Xbox 360 Very Unstable

fmwap writes "There have been several postings over at Xbox-scene complaining of crashing Xbox's on new games, with default settings on single player. Crashes on Xbox Live and on startup have been reported too, and Project Gotham Racing 3 crashes before finishing the first lap. Screenshots and Video are available showing the crash."

1699 parts ok

[enoraM (749327)]

Seems like they got 1699 Parts of the x-box to the market:

http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/18/ 156253 [slashdot.org]

and it seems to be the same in other forums too:
http://forum.teamxbox.com/showthread.php?t=391764 [teamxbox.com]

Cool crash screens though.

[suso (153703)]

You have to admit though. Those are some decent crash screens. Not unlike the screens you'd see when pulling out a Atari 2600 game cartridge with the power on. Hey wait, the crashes themselves look better than atari 2600 games. Oh no!

Have you tried..

[by Anonymous Coward]

..placing a book under one corner?

Or how about?

[Joseph Vigneau (514)]

Have you tried blowing on the DVD, and wiggling it around a bit?

And in todays news...

[Hieronymus Howard (215725)]

Microsoft product crashes
Pope is discovered to be a Catholic
Family of bears accused of defecating in forested areas

hmmmm ....

[Average_Joe_Sixpack (534373)]

Project Gotham Racing 3 crashes before finishing the first lap

Sounds like someone needs to improve their driving skills and stop blaming the system.

upgrades

[tezbobobo (879983)]

Does anyone know if these things are upgradable? or what the process is? Microsoft has a history of being first to markwt with buggy software. In the past it has been a strategy which has worked for them. Still, I long for the days of cartridges. Just reminissing - please don't flame me. But do answer if you know about upgradability/

Could be worse...

[TripMaster Monkey (862126)]

So the new XBoxes are crashing...let's just hope they've addressed the problem of the XBox bursting into flames and killing you [theregister.com]. ^_^

What is this? A tabloid?

[pjh3000 (583652)]

So half a dozen out of the hundreds of thousands of new Xbox 360 owners are having problems. Why does Slashdot have to state "Xbox 360 Very Unstable"? I've had bad installs of Linux too. Would we see the headline on Slashdot "Linux Very Unstable" too?

This is normal. With the massive number of parts in the Xbox 360, it's to be expected that some are defective on a few units. Microsoft will give them a replacement. Move along, nothing to see here.

see.......

[xao gypsie (641755)]

This is why I never buy technology when it is first released on the market...

Well...

[Claws Of Doom (721684)]

...where *did* you think all those Windows Millenium Edition licenses went?

and this folks

[lubricated (49106)]

Well, this is why I always wait a few months before jumping on a console, if not a year. Nothing pisses me off more while I'm gaming than a crash.

what does MicroSoft call an alpha-tester?

[peter303 (12292)]

A customer.

Furthermore, "geek up" the product so the alpha-testers will wait in line for 18 hours and pay twice as much as for competitor's hardware for this "priviledge".

Hoax

[trollable (928694)]

Com'on, this is a bad hoax against Micro$oft. The screenshots are not even blue!

Not the only site reporting failures

[Bones3D_mac (324952)]

These guys [teamxbox.com] have a fairly big list going too.

Look to the power my son

[Groo Wanderer (180806)]

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=27893 [theinquirer.net]

80 or 110W CPU (I have heard both ways), a GPU equivalent to the ~100W R520, a HD, RAM and a constantly spinning DVD in a box how big?

And people wonder why they crash. Anyone who has one want to comment on how hot they get?

          -Charlie

Re:Look to the power my son

[by Anonymous Coward]

The air being exhausted from my xbox 360 doesn't feel any hotter then what's comming out of my PC. I think there probably a larger precentage of defects out there, especialy given the rush to market and short supply. Last night I played for about 6 hours strait didn't experience any lockups or other issues like what has been reported.

How widespread is this?

[WebGangsta (717475)]

I fully anticipated that there would be problems with the initial release of 360s reported from various tech-knowledgable early buyers, but how widespread are these problems in reality?

For example, I have a day-of-release PS2 that's still going strong, and I never experienced any of the problems that were reported here and elsewhere with these units. In this case, I assume that my machine is the norm and not the exception, but if I based my opinion on the naysayers at the time it would appear that my PS2 would be in the minority of working units instead.

