Microsoft Insider Details Xbox 360 Red Ring Problems 415
kylemonger writes "A blogger at the Seattle PI has interviewed a Microsoft insider about the Xbox 360 project. The insider purports to have the background story on the 'red ring of death' (RROD) failures and why they are so common. 'RROD is caused by anything that fails in the "digital backbone" on the mother board. Also known as a core digital error. CPU, GPU, memory, etc. Bad parts, incompatible parts (timing problems) bad manufacturing process (like solder joints), misapplied heat sinks or thermal interface material, missing parts, broken parts, parts of the wrong value, missed test coverage. Any one or more, on any chip, or many other discrete components, would cause this. And many of the failures were obviously infant mortality, where they work when they leave the factory and fail early in use. The main design flaw was the excessive heat on the GPU warping the mother board around it. This would stress the solder joints on the GPU and any bad joints would then fail in early life. There are also other significantly high failure rates in other areas, like the DVD.'"
In hindsight (current Xbox owners) (Score:1, Interesting)
Or is it now an expensive doorstop, that you would buy NOW just to stick-it-the-man-oh-they-lose-money-with-each-unit-sold reasoning?
Which is why it is funny... (Score:5, Interesting)
2nd time's not the charm (Score:5, Interesting)
Xbox infant mortality? (Score:4, Interesting)
manufactured products for 24 to 48 hours. It drastically cuts down on infant mortality problems because only the survivors are shipped.
Re:2nd time's not the charm (Score:2, Interesting)
They're just average now, at least the ones I've used.
I don't think Microsoft does much hardware in-house anyway - it's all just badge engineering.
TFA actually says the 360 team was under resourced because they just didn't have the people to do the work, though this quote was the most telling;
What I don't understand... (Score:5, Interesting)
GPU and the DVD drive. (Score:5, Interesting)
Heat Sink Design Flaw (Score:5, Interesting)
Here's a thread with more details, and instructions.
http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=595746 [xbox-scene.com]
Re:I once hear from HP about ATI chips causing hea (Score:4, Interesting)
PS. it's in a under ventilated wood/glass cabinet along with my digital cable box. Ironically the cable box gets hotter. I probably should remove the back to allow better air flow.
BGA-problems (Score:2, Interesting)
If you think thermal expansion is hard think about the stress introduced in a SMA due to users pressing buttons.
Makes wonders for a local store though (Score:2, Interesting)
No more BSODs... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:The Blessing And Curse Of The Xbox/HD-DVD Crowd (Score:3, Interesting)
I will buy a product from any random manufacturer as long as it's:
I'm scared (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:In hindsight (current Xbox owners) (Score:3, Interesting)
Had I known all of these issues, would I still have bought mine? Absolutely. I love most of the gaming systems that have been put out since the 2600 (and own many of them from many different competing brands as well) and excluding my time spent playing WoW with a bunch of friends for an entire summer, I would say my best gaming experiences have come from the 360. Fantastic games, amazing controller, great graphics...granted, just like every system there are turds that get released for it, but there are more games on the 360 that I consider to be the best games than on any other system.
Overall, out of all the gaming systems I have owned past and present, the 360 is by far my favourite. If mine died tomorrow, I would be buying a new one tomorrow.
Not always a hardware problem... (Score:4, Interesting)
I plugged the 360 into my UPS with AVR, and the problem's completely gone. I always thought the AVR stuff they try to push on people buying home theatre equipment was a scam (considering the things can cost $500+ and don't even provide uninterruptible power), but apparently some consumer electronic devices really are anal about line voltage.
Re:Not always a hardware problem... (Score:3, Interesting)
Which is still shody engineering, as most cheap (and obviously lower power) transformer that you will receive with any electonic equipement will take anything in input
- from 100V or less to 250V or more
- 45 to 65 Hz if not wider
and convert it into their output quite reliably.
That the xbox (which, I agree, transfers more power than those usual appliances) cannot come with such a reliable transformer is another corner cut from MS.