Concerns about XBOX long-term derability....

[dave4shmups]

I was in GameCrazy today, trying out Panzer Dragoon Orta-AWESOME shooter; loved it!

But, the employee informed me that the XBOX is not a durable system because of Microsoft putting in a cheap hard drive. Is this really true? Because when I get a job, the XBOX is one console I was thinking about getting.

[mannerbot]

On a related note: how bad of an idea is it to get a GameStop refurbished XBox? There's a bundle with Fable (used) for $130, GameStop doesn't tax for CA, and I can use a free shipping code. Pretty tempting.

[FatCobra]

Isn't most American-made appliances and cars built to fall apart after a couple of years? That's so they can suck more money out of you when you have to go get it fixed. Ahh...the wonders of Capitalism.

P.S: I am in no way a Communist. I actually think Communisim sucks and I just wanted to point out the sometimes inferior quality of American products. There are more Ford jokes than there are Volkswagen or Nissan jokes.

P.S.S: Yes, I do know that Sony builds PS2s that fall apart. There's always exceptions to the rules.

[mannerbot]

Fix Or Repair Daily.

[FatCobra]

Fix Or Repair Daily.

Found on Road Dead

Fast only Rolling Downhill.

I don't mean to piss off the Dodge fans, but here's a Mopar joke:

Mostly Old Parts and Rust

I wouldn't trust buying a used laser-based console from EB or Gamestop. You don't know where it's been, much like a used car. I once bought a used Gamecube from EB once....had to return it because the drive was messed up.

[Thunder Force]

the employee informed me that the XBOX is not a durable system because of Microsoft putting in a cheap hard drive. Is this really true?

No. It's not a durable system because of Microsoft putting in at least three different cheap DVD drives at random with varying degrees of failure rate... If you happen to get a Thompson drive it might not even read some discs correctly out of the box. When the DVD drive starts to fail it will stop recognizing your discs or claim they are dirty.

Hard disk failures are rarer unless you happen to bump or knock your console (it is fragile, like a PC). When the hard drive fails the green light on the front of the Xbox turns an evil red and you know it's all over.

[FatCobra]

it is fragile, like a PC

Are you sure about that? Damn thing is heavy as a few dozen bricks. It feels solidly built, IMHO.

I wonder how durable the Saturn is, because when I got mine, it sure didn't feel like a fragile Japanese CD game system, I think I said, damn, this thing feels and weighs like an Xbox!! But not as heavy.

[dave4shmups]

the employee informed me that the XBOX is not a durable system because of Microsoft putting in a cheap hard drive. Is this really true?

No. It's not a durable system because of Microsoft putting in at least three different cheap DVD drives at random with varying degrees of failure rate... If you happen to get a Thompson drive it might not even read some discs correctly out of the box. When the DVD drive starts to fail it will stop recognizing your discs or claim they are dirty.

Hard disk failures are rarer unless you happen to bump or knock your console (it is fragile, like a PC). When the hard drive fails the green light on the front of the Xbox turns an evil red and you know it's all over.

Well thanks for the info TF! As depressing as it is; I may have to reconsider my desire to get an XBOX.

[Thunder Force]

Well thanks for the info TF! As depressing as it is; I may have to reconsider my desire to get an XBOX.

Also keep in mind Microsoft are promising they will try to work almost 100% backward compatibility into X360, which is just 6 months from launching, and will have native VGA output (I think).

[Damocles]

Reminds me of that episode of X-play where they beat the holy hell out of the three consoles. Not surprisingly, the PS2 was the first to crap out. Xbox came in second. Gamecube actually survived several sledgehammer attacks. Good stuff. Pretty girls getting violent, always my cup of tea.

[FatCobra]

Reminds me of that episode of X-play where they beat the holy hell out of the three consoles. Not surprisingly, the PS2 was the first to crap out. Xbox came in second. Gamecube actually survived several sledgehammer attacks. Good stuff. Pretty girls getting violent, always my cup of tea.

Didn't see that show, but I'm a little suprised the little Cube did beat the Xbox in a sledgehammer surivial contest. That little thing looks fragile.

I guess that proves my theory that Nintendo builds the toughest consoles around. After all they're marketing to the little kiddies.

[Cthulhu]

The hard drive was what scared most people about the Xbox, but the DVD drives (as mentioned) tend to fail way more often than the HD. Very few games actually use the HD for much though, afaik... I don't know if the system itself can boot without a functioning hard drive though.

In 5 or 6 years, when the drives start to reach (well, probably start to reach) the end of their lifespans... then we'll know.

[dave4shmups]

Well thanks for the info TF! As depressing as it is; I may have to reconsider my desire to get an XBOX.

Also keep in mind Microsoft are promising they will try to work almost 100% backward compatibility into X360, which is just 6 months from launching, and will have native VGA output (I think).

100% backwards compatibilty on the 360?? I'll believe it when I see it. I thought Microsoft said at E3 that only the "TOP" XBOX games would be playable on the 360, not all of them.

[sethsez]

As long as you don't get a Thompson drive, it should be fine.

[raiden]

100% backwards compatibilty on the 360?? I'll believe it when I see it. I thought Microsoft said at E3 that only the "TOP" XBOX games would be playable on the 360, not all of them

that´s what I read, too. And it makes sense because the 360 has a different chipset that can´t execute original Xbox code. So they said the games have to be recompiled in order to work on the 360, and that they´d focus on doing that with the most popular games, whatever that means.
I don´t think the Xbox is more fragile than the PS2, but the question is whether it´s worth it just for Panzer Dragoon Orta or Fable. If you happen to like racing or fps games, you´re going to enjoy the system very much, if not, I´d look elsewhere.

