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Xbox Finally Admits to What Caused the Xbox 360 Red Ring of Death

GHG

Gold Member

Melanie Iglesias


Best post you've ever made on this forum. Jesus christ.

happy excited GIF
 

M16

Member
Lead-free BGA soldering is used every day on millions of products, what was Microsoft’s problem with the soldering?
there isnt a standard "lead-free solder". its usually an alloy that must be tweaked per application. then it must be tested properly and tweaked, which microsoft fully admits they didnt do.
and comparing technology and industry experience from 2005 to now isnt a fair argument.
 

Fredrik

Member
there isnt a standard "lead-free solder". its usually an alloy that must be tweaked per application. then it must be tested properly and tweaked, which microsoft fully admits they didnt do.
and comparing technology and industry experience from 2005 to now isnt a fair argument.
Microsoft contracted a factory that soldered the boards, MS shouldn’t have to do any tweaking at all, it’s not their job, if the soldering was the real problem the factory would’ve had to pay the bill.
 

M16

Member
Microsoft contracted a factory that soldered the boards, MS shouldn’t have to do any tweaking at all, it’s not their job, if the soldering was the real problem the factory would’ve had to pay the bill.
i already said the fab that manufactured the chip was at fault. but that is only the chip. it wasnt an issue with the factory that assembled the boards, since the problem wasnt with the solder on the actual motherboards. and microsoft still has to test everything works before they ship a product, to find defects and get the fabricator of the component to fix it. they admitted they didnt do it enough, hence they were responsible to recall their product, get the fixed chips from the fab, replace the chips on their boards, and reship it to the customer.
 

Bartski

Gold Member
My Halo3 bundled 2007 360 never RROD's but that was an awesome show, really dig the documentary series, I have to catch up with parts 1-4 now. Love to see Mattrick in it, next episode will be really something
 

nush

Gold Member
Imagine all the people that bought the console internationally... Like me.

I didn't get warranty,

That was me too. I got a job in China and I knew there would be fuck all to do when I was not working so I took my 360 with me. I thought I must have had one of the "good" ones because I'd had it for a year without an issue. Two months in China and it RROD'd. Fortunately I was working on a product for Microsoft so I just emailed my contact and explained the situation and was there anything he could do to help. Awesome guy that he was, just direct shipped me a new 360 to China.

Then a year later that one also RROD, so I sheepishly emailed him again, definitely not expecting him to help me out twice but he did.Same as before, just shipped me a 360.

Then a year after that he emailed me saying they were clearing out the office and had a PAL spec 360 that nobody in the US office obviously wanted. He knew I had a PAL system so offered it to me rather than throw it out. My 360 was working but I accepted it anyway. He shipped it out to me in China.

I think it was a couple of months later that the 2nd replacement he sent me died so I already had a 360 on hand to just swap it out. After that the 360 slim was released, and I just ponied up for the Star Wars version anyway as I wanted it. That console still works to this day.

R2D2 noises get really annoying quickly when you thought it was cool as fuck when you brought it
 
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TLZ

Banned
My Halo3 bundled 2007 360 never RROD's but that was an awesome show, really dig the documentary series, I have to catch up with parts 1-4 now. Love to see Mattrick in it, next episode will be really something
F that guy. Fd everything up. Wish they never got him.
 

Alpha Male

Member
Here's my RROD adventures:

1st 360 at launch in 2005 lasted 9 months but I didnt want to wait to send it in for repair/replacement so I went out and bought another one in '06.

2nd lasted a year and a half ... so I went and replaced it by buying another new one - March of '07.

3rd lasted exactly a year to the day that I'd had it but luckily it was still under warranty from Gamestop so I was able to swap it for a new one - March '08.

4th lasted about a year and 8 months...so I had to go out and buy a new one at Best Buy in November of '09. Thankfully this one lasted me 4 years until I got rid of it and bought the last "E" model they made.
 
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Fredrik

Member
i already said the fab that manufactured the chip was at fault. but that is only the chip. it wasnt an issue with the factory that assembled the boards, since the problem wasnt with the solder on the actual motherboards. and microsoft still has to test everything works before they ship a product, to find defects and get the fabricator of the component to fix it. they admitted they didnt do it enough, hence they were responsible to recall their product, get the fixed chips from the fab, replace the chips on their boards, and reship it to the customer.
I’m just saying, no matter if the manufactured chips were faulty or how they were soldered to the boards, if that in itself caused the RROD then the factory making chips or soldered them to the board would’ve payed the bill, not MS.

But if the design itself was bad, if they used the chips in an inappropriate way and ran them too hot to be fastened that way, then it would be Microsoft’s fault and they would have to pay the whole thing.
 

Dane

Member
For the Wii ok maybe but PS1/2/3 had disc player issues at a RROD level and I never heard so much shitstorms about those. Back in the PS1/2 days I worked in game shops and we had daily people bringing back PS1/2 because the disc player wasn't working anymore.
It wasn't widespread proportionally, I did hear about PS2 reading issues back in the day, it even had a lawsuit that Sony lost, but never heard at the same failure rate as the Pre Jasper Xbox 360s.
 

nush

Gold Member
then the factory making chips or soldered them to the board would’ve payed the bill, not MS.

It doesn't work that way. I know people that worked for the factories that made the 360.

Customer says, build to this spec.
Factory builds to that spec.

If that spec is wong and the factory followed that spec it's not their fault. There's a lot of legal contract documents and pre agreed acountability with that amount of money being spent.
 

Nigel

Member
I switched to Xbox at the start of the generation due to the price, but when 2009 came around and my Xbox broke within 18 months I switched to the much more cheaper PS3 Slim and never looked back at the Xbox as a console brand.

The best part? My PS3 still works.
 

Fredrik

Member
It doesn't work that way. I know people that worked for the factories that made the 360.

Customer says, build to this spec.
Factory builds to that spec.

If that spec is wong and the factory followed that spec it's not their fault. There's a lot of legal contract documents and pre agreed acountability with that amount of money being spent.
That’s kinda what I’m saying and I too work in an electronics factory. What I’m saying is that blaming the lead-free soldering is such an easy exit, MS could’ve easily claimed the soldering wasn’t properly done, if that was the actual cause for the RROD, and sent the bill to the factory. Doing an xray analysis on BGA soldering is nothing special. But if the design was bad and the chip ran too hot and material movement was causing problems, then tough luck.
The bill always find the culprit in the end.
 
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cireza

Banned
The best part? My PS3 still works.
I wish you luck in the distant future with it.

For me, this generation was awful and I would never take the risk of getting back one of these consoles again. During the time of the gen, I had two 360 fail, and two PS3 fail. What a shit show.
 

Nigel

Member
I wish you luck in the distant future with it.

For me, this generation was awful and I would never take the risk of getting back one of these consoles again. During the time of the gen, I had two 360 fail, and two PS3 fail. What a shit show.
I'm PC now. Got a PS4 too, however I rarely used it beyond Bloodborne.
 
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