Xbox 360 Failures: Surge Protection?

More tales of the absurd following $1.5-billion admission

Posted by Staff
Following Microsoft's admission that it must earmark up to $1.5-billion for Xbox 360 repairs, it's now being claimed that it's not the motherboard, nor the solder, not even any internal parts that are to blame for the red ring of death: it's electricity.

Well, according to a post on Law of the Game, it's actually surge protectors. Apparently LofG's Mark Methenitis contacted Microsoft Tech Support about his particular red rings of death, and reports the following explanation: "The Xbox 360 is highly sensitive to reductions in power, and even the slightest cut in power can cause things like the fans and even the DVD laser to malfunction. Surge protectors can cause this, and probably 90% of the consoles they see have all failed in 6-12 months of being plugged into a surge protector."

Here's what one of SPOnG's electricity experts has to say about surge protectors, "The power supplies I used to service back in my day as a service engineer had built-in surge protection. It was essentially a small discharge tube - much like a 240v neon indicator lamp. It just sits across the live & neutral and is completely passive - doesn't reduce or interfere with the power supply - until the voltage gets too high, then - pop - the power is discharged across the spark gap."

Obviously it's not surge protectors that are at fault - as only 90% of the affected boxes were using them. No, it's electricity itself. SPOnG can exclusively reveal that 100% of 360s that suffered from the Red Ring of Death used electricity.

Or it could be something to do with limiting liability?

Let's have a quick look-see at the Xbox 360 warranty and part of its section 'E':

"E. EXCLUSIONS FROM LIMITED WARRANTY

This Limited Warranty shall not apply and Microsoft has no liability under this Limited Warranty if the Xbox Product:

* is used with products not sold or licensed by Microsoft (including, but not limited to, non-licensed games and game enhancement devices, adaptors and power supply sources) or which are otherwise incompatible;

* is used for commercial purposes (including rental or lease);

* is modified or tampered with;

* is damaged by Acts of God, power surge, misuse, abuse, negligence, accident, wear and tear, mishandling, misapplication, or other causes unrelated to defective materials or workmanship;"


Have you used electricity - sorry a surge protector - with your 360? Has your 360 died? Tell us in the Forum.

Source: Law of the Game
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Comments

ozfunghi 10 Jul 2007 10:41
1/4
It's the AIR that's bad for the system, that's what's causing them to break. Didn't you read the manuel: "CAUTION: keep away from air".
RiseFromYourGrave 10 Jul 2007 11:00
2/4
utter b******s, M$. i know a few people who have had the RROD, and none of them used surge protection
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deleted 10 Jul 2007 11:03
3/4
ok M$ so how do i get red ring then if mine was plugged directly into the wall??? and has never ever been near a surge protector???, whats wrong with it is the fact your build and testing quality was rushed to be the fiorst console on the block, thats all well and good but now its costing you over a billion dollars to sort this, but remmeber it cant be surge protectors because there isnt a problem!!!

i had my console since december 2006 and it broke in may of 2007, and i got a new console with a nice new heatsink inside, o yeah and 1 month xox live gold card, with any luck it will be fine now, but we will see after all i have 3 years on the sucker now if it breaks again.
ultimateassmonkey 10 Jul 2007 11:32
4/4
Alrighty then MicroSoft... Provide all those that have a 360 with a private electricity line and see if that keeps all in working order.

I've a pre-owned console and all is working alright so day. The only thing that is bothering me is the Pro Evo 6 disc I have... It's just stopped reading. Its not even badly scratched (no I take care of my disc's and it worked fine before) so I don't know whats up. Everytime I get to the team management screen the disc stops spinning and obviously I get thrown out (not literally).

But appart from that, just racing around on the Test Drive Unlimited demo... two random crashes/freezing periods. Other than that, no probs with the 360. Infact, I think I might get the Elite when it's out here just because it'll have updated internal components, hdmi output and the larger hard drive.
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