The Dead Console Thread

[Paul Str337]

So the ‘Next Generation’ of consoles are pretty unreliable little sods. If it’s not Red or Yellow lights of death it’s freezing issues or broken Blu-Ray. This thread is for you to grieve over those who have fallen this generation, the emotional impact it’s had on you and your solution to said problem. No flaming please, just good old fashioned storytelling and empathy or sympathy to the affected parties.

I wouldn’t start this thread if I didn’t have a story of my on to blub so here goes.

As of yesterday I’m now on my third 360. I bought my first on launch day and that suffered a catastrophic video feed error sending the picture yellow then delivering no picture at all 3 years and 3 months after purchase. Utterly out of warranty and desperate to play 360 games at the start of a fortnight off work I rushed to the shops and bought a replacement. All was well until a few weeks ago when it started to freeze. I was distraught. I literally had to fight back the tears from falling down my face and water logging my joypad. This newer 360 had lasted just a year and a half. No red ring meant no free fix.

It froze during a game, any game, on the dashboard, with and without the hard drive. Horizontally and vertically it froze and also signed into and out of Xbox Live. I angrily wrote to Microsoft demanding they fix it for free but after a game of e-mail tennis returned with zero love from them I swore I’d never buy Xbox again and championed my old reliable PS3 for not breaking down despite being ancient compared to my second 360. At least that still loved me.

A few weeks passed and my savings reached an all time high. The price of the Elite was reduced to £200 and the promise of extra hard drive space was alluring. Monkey Island remained half complete on my existing hard drive and the need to increase my achievements grew ever more into an obsession. A console addict with no allegiances to any company the desire to have all the systems at my disposal won out and I bought my Elite.

I feel like girl who always falls for the ‘bad’ boys yet is continually dumped and either emotionally or physically hurt by them but always hoping that the next will be Mr Right. My new shiny black Elite 360 with 120GB hard drive space, store bought extended warranty and black controller will love me forever and never leave me damnit!

My consoles are also equal opportunity offenders. My Wii has odd grids of dots on screen when certain colours show. I just don’t care about it enough to get it fixed as it plays games fine. Even my Dreamcast caught the reset disease.

Grieve away fellow console victims.

[Conando]

The only experience I've had was my PS2 up and dying on me. Damn thing got the Disc Read Error disease. My 360 has eaten one or two games before, though.

[Phos]

My 360 broke down, and my dad owns stock in Microsoft, so he told me to use my credit card to buy a new one.

You can get Microsoft to send you an HD transfer kit for free, you know. You can also force a red ring on a console suffering from other ailments by wrapping it in towels and laving it on for a while. Keep a fire extinguisher handy, just in case. Because it only needs power, it might be safer to do outside.

[Gamerguy21]

My Dreamcast that I got in 1999 died in 2007. It froze while I was playing Sonic Adventure, so I just turned it off and went to sleep. The the next day when I tried to play it, it only stayed on for about 5 seconds, turned off, and wouldn't go back on. I got a new (used) one about a few days later.

My PS2 that I got in 2001 stopped reading disks in 2003. Got a new one a few days later.

My Gamecube that I got in 2001 stopped reading disks in 2005. I got a new one about a week later (and it came with Super Monkey Ball 1 & 2. And since I already had SMB 2, I now own a perfectly sealed copy of it.).

My 360 that I got in 2006 got messed up in 2007. Basically whenever I put a disk in, it would made a loud screeching noise and, most of the time, not read the disk. Although I think this might have been my fault, since it started doing that right after I tried playing a DVD with a disk shield on it.

Those are the only ones I can remember now.

Edited October 4, 2009 by gamerguy21

[Tornado]

Where can I start?

• The first console I owned was a VA7 Genny that was used for about 7 years before it finally died around June of 1999 from...something.
  
• In 1994 I got a GameGear. It still works today, but the contrast adjustment is broken so the screen isn't really that useful under certain conditions.
  
• To replace the Genny, we got a Playstation that lasted about a year before the motherboard fried itself.
  
• In 2001 I got a GBA. That lasted until 2004 when it was dropped and the screen cracked.
  
