Fucking Xbox

[Tom Chick]

Well, I'm on my way out the door to drop a couple hundred dollars on a second goddamn Xbox. These repeated disc read errors are unbearable. After busting my ass to get through one of the missions in Battlestar Galactica, the error message pops up and all my progress is lost.

Tony Hawk Underground simply will not load. I can't get through one of Top Spin's marathon matches before the disc read error pops up. Crimson Skies routinely craps out. Same with Links 2004, Amped 2, and Project Gotham Racing 2. And, yes, I have tried boiling the discs.

Since Microsoft seems to know there was a problem with the first round of machines, I took them up on the offer of a free repair last summer. But if anything, the problems have gotten worse since I got it back. I just now got off the phone and was told that it would cost $108 to repair it again. After some gnashing of teeth, the friendly tech support guy put me on hold and checked with his supervisor. He came back and offered me 25% the cost of repairs.

Fuck this. I've had a Playstation 2, Gamecube, and GBA since they came out. No problems. My experience is anecdotal, certainly, and I just happened to get one of the bad machines. But it's my experience and it's going to cost me, what?, $179 and the loss of whatever data is too fat to move from one Xbox to another. If it wasn't part of my job, at this point I'd just say 'Fuck the Xbox' and move on...

Fucking Microsoft.

-Tom

[Sean Tudor]

Fucking Microsoft.

-Tom

Fuck consoles. :wink:

[Trixie]

I went through a very similar thing that you did Tom, with my GameCube. After purchasing it release day and barely touching it, it died the day Eternal Darkness came out. After getting it back in working order and successfully completing Sunshine and Metroid, it died again the day Zelda came out. Both times were just under warranty, but it's not exactly thrilling to traipse out to the local Nintendo repair shop and have to wait a week to play a game I've been looking forward to.

Both my PS2 and Xbox have given me little to no problems. However I have friends that have had similar problems with their PS2. So the moral of the story is, consoles can be damn finnicky and every once in awhile you're going to get a bad string of them. The weirder thing is that some systems won't play some games. It doesn't matter how many new copies you try, once in awhile a certain game won't work on a certain system. I blame quantum mechanics.

I'm just glad that I play most of my games on console and don't have to worry about the retardation that is PC gaming replete with constant upgrading, system errors, things randomly breaking, and other nonsensical issues. (that was payback for Sean not an invitation to war)

[Bub, Andrew]

My PS2 died recently. Had to be replaced.

[Saxman_72]

I'm just glad that I play most of my games on console and don't have to worry about the retardation that is PC gaming replete with constant upgrading, system errors, things randomly breaking, and other nonsensical issues. (that was payback for Sean not an invitation to war)
Ironically, the PC is the one system that I've had the least amount of hassle with - ie) the worst thing that's ever happened to me with the PC is that a game might freeze or crash. I've never had hardware just die all of a sudden, or games fail to run. It's been pretty much 13 years of smooth sailing.

XBox - had disk reading problems until I modded it and popped in an 80GB hard drive. Now, I just copy the games to the drive (for some reason it never has a problem copying them), and play.

Gamecube - corrupt save files, but then this was most likely the fault of the stupid fucking third party mega-ass save cartridge.

PS2 - Very rare, but I get the occasional lockup every now and then. However, I've got around 20 PS2 games as opposed to hundreds for the PC. The lockup ratio is definitely higher on the PS2.

[Jakub]

I'm on my 3rd PS2's DVD laser and it's dying. If I hadn't gotten 2-year extended warranty (the first ever, in my life, and the only reason I got it is b/c I smelled a rat with Sony's 60 day), anyway, if I hadn't gotten that 2 year warranty, I'd have spent over $600 on PS2s so far. Anyway, it's dying a 4th time now so I expect it'll be cheaper to buy new than repair it since warranty is done.

My Xbox has been fine, but it seems to overheat in the cabinet, I have to keep it out in the open. I'm rather worried about that, I'm the only one this happens to and my TV cabinet is quite spacious (sp?)

Never had a GC.

[Gary Whitta]

My first Xbox's laser totally died after about a year -- failed to recognize anything that went into the drive. Pulled a few strings with my old cohorts at OXM to get Microsoft to fix it (their returns process is pretty good, BTW), and got the repaired unit back shortly after.

