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An MS-designed PCB...

::shudders::

Ya I bought a 733 knowing it was one lot before the new model. But it has held up fine so far. I keep it in cool spots and don't use it nonstop. I do think about doing a fan replacement but then I remember the years I got left on warranty and I quickly forget about it.

Mine is working just fine ~7 months after purchase, but I keep it in an abnormally cool area of the house and have been using it mostly for watching movies lately.

Well, with mine, it broke (just after the new 3 year warranty was announced) and got fixed. Then it broke again and didn't come back until after H3 launched and, since it had already been fixed once, I was told it was warranted for one year after the manu date of the returned unit... it was therefore recommended that I buy the extended warranty before that was up. That was up end of April, so no more free repairs for me.

Dont'cha love fine print?

Mr. T wrote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caVhBCsZqr0&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v70WHi5Jt9A

I like the first one better.

Then here's one for your cool-runnin' 8800 back atcha...

You can fry an egg on a GPU
Video proof inside    Saturday, 31 May 2008, 3:51 PM

HOW MANY GRAPHICS cards does it take to fry an egg?

One, at least according to this YouTube video.

Sent in by an anonymous troublemaker, it has a few flaws, enough so that you shouldn't take it literally, but it still is pretty humorous.

In any case, it is worth a look and a laugh, especially if you have tried to cool a modern gaming PC lately. µ

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/ … ry-egg-gpu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDoOV0FFPvA

I hear that even though you're not covered if you don't get RROD'd and something else breaks after 1 year, it's possible to force the console to RROD and make it seem like it died of natural causes.

Something along the lines of running it while covered in towels.

Mr. T wrote:

That is a 9800 GX2, but nevertheless my card is quite hot indeed.  Adding insult to injury, there was initially a bug in the 8800GT's BIOS where the fan would not speed up as the card got hot -- and believe me, it got hot.  After playing Crysis for 10 minutes, I touched the heatsink and almost burnt my finger.  For shiz, that should've been a double-slot card.

I've noticed early reviews of the HD 4850 note very high temps even at idle... since it looks like re/e-tailers threw it out a week before the scheduled launch date, and there is now a hotfix for the 4xx0s, I suspect the latter corrects the temp-sensed fan speed adjustment early drivers seem not have had baked into them. Just a guess, but the fans have been noted to not change speed much except on boot.

NightCougar_37 wrote:

nayrk wrote:

While expensive, I just rent an Xbox 360 whenever there is a new game I want to play that I can't get for my Wii or PS3.

oh and by "rent" i mean abuse the WalMart 90 day return policy.

Just make sure you keep all the packaging, and re-set the consoles memory.

mwahahahaha

You are the bane of the returns department...

So far I've only done it once. I consider it fair, after all if they would pay me more money I would be able to afford to keep it. /lame excuse.

Microsoft fires game test contractor who talked to VentureBeat

Robert Delaware was the only named Microsoft worker (a contract employee) who talked — without permission — to VentureBeat for our story last week on the Xbox 360 defects.

Microsoft had him fired on Wednesday. Delaware worked as a game tester at Microsoft but was employed by the temp agency Excell Data. He reported directly to a Microsoft manager, who told him he was being let go because of the VentureBeat article.

Delaware, a 29-year-old Seattle resident, expects to face civil charges from his former employer VMC (which tests games for Microsoft) and Microsoft as well. He will likely have to hire a lawyer. Microsoft spokesman David Dennis said the company does not talk about personnel issues.

“I don’t regret it,” he said in a phone call on Thursday. “I’ll fight it. If they want to come after me, bring it on.”
...

But this kind of witch hunt mentality is wrong-headed. People like Delaware are more useful hunting down bugs and fixing problems. I think the company really should apply their energy in different directions, like making sure that consumers are treated right. The firing disappoints me, and I wish Delaware well.

http://venturebeat.com/2008/09/12/micro … nturebeat/

I have had RROD twice ... both times it came back to life with a restart.

Mine lives on it's side, on a sheet of glass, nothing but it's own wires within 2 inches, in a room with an ambient temp around 64 - 68 deg F. in low humidity.


oh I got it about 2 to 4 weeks after the release date so it's an original.

I got mine before they hit shelves, and I've never had to have it repaired.  Never cracked it open to improve it, either.  It sits horizontally on a coffee table, with the HD-DVD drive on top of it.  Its in a corner, and I try to keep the cables out of the way.  When I have it running (and the HD projector with it), the room its in gets really warm after about an hour of gaming (between 80-90 ºF, even when the house A/C is set for low-mid 70s).  It gets even warmer when the room is full of people playing Rock Band.

So while I sympathize with people who have had lots of RRoD issues, I can't help but wonder exactly how extensive the problem really is.  Anyone who's worked retail (or run a website/forum) knows that the angry are often the most vocal.  People who have had good experiences with their 360 are less likely to hop online and post to forums about how their console works exactly as expected, than disgruntled customers are to hop online and spew how much they hate the Xbox and MS and want their money back.  (not that they're out of line; I'd be pissed if that kind of investment got me a system that needs to be repaired/replaced 11 times).

Oh, and

IcarusFountain wrote:

It sits horizontally on a coffee table, with the HD-DVD drive on top of it.  Its in a corner, and I try to keep the cables out of the way.  When I have it running (and the HD projector with it

The 360's video subsystem lacks the UVD/UVD2 video processor on more recent ATi cards, so the CPUs run all three cores when decoding HD video. It's more CPU-intensive than any game... fortunately it's usually not the CPU that induces board failure, tho it can kick out a lot of heat. Still, it's not doing the Box any good- might want to limit that with your warranty nearing that 3-year-free mark.