George Brouwer - Xbox Scratched Discs Lawsuit

Microsoft has had a lawsuit filed against them by Jorge Brouwer, a man in Florida, who claims that his two games - Gears of War and Madden NFL 07, were scratched by his Xbox 360. The scratches were completely circular, so this wasn’t a case of not looking after the discs. In the lawsuit, Brouwer seeks class action status, claiming that the Xbox 360 scratches millions of discs, and pays to get them fixed.

Microsoft denies this claim, with a Microsoft spokesman said this: "Out of the millions of Xbox consoles in use, Microsoft has not received any widespread reports of Xbox 360s scratching discs," said spokesman Jack Evans

One reason why the Xbox may have scratched Brouwer’s disks is because he tilted the Xbox 360 while there was a disc inside it (An action warned against by Microsoft, there is even a sticker on the console). However, Brouwer denied this allegation against him, saying that he had not moved the machine at all while any disc was inside the machine.

Brouwer may have had some sense though, as some people have also reported scratched disks. For example, GameFly sent out reports to customers warning them against moving the console, as the console scratched disks very easily when moved, even slightly.

Does The Xbox 360 Scratch Discs

There have been many reports of a new problem with the Xbox 360, and this time, it’s not the Red Ring of Death. The new issue that is being investigated deals with a problem with the Xbox 360 disk drive, which seems to malfunction. Microsoft does warn against this, as there is a sticker asking users not to pick up the console when it has a disk in. However, some discs are getting scratched, even when the console is not being jarred - And Microsoft refuse to replace discs.

The BBC watchdog even did an episode on this, here’s one of their stories -

“The Monaghans are a family of seven - mum, dad and five daughters. Dad, Robert, wanted an activity the whole family could enjoy and so he decided to buy an Xbox 360 along with the game Rock Band.

The family enjoyed playing together, until only a few weeks later when the music came to a sudden stop. The console was displaying a disc read error and, when inspected, they found a large circular scratch along the surface of the disc. Robert wasn't pleased and thought the girls had done something wrong, so he put the Xbox away as a punishment.

When the Monaghan's eldest daughter, Alana, turned 11 they decided to buy a new game and put the family band back together. This time they bought Guitar Hero: World Tour but after only an hour and half of play they discovered the disc had been scratched and ruined again. This time Robert knew it wasn't his daughters and he called Microsoft.

Again Microsoft denied responsibility, telling the family it was their fault and that they'd not be replacing the games. The family were furious and adamant that the console had not been touched while the game was playing. The Xbox was taken away to be looked at and the Monaghan's were left without their console.”

Source - http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/watchdog/2009/03/xbox_360.html

Watchdog also conducted further tests on both the Xbox Slim and the older Xenon Generation console. The results were that they both worked fine when completely stationary, but they failed when they simulated someone putting a book next to the console, the older console failed.

In my opinion, this is something Microsoft definitely needs to take a look at. There are more and more complaints every day about this problem.

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.

Could The Graphics Chip Be The Cause of the RROD?

The Microsoft chip

Research into the Xbox 360 has unearthed some evidence about the graphics chip that Microsoft uses in it's Xbox 360's.

If you don't know what the graphics chip in an Xbox 360 is then you ought to know that it is basically the chip that turns the Xbox code into pictures that are displayed on your screen. As this has to be done in real time, you can imagine how much heat this thing puts out. So, you would think that Microsoft would use a good chip from a reputable vendor that was guaranteed to work with no problems?

Unfortunately, that is not the case. Microsoft decided to develop a new chip instead of buying some to use - This is something they are not used too doing, making graphics chips. As a result, the chip that was produced pumped out way, way too much heat - It has already been found that overheating may cause the RROD.

Slim Xbox 360 S Still Gets The RROD

The Xbox 360 S

Do you ever get frustrated with the RROD and think "You know, I should just buy a new Xbox - One of the new slim ones that doesn't get the RROD" Unfortunately, I am here to break the bad news that yes, the new Xbox gets the errors just the same as it's older cousin.