Now I worry I'm about to hit another round of problems. So far the only game it craps out on is Links 2004, but wouldn't you know it, the "dirty or damaged" screen only ever crops up after I finish a whole round. The third time this happened I nearly put my foot through the TV.

I'm hoping it's just limited to Links -- but then that's how it started last time, with just one game.

The Xbox is still more reliable than my PC, though. Fucking KOTOR.

[quatoria]

Without question, the Xbox is the buggiest goddamn console I've ever owned. Lots of recent titles have locked up or shut down or failed in the middle of a load. KOTOR, Crimson Skies, Rainbow Six 3... it's really become frustrating. I'm most dissatisfied.

[Gary Whitta]

I was talking to someone at OPM and apparently your PS2 laser is more likely to get fucked if you're one of those people who turns the console on its side. Something about the disc more likely to be touching components it shouldn't be.

I always thought there was something a bit suspect about the vertical PS2 configuration - is there anbody out there who actually has theirs set up this way? If so, this may be contributing to your console becoming fuXXored.

[Midnight Son]

While sympathetic, Midnight Son snickers at the so-called perfect console world.....

[Gary Whitta]

Maybe it's time for a return to good ol'-fashioned cartridges and no moving parts. That'd be sweet.

[Matthew Gallant]

Fucking Xbox
Stole the gold medal from North Korea.

[Matthew Gallant]

While sympathetic, Midnight Son snickers at the so-called perfect console world.....
Yes, it's so much better in PC land, where I have to rip a game's discs with CloneCD just so I can get through an install without getting a fatal error from bad reads due to the copy protection...

Also, never had any problems with my Xbox. But I didn't get mine until they started bundling JSRF/Sega GT with it.

[Jack]

Maybe it's time for a return to good ol'-fashioned cartridges and no moving parts. That'd be sweet.

The only console I have is my old 16-bit Genesis, which I still fire up from time to time. Sad, eh? I've been thinking about upgrading my console situation this season, but this thread has changed my mind. Maybe I'll just get that GA I've been eyeing.

[Trixie]

It's been pretty much 13 years of smooth sailing.

Take me to your dealer.

Seriously though I haven't ever gone more than six months without incurring some kind of weird problem. I am so frustrated with PCs that every time it breaks in a major way I have to just give up on PC gaming for a little while until I can afford to repair it.

[awdougherty]

Can't you trade it in at EB for some store credit?

[graller]

It's been pretty much 13 years of smooth sailing.

Take me to your dealer.

Seriously though I haven't ever gone more than six months without incurring some kind of weird problem. I am so frustrated with PCs that every time it breaks in a major way I have to just give up on PC gaming for a little while until I can afford to repair it.

Hate to admit I am with Saxman. I can't speak fore the techies that build/tear apart their own systems every day but PC gaming has been smooth as silk for me. I get a new Dell laptop every 2+ years from my company. Never fiddle with it and it plays all the games I want to play with nary an issue. The only problem in the last 5 years was Diablo II which would not play on my latest Dell. Turned out the copy protection did not like my DVD-CDRW drive. But I swapped in the additional CD drive and played it from there without a hitch.

[DennyA]

Yep, even with the betas and stuff I deal with, the only issue I've had with a PC game in YEARS has been Secret Weapons Over Normandy, which needed a Saitek X45 driver update. (That's on my nVidia system -- I have had a few driver issues on my ATI rig.)

Course, haven't had any troubles with my PS2 either.

[Jobe]

I'm trying to find a reason why anybody should care about individuals having good luck with PC games. There's always that group of people that thinks "well mine's never had a problem!" is a cool thing to post when a guy's got a broken system, PC or otherwise.

I don't play PC games because it's not worth it to me to get them working. Oh, they work on your computer or with your knowledge base? Surely now that I know that, PC games will run for me without a hitch!

"Damn, I got in a car wreck!!"

"Oh, I've been driving for 13 years and never had any problems at all."

