• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

How many consoles have you owned that had hardware failure?

Gamer79

Predicts the worst decade for Sony starting 2022
I have owned literally dozens of different consoles over the year. Back in my day (old man voice) you could kick the nes/snes down the stairs and elbow them from the top rope and still work. Make a list of consoles that have failed on you that were not your fault. I admit when I was much younger I broke many controllers chucking them as walls, even some cd games, but never personally broke a console. Here is my list and share your own!

Nes: They all were faulty to a point. Back in those days everybody blew on game cartridges to get them to work. It worked after sometimes trying close to a dozen times. Yes nes games you often times would have to try numerous times to get them to work. The thought at the time was that blowing on the cartridge removed dust and allowed a game to work after enough tries. The real reason I learned decades later is the NES was built kinda faulty. From inserting and removing nes cartridges, pins on the cartridge would bend over time. SO blowing actually did nothing, just reinserting the game sometimes would make the right contact with the nes. They later made a new revision that was a top loader that solved this issue.

Sega Saturn: The disk drive just stopped working. I don't know why but I bought it used and I owned it for 2 years so maybe just worn out.

Sega Dreamcast: I had a 1 that the drive stopped working and had another where the laser would not read the disk.

Original Xbox: I had 2 of them that had the infamous "thompson drive" These drives would fail and would not open and would not spin.

Playstation 3: I paid $599 dollars for this unit. It was backwards compatible 60gb one. I picked up God of War 2 on the ps2 and it came with Metal Gear Solid 4. I didn't play it all that much because at the time I mostly played on my xbox 360. Played through a couple of AAA ps2 and ps3 games and then just used it sparingly for 2 years. Turned it on one day to play some God Of War 3 and the infamous yellow light kicked on. It was done!

Xbox 360: The poorest designed console ever. The original xbox 360's did not even come with HDMI, and after formatting you were left with 13gb of space. Those can be forgiven but the real issues was The RROD and E-74 erorrs. I went throught 5 xbox 360's in about a 7 year time span. I don't abuse my consoles and my other ones had no issues. I had like 4 different models of the xbox 360 and they finally got it right with the xbox 360 slim. Too bad because I had maybe my best time gaming during the xbox 360 era.
 

Grildon Tundy

Gold Member
XBOX 360 here. I didn't get the red ring of death, but had a disc drive issue where I had to carefully "whack" the top of the console with my controller to knock the disc into place. Couldn't do it too hard, though, or it'd cut a perfect circle into the game disc.

I've owned a lot of consoles, and the only other one I've had trouble with is my original NES. Forgivable, though, becauae the thing is nearly 40 years old.
 
Last edited:

rofif

Banned
I only bricked my own 360 flashing it in early days. I didn’t knew you have to read disc drive Id first. It was impossible to read it from nand back then so I sold it for patty’ parts and got a jasper later. Still going
 
My old ps3 60gig fat boy,and two 360s one red ring,the other kept turning off saying it’s too hot even tho I had it in an open space.
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
NES - flashing screen error
PS1 - warped drive rails
PS2 - disc read errors
PS3 - YLOD
X360 - RROD
Jaguar - Red screen of death
 

GHG

Gold Member
Just the Xbox 360. Got it up and running again then sold it. Poor lady that bought it from me left me positive feedback on ebay saying her sons were delighted with the console. Little did she know...
 

Jimmy_liv

Member
Spectrum +2, +3, Amiga, Ps1, Ps3, xbox 360, xbox one, xbox series X. Switch joycons both had drift issues.

Easier to list what didn't go faulty... Snes, mega drive, ps4, ps4 Pro, ps5, game cube, wii, wii u, dreamcast, Atari 2600.
 

ManaByte

Gold Member
NES - flashing screen error
PS1 - warped drive rails
PS2 - disc read errors
PS3 - YLOD
X360 - RROD

Had all of these except the disc read errors on PS2. And my NES just had a power supply that went out.

My YLOD was on a 60GB launch system with PS2 BC, so that pissed me off. Replaced it with the Slim v1.
 

Naked Lunch

Member
My Gamecube laser just died out of the blue in 2021 - and I take immaculate care of my consoles. Dead and gone forever. I got an optical drive emulator for it and havent looked back.

Xbox 360 red ring of death. Thousands of hours of gameplay after getting back my repaired unit and never had a problem since.

Dreamcast has issues from time of time of games resetting during play. Turns out you just have to make sure the power supply connectors are touching. Just have to bend the power supply bars back every few years or so.