[dave4shmups]

100% backwards compatibilty on the 360?? I'll believe it when I see it. I thought Microsoft said at E3 that only the "TOP" XBOX games would be playable on the 360, not all of them

that´s what I read, too. And it makes sense because the 360 has a different chipset that can´t execute original Xbox code. So they said the games have to be recompiled in order to work on the 360, and that they´d focus on doing that with the most popular games, whatever that means.
I don´t think the Xbox is more fragile than the PS2, but the question is whether it´s worth it just for Panzer Dragoon Orta or Fable. If you happen to like racing or fps games, you´re going to enjoy the system very much, if not, I´d look elsewhere.

Yeah, I think I'd be MUCH better off with a Cube. People are telling me to wait for the Revolution, but one of the strongest selling points with the Cube for me is the Gameboy Player (PLUS the Nintendo franchise games for the Cube)-I simply have no use for a handheld console because I NEVER play games unless I'm in front of my TV.

I've also been thinking about getting a JPSone-it just has more oldschool shmups then the JPS2, and is cheaper-although I can't find ANY online stores that sell JPSone's for less then $100-which is an absurd price, to me at least.

[sethsez]

They said that at E3 because they're working to make the 360 compatible with the top Xbox games as a base. Thing is, if you make the Xbox compatible with those, the Xbox is then immediately compatible with many, many other games as well.

It's like the PS2 in that sense. It's not compatible with everything (FFV's save menu is corrupted, for example), but it's compatible with the vast majority of games. That's what MS is aiming for, but they don't want to claim they'll have 100% compatibility when that might not be the case.

Gah, I wish I could find the interview where they said this.

[dave4shmups]

As long as you don't get a Thompson drive, it should be fine.

And how the heck am supposed to tell whether or not I do get one with a Thompson drive?? I serioulsy doubt any game store employee would know that; unless I just ordered an XBOX direct from Microsoft and requested that they NOT send me one with a Thompson drive.

[sethsez]

If you get a new Xbox, it doesn't have a Thompson drive. MS hasn't used them for quite a while. The only way this would be an issue is if you buy used.

[shadowstar]

Yeah, most Xbox systems nowadays have the Samsung drives (which read DVD-R's without modding). You can check to see if you can have them if it has two round holes in the tray. The Samsung drives are faster, too.

I haven't had a single problem with my Xbox. I have, on the other hand, had a Saturn just up and die.

[it290]

If the HD dies, can't you just chuck another one in there and be fine?

[sethsez]

You have to mod it to replace the HD if I remember correctly (and I might not), but I do know that many people have done just that.

[jp]

A friend of mine used to be an assisstant manager at Babbages.


When the Xbox first came in, he actually dropped it out of the box. And to this day it still works perfectly.


Actually, the Xbox is a fairly durable system. The earlier models had some disc drive issues, but I believe all of that has since been fixed.

[8 1/2]

On a related note: how bad of an idea is it to get a GameStop refurbished XBox? There's a bundle with Fable (used) for $130, GameStop doesn't tax for CA, and I can use a free shipping code. Pretty tempting.

This is definitely a bad idea. I used to worked for Gamestop and I can tell you first-hand that about 40% or more of those are defective. We used to open a case, sell out quickly, and then spend the next few weeks watching them come back. They do sell a cheap warranty in-store though that will last you a year for about $20. Just get a new one if you can.

[mannerbot]

Thought so. Thanks for the input, I'll just wait for a price drop I guess.

[system11]

My 2003 model Xbox failed a few weeks ago - hard drive had been getting noisy, and one day it .. clattered and died.

I've got an April 2005 one now - it's much quieter than the 2003 ever was, loads faster too. It was pretty obvious this would happen right from the start of course - hard drives do fail.

[landshark]

Isn't most American-made appliances and cars built to fall apart after a couple of years? That's so they can suck more money out of you when you have to go get it fixed. Ahh...the wonders of Capitalism.

Please don't go into this. I've had no problems with my 'american' cars. What I have fixed, I've been able to do for cheap (easy to come by well priced parts). And I haven't had to fix anything that wasn't just plain worn out.

What I can say is that my friends that drive imports have been raped by the dealers and mechanics when they have to get things fixed. Import parts cost mucho $$$, and the labor they try to tack on is insane. This doesn't seem to apply to Hondas though as they seem to be repairable for cheap as well.

My neighbor has been slapped left and right by Audi. She's had so many things fail on that vehicle. Getting it repaired costs an arm and a leg.

[bigbadboaz]

Dave, regarding the JPSOne, why don't you just get a US one with a stealth mod? Should come in well under $100 and you can play EVERYTHING.

Please don't go into this. I've had no problems with my 'american' cars.

Seriously - think about it. If the American companies are competing with the Japanese companies, who are supposedly building their products to last, how could they possibly benefit from building a shoddy product? Consumers aren't going to run back to them when the product dies - they'll go straight to the Japanese manufacturer for a replacement.

For the record, I am driving a 1994 Mustang GT with 100K miles. Still runs and feels as solid as the day I bought it. The classic 5.0 will run on and on and on.

[Bishamon]

The XBox has a much lower failure rate than the PS2.

The hard drive is a standard PC IDE drive, and should last the LONG time. The DVD drives tend to fail first, particularly if you have a Thomson drive (as others have mentioned). My launch XBox, with a Thomson drive, is still going fine. Two of my friends' XBoxes, also with Thomson drives and purchased at launch, both died over a year ago.

[theevilfunkster]

My first XBOX went after soon after its 1 year warranty ran out. I think it was a problem with the hard drive.

So i sold it to Game (who didn't even check thst it worked) for £80 and got a shiny new crystal XBOX which has been fine for over a year and a half.