Microsoft Slams Media over Xbox Elite Repair Story

Yes, we did say that yesterday.

Posted by Staff
Microsoft Slams Media over Xbox Elite Repair Story
Yesterday we asked exactly why the UK's mainstream media - specifically The Daily Mirror - had decided to a run year-old news and incorrect story about bricked Xbox Elites and multi-million pound repair bills.

It's unusual for any of the platform holders to actually state that anything is true or untrue but here's what Microsoft has to say on the matter:

"Recent reports in the UK media regarding Xbox 360 contain inaccuracies and pure speculation, as well as news that is a year old.

"Prompted by what Microsoft viewed as an unacceptable number of repairs to Xbox 360 consoles, a year ago Microsoft announced an expansion of its Xbox 360 warranty.

Effective 5 July, 2007, any original retail Xbox 360 customer who experiences a general hardware failure indicated by three flashing red lights is covered by a three year warranty from date of purchase, with all other issues remaining covered by the standard one-year warranty."


Our bolding.

So, as we said yesterday - it was a year-old story.

Now all we need is for Microsoft to finally explain the absolute cause of the Red Ring of Death.

See also TechRadar
Companies:

Comments

deleted 8 Jul 2008 13:36
1/8
You have as much chance of MS explaining the absolute cause of the RROD as the Daily Mirror actually printing a informative and factual news article about gaming.
SuperSaiyan4 8 Jul 2008 15:15
2/8
Spong you're soo good at pinpointing things like what happened with this news and am sure you could easily find the interview where it was clearly stated to WHY the rrod was happening I know I remember...
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deleted 8 Jul 2008 15:23
3/8
SuperSaiyan4 wrote:
Spong you're soo good at pinpointing things like what happened with this news and am sure you could easily find the interview where it was clearly stated to WHY the rrod was happening I know I remember...


No article referred to a absolute reason only that various faults caused the problem and no definitive reason was given,

I believe this is as close as MS have come to admitting it was a design fault with the 360 in an article speculating the Elite`s release.

http://spong.com/article/13321
for your ease here is the quote from MS`s Bach
Bach wrote:
It's a design challenge that we've had to work around and create a new design to solve that problem, and for the interaction of a variety of different components. And so that's a Microsoft design question, not some component manufacturer's problem or our manufacturing partner's problems. It's something we've had to work on. We know we have a much better design in the market now. We verified that.

TimSpong 8 Jul 2008 15:36
4/8
SuperSaiyan4 wrote:
Spong you're soo good at pinpointing things like what happened with this news and am sure you could easily find the interview where it was clearly stated to WHY the rrod was happening I know I remember...


Well, Microsoft pointed out it was to do with heatsinks. (see here)

Geoff Croft, Customer Support Manager for Micromart told us it was "mainly a motherboard issue, we believe, related to dry joints (solder on the motherboard) overheating. There could be any number of issues why this is happening, but essentially it is a problem with overheating." (see here)

North American warranty provider SquareTrade's CEO Steve Abernethy opined that "...the Xbox 360 failure issues tend to increase with prolonged use where overheating appears the main culprit." (here)

As far as I can see there is no single reason.

Cheers

Tim



SPInGSPOnG 9 Jul 2008 06:53
5/8
SuperSaiyan4 wrote:
easily find the interview where it was clearly stated to WHY the rrod was happening I know I remember...

Well if you remember, why not prove that? Tell us where, and when Microsoft said it, and what they said?


SuperSaiyan4 9 Jul 2008 07:43
6/8
It was within this year but I think someone already mentioned part of the reason, wasnt there something about Microsoft saying a manufacturing company they had used was cheaper but put the blame on them? And saying the other company which would have created the chip differently would have been the more expensive option but would have been better?
tyrion 9 Jul 2008 07:45
7/8
haritori wrote:
You have as much chance of MS explaining the absolute cause of the RROD as the Daily Mirror actually printing a informative and factual news article about gaming.

It's no good. Try as I might, I just can't help mentally adding "You crazy fool!" to every one of your postings now.
PreciousRoi 9 Jul 2008 16:55
8/8
I'm pretty sure I've already provided the relevant explanation a while back but for those who missed it:

The failures are gestalts of partial faults in the solder connections which are stressed by the design of the "X clamp" (device used to retain GPU/heatsink on board) and weakened by overheating.

But don't take my word for it...try googling: "X clamp".

But this only cures the cause, if the disease has run its course already you may need to try the "bake fix" (At your own risk, of course).
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