back to article Gamers voice NXE woes

The New Xbox Experience (NXE) has barely been out for 24 hours, but gamers have already claimed that it’s messing with their consoles. Some have even said the update’s caused the dreaded Red Ring of Death (RRoD) to rear its ugly head once more. NXE was released to the masses yesterday, but we’ve read forum postings from …

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  1. Si

    So far mine's been fine...

    ... but it's almost brand new after my launch 360 finally RRoD'ed last month. But I can't see how an update could cause a hardware failure, more than likely it's just coincidence that people's machines picked the moment when they were updating to finally give up the ghost.

    Plus, RRoD can signal a whole number of different hardware issues. You have to press the wireless sync button and the CD eject button together four times to get the actual hardware error code. So who knows what the error for these people actually is.

    The people missing the avatars aren't missing anything. Aside from customisable clothes the facial customisation is even more sparse than the Miis and I don't want to play any of the games that use the avatars.

  2. Paul
    Gates Horns

    "Play a waiting game"

    Well no, actually I'd just like to play COD4 and Halo3, Is that really too much to ask?

    Fu*kwits!

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Quality

    This XBox is really beginning to sound like a quality peice of engineering!

    //Theirs is the one with the warranty card in the pocket.

  4. Pyros
    Thumb Down

    On par

    ...for the course.

    This is why the Wii is still #1 on my "new console" list.

  5. fred slack
    Linux

    It's Microsluff

    You were