Although in this case, the elaborate warning system put in place by Xbox (with the successive lighting up of the quadrants) has been removed - It has been replaced with just the green dot in the middle flashing red. This has been dobbed "The Red Dot of Death" (RDOD) by some.

What's more - Microsoft only offers a 1 year warranty period for this Xbox, instead of a three year warranty for the old one! Microsoft says that this is because the new design consists of a new chip and power system for the console - However, only time will tell if these new consoles RDOD as quick as the last ones.

If this console does fail however, the I think it would be best to just fix your current console. Or if you don't have a console, then get the Xbox S and post here to tell us if it RDOD's anytime soon.

The 3 Most Annoying Things About Losing Your Xbox 360

My friend recently lost his Xbox to the Red Ring Of Death - He said it's a painful experience. Being the good friend I am, I asked why. Here are his top three annoying things about losing your Xbox.

3 - Your Annoying Friends

They call up and ask "Hey, come on halo/COD/whatever" before you have to tell them that your Xbox is broken. If this has happened to them before, then there is almost no doubt that they will try to tell you what to do over the phone and suchlike. If they haven't had the problem, they will gloat at you for being such an idiot to break it, even if it's not your fault.

2 - The many ways of "Fixing" it

Ever told someone that you have the red lights, and they automatically try to tell you how to fix it? Well, imagine that for the millions of people who post on message boards - They have literally hundreds of reply's, all thinking that they know best. Nearly everyone can suggest a different method and so the OP of the thread has all these methods to choose from... However, hardly any of them actually work.

1 - Whining Kids

Some people might think that a Red Lighted Xbox is a godsend, finally forcing the children away from the Xbox to do other things. Unfortunately, that gap will not be filled by anything as the kids still want to play Xbox - Not anything else! The result? Whiny kids demanding you fix the Xbox at every moment when they have free time - After school, before school, after dinner, it gets annoying. And it will not stop until the Xbox is fixed.

My Personal Story - How Not To Fix The Red Lights of Death

If your Xbox died recently, then you need to read on to find out my story - In effect, what you should never do. And then find out what you should do.

Last winter my Xbox died and gave me those red rings... Back then, I had absolutely no idea what they meant. All that I knew was that my Xbox wasn't working anymore. So, like most people, I ran a search on google for "Xbox 360 red lights" and pretty soon it turns out that I am in a s***load of trouble. The lights mean a general failure on your Xbox. Looking at the web, it looked like the only proper way to do anything was to send the thing back to Microsoft.

So, I wrapped it up and put the postage label on before I read the official site - Which told me that it would take eight weeks for them to fix it and ship it back! Eight weeks!  So I had to look to the Internet for other ways... Ways that wouldn't involve sending my Xbox away to be fixed.

The Xbox... Evil...

So I found this website that showed you how to crack open an Xbox's case and do some DIY soldering. According to the website, normally the Xbox has weak soldering joints and so re-soldering the joints would fix the problem. So - I gave it a try. And what do you know! After the repair, the three red lights were completely gone!  But - So were the rest of the lights. The soldering I'd done had resulted in a complete shutdown. So my Xbox is now completely broken and now won't even turn on...

So I decided to go with my original decision and sent it back to Microsoft. But since I broke the seal of the console with that stupid free YouTube video tutorial - They wouldn't replace it.

So a week later I had to spend my money on a completely new Xbox.

So as you would expect, I started looking around to see if anyone had tried the same stuff I had done, and when people asked for a red light fix, I told them that they needed to send it straight back to Microsoft, or they'd end up like me.

However - I'm not going around saying that any more. My lucky friend managed to get rid of his red lights... I tell you, he was all up in my face, gloating how he'd fixed it. Apparently, he found this system online called James Dean 3 Red Light Fix. They had a money back guarantee on it that he would have his console working - If it didn't, he got his money back. And waddya know, it worked. An hour later he was playing Halo:Reach on his 360. So I now recommend the guide... It has worked for everyone I've recommended it to. And they have found that it works just fine for them as it worked for my friend.

So if your 360 is dead, then I think you should give it a shot. With a great guarantee and the possibility of getting it up and running is less than two hours - I think it is. James Dean 3 Red Light Fix is my personal choice.