X-box fire terror

It was on the front page of my local paper yesterday (Daily post N.Wales) that an X-box had caught fire while a child was playing it, it burnt the house down to the floor. Luckily the child and asthmatic mother were pulled out by a passing nieghbour. Fire crews if this passing hero hadnt gone in, chanses r they wouldnt b here

This brings up serious saftey issues, as the mother had already complained to the microsoft hotline about a flickering image. After this news i would not buy the console for my children, as microsoft are reluctant to comment about the fire, and seem to be ignoring it.

I would like anyone who has had any problem with an X-box (or any other console) to drop me a line to see how safe we really are while playing the games we love

Oh, c'mon, please. I'm not Microsoft's biggest fan. But be realistic. The Xbox is a piece of electrical equipment. It could have been mis-treated in any number of ways since these people bought it.

If the children playing it had been properly supervised, surely the fire would have been detected and extinguished before it became in inferno.

There may be blame to level in this instance, but with almost several million Xboxes sold, it's unlikely to be the Xbox that is the culprit.

And why would Microsoft's help line consider a "flickering picture" on a (probably) out of warranty Xbox something they should respond to?

If the parents thought the Xbox was faulty, they should have had it checked out before risking their kids life by using it as their babysitter.

But you've got admit, you hardly expect your game console to blow up.

I wonder if they had one of the power packs/cables that were recalled earlier this year!

I'm not defending Microsoft but it's also annoying when the press jump on a head line because it involves computer games.

Indeed. There strict regulations (BS, CE, UL, CA, VDE, etc) which, in order to pass, you must purposefully damage the equipent whilst it's draped in cheesecloth. If the cloth catches fire, it's a fail and back to the drawing board. I used to do this when working at an electronics equipment manufacturer. Flicking a switch to short out key components on a fully loaded 1kw power supply can give spectacular results - but rarely a fire.

It doesnt really matter what the odds of the fire happening were. if it was 1 in 100 000 000, it means that there is a chance it could happen, and that your console could be the 1 faulty one. I accept that it is impossible to have a 0 fault record, but this was as close as close shaves get to a tragic loss.

It doesnt really matter what the odds of the fire happening were. if it was 1 in 100 000 000, it means that there is a chance it could happen, and that your console could be the 1 faulty one. I accept that it is impossible to have a 0 fault record, but this was as close as close shaves get to a tragic loss.

That statement is directly contradictory. In one part of it you say that YOU ACCEPT that it is possible to get a zero fault record. In another part, you say that 1 in 100,000,000 is unacceptable.

What's your point, caller?

I am tying to argue both sides of the argument as an impartial observer. This way we get the perspective of all the parties involved so we can make an accurate statement. It is foolish to choose a side without seeing the full picture. In essence i am trying to get arguments for both sides going. A debate if you would.

There are people who use the Xbox360 powerblock as a central heating device it seems.
Going by all the complaints about overheating powerblocks i find it very easy to believe those people.

i dont doubt those people... but there are also hundreds of thousands of people like me who... have good xboxs so they arent onlien complaining... my 360 and its power brick are sitting happily on my carpet completley error free.

although to be honest the thing did lock up on me twice while loading save games from condemened. but seeign as it was that game only i am inclined to believe it was a fault in the software. course i haven't played many other games in great length yet, i'll keep ya'll posted if i have the prob again.
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The things why i said it is because there are literally complete forums with hunderds of people only talking how their Xbox360 crashed in 10-20 minutes. I find it a relief to read that not everyone has that, thank god.
Offcourse the people who buys those things on day one are offcourse people who are frequent gamers and 90% probably posts on forums on a regular basis. The internet does multiply the effect expotential by being the internet.

Question, how big is this powerbrick anyway? i heard in aspect of volume it's actually as big as a Revolution (three DVD cases stacked upon each other), thats BIG!

its huge.... like... my forearm.... like.... the size of a standard power strip... but beefier... about 1/3 the size of the actual systemi would say... and it has a three prong plug on it... not the polarized one most consoles do but the full on heavy gauge power cable... like off a pc... although i dont know what the outlets over in euope land actualy look like.


its got vents and even a little light on it so you know its working.


volume wise it may be similar to a revo... but its shapped very dif... and the revo will most likely have an external brick liek the cube did anyway... course with the recent reports of it being not much better than a GC, especialy first round games, it will probably be much smaler
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It's really Microsoft's spy station.

It videos and records everything you do in that room and sends it back to Microsoft using either the Xbox 360 or the mains power lines.

Is anyone else a little baffled over the recent kerfuffle about the Revo's graphics being "not much better than the GC"? It's been all over Joysdique and other pop blogs like a nasty rash.

Do these flapping 'tards not recall Nintendo saying that it would not get draw into a graphical willy waving match with MS and Sony, and felt that it was more important to create better, more accessible game than to throw around a bazillion 16x AA polys?