Microsoft Bans Class Action Lawsuits Against The RROD

Last year, Microsoft changed their EULA (End User License Agreement). Not a big deal huh? These changes happen every few months or so, don't they? Well, when was the last time you bothered reading it? Or for that matter, any user agreement or Terms and Conditions.

Well, you might want too start researching, because in April 2011, the court ruled that businesses can use contracts to deny class action lawsuits, as long as they agree to the licence. Notice that it was round about this time that Microsoft changed the EULA on the Xbox 360. This ruling has stopped many, many people from claiming against the Red Ring of Death, a software bug that be may considered fraud.

Instead of a proper class action, your court case will now be held in front of an independent arbitrator - This method is called arbitration. There are several downsides to arbitration, such as the fact that you cannot appeal against the decision made by the arbitration, and the public does not get to review the findings of the judge.

Let's hope the high court starts to come to their senses - and stop companies like Microsoft unfairly protecting themselves against their high profile screwups!

How To Fix The Xbox Slim RROD

Before I get blasted in the comments, I would like to point out that the Xbox Slim RROD is real, and is a very real thing. I’ve even posted video of it once in a while. Look down at my previous posts to find it.

The Xbox Slim RROD is not caused by overheating, as the previous one was. This is because the previous Xbox did not shut down when the heat of the Xbox got over a predetermined limit. The new Xbox Slim does have this feature, effectively cancelling out this cause. Other claimed causes for this include flexing of the main motherboard, like in the old Xbox. However, Microsoft have fixed this old issue by applying epoxy to the corners of the processors and the motherboard to stop it from flexing.

So what is the cause of the Xbox Slim RROD? Well, it’s actually quite simple - The problem stems from an error with the hard drive. This means that something has gone wrong with the HDD, which means Hard Disk Drive, and is where you keep all your game data, saves, downloaded movies, and all of your Xbox Live Downloadable Content.

Many people have reported hearing “The Click of Death” when their Xbox Slim RROD happens. This is a small squeaking noise that occurs before your Xbox Slim RROD’s. It has been reported to be quite creepy to listen too, and when you reboot your Xbox, you have a RROD on your Xbox Slim! The Xbox Click of Death has been reported to happen whenever you try to access data off your hard drive, like watching a movie or maybe playing DLC. The click can be very light, or it can be loud enough to hear across the room.

The Click of Death comes from your hard drive skipping across the surface of the drive, which either scratches the disc or corrupts the hard drive with all your saves on. The best thing to do when you hear the click of death is to immediately turn off your Xbox to stop your Hard Disk Drive from getting scratched. If you don’t do this in time, you may end up with an Xbox Slim RROD.

Image - Renjith Krishnan 

The hard drive skips across the surface of the Hard Disk Drive because each time it hits a “Bad Sector” on the hard disk, it has to go to where the sector was remapped too - So if your disc is jumping a lot, then you need to fix it fast!

The best thing to do to stop your Xbox Slim getting the RROD like this is to back up your hard drive contents regularly so when it stops working, you can just replace it with a new one, all your saves and movies and DLC available again!

However, there are bound to be a few people reading this article who have not backed up their disk drive, and I am sorry to say, that if you have not backed up your hard drive and your Xbox Slim gets the RROD, then you have lost everything on that disk. You will need to take out the disk and replace it with a new one, but first take the disk to a hardware specialist to see if you can get any data recovered.

Does The Xbox Slim Scratch Discs

EDIT: Just a short update today, some of you have been bugging me about this.

As I stated in a recent post, it has been found by BBC watchdog that the Xbox 360 often scratches the discs when it is moved, even slightly.

However, I didn’t state what happened to the Xbox Slim when it was put through the same “Shake Test” as the older console. So I am pleased to say here that the Xbox Slim “passed the shake test with flying colours” Thank god, the Xbox doesn’t need much more bad reputation!

Have You Had The Red Ring of The Death?

A simple poll - Please leave your response!

How Likely is it That Your Xbox Will Get the RROD?

So, if you have not had the Red Ring of Death (Congrats), but are now wondering "Oh my GOD! How many people get these?" Well, the official to failure rate within the console market is officially 3-5%, according to Microsoft  However, various other companies and individuals have tested the Xbox 360 in failure rate and have come up with quite different, and shocking, results.

Warranty company Squaretrade decided to run a study of one thousand and forty Xbox 360's - A shocking 171 of them failed in some way or another, a one-in-six failure rate - 60% of these were due to a General Hardware Failure (Red Ring of Death), 18% disk read errors, 13% hard drive freezes, 10% power issues and 7% disk tray malfunctions. Squaretrade also released notes that due to the time the study took place (Six-Ten Months) the actual fail rate would be much higher.

The highest failure rate released to the public is 68%, while the lowest failure rate released is 3.8%. I don't know about you, but that is a lot of Xbox's that will fail at some points in their lives.