Articlr

Xbox 360 problems are way too common. Anyone who owns one has probably had a problem of some kind with his or her system. It is almost expected when the failure rating is more then 50%.

These problems can be anything from the "Red Ring of Death", to just simple game freezing. Some consumers experience disks being scratched while others see "bricking". Whether the problems are acceptable or not, they are still a headache.

Imagine you have been playing for 4 hours straight. You have been working on completing an extremely hard area in the game, and then suddenly the game freezes! Rebooting doesn't fix the problem. You take the disk out and see scratches on your new disk. Your console has either missing pads near the reader, or your drive doesn't secure the disk in place. This is unfortunately very common, more common when the console is positioned on the side.

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.

Probably the worst, and definitely the most common issue with Xbox 360's is the "Red Ring of Death". When you boot up your Xbox 360 and only 3 red lights around the power light come on, looking like what appears to be a red ring, you are experiencing the "Red Ring of Death". This is from either a core digital or general hardware failure. This problem requires you to send in for a replacement or repair to Microsoft. Luckily since this issue is so common, Microsoft extended the warranty from 1 to 3-years from the time you purchased your console. It takes about 8 weeks to get a system back.

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.

The industry will accept 3-5% failure ratings, but Microsoft has done little about their 50% rating. With it being more then 3 years since the release of this console, it is surprising that it has been allowed to stay so high. Bring back the stability that consumers could expect with the previous gaming systems!