Microsoft Insider Details Xbox 360 Red Ring Problems

kylemonger writes "A blogger at the Seattle PI has interviewed a Microsoft insider about the Xbox 360 project. The insider purports to have the background story on the 'red ring of death' (RROD) failures and why they are so common. 'RROD is caused by anything that fails in the "digital backbone" on the mother board. Also known as a core digital error. CPU, GPU, memory, etc. Bad parts, incompatible parts (timing problems) bad manufacturing process (like solder joints), misapplied heat sinks or thermal interface material, missing parts, broken parts, parts of the wrong value, missed test coverage. Any one or more, on any chip, or many other discrete components, would cause this. And many of the failures were obviously infant mortality, where they work when they leave the factory and fail early in use. The main design flaw was the excessive heat on the GPU warping the mother board around it. This would stress the solder joints on the GPU and any bad joints would then fail in early life. There are also other significantly high failure rates in other areas, like the DVD.'"

Comments

Real problem

[webmaster404]

In other news, MS disclosed in a press report that internet pirates were the cause of the failures pirates were also blamed for the slow Vista sales, and how Microsoft Bob failed.

Re:The Blessing And Curse Of The Xbox/HD-DVD Crowd

[heinousjay]

Hahaha yeah, so long as we pretend that Sony entered the console business last Christmas, this makes sense. You've made a fantastic argument so long as reality isn't taken into consideration.

Re:Calling Shenanigans...

[hdon]

That doesn't mean he's safe from fear of being discovered. No, it doesn't.

There's no such thing as 'anonymous' on the internet. Blinks. ....What?!

Should it become a priority to find who made a post, it could be done. No. Wrong.

And, considering Microsoft's vast army of lawyers... Welp, I know I wouldn't take that risk. Because you're a self-serving douche.

That doesn't mean somebody else wouldn't, but it is still a valid question to ask. No, it isn't a valid question to ask, because you're not basing it on any information about this specific situation. It happens all the time. So unless you think it's valid (which might, in a perfect world, imply some sort of usefulness) to challenge the entire incorporeal idea of investigative journalism, this is not a valid question to ask.

Amazing

[black_lbi]

From the TFA:

The number of cycles and the amplitude of temperature change from low to high determine how quickly it will fail. Certain games will consume more bandwidth on the GPU, which has the most substandard thermal solution on the mother board, making it a lot hotter, warping the mobo and flexing the solder joints. Weak joints fail quickly. The better the game, the more often it will be played, again accelerating failures.
WHAT
THE
FUCK?!?!

Only a certain amount of bandwith should be used, or else? I don't know if it's just me, but shouldn't it run for as long as I want? With whatever game I want? Without breaking I mean ...

Another little gem:

I imagine the next big outrage will be when some of the folks who waited till Falcon to buy a console for reliability reasons, and has to send it in for service, gets a Xenon back!

Repairs often take over a month!

[willbry]

The frustration inspired me to create a squidoo lens where I can complain about my experience with this stupid XBox 360 red ring of death problem.

http://www.squidoo.com/Xbox-360-Red-Ring-Problems/

Should we all simply expect any and all new Microsoft products to break?