• In 2001 I got a second Playstation 2. It worked pretty good until it went completely psycho on my copy of GTA Vice City in 2004, so I put it in a box in my closet and got a new one.
  
• In 2004 I got a Sega 32X and a VA3 Genny Model 2. Something happened that I am unwilling to admit and as a result, both were thrown away in 2009.
  
• In 2005 I got a Sega Nomad. It still works perfect on battery power, but the A/C plug solder has unseated itself and the system uses completely batshit weird proprietary screws, so I can't fix it.
  
• In 2007 I got a DS Light. The right trigger broke 2 weeks later. Then I sent it in. The touch screen died a month after that. So I sent in in again. Left trigger broke. Sent it in. Hinge broke. Sent it. Left trigger broke. Sent. Finally, after dicking around with Nintendo service (who really were very helpful, at least), I said fuck it and took it back to Wal-Mart for another one (figuring, correctly, that I would need another year of warranty). I'm currently on my 6th DS Light, and the left trigger is acting up on this one too, but I don't have anything to do while it is in traction being fixed, so I haven't sent it in yet.
  
• In 2009, I bought a PSP. It ran like clockwork until I blew the fuse on the LCD doing a case mod, and it has been out of commission since August (though I have sent it to get fixed).
  

Edited October 5, 2009 by Tornado

[Conando]

Man, sounds like you've had some terrible luck with your consoles. Oh right, I completely forgot to mention I actually do have a broken original DS. I had to replace it with a Lite when the video starting fucking up, and the L button died on me as well. Could have sworn the touch screen wasn't very responsive anymore either. Had it since launch.

[Phos]

So it looks like the DS broke the "Made from Nintendium" myth, though I have no idea where that myth came from, the classic NES was a rather fickle system.

And I've got a strange one, my Nintendo 64's VRAM expansion pack overheats when it's in use for a while, usually causing the game to crash. However, it will sometime cause the game to start glitching unbelievably. San Fransisco Rush would start spawning random pedestrian cars that I would drive right through.

[Dummy Bear]

I remember my first Dreamcast dying on me when the disks wouldn't spin anymore, then my second one died when it kept reseting itself. I'm on my third Dreamcast right now.

We bought a PS2 for Christmas that wouldn't read DVDs out of the box.

My first DS went kaputs for no apparent reason whatsoever and my second DS wouldn't play GBA games.

[BlueFox]

The first time I ever had a console break on me was when I got a 360. This was not due to a lack of consoles though. I've owned a Sega Mega Drive, PS1, PS2, GB Pocket, GBA and an Xbox before that. Never did a single one break. However, I got my 460 on lauch date, lasted till the Halo 3 Beta in Crackdown. That was the first time it broke. I am currently on my 4th 360. It's never been a problem as it's always been shipped back in about a week but it is an inconviniance. It's always the 3 red rings aswell. It's just something that shouldn't be.

[Eternal EX]

I just recently suffered my second red ring.. But since I'm covered by the 3 year (red ring) warranty, I'm okay. But I loved that 360 to death. It was my best friend. Seriously it was lol.

[CtW]

DSs hate me. Especially the damned top screen.

I had a silver DS and the whole top screen decided to randomly break off during use. It was still playable for a while. Ironically, I dropped the thing on a tile floor from about 5 and a half feet up shortly after the screen broke off while I had my hands full and it got not so much as a scratch. What the fuck, DS? A few months later it just quit working for some reason.

Picked up a Mario Kart DS to replace it and it decided to only play games some of the time about 4 months after getting it. Then the hinges broke on one side one day when I opened it. It wasn't totally dead, but I consider that one a lost cause.

Went a head and upgraded to a DS Lite. Just opened it one day and the top screen broke off except for one tiny piece of hinge. Technically not dead I guess but it was basically unusable because I could tell if I ever tried opening it again the screen would break all the way off.

The really annoying part is I take care of my stuff and my DSs have still decided to just randomly smash themselves while I have a friend that's had a DS for two years and just throws it around, leaves it on the floor, and has spilled things on it and dropped things on it more times than I can count and the thing works like new.

