360 horror stories
by Jennie Lees 
{ Nov 23rd 2005 at 9:00AM }
Seems like the launch hasn't gone as smoothly as expected. Not only are there shortages, and a lot of frustrated would-be customers, several of those who did manage to get their hands on a 360 are reporting failures. The most common problem is overheating, with hard drive errors also occurring for some unlucky owners. 3D glitching has also been reported, although rebooting seems to fix it. Keep the stories coming, folks!
[Thanks to everyone who sent in tips on this]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Justin @ Nov 23rd 2005 12:55PM
You really want to know what stinks? The crappy vinyl TAPE they put over the chrome bits of the DVD tray and the hard drive. They didn't just use the usual semi-static-but-not-really-sticky vinyl protective pieces, like the kind of one they put over the screens of new cell phones. These do NOT peel off easily at all. They have a horrible sticky glue on them. I went to carefully pull it off of the HD, and I ended up spending 20 minutes with a bottle of Goo-Gone trying to get all the glue off! I was smarter about the tape on the DVD tray, used a hair dryer at a low setting for a minute, then super-slowly peeled it off.
Ewwwww, sticky residue! Grr grrr grrrrr.
Forrest @ Nov 23rd 2005 10:23AM
yeah.... this message would definitely fit better in here... (i posted the same in the "sold out" topic)
I was up at the midnight lauch getting mine after standing 1.5 hours in the cold. (reseverved mine in May) Rushed home, unpacked that box and WTF?! there was somethign rattling inside when i picked it up... then i look at the machine and i an see that the casing isn't even snapped together properly. I freak out, but i set it up anyway. Get it connected to Xbox live after giving up on retrieving my old gamertag. then i decide to load a game. the grinding noise that arose from my system when it began to spin the disc was truly horrible to hear. and, of course, the game did not load.
http://live.xbox.com/member/Forel%20Drake
you will notice i don't have any thing that requires a disc on there.
TeRm @ Nov 23rd 2005 10:26AM
It seems hundreds or prob thousands are having problems. Im starting to get REALY CONCERNED!
TeRm @ Nov 23rd 2005 11:12PM
Hundreds and prob thousands are having problems. Time for another recall... :(
Dan @ Nov 23rd 2005 10:32AM
I played mine pretty much non stop yesterday. Kameo, condemend, NFS:MW, PG3 plus a bunch of live arcade games and didn't have any problems luckly, hopefully it stays that way...
http://live.xbox.com/member/prankfurter%20com
Whopping Wombat @ Nov 23rd 2005 5:58PM
#1, I KNOW!!!!. personalyl i havent had any system problems, the thing is great, but wtf is up wiht the tape on the hard drive! I didnt even have any chemical aid, i spent like an hour using my fingers to take it off. funny how the instructinong ot rmeove the hd are under the hd too....anyways it sucks for the people with some technical problems, should work out, at least its within your warranty period. in any case don't freak out over a few systems having problems, happens at every launch, probably ythe systems made int the factory the first day it opened, before they worked out the kinks,lol. afterall i recall ppl crying apocalypse over the early psp issues. but no look at it... turns out things get blown out of proportion.
Taylor Ross @ Nov 23rd 2005 8:44PM
I waited 5 hours in the freezing cold rain, and now theres this spot in Call of Duty 2 that freezes everytimne i try to load it!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Derrick @ Nov 24th 2005 2:54AM
I havnt had any problems with my console WHATSOEVER. The plastic came off residue free, my console doesnt get hot at all, and I have been playing with it 4:00pm yesterday and it only got a few hours of off time. Then I had it running all day today, nonstop, and had my friends play with it all day long, no problem with it, and I'm posting this while my friend is playing with Hexic (that game is addicting), so I dunno if its just a few people with problems that are reporting it and very little with no problems posting stuff, giving the illusion that they are faulty, but as of right now my console has had no problems *prays that it stays that way* good luck with getting the consoles replaced that need to be.
Derrick @ Nov 24th 2005 5:10PM
I havnt had any problems with my console WHATSOEVER. The plastic came off residue free, my console doesnt get hot at all, and I have been playing with it 4:00pm yesterday and it only got a few hours of off time. Then I had it running all day today, nonstop, and had my friends play with it all day long, no problem with it, and I'm posting this while my friend is playing with Hexic (that game is addicting), so I dunno if its just a few people with problems that are reporting it and very little with no problems posting stuff, giving the illusion that they are faulty, but as of right now my console has had no problems *prays that it stays that way* good luck with getting the consoles replaced that need to be.
jACK @ Nov 24th 2005 6:39AM
No problems, has basically been on non-stop since last week Wednesday (hex168) and abused every minute since. Have to admit it's funny reading the same HDD comment when the instructions under the hard drive are HOW TO REPLACE it correctly.
Nick @ Nov 24th 2005 2:15PM
Dudes y are u freaking out. chill out and take a deeeeep breath lol. if something goes wrong u can just replace it or fix it, u still ave the warranty. i know its a shame and unlucky for those gamers that this happened/will happen but thats life innit nothing is PERFECT.i hope i dont get any errors when i buy it ;). Good luck every1 with their XBOX360.
Irwin @ Nov 26th 2005 7:54AM
You guys had problems with the sticky stuff? Mine came off just fine without any problems...
Rich Northrop @ Dec 4th 2005 12:51AM
Mine froze on madden once, and also when I pause the game once, I couldn't unpause it. That is all tho. I don't think it was overheating tho, I think it is just a new game and the developers don't know how to code well on new systems, so give it some time.
Vetteboy @ Dec 30th 2005 6:56PM
I'm on a support call right now waiting for info on how to send mine back due to lockups... The lockups are rare but I spent a ton of money on this and I want it to work!
Fosgate Elite @ Jan 2nd 2006 4:16AM
No broblems here. Love evrything about it. I just left that tape on the HDD and DVDtray. Finished Kameo and PGR3 on Hard. No problems at all.
Lee Branchie @ Jan 2nd 2006 5:06PM
Purchased a UK x360 in early December, seemed to start out ok on first try, but now get crashes on Halo 2 and Crimson Sky xbox 1 games - they just freeze and the system has to be started all over.
After a couple of days of crashes I can't even load them anymore!. Also got a HDD drive error when trying to access downloaded games from Live....oh and a nice scratch on my Perfect dark Zero disc. Took it back to Game for a refund and I'm waiting for the problems to be fixed. Not impressed at all!