Original Xbox dead and gone. Its for sure crapped out capacitors (you can see the tops burst) and I dont have the skills to solder in new ones. I wish there was some kind of old console repair near me. I miss my Outrun 2 :(

Xbox One X internal HDD failed somehow. That one was a real bummer.

My Intellivision, NES, SNES, Genesis, Turbografx16, N64, GBC, GBA, Saturn, PS2, Wii, PS3 all still work like champs.

The NES is a tank - Ive been using that thing consistently since the 80s. So cool its still kicking with no signs of slowing down. I DID install the 72 pin 'no blinking lights' connector though. I have an Everdrive cart in the NES and will never remove it.

I worry my Saturn, Dreamcast, PS2, and Wii lasers will die sooner or later. I got ODE solutions for PS2 and Wii - still need to cover the others one of these days.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: TLZ

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Out of all consoles and PC gear myself, my fam or my siblings have had in history, I can only remember these that broke.

- My year one 360 20gb after 6 years. It would boot up but would RROD after 5 minutes. It seemed to do it the most during loading screens. I'm going to assume the disc spinning or power draw killed it as it never froze if I was just messing around dashboard

- My PS1. Lasted about 6 years. I had to do the upside trick which actually worked. But maybe a year later even that didn't work. It would turn on, but I think the laser broke as the game would never catch and boot up to the title page. It'd trying loading forever

- My bro's old 386 PC after 12 years. We decided to boot it up one day to play some old ass PC games for laughs. Didn't boot up. The monitor still worked. My bro assumed the motherboard bombed

Every other gaming hardware worked. Pong, Intellivision, NES, Genesis, SNES, PS2, Xbox Slim, Xbox One, One X, Series X, and various PCs and laptops.
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
Had all of these except the disc read errors on PS2. And my NES just had a power supply that went out.

My YLOD was on a 60GB launch system with PS2 BC, so that pissed me off. Replaced it with the Slim v1.
When my launch 60 GB died I requested that they repair it but they said they couldn't and they didn't have a refurb to send me, so they sent me a V1 slim instead. It sucked losing the PS2 BC but the slim has been a solid machine.
 

Three

Member
2.5

Had a PS3 stop reading discs, had a RROD 360, and my SNES had a power adapter you had to twist in a certain way for it to work.
 
Last edited:

elliot5

Member
PS2 dvd reader failed but that's the only console failure I've had. Handhelds and all included. Even PCs really.
 

Topher

Gold Member
Had to get PS3 repaired. Other than that, I've been lucky.

Knock Knock Good Luck GIF by StickerGiant
 

Pantz

Gold Member
PS2, Disc Read Error. Sold as broken on eBay and got a new one.
Xbox 360, launch unit had defect where it had to be turned on, then off because it was a black screen, then turned on again and it would work fine. Kept it for a while but sent it in for repairs before the warranty expired. Next one had disc read error within a year, but since the warranty refreshed I got it replaced too. Then that one eventually got the red ring and since they extended the warranties, I got that one replaced for free too. So in a way, the hardware defects were actually a good thing since they kept sending me fresh units :p
PC, one time smoke started coming out during a hot day.
 
I have been rather lucky. I traded in the 360 everytime there was a revision and never had a RROD. I had a launch 360 with componet that got traded in for one with an HDMI that got traded in for the first revision that didn't have a faceplate that got traded in for my current one. I would have traded it in again had there been a model with a built in power supply.
I still have a working PS3 launch with 4 USB ports and Backwards Compatiblilty. Though I think It's probly just a few on/off cycles away from Yellow light failure.
I've had several consoles over the years break because of stupid stuff, Spilled drinks, Had a friend step on my PS2 during a move.
 

Imtjnotu

Member
My first two 360's rrod

Launch Psp came with a bad screen

Launch ps2 had a bad disc drive after 4 years but was an easy fix
 
The only one to completely shit the bed was my first Sega Dreamcast which was a launch model.

Otherwise I has a PS2 that scratched CD's, the disk drive on my 360 stopped reading discs because it wouldn't register as being closed but there was a workaround, and I had an Xbox One X that had a hard drive failure that I ended up fixing.
 
I had 9 different console systems and none of them died on me, my Master System and Game Boy still work to this day. Even my 360 survived until I sold it.

My PS4 Pro made jet like engine sound but I fixed it by changing from thermal paste to a thermal pad. That's the worse hardware failure I had so far with consoles.

On PC I had a GPU that die on me while it was relatively new and countless SSDs and HDDs (it's wild how unlucky I am with storage).
 