And while it's technically not a console, the medium range computer I used to play games that required Vista recently died in a spectacular fashion. Apparently the PSU, CPU, and video card all decided to fail at once while at the same time my hard drive went bad.

Edited October 5, 2009 by Cipher

[Sega DogTagz]

Good god, you guys cant be any harder on consoles than I am, but I never have had problems like these. I carry my things around everywhere, back and forth from Philly, or down to Florida and they never give me a hint of trouble. Maybe a broken AV cable here or short term hiccups in performance there, but the worst I ever had is a dead pixel on my brothers DS.

(I wonder if it is because I always invest in overpriced console carriers?)

My Dreamcast, Genesis, Saturn, GameGear, GBA-SP, Cube and NES all still work fine, not that most of them do anything more than collect dust. All 3 of my current consoles have weathered the storms although my 360 gave me quite the rrod related scare during a power surge.

Controllers on the other hand..... that's a different story. I destroy them like someone is paying me to do it. I just ordered 2 more DualShock 3's to finally phase out my Sixais crapshacks. (but its ok cause I got them in cool colorz )

Edited October 5, 2009 by Sega DogTagz

[Phos]

I just recently suffered my second red ring.. But since I'm covered by the 3 year (red ring) warranty, I'm okay. But I loved that 360 to death. It was my best friend. Seriously it was lol.

When I first saw your status update, I thought you were talking about "OMG THE RED RINGS", which was released back in 2004.

[JezMM]

I only have two consoles that have broken, my NES and my DreamCast. The fuse in my NES just keeps blowing no matter how many times I replace it, and the DreamCast, while still working... doesn't do anything. The TV flickers as I turn it on and it gets this thin black bar at the top that my DC always displayed, so I know the video output is working. But... nothing happens.

[The Conductor]

Ahhhh my Xbox 360, got her on the 25th of December 2006 as a Christmas gift. She had a comma a few months ago but I used the towel trick to revive her...it worked for a time but then shutterd and died and she wont come back, this happend around about summer time this year. Since then I have been Xboxless and haven't played any games since I traded my Wii.

Luckily my parents are getting me an Xbox 360 Elite for my birthday (which is on the 29th of November). TBH I'd rather they just gave it to me now and I get nothing on the actualy day, but w/e haha.

[Silencer226]

The only console I've had fail on me was the xbox 360. Hardware wise it is a piece of shit but software wise it's good. So far my PS3 has been behaving well and so has my nintendo wii, neither has shown signs of failing.

[MizukiMoon]

Woah, you guys sure have had a lot of bad luck with your consoles o.o it's usually me with all the bad luck. XD I've actually had a lot of good luck with my consoles, it's usually just my Mega Drives that break.

I remember once my parents bought me a Mega Drive with Ecco the Dolphin at a carboot sale to replace my Master System (this might of broke as well, but I can't remember), we took it to my nans house and we couldn't get it to work, so we took it back.

My 2nd Mega Drive worked until the end of the year, then one day I turned it on and everything just wasn't right, every game would have problems where I couldn't get off the first part of the screen. It's funny, my parents never sell damaged goods at carboot sales, but I remember they sold my Mega Drive, makes me think they deliberately wanted me to believe it was damaged just so I could get a new updated console that Christmas. -.-

When I got a Mega CD 1 in 2006 I had to have the first Mega Drive model to look right with it, but it didn't work, so I had it replaced with another.

I think that's about it for me. With computers it's another story XD; I've had like 5+ computers in my lifetime which didn't work, we have no luck with them, I've also had a lot of games (mainly Sonic ones) which stop working properly after a while, must be the amount of time I've played them.

[Superstrider]

then my second one died when it kept reseting itself.

There's a way to fix that... It happens to my Dreamcast once in the while. This is the method to rectify this problem.

How to fix : A Dreamcast that re-sets at random

So your playing away at some game, and all of a sudden your dreamcast re-sets and returns you to the main Dreamcast menu screen, you choose to ignore it the first time, but after a few days the problem gets worse, and eventually your dreamcast becomes unplayable.

Why is it doing this???

In nearly all cases the re-set problem is caused by two things, Heat expansion of circuit boards inside the dreamcast and poor electrical connections.

