Kinect Causing RRoD on Older Xbox 360s?

H

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
[H] reader LazerWire sent us a link to this BBC article that claims that the Kinect is causing RRoDs on older Xbox 360 consoles. The BBC story only actually talked to one person having the issue so we thought we'd do some digging on our own. After all, with well over 8 million Kinects sold in 60 days, you'd think if there was an issue...it would be widespread by now.

"We plugged it in the day we got it but only played it a few times before we got the red lights. The next day when we tried it again we still had the red rings of death and haven't been able to use it since."
Click to expand...

We went to the official Xbox forums and found the original thread that was started back in November and, not counting the obvious "me too" people (you know the ones, supposedly had Xbox for 5 years but had 0 gamerscore and never played a single game on it....ever), we found probably forty or fifty people claiming to have had this problem over a two month span.

I did a quick check of our own forums and didn't find any mass RRoD Kinect posts. So, my question to you is this...are you guys experiencing RRoD issues after using the Kinect or do you think this is all a coincidence?
 
Xbox forum discussion thread.


If you have experienced this issue, please post your gamertag too. Just post the name, there is no need to get all fancy and post these (unless you want):

Hypothermia.png

HConsole.png


I am not having issues on any of our consoles but here are my gamertags:
 
The failing models are on borrowed time. Plugging in the most popular accessory and having someone's old 360 RROD soon was bound to happen.

If it were a real problem, there would already be an uproar since it was released.

I have a rock that keeps away tigers. Anyone want to buy it?
 
Well, that is conventional wisdom.

If even 1% of these things were causing failures that would be 80,000 failures in two months?
 
Whe MW2 came out people thought that game caused RRoDs.

Turns out it was just people starting to use their old xboxs more and since it was so many people playing MW2, it seemed as if the game was the cause and it was "widespread".
 
I would think it's just a coincidence.

Take a console known to be a faulty design and create a highly successful accessory. Without doubt some are going to die shortly after the addition of the accessory.
 
Brak710 said:
Whe MW2 came out people thought that game caused RRoDs.

Turns out it was just people starting to use their old xboxs more and since it was so many people playing MW2, it seemed as if the game was the cause and it was "widespread".
Click to expand...

Yep, the early 360 all have the same design defect that WILL lead to a failure so when something comes out that's different enough to make a subset start using their systems again (after perhaps not using them in a long time) it's probably inevitable that it'll cause more of the systems to fail.
 
Well, that is the whole point if trying to see how many people really are impacted by this.

As I mentioned in the original post, the Xbox forums had a whole bunch of obvious "me too" people in it and one guy that even claimed it happened to TWO separate consoles and that he was so mad, he sold his Kinect and all his games. He even said he told Steve Ballmer that if they fixed his consoles he was "selling those too."

Clicked his gamertag...last online 18 minutes ago.
 
The consoles getting hit with rrod were probably on their way out anyway. Same as when a demanding pc game comes out, you almost always see a few "omg this game killed my gfx card" posts.
 
Chris_B said:
The consoles getting hit with rrod were probably on their way out anyway. Same as when a demanding pc game comes out, you almost always see a few "omg this game killed my gfx card" posts.
Click to expand...

Yep. I recently gave my brother in law my old Xbox. A few weeks after CoD it RRoD's. We now both have new Xbox's.
 
Zinn said:
this.

My bf and I had a Kinect hooked up to an older Xbox, and a few weeks later the power supply died. Related? I dunno.
Click to expand...

No, because the Kinect uses a y-cable to get its power when connected to an older Xbox.. It only draws power directly from the new slim xbox which has a special port for it..


As for my xbox (already on my 3rd all warranty replaced prior) I haven't had any kinect issues. I suspect it is just a case of really old faulty xbox united getting put back to use after a long period of sitting idle and unused.
 
A friend of mine got Kinect for Christmas, but the dashboard update stalled out halfway. Now he can't use Kinect with his hard drive attached. :(
 
I think it's all coincidence. The old 360 models doesn't exactly have reliable hardware. It was just a matter of time for them to get RROD.

That many probably just had their 360 tucked away collecting dust until they got the Kinect and played on it for the first time in months doesn't really help either.
 
I've had a Kinect plugged into an Elite 360 ever since Kinect launch day. No problems.

mrgstiffler.png
 
ANYONE who has worked any time in a PC repair shop will tell you its most busy the day after it rains. Why is this?