Last edited:

MachRc

Member
Just the Xbox 360,

I did the towel trick so many times that doing the x clamp mod barely kept it going...

RIP j-tag machine...wave 5
 

35cent

Member
PS1 - Stopped reading discs for some reason. Got it fixed but died again a few months later.

OG Xbox - I think it was a disc drive failure again but can't remember the specifics. I got a new one but gave it away to my cousin a long time ago.

Dreamcast - Still kinda works but it's really tempermental. Sometimes it doesn't read discs and when it does it can randomly reset the game.

Xbox 360 -E74 error. Got it repaired and has been fine since although it got the RROD some years later but I plugged it in before I packed it up to get it fixed and it worked perfectly which was convenient but weirdso I cancelled the repair in the last minute. It hasn't skipped a beat since then.
 
I recall NESes not reading carts, its controllers failing (for almost everyone).

I had to be careful for the PSX not to overheat, but it never failed me.

Oh and tge 32x, that thing worked only once or twice... The least reliable piece of gaming hardware ever made!
 

TheInfamousKira

Reseterror Resettler
Umm...let's go from the top, I guess:

First console was a Nintendo 64. It probably still works.

Gameboy Color, Advance, and SP were all okay.

Nintendo GameCube was great, but one of my dumbass friends managed to spill an entire two liter of Coke on it, so that's 1 point.

PS1 and PS2 were fine.

PS3, my 60gb launch model got the YLOD, my replacement newer model the laser burnt out, so I had to open it up. My third and current slim model works great. 2 more points.

Modded PSP-1000 and Vita still work.

Two DS's and a 3DS still work.

My Wii stopped working. 1 point.

My Wii U still works.

My launch model PS4 had the same laser issue as my PS3. My Pro still works. 1 point.

My PS5 is doing great.

5 mishaps total, 3 for Sony products, 2 for Nintendo.
 

THE DUCK

voted poster of the decade by bots
I've had, not in perfect order:

Gemini
NES
Genesis
SNES
TG-16
Sega CD
32X
Nintendo 64
Dreamcast
3D0
Gamecube
Xbox
PS1
Xbox 360
Wii
PS2
Xbox One
PS3
Wii U
Xbox One X
PS4
PS4 Pro
Xbox Series S
Xbox Series X
PS5 Digital

Gameboy
3DS XL
TG Express
PSP
VITA
Switch, Switch revised, Switch Oled
Steam Deck

Honestly my memory may be failing me, but I don't remember a single one crapping out on me.
 

Roberts

Member
Yeah, the only one that ever died on me was xbox 360. Funny thing is that my replacement still works after all these years. And recently hooked up my OG xbox and, holy shit, it works too. One of my 2014 xbox one controllers has a stick drift. Never had an issue with any other console that includes snes, 3do, ps1-ps5, all other xboxes, wii and so on, but most of them didn’t really get a lot of workout, because I was mostly a pc gamer until around 2011 and then xbox became my main and most used gaming console.
 
Last edited:

poppabk

Cheeks Spread for Digital Only Future
Fried a ton of amiga power bricks but that was due to them shorting if you knocked the cable out slightly. Wii disk drive is dying but it isn't needed anymore.
 
NES, even though it is kind of an accepted part of the experience... the cartridge slot wears over time and becomes less a technical workaround and more of a holy ritual to get working for a full game session.

Sega Genesis, headphone port lost one of the audio channels

Sega CD, just flat out broke within a year of purchase, this was the first model with tray loader. I think the tray loader was busted and it wouldn't spin up the discs but it's been a long time.

Sega Saturn, the sensor for the disc cover stopped working, you kinda had to put something heavy on top of it to convince it that the disc area was actually shut.

Launch PS1, stopped reading disks, could still sort of read disks when upside-down

Launch PS2, launch struggled to read disks a couple of years into its life

Launch PS3, 20gb model came with a non-functional BR drive out of the box. Would ingest the disk in the slot loader, and spit it right back out after a few seconds of grinding noises

Xbox 360, RROD

Second Xbox 360, dvd drive failed

Consoles that worked fine or at least as well as intended as far as I can remember:
Atari 7800, Atari Lynx, SNES, NDS, 3DS, Wii, Wii U, Switch, TurboGrafx16, Xbox, Xbox One, Scorpio, Series X, PS4, PS4 Pro, PS Vita

Some of those were pretty lightly used, Wii U, Switch, Vita, the PS4s.

So I suppose the biggest point of failure has been 'cutting edge' optical drives.
 
Top Bottom