This is what happens inside your dreamcast and how it causes your dreamcast to re-set.

As you know the dreamcast takes mains supply voltage straight into the back of the system, and this voltage (240v Europe, 110 v America) needs to be stepped down and converted to a stable DC current that the electronic components can handle, As the electricity enters your dreamcast it passes through a step down transformer which reduces the voltage, unfortunately step down transformers generate heat and as things warm up they expand , the step down transformer in the dreamcast is located on a separate circuit board, the main power board, which is on the left hand side in the dreamcast above the Main mother board and to the left of the GD rom assembly, this is why the left side of the dreamcast gets warmer.

The main power board is connected to the dreamcast mother board by six aluminium pins, as the power board heats up it expands lightly putting pressure on the pins and over time this will bend them slightly, resulting in a poor electrical connection that will cause your dreamcast to re-set at random.

This is what you do to fix the problem.

You need the following :

a screwdriver with + blade

some common sense

and make sure that your dreamcast is out of warranty as the following will void it.

1) Disconnect from the mains, remove all cables from the dreamcast and any game disc that's inside

2) Remove the modem

3) undo the four screws in the base of the Dreamcast and KEEP SAFE

4) Remove the lid. On the left hand side you will see: the Main power board, with the GD rom assembly to the right, the input port Circuit board at the base, and in the bottom left hand side you will see the power on/off switch, this switch is Connected to the power board with a grey cable , at the power board end of the cable their is a white connector, grip the connecter at the base and lift clear.

5) undo the two brass screws that hold the Power board down and KEEP SAFE

6) towards the base of the power board you will see a white connector, it has six pins sticking out, gently lift the power board out of the dreamcast and off the pins.

7) Under the power board there is a clear plastic insulation sheet DO NOT REMOVE THIS, IF YOU DO PUT IT BACK.

8) look at the pins and clean any dirt off them DONT USE ANY LIQUID to clean them with

9) GENTLY apply SMALL amount of pressure to pins pushing them towards the back of the dreamcast DO NOT BEND THEM, JUST APPLY A SMALL AMOUNT OF PRESSURE

10) Re assemble your dreamcast and the re-sets should be no more.

Always works for me.

Edited October 5, 2009 by Superstrider

[Draco 2.0]

Heh, thankfully all my old consoles are still working (Up to perhaps my playstation 1), but in recent years I have had some problems, namely to do with Playstation 2s....

In 2001, I acquired my first Playstation 2 (The big, blocky original model). For 7 years, this console served me well, before dying, like an old friend, somewhere in the september of 2008. Unfortunately, he didn't go quietly. First off, it developed a disk failure where it wouldn't play the disks, then after that it wouldn't even show the screen. I'm not sure what failed, but it certainly wasn't coming back from the dead.

Then, a few weeks after the first died, my father acquired a silver Slimline PS2 (I actually wanted a black one, but due to a miscommunication my father thought I wanted silver)which worked for an extremely brief period and then one night decided that its laser 'eye' would not read anything too detailed, so games like Gran Turismo, The Getaway and even The Simpsons: Hit and Run were tossed out into the cold. In fact, I only remember being able to play a few low quality budget games I'd somehow decided to collect on that system...Not a total failure, but still enough to condemn it to my wardrobe (no, it does not lead to Narnia, although that is an interesting thought) where it'll probably sit until I finally get around to throwing it out....

Of course, now I have a black Slimline PS2 like I wanted, which has worked fine so far...Here's hoping it doesn't screw up...<fingers crossed>

Edited October 5, 2009 by Draco 2.0

[eXtaticus]

My Dreamcast's GD-ROM drive is dying... But I'll only fix that when I absolutely have to!

Oh yeah, and I had 3 previous Dreamcasts, all of which suffered from controller port failure. I sold them to some retro fanatic who said he knew how to fix them; I wish I hadn't now, as I've recently discovered a brilliant video on YouTube that explains how to perform the fix! If anyone's interested, it can be located at:

Happy repairing!

[7Force]

I've had a few die on me

1: My PS2 which I got on launch day back in 2000 and it died at the start of 2001 and got a new one from Sony. I still have the same model from 2001 and it still works to this day.