[Midnight Son]

PC gaming works great for me. Of course, I do PC repairs/maintenance/upgrading for a living so I run very clean systems. You know: no spyware, no unneccessary services or programs running in the background, fast hardware, latest drivers, cheap yet decent CD drive.... etc.
And it just so happens that I can't stand gamepad controllers since they give me carpal tunnel problems.... And my TV is meant for Movies! Mouse and arrow keys forever! :lol: (No WASD for me; lefty.)

[Idar Thorvaldsen]

Well, me and my little brother share a PS2, and neither of us are exactly careful with it; that thing can take some punsihment... I'm actually quite impressed with its durability. I was also quite impressed with how easy it was to take it apart and poke around inside when things started going wrong.

PCs have the advantage that there's hardly any crucial little plastic bits that'll break on you, and whenever a component breaks down, you can buy a new one and install it yourself.

[Saxman_72]

It's been pretty much 13 years of smooth sailing.

Take me to your dealer.
I am the dealer. :D

Well, more accurately, I'm the technician who works in the back fixing computers and setting up networks for the various businesses around town. (We're just a small privately owned company who sell clone PCs, but I find them extremely reliable - Asus mainboards.) Now, of course, this has only been for the last six years, so I guess I was pretty lucky for the first seven. But nowadays, it certainly helps to know how to keep the computer free of any crap. I just regularly remove anything that I haven't used for a while and keep the system tray 'sparkly' clean.

[Jason Becker]

I guess the conclusion to this thread after all these posts is basically sometimes shit just happens to you.

[Warlord of Mars]

Launch day XBox (Thompson drive and all) here, with no problems. Sorry, Tom, that you got a lemon...

[Aleck]

Launch day XBox (Thompson drive and all) here, with no problems. Sorry, Tom, that you got a lemon...

I was going to post a similar message yesterday, when (after leaving freedom fighters paused for about 6 hours) I came back to my xbox and got a "cannot read disc" error.

Doh!

[Gary Whitta]

Has anyone ever had a game on cartridge fatally crash?

[John Reynolds]

And it just so happens that I can't stand gamepad controllers since they give me carpal tunnel problems.... And my TV is meant for Movies! Mouse and arrow keys forever! :lol: (No WASD for me; lefty.)

I'm a lefty too, but screw the arrow keys. . .numpad all the way.

[XPav]

Has anyone ever had a game on cartridge fatally crash?
I recall reading old Nintendo magazines that would give out ways to crash the game... like it was a good thing.

[Jon R.]

Has anyone ever had a game on cartridge fatally crash?

I've only had one cart game crash on me. It was some Genesis game that i can't remember for the life of me. Lockups, however, were seen every now and again, with one of the better known ones being the Realm glitch with FF6. I also remember a particular lockup in Street Fighter 2 with one of Guile's moves.

[Ben]

FF3 has fatally crashed on me, after becoming absurdly buggy and visually corrupt. Quite odd.

[Aleck]

Has anyone ever had a game on cartridge fatally crash?

I've never had a game cartridge crash, but I can't count the number of systems where, after a year or two, the console would have trouble reading the cartridges (leading to blowing on the cartridges, the console, and otherwise engaging in activities that looked ridiculous in order to get the goddamn thing working).

[Bleeding Edge]

Has anyone ever had a game on cartridge fatally crash?

Mortal Kombat II for the SNES. It turns out that if you hit Kung Lao, just after he teleports, with Liu Kang's flying kick move both characters float towards the ceiling and the screen goes blank, then it starts flashing various colors.

[Gary Whitta]

Has anyone ever had a game on cartridge fatally crash?

Mortal Kombat II for the SNES. It turns out that if you hit Kung Lao, just after he teleports, with Liu Kang's flying kick move both characters float towards the ceiling and the screen goes blank, then it starts flashing various colors.
Are you sure you just weren't on something at the time?

[Guido Jones]

My original Legend of Zelda cart for the NES crashed after I exceeded the max number of saves - loaded up to this visually corrupted screen, wouldn't let me select anything after I reached 999 saves (I think that was the number)

[Warlord of Mars]

Has anyone ever had a game on cartridge fatally crash?

Yep. Jackal for the NES. Goldeneye on the N64 did for me once... a friend got his character stuck in a wall-seam during a deathmatch.