I'm on my 3rd system and don't know anyone that hasn't had to send theirs off for repairs. One friend sent his off 4 times.

I've got people on my list that have Christmas 07 consoles and need repair. I've got people on my list with launch consoles that haven't failed them yet. In particular, one person's console sounds like a 747 taking off.

It's hard to talk about XBOX 360 with PS3 fans because, like I said, 68% of my console gaming friends have had failed hardware.

I would have responded to this survey. Ironically I couldn't however, because my 360 was out for repairs at the time.

As you said, the survey is a little skewed. Most of your friends are heavy users; and the survey itself is selective, as people are more likely to respond if their box has failed than vice versa.

My understanding is the 360 has a fundamental design flaw. A very hot graphics chip under a DVD drive with improper airflow. It seems most failures stem from this design issue.

I had a launch day console that failed me near Christmas 07. It sucked, because I had just purchased Mass Effect! I'm just glad Microsoft fixes the boxes for free; we can complain about the inconvenience all we want, but it's no money out of our pockets.

@jayWHY: Yeah, it's a small sample to Microsoft. But, it's the majority of my gaming friends.

I've had a launch console and it has yet to fail me (knock on wood?). It definitely seems to run slower than my friends with newer consoles, but of my 5 friends with 360s, three of them have had to had them replaced/repaired. That's a 50% failure rate including me. Not acceptable Microsoft. I don't care what company you are, you do not/should not release products that can fail over 30% of the time more or less 50%.

I had one repair, only after they extended the warranty the first time. Since then it's run like a top, though.

I don't think you give your statistics enough credit. The issue of your friends being more frequent users than the average user is something we can't get around. The sample is slightly biased in that regard. I don't think it's extremely biased, but that's my opinion, unsupported by fact. However, your sample size is statistically sound, and I shall show that is supported by fact.

If we assume that the distribution of all possible samples of failure rates of 50 Xbox 360s is normally distributed then we can conduct some interesting calculations with your numbers. Statistics says we can assume this if a couple general rules of thumb are met
1. sample size * proportion >= 5 (50)(.68) >= 5, check
2. sample size * (1 - proportion) >= 5 (50)(1 - .68) >= 5, check

Looks like our assumption is valid, so let's calculate the error for your proportion (68%) at different confidences:

Error = z * sqrt [ p*(1-p) / n]

z: Statistical value determined by how confident you want your answer to be. You generally look it up in a chart. No need to explain how right now. [z @ 90% = 1.645, z @ 95% = 1.96, z @ 99% = 2.575]

p: proportion [0.68]

n: sample [50]

Here's the error we get at each confidence level

90% confidence: +/- 10.9%

95% confidence: +/- 12.9%

99% confidence: +/- 17.0%

Therefore, by making some basic but justifiable assumptions, we can say that we are 95% sure that your finding of 68% is +/- 13% from the actual failure rate of the entire population of Xbox 360s. That means we are 95% sure the actual proportion lies somewhere between 55% and 81%, which is much higher than anyone has reported. Undoubtedly, your biased sample contributed to this, but the numbers are so much higher than other sources that I don't believe the difference is due to biased sample alone. I think your survey says a lot. gg

You can verify these results with this online tool here. Use the "Find Confidence Interval" box.

I stopped listening to Major Nelson's Podcast because he never said wither he himself had ever had a RROD and neither has E. I know they are a front for the company, but not mentioning an issue this huge or simply brushing it aside made me loose all trust in them.

Major Nelson and e are a good source of information about all things Xbox 360. They have never volunteered info on their consoles RRODs, or lack thereof, but I don't think that discredits the other valuable info they provide.

Time to adjust the stats. My Elite (purchased at launch) got the red lights over the weekend and the box is on the way.

I knew I shouldn't have answered that survey....

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There are 10 kinds of people in the world. Those who understand binary and those who don't.

My case was slightly different, as I mentioned to Rapture when I replied to his survey, so I guess he didn't factor me in. I did have to replace my first Xbox 360 console (one which would have lasted a good long time) because I bought the Nyko Intercooler which scorched my machine. Many others have experienced this, so I called Nyko up and they said they would give me a new console. It wasn't Microsoft's fault. They gave me a replacement console along with the new version of the Nyko Intercooler that has a button instead of a switch on the back of it. Now I'm just waiting until my machine breaks and neither Microsoft nor Nyko would be willing to replace my machine.

@Doughgeek: Thanks. 70% is much nicer number than 68%. I was hoping for the 35th failed console.

ouch! It went up to 70%. Even among a group such as us thats a really bad percentage.

My 360 has started giving me disk problems. It hasn't done so in the last couple days, but I am afraid it is going to die in the next few months. If it does, it will be my fourth bad box.

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"Don't blow this, Gene!"

It took about 3 months for my optical disc drive to get to the point where the box wouldn't read discs. 3 months ago, the disc drive would fail on 1 in 20 loads. Now, I'm lucky is a disc will be read in 50 load attempts.

How embarrassing for Microsoft that one of their demo 360's got the RROD at the GDC! Maybe that will light an even bigger fire under them to get it fixed for good.

My husband and I both had launch boxes, and both of us had to send them back. In stead of fixing our boxes like they promised, they sent us refurbished boxes...now my husbands is starting to crap out again. I also belong to a private group of XBox gamers and out of 80 of us, 76 have had to have their XBoxes replaced multiple times...one poor guy just sent his in for the FIFTEENTH TIME!

@rap: Glad I could help.

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There are 10 kinds of people in the world. Those who understand binary and those who don't.

I'm one of those launch consoles that are still going strong. I got it from a friend about 4 months after launch along with COD2. Used it a solid 20+ hours a week until November of 2007, when I gave it as a Christmas gift. Last I heard it's still going strong, only time I ever had any issues was with the Halo 3 beta, other than that it ran perfect. Was a little loud, but I just blew a can of air through it and it calmed right down. My current 360 is a Halo 3 edition and is going strong. I do feel for people that have had to send theirs off though. One of my friends is currently on his 7th box. Microsoft sent him back a PAL 360 for his 3rd replacement, his 4th replacement RRoD the same day he got it. So far his 7th box is running strong, but we'll see. If I remember correctly, they sent him an HDMI capable box as a replacement for his last one.

DJ

Sundance, the CO of MLG, has said that their 360s have a 16% failure rate. That's from a pool of approximately 100-150 360s. This pool is probably more demonstrative of the typical 360 usage. They are used heavily one weekend per month in a quite chilly environment.

Under heavy usage strain, Rap's numbers seem about right to me.

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In a land of chipmunks, an angry gnome is king.

That's good intel. Thanks.

My best friend's launch day xbox 360 failed last week. I guess its not only an if but a when, till mine goes.