2: My second hand Dreamcast got a disk read error and had to buy a new one. It cost me £30 boxed but since the guy in the shop I got it from tried to fix it but failed he let me have a new one for about £10-£20.

3: My Xbox 360 got the red ring of death back in 2007 a year after i got it, what happend i was on the end of Bioshock and it died on me just as i was about to reach the last boss. It also died on me around the start of the year but thankfully it was the brick power supply unit so i found a second hand one and all was well.

[Paul Str337]

My sexy new black Elite purrs like a kitten. It just looks a little odd with a white wireless adaptor. That and my play and charge battery pack back is white too. I’ll have to see about getting a black one of those if they exist next pay day.

I can sympathise with a great many of you and I’m a little surprised to see people with much worse luck than me! Up until the 360 most of my consoles have been fine, apart from the Dreamcast that I’ve already talked about. It’s just frustrating liking a console so much but being put through so much pain.

I’m currently waiting for my bank to send me some old credit card statements as I've been doing some reaearch and think I can get some money back. If UK peeps follow the link it leads to a financial advice site detailing section 75 of the consumer credit act.

Basically if you bought an item on a credit card between the value of £100-£30.000 your credit card company may be liable if the product breaks. Your first port of call would be the shop you bought it from but if that fails or, as in my example, the shop has closed down, then you would approach your bank to reimburse you for cost.

I’ve no idea if it’ll work but it’s worth a try for nothing. The website I linked to also offers free advise so when I get my statements that proves I bought my second 360 on my credit card I’ll e-mail them for advise on how to word a letter to my bank. I’ll keep you all posted…

[Tornado]

In 2007 I got a DS Light. The right trigger broke 2 weeks later. Then I sent it in. The touch screen died a month after that. So I sent in in again. Left trigger broke. Sent it in. Hinge broke. Sent it. Left trigger broke. Sent. Finally, after dicking around with Nintendo service (who really were very helpful, at least), I said fuck it and took it back to Wal-Mart for another one (figuring, correctly, that I would need another year of warranty). I'm currently on my 6th DS Light, and the left trigger is acting up on this one too, but I don't have anything to do while it is in traction being fixed, so I haven't sent it in yet.

Make that seven. Number six broke last night. Since my PSP is still broken (I'm probably getting a new one tomorrow), I busted out the Nomad for an interim.

Edited November 3, 2009 by Tornado

[Guest Jordan4K6]

Well I own a lot of consoles (Genesis,Dreamcast,360,PS3,GC,PSP etc) and I have never had any problems with them. Though I have had many PC issues D:

[Cyberblade]

I haven't had too many systems fail on me. My Xbox 360 failed on Gears of War 2's launch day when my brother got to the title screen. It all ended well as my parents picked up a 360 for my brother to play his game, while the 360 we sent out to get repaired became mine alone. Overall I'm not to bothered my the 360. I'm much more irritated by the DS lite.

I've never owned a DS lite that actually worked as it should. I went through 2 DS lites before I just gave up on the 3rd. Every time was the same, a busted DS card slot. My DS lite only plays DS games 1/8th of the time, typically taking forever for anything to work, and often enough corrupts save games and locks up if it plays at all. Add on top of this the busted hinge and all the dirt and debris that gets into the edges of the gloss/matte parts of the system makes the DS lite one of the worst systems I've ever owned. (And FYI, I don't abuse my handhelds) Thankfully the DSi is nowhere near as shitty in build quality and that alone was worth the extra cost.

The only other system I've had break is my Virtual Boy. First part of the stand broke partially, making if very fragile, but then the left speaker went out too. I've tried to find a replacement, but so far haven't had much luck. I bought one off eBay for cheap, but it was untested due to a lack of power cables, unfortunately it too had issues with the stand (Despite having asked about the stand before hand), and the screens were busted.

Nintendo generally has a good track record of systems, but I do feel that the DS lite is faaaar below their usually high standards. I definitely don't regret the extra money the DSi cost me for the additional build quality and features. High build quality definitely has a large influence on my decision to buy a console/handheld, and will for a long time.