Xbox 360 Console Failure Rate Forecast: 16.4%

[zekrahminator]

An electronics trading firm recently did some professional analysis, and discovered that the standard Xbox 360 has a 16.4% chance of failing. Out of a sample group including dead 1000 consoles, 60% died due to Red Ring of Death (RRoD). While this is certainly a lot better than the 1/3 chance given during last summer before Microsoft significantly redesigned the layout of the console, it's still pretty high. Both the Sony PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii have a failure rate of roughly 3%. The firm did not specify the failure rates of specific Xbox 360 SKUs. If they did, they would have likely found that the "Falcon" Xbox 360, or any Xbox 360 with a 65nm processor or an enhanced cooling solution, would have a much lower failure rate. Speaking of the previous 1/3 failure rate fiasco, the replacement program/3 year warranty has cost Microsoft an estimated $1 billion USD to date.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Cold Storm]

Sounds like my new Xbox still has a Death Note!

 

[Kreij]

I don't own a 360, but was working on one today to help a friend.
That has to be one of the worst designs for adequate cooling I have ever seen.
If I were microsoft I would fire anyone involved with the box design.

 

[Dos101]

16.4% is waaaaaay to high, come on Microsoft wake up! On a side note I recently read this on 8bitjoystick, a good read about why so many 360's fail.

 

[bretts31344]

The real failure rate is much higher. That is just a BS figure. Seriously, if it was only at 16% Microsoft would be happy right now.

 

[ChillyMyst]

think the fail rate on the first ps2's was that high or higher, i saw STACKS of them at bb/cc/exct returned due to non-working cd/dvd readers.........sad really.......

and yes the 360's design is a clear sign that they had engineers designing stuff without proper supervision, you see most engineers i have met are HORRIBLE at the practical side, they just know how to make it work and maby make it look pretty(apple style form over functionality)

see you alwase need somebody babysitting them to keep this kinda thing from happening, with some small tweaks the cooing could be drasticly improved, and this would have been seen with proper testing and super vision.

saw a mod somebody used a cooler from dysan that was for servers to mount on the chips, the fan used was a bit loud but it cooled the system far better then the stock setup.....to bad ms didnt pay somebody to test over the counter coolers insted of to design a cooler that suckes arse

this is why i stick with pc, it lasts me longer

 

[Kreij]

The 360 cooling design is mind boggling. They have two rather large heat sinks to remove the heat from the chips, and two small, inadequate fans to remove the air from the case.

How did they expect to get adequate heat disapation and removal from a high end graphics system with that setup?

The best thing people could do is gut the 360 chassis and install the components into a regular computer case with proper inpu-output air flow. Even that is not optimal as the heat sinks are nothing to write home about.

I would gut the chassis, put it in a good case and modify a pair of premium coolers to fit the mobo.

Or, in my case, just stick with my PC

 

[indybird]

all you really need is one of these:


and one of these:



starting to look and sound like a computer eh? Now thats what Im talking about.

Forget warranty, here you get watercooling and good airflow.

-Indybird

 

[v-zero]

Well I'm still sitting on two bought-at-launch 360's that have never had problems.

 

[Ravenas]

The PS3 and Wii are at 3%, so of course MicroSoft is going to be pissed...They just spent at fortune to fix the problem and they are still at 16%.

 

[ktr]

See, the issue with the RRoD has to do with the "gpu" overheating. But the new falcon did a die shrink on the "cpu". So you still have the hot as hell gpu. There are rumors that Jasper is gonna have both 65nm cpu and gpu (or a 45nm cpu, and a 65nm gpu).

 

[WarEagleAU]

Alot better than what it was. I got a 360 from the second batch and I have seen the RRoD 1 time. Of course, we had it on for 2 days straight paused in between playing the games...

 

[tiys]

ps3 ftw

 

[candle_86]

why not redeisgn the box entirly, 80mm fans instead of the junk 40mm fans.

Heck for this id take a good hard look at the BTX design of Intel and modify it for the 360 lol


its like they took the heat factors of the Celeron 700 in the first xbox and used those for this, how silly

 

[DistantDeath]

My 360

I decided to upgrade visuals and perfomance.

Video:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=AJvC_KcElkM


Mods:
- Case Window w/ Air Intake Hole
- XCM Fan
- Talismoon Air Duct
- Talismoon Whisper Fans
- Clipped Metal Fan Grill
- White Bezel from Silver
- XCM Drive Window
- Custom Drive LED and Paint
- Blue ROL w/ White Error Lights
- Flashed Drive Firmware
- Alot others not worth mentioning...

 

[Ravenas]

I decided to upgrade visuals and perfomance.


Mods:
- Case Window w/ Air Intake Hole
- XCM Fan
- Talismoon Air Duct
- Talismoon Whisper Fans
- Clipped Metal Fan Grill
- White Bezel from Silver
- XCM Drive Window
- Custom Drive LED and Paint
- Blue ROL w/ White Error Lights
- Flashed Drive Firmware
- Alot others not worth mentioning...

Nice man, that mod should keep the temps down on that 360. Have any idea whats your temps are?

 

[DistantDeath]

Thanks, unfortunately no I don't. I was expecting to receive a temp sensor and display with the purchase of a fan but apparently it was just bad info/advertising and it didn't come with one.

There is a noticeable difference just putting your hand behind the console, cooler air and more airflow.