Extra moisture in the air? No. Static from lighting? No. The god Zeus not liking you? No. What it is, quite simply, is PEOPLE USING THERE PC MORE WHEN IT RAINS! The more people use something, the more likley it is to fail. Same with Kinect is my guess. People dust off there Netflix box and start playing hours of games will cause faults a lot faster then just leaving it alone. Bad timing.

Hell, my 360 RRoD'ed on Thanksgiving while my wife was using it for Netflix! Saying these RROD's was the Kinect's fault is like me blaming Turkey or Netflix on MY RRoD. When in all honestly, it was my wifes fault for even touching it, duh!

P.S. My 360 was a launch day box. It lasted a good long time before finally giving up...
 
I dont use my xbox 360 much, I play geometry wars and robotron, maybe some MTG, I have some older Xbox (not 360) RPG's I dust off from time to time.

Before I moved here, I am renting a room now as opposed to an apartment I also used the Xbox to play DVD's. Now since its in a common area I just play them on my computer.

If I got a kinect as a gift I would no doubt use it, buy a game or two for it (great thing about Reno lots of pawn shops selling console games cheap).

The point of my rambles :) Just because I dont have an online score (only ever been silver for xbox live) doesn't mean I haven't had my Xbox 360 for years.
 
I sold a brand new Xbox360 to only end up going back when they brought out Kinect. I don't game as much as I used to, but my hair line isn't thinning either. :D
 
Truthfully, any 5-year old xbox 360 is living on borrowed time. Nearly all of the launch units have already died. My 360 is 2 years old now so I'm hoping they fixed the problem by the falcon generation but I have my doubts. Oh well, the 360 is only $200 anyway (sorry kiddies).
 
Most likely answer is that the RRoD's are popping up on older models that are prone to that problem to begin with. Those 360's were sitting around not being used, the user took an interest in Kinect, had at it, and found their 360 RRoDed as they tended to do back then.
 
i dont know whats sillier, the fact an 80mm fan would of stopped all RRoDs or the fact you people keep buying them

madness
 
I am the owner operator of Xmonster console service in London Ontario I see 100-200 systems weekly between xbox ps3 and wii.

There was a definate link between kinect and the rrod I had a number of systems come in with red rings shortly after people installed kinect.

That said I also noticed people comming in with systems after performing the new system update to enable kinect in equal numbers.

The kinect hardware is NOT causing the issue however I belive that the new system update is pushing the systems slightly harder and in turn pushing older systems over the edge too a failure.

In all cases reflowing the solder underneath the graphics chip and performing my normal gamut of system enhancments has fixed them without issue.

I am currently doing some pre and post update measurements of the systems idle and load temperatures to see if the update is indeed causing the system to run hotter and in turn breaking the solder points under the graphics chip.

Reporting this as news with no research or real understanding of the underlying issues that cause the rrod is poor journalistic integrity.
 
This is a joke as others in this thread have indicated.

You get the exact same reaction when a popular game comes out...l EX. any COD game to date, GTA IV, netflix streaming, really anything that makes it cool to use your XBOX again instead of having it sit idle doing nothing.

PS. I have have had 3 XBOX failures and mine is living on borrowed time (it has done the 3 rings o' death a few times) but it certainly can't be attributed to any single thing unless you count those things because they made me decide to fire up my XBOX and start using it again...
 
yeah its just coincidence, kinect probably causing bit more stress than usual and bam the rrod occurs.

my console is a 60 gig model, I according to wiki the S model has quite a lot of enhancements under the hood. But I will keep the one I got until it fails.

Since the hard drive integration changes, how would someone transfer their save data from an older model to the S model?
 
Probably just coincidence. Our first Xbox 360 Elite RRoD within the first year and was sent in 3 more times but it's replacement has been going strong and pushed much more than the first one in the last 15 months. Got a kinect for Xmas and no problems at all and kids were on it for over 8 hrs a day during the Xmas break.
 
IMO this is nothing but coincidence, and just a happenstance of the older model XBOX 360's high failure rate.
 
I agree with what most people are saying here.

