Survey: 54.2% of Xbox 360s fail

I can believe that, you know. What was that red ring of death thing all about again...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_360_technical_problems

That is an unbelievable failure rate, even if the figures are inflated. Makes me feel even better about being a PC-gaming junkie where dealing with hardware failures is MAYBE a one in four-year experience. Having to deal with something like this would drive me crazy.

-TomSEA
As someone who's media systems are driven by a PC, I can agree that they do probably live for about 3-4 years even if you run them constantly.... I do have to replace the odd PSU now and again and those Western Digital drives are a waste of money, but yeah.
However, as someone who's computing interests have shifted over the years from hardware to operating systems to software development, I can officially confirm that fixing PC hardware problems is a total pain in the ***. Its not good for my blood pressure that - having to get that thing back on its feet after some 3-4 year due death. Perhaps a more easily replaceable device would be better, even if failure rates were a bit higher.
But 54.2%. That's maybe too much.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/watchdog/2009/03/xbox_360.html
There's a video if you follow the link.

I had to stop and commment when I saw this article. Im on my 5th 360, and my buddy in Pittsburgh is on his 5th as well. The first was "melted", literally by a nyko intercooler. Fused right to the xbox. The next 4 were all rrod's, and I promise you if I have another bricked xbox Im done with MS. The failure rates are unacceptable, by any business models standards. Not to mention with the resources MS has, you'd think they'd be able to address/fix the problems and be done with it. Yet, here we are, still talking about this issue that has existed since the launch of the xbox 360. Fix it MS, just fix it already. Again, there will be no 6th xbox.

This cannot be verified, since you don't know if they asked which people had the Falcon chipset, and which had the newer Jasper one. This small difference can produce a dramatic difference in the results.

I also believe that the reason so few people said they would never buy another Microsoft console is because of the large repertoire of games that are available, far more than any other console.

My GOSH!!! this is sad, The PS3 slim can be pre-order now so now is the time to get one for only $299

Had my 360 since 07 and just this summer I got the dreaded 3 RROD which is extended under a 3 year warranty. Thankfully I'm an avid PC gamer as well so I have plenty of games to keep me going. Thou this high failure rate is disturbing on a personal level I've never received bad customer support from Microsoft *knocks on wood*. Oh well, hopefully they can improve seriously in the coming years or they're gonna fall to last place in the console wars.

I'm not surprised. Of all the xbox people I know, NONE are on their first machine (and that doesn't even count repairs sent back to MS). I'm somewhat surprised by the PS3 numbers, though, as I've never heard of anyone I know, or even anyone on a comment board like this, ever having a hardware problem with a PS3. And I know just one person with a Wii who needed a replacement.

I'm not surprised in the least by this story. I've had 3 360's and all of them failed. I don't see why they would stop bundling the hdmi cable with the 360 elite though. HDMI cables are cheap.

I'm glad to have my Jasper elite...never had a freezing problem much less RROD

Ah, but did you jiggle and shake your XBOX around like crazy whilst using it like Microsoft insists everyone who has had problems with their's must have done?
You've had 5 of these things? I'd have dubbed it a bad buy after 2.

All I can say is this; no ****!

Wow...I'm blown away by you guys on your 5th or 3rd units. Two would be a wrap for me. I don't know whether to applaud your patience and support for the XBox or call you just plain nuts for putting up with that. ;-)
Yeah phantasm66 - doing PC hardware diagnostics to find a problem can be a pain. But I usually incorporate it 1) into an upgrade of some sort, and 2) use it as an excuse to get my hardware techno-nerd buddies together for some beers and figuring out what went wrong. We all end up learning something from it. I'd definitely rather have that scenario then dropping $300 (or whatever an XBox runs) and having to replace it FIVE times.

Why are you so gullible to be on your 5th xbox in the first place? If you stop buying then M$ will fix the problems.

So then is it safe to say that, "the XBox is the Emachines of gaming"?

my XBOX is 5 years old and runing well. the xbox 360s all suck......

I'm on my third Xbox 360 but - as many others I assume - only paid for the first unit. Living outside the US, it wasn't easy to get my free replacements though...

So far I'm happy with my new (Jasper) Elite but would seriously consider switching to the new PlayStation 3 Slim in the event of another failure... $299 for a gaming console plus Blu-ray functionality sounds like a sweet deal to me.

Even though I like the 360's online gameplay, services and dashboard better, having to put up with such failure rates is simply unacceptable.