

But back in the days when opening them voided your warranty it was not super nice when it happened

 

True. The first dreamcast I had (it was used) refused to accept any disc after I'd only played it for an hour or so. Oddly enough, the second one has lasted almost 6 years without a single problem.

 

i had an xbox catch on fire...

 

I think that there should be a acceptable amount of defective units. I can understand them having to balance quality and price to find a middle point but think about it. Say a new console is coming out that you want and you walk into the store to get a first look at it and maybe try it the next day.

Image you get in there and BOTH units are on fire caushing hellish destruction. Are you really gonna want to buy that system that seems to have a much more elevated risk of being broken within a few days. Heck its only been out a few days. Everyones may start breaking down within a month.

 

Micjohvan,
While my launch 360 has been flawless, My local eb has gone though 2 360 display units (they're still waiting for a replacement to show up). Also a friend at work had his 360 stop functioning after playing Gears of War.
vbmenu_register("postmenu_170213", true);

where the hell have you been?

1) There were many issues with DS being returned over dead pixels.
2) There was a large complaint over cracking hinges on DS Lite units (along with dead pixel issue above).
3) I've seen dead gamecubes also.

No company is perfect by any means.

This is like bitching "oh consoles should not be required to have updates right out of the box" when funny enough, even the Wii has had 2 updates posted already for the wii (along with ps3 having an update on day one also).

 

many DS units, unfortunately, suffer from a lower yelowish-tint screen too.

But to be fair, no company is perfect, yet relative defectiveness is the hot issue here. Seeing busted n64 units is less probable than seeing a busted X360, and this is an undeniable fact.

 

Yep, the Wal-Mart here had Resistance frozen on its kiosk.
Can't say I was overly surprised.

 

1) The number of PSPs Vs DS with dead pixels is laughable.
2) News to me. I never heard about that one.
3) So have I but a hell of a lot less than other consoles around at the time including Dreamcast

Too true but they could be better.

So what's your point? Those updates should have been in place before the systems launch. This is the problem with online gaming now. Comapies will release a fucked up item or software then patch it later on. That wasn't possible in the older days so they had to get it right before releasing anything.

Yakumo

 

The point is the market demands things now. If companys waited till everything was perfect we would never see a thing for years. Wii is far from perfect as is every system launched.

Regarding updates, for thoes to be in from the start means
1) limiting the options for the system (if you dont like updates).
2) Wii comming out next year (probably march/april time frame).

While I think it is down right stupid for companys to ship a non functional game from the start on purpose ( has happen alot in pc market) and post a patch on day one. I dont feel like waiting a long time till everything is made perfect in a system.

 

Well I dont think waiting an extra week or two would kill anyone. Then again some people out there are nut cases who just can't wait.

Yakumo

 

I didnt mean to start a argument here. I just wanted to let people know what I had seen in case it may help someone else who is wandering about these things when looking to purchase the console.

I revisited the walmart tonite and both seemed to be doing ok although the demo on the playable one seemed to be lagging somewhat.