Every time you use your 360 you're pushing it towards RRoD. You can only heat-cycle the GPU so many times, especially with the shitty solder they use, and the shitty cooling on the GPU. RRoD is the 360's steady state. Does it have the worst reliability record of any piece of consumer electronics ever? I don't know - but it sure seems possible.
 
I've got an Xbox 360, Jasper model, and Kinect. No problems whatsoever.
The early launch models, and even the Falcon revisions of the console seem prone to failure, from what I've experienced, seen and heard. However beginning from the Jasper models and onward, the failure rate seem more in line with other electronic consumer products.
If I had to guess, the failures probably happened because of the increased usage of the (older) consoles (as many others have mentioned). You have to keep in mind that MS just sold 8 mill. Kinect units, more or less, so this should not come as a surprise.
 
Gibbage said:
ANYONE who has worked any time in a PC repair shop will tell you its most busy the day after it rains. Why is this?

Extra moisture in the air? No. Static from lighting? No. The god Zeus not liking you? No. What it is, quite simply, is PEOPLE USING THERE PC MORE WHEN IT RAINS! The more people use something, the more likley it is to fail. Same with Kinect is my guess. People dust off there Netflix box and start playing hours of games will cause faults a lot faster then just leaving it alone. Bad timing.

Hell, my 360 RRoD'ed on Thanksgiving while my wife was using it for Netflix! Saying these RROD's was the Kinect's fault is like me blaming Turkey or Netflix on MY RRoD. When in all honestly, it was my wifes fault for even touching it, duh!

P.S. My 360 was a launch day box. It lasted a good long time before finally giving up...
Click to expand...

you should blame Nexflix, it killed mine. For a few months i sat around watching movies every day. monday - friday i watched stuff about 6 - 7 hours a day. during the weekend about 16 hours a day. after a few months of doing that mine locked up one day then when trying to restart start it i got an error, while not the RRoD, it was the other error that goes along with that and is covered under the extended repair. Since i was just watching a movie through netflix that proves it has to be netflix that killed it. ;)
 
I bought an xbox 360 right about a year after it came out, and really played GTA4 a lot. I noticed the xbox360 cannot keep up with the games. If you are running from cops in GTA4, I noticed if you look back behind your car, then forward again over and over (like when the cops are chasing you) then the road sometimes does not render and it appears you are driving in the sky for a few seconds. PS3 has NEVER done this and I have played the game for DAYS on both systems.

I have since got a free external extra fan from (I think madcatz or xbox itself) and it attaches on the back of the 360 with 2 or 3 little extra fans that clip onto the back. Helps but my GTA4 roads still disappaear sometimes.

Good thing I read this post, I am on the fence about getting a Kinect ($150) for my old XBOX 360. Now I will not obviously, even with my extra xbox warranty I got.
 
dracothic said:
I am the owner operator of Xmonster console service in London Ontario I see 100-200 systems weekly between xbox ps3 and wii.

There was a definate link between kinect and the rrod I had a number of systems come in with red rings shortly after people installed kinect.

That said I also noticed people comming in with systems after performing the new system update to enable kinect in equal numbers.

The kinect hardware is NOT causing the issue however I belive that the new system update is pushing the systems slightly harder and in turn pushing older systems over the edge too a failure.

In all cases reflowing the solder underneath the graphics chip and performing my normal gamut of system enhancments has fixed them without issue.

I am currently doing some pre and post update measurements of the systems idle and load temperatures to see if the update is indeed causing the system to run hotter and in turn breaking the solder points under the graphics chip.

Reporting this as news with no research or real understanding of the underlying issues that cause the rrod is poor journalistic integrity.
Click to expand...

Quoted for posting HEAVY EXPERIENCE with this issue.... thanks for posting :) cheers
 
Kids have been running the Kinect on my Pre-Order 360 hard since Christmas and its going strong.

Then again I've had an external mounted cooler unit on it for ages.
 
Ive been through so many 360s I cant count them all. Thousands invested over time. The older 360's were junk but did get better. Not saying the Jasper boards were not known to Fault because they did but so far I have not seen hardly any Newer consoles fault at all.

360's are Junk period I dont blame the kinect for RRODing consoles at all. I blame the console in itself. Ive used the reflow methods, Ive used X-Clam kits & they have worked for alittle time.

I have even sent my 360s to microsoft just to get A. The console back still broken or b. a console back that lasted 3 or 4 months. Microsoft sucks
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top