Ian Morris
Ian Morris loves televisions so much he's been banned from wedding chapels in Las Vegas for trying to marry them. When he's not romancing technology, he can be found watching American TV. Ian likes roast potatoes, but he doesn't like digital rights management.
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Tuesday 13 March 2007, 9:14am
Pop goes the Xbox
On Thursday 28 February Amazon delivered my shiny new Xbox 360. On Saturday 2 March it exploded during Gears of War. Okay, exploded is a little dramatic, but it froze and then when I tried to restart all I got was the 'ring of death'. The three red lights that scream "You've had it, I'm bust for good."
I would estimate that I'd had less than ten hours total use out of it and probably less than five of actual gaming. As you can imagine, I was gutted.
The next day, once I'd stopped crying, I emailed Amazon to tell them it was broken. Within minutes I had a reply saying "we'll send you a new one". On Monday 4 March, just 24 hours after I told Amazon about the problem, a new 360 arrived.
Credit where it's due, Amazon is one hell of a retailer. I've never experienced customer service like this before from any company. It's harder to persuade high-street stores to take back broken things, even when you're standing in front of them with your bust electrial item and a receipt. Amazon is also incredibly chilled about the return of the old unit. They give you a label to post it back, they pay for everything and all you have to do is let the courier know what day to come.
One company I won't be so complimentary about is Microsoft. Like many people, I was aware of the ring of death issue long before I bought my 360. I just assumed it would never happen to me. Looking at the Xbox, I have a feeling it's because of the way the console is ventilated. Basically, at one end is a vent and at the other is the hard drive. If you stand your Xbox on its end, it's effectively blocking the vent. It strikes me this is poor design -- I couldn't say for sure it's the cause of the problem, but it certainly won't help.
The good news is my new Xbox seems fine, although I haven't been brave enough to play Gears of War again...
Next: New Xbox? Now I'm cross...
Previous: Apple TV delayed until mid-March
Comments on this post
yep my machine failed just out of its warranty and during GoW - the cooling method they've employed on the first revisions of the console in my opinion isn't good enough. If you were building a PC with similar specs to the 360 you'd be insane to stick two passive heatsinks on the cpu and gpu and then blow air across them from two fans at the rear. Also figure into that the small case it's in. I'm sure we'll be seeing alot more console failures as the games coming out push the cpu/gpu usage more.
Posted by Anonymous on Fri 16 March, 2007 6:43 PM
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"Unlike other Internet radios, such as the Terratec Noxon iRadio, there is no way to add radio stations that the TR2015 fails to pick up. With the iRadio there's a site where you can enter the details of your favourite stations, which will then be accessible via the radio. This would have been a nice feature for the TR2015 to include." These radios are Reciva-powered. So, you've not head of the 'my stations' facility at www.reciva.com ??
Posted by paul evans on Mon 9 July, 2007 10:15 PM
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Articles by Ian Morris
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