Rumors

[SlashAmpersand (918025)]

I've heard an unconfirmed rumor that Microsoft suspects that the XBox's are crashing because of the proximity of nearby Linux boxes. One employee, using an "open source detector", claimed to have established a 3-mile "Cloud of Evil" around a Red Hat server. The employee went on to say "This conclusively proves that Linux is a danger to our children". Steve Ballmer's statement (which was taped to a chair and thrown through a newsroom window) blamed Google.

Unstable?

[SpikeSpegiel (622734)]

I waited up all night in front of a Best Buy to get mine. I also purchased Project Gotham Racing 3 and Kameo. With both games, I've spent most of my time playing PGR3. I have not had one crash, and the only trace I've seen of it is on Kotaku.

As a note, the system is very thermally unstalbe. I have mine vertical, and every vent is needed. If you were to block any of the airholes for any reason, or to trap the air exiting via the rear of the sytsem, the system potentially could overheat. The exhaust was very high temperature when I checked it after an hour or two of PGR3.

My rig (for reference) was running at 720P for part of it, 1080i for the other part (to compare whose transcoder was better, my TV or the XBOX). I'm on XBOX live, and upon boot, the system updated itself and restarted. This could have been a critical update that fixed the problem that people are talking about.

All and all, I'm quite impressed with the hardware. The emulation works better with some XBOX games than others. For instance, Forza motorsport runs sluggishly on the 360, yet Dead or Alive 3 runs flawlessly.

The live marketplace is impressive. They have HD downloads available, such as music videos and trailers. In addition, you can download new games such as bejewled from Microsoft. There are also themes that can be purchased via live, and as Penny Arcade themes are available, many people should be able to get their themes for sale on Live.

If I see crashes, I'll repost. However, so far, after 10+ hours of operation, most of which with PGR3, I have no crashes or errors to report.

Re:I wish I had a dollar

[Kazzahdrane (882423)]

You won't be getting a dollar from me then. If this is a big hardware problem I feel bad for the developers who had to work long hours to get their product ready for launch date.

... Re: MS Paying DEARLY

[Bill the Bilby (787404)]

... You know they won't. The problem with today's software (and combined hardware/software) manufacturers and vendors has nothing to do with the programmers themselves. Companies have simply responded to the paying public's demand for new toys with no wait. We want our toys NOW, not later. And buying trends for YEARS now have indicated that computer and computer program buyers are more then willing to purchase a program and then spend a significant amout of time patching and updating it- often right out of the box.

Microsoft responded to this in the way that gained them the most extra profit- they rushed the system to market without (apparently enough) random batch testing or other beta testing. People (lots and lots of people) bought the systems. They are crashing. Microsoft will now start to release patches (probably over Live) that correct this bug or that. The paying public will accept this and install them. People who buy XBox 360s down the road will expect the patches to be installed before they buy the system- but they'll still expect to have to install more at some point.

It's NOT the computer companies fault things have grown this way. They- like all companies- are a FOR-PROFIT venture, and will do whatever they think is the thing that will garner them the most profit. Period.

Welcome to Capitalism, enjoy your stay.

Re:I wish I had a dollar

[garcia (6573)]

We whine when they delay and push back release dates of their OS over and over again but when they finally do come out with something "on time" (whatever that means) and it's not up to par we give them shit.

So they can't win. Everyone knew that already but seriously it's not going to cost them anything.

Consider their "limited release numbers" early adoption beta testing. They got them out there into the real world without having to give the units away and now they are getting the feedback they need to add to the new "revisions" that will still be out before the PS3.

It's a good thing though, the *only* reason I could ever see purchasing an XBox with Live would be for racing online. Now that I can't do that I might as well wait for Gran Turismo 5 on the PS3 w/o network play ;)

Doesn't it strike you as a bit odd

[tkrotchko (124118)]

I understand what you're saying and to a certain extent I agree.

But give how common these problems are, doesn't it strike you as odd? This is almost like there was no testing at all, which doesn't make sense. The developers surely would have caught these weeks, if not months ago.

Sony has had its moments too...

[tkrotchko (124118)]

Sony has had problems with the PS2... the first batch had a significant amount of CD/DVD drive failures; I had one, but sony eventually replaced it for free.

In fact, there has been a class action over the issue:

http://www.ps2settlement.com/ [ps2settlement.com]