the 360 and NES seem to have something in Common

So I was thinking. THE RROD is still a huge problem. Apprently the 360 Falure rate is around 53% now. My 360 just died a week ago. Microsoft is spending a Fortune fixing these things.

Plus we have to send these things to Texas for repair and while in the minority there are issues people have had with the repair center, Dirty Consoles, Autographed consoles being cleaned, the thing being sent back still broken.
Rare but not so hot.

But I got to thinking... The NES I think any child of the 80s remembers the widespread blinking screen problem.

What did nintendo do? They created "Nintendo Authorized Repair centers"

So I was wondering if microsoft could do the same, It would save them on shipping costs if anything and players would have a shorter turn around time.

the RROD is as big a problem as the NES blinking Screen it seems logical and even pratical to create authorized repair centers Plenty of Computer repair places could do do 360 repair on the side.

Seems like a good idea at least...

 

I disagree. It is too complicated a repair to be done in regional centers. I'd much rather the place that repairs such a devices does so in the correct conditions.

The NES issue was just a port switch out.

 

The biggest issue is..how do the people doing the repairs get paid, fee to the 360 owner? Microsoft footing the bill to under warranty 360s...

as I said the idea being, these repair Centers are to SAVE Microsoft Money.

 

The failure rate is not over 50%. The study that claimed so probably classified freezes and lock-ups as "failures" and asked the questions in such a way that people didn't know how the hell to respond. If I recall correctly, the study also only asked about 5000 peoplem and who the hell knows what demographic was targeted.

 

NES didn't have any such problem. Just like anything if you don't keep it clean it won't work right. It's not Nintendo's fault. The 360 breaking down is MS's fault though as that was a very clearly a manufacturing fault. The NES will work for a long long time if you clean your cartridges. And when I played mine back in its day while I did get some of the blinking issues probably from dirty carts or dirt from rental carts, all I had to do was try again and it would work within a couple trys.

That's not like the 360 when it dies on you. There's nothing that is your fault and nothing within reason you can do to fix the issue. MS needs to get rid of defective product rather than what you know they do which is recycle it. When a 360 gets sent to them they "repair it" and send it out to some poor bastard as a refurbished unit.

 

If MS repairs their consoles properly, then there's no way to make new authorized repair centers without being really expensive, because BGA Stations tend to cost around U$S 5000, but then again, I'm not MS and I don't know how much meney they spend in shipping.

 

the "53%" comes from a magazine that had an opt in poll.

It's a figure that should be completely ignored.

 

While that figure would not stand up to analysis I do not doubt that it is close to the real thing. Out of the 8 people I know really well that have xbox 360's only 3 have not had service work done on them. I am on unit number 5 (granted 2 were DOA), another friend is on unit 3 ( he gave up and didn't buy a fourth), and another is on unit 2 and it is starting to act up and give him temporary RROD's.

The other difference between then and now is that repair centers for electronics are few and far between. In the late 80's a TV or a VCR were an expensive item, now they are disposable. If you are in a small or medium sized city you will be hard pressed to find anywhere to take an under warranty item. Most of the repair centers do not want to do warranty work as they only get paid a fraction of what they normally charge. Most of the repair centers around me now make their money doing home theater installs and DSS installs.

If I remember it correctly most of the repairs are actually done in Mexico where the cost of doing the work is much less.

To make it simple as Bob Dylan said the times they are a changin. Electronics have just evolved into a different beast now vs the late 80's. The cost of the units now also factor into it. In 1985 an adjusted for inflation cost of a NES system was about $300, today an xbox 360 can be purchased for 199.99. With the impatience showed by many people I would bet that a descent percentage do not even get their system repaired and instead just go and buy a new one.

Just my opinion and yes my numbers would have such an error ratio that they would not mean anything as well. Just my opinion and personal experiences not to be quoted or used any where as I don't vouch for any of their usefullness.

Besides my old atari is still running after almost 30 years and my SNES and NES are still running as well as my gameboys. I didn't start having problems until the playstation, and since then only with sony and xbox 360's.

 

I think it all comes down to cost. Microsoft should do a 360 redesign that will completely eliminate the RROD but they just don't want to spend the money on new cases, marketing etc. Instead they just come up with new processer chips which they hope runs cooler.

I can say that since buying a 360 with a falcon chip (175w) after my original 360 RROD'd, I haven't had a problem.

As for how easy it is to fix, I have heard its pretty painless, just soldering the chip back to the board since its popped off. A service center could do it while you waited.

 

One difference is that I don't think (or remember) Nintendo ever even admitting (during the time) that there was a problem... (Unless you consider the redesigned NES a response)...

Funny thing was that even if you got a "blinking power" situation going on with a NES.. you usually could get it to eventaully work.. with some fandageling..

But back tot ha authorised service center issue... I think it would be a good idea.. or why not just recall the systems in question... i suppose that neither would end up looking to good for Microsofts bottom line..

 

The only thing wrong with Playstation (the first one) was the CD-ROM tended to have problems and die. The actual hardware besides that was fine and should last a long time really. Even the PS2 will last a long time, except for the optical drive which in any system is going to be the weak link. From what I've heard your NES and SNES era systems will probably last until some parts like capacitors dry up and die or maybe with SNES there is a fuse that likes to burn out. Simply replacing the part should get them working again but it's going to be much harder to keep these newer systems running. But luckily the amount of memorable games on newer systems tends to be low so while I may want to still play Super Castlevania 4 in 20 years I probably won't give a shit about any 360 or PS3 games.

 

I don't know anyone who hasn't had a 360 RROD on them.

 

Two Xbox 360's (one launch day), no RROD's.

The problem with surveys like this is that the majority of responses will be from disgruntled buyers. That is not to say there are not problems, but no one aside from Microsoft can do anything more than guess at the numbers.

 

mine just got it's red ring of death, and it was just a month shy of being 2 years old.

 

they seem to have 2 year life spans....

Hopefully with natal they get a redesign.

 

I agree this problem is not like the NES's blinking screen problem. That was typically caused by not keeping the system clean and cleaning carts. The 360 just randomly dies. Sure some people accelerate that by not keeping it in a good location, but still Microsoft is primarily at fault.

Out of all the people I know locally with 360s

1 still has his original launch model.
1 has had a red ring, but has worked since doing the towel trick.
2 have had to replace theirs once.
1 has had to replace theirs twice.
1 has had to replace theirs three times.

And out of all of those people only one person was one that didn't take good care of their console and that was one of the people that replaced theirs once. So let's do the math. That would mean out of 13 360s 53.8% have died. Kind of ironic how it about matches the statistics from that article.
At work we get typically get at least one defective 360 in per day, whereas we hardly ever get a ps3 or wii in. To be honest the defective rate of 360s we get at work is the reason I haven't bought one yet. When the elites drop to $299 though I might consider one.

 

you can't pick and choose stats like that.

Mine red ringed,
graciano's red ringed
my friend mikes has red ringed
davids has red ringed
Chris's red ringed
My girlfriends red ringed
my brothers red ringed
my friend kyle red ringed

That is everyone i know locally with 360's. That means ZOMG 100% FAILURE RATE.

...or not.

 

Mine was spotless but suffered the cart death. Sure you could get it to work eventually, but the contact pins on the cart slot did have a design flaw that meant they'd end up becoming too loose to contact properly.

 

Did you leave cartridges inserted into the system when not in use? I think that is part of what caused that as most people I know just turned the thing off and didn't bother to remove the game. In modern times I've always done that with the NES I have now and never have any problems with it.

 

all 360s i know both mine and others' have red ringed at least once. that's 100% as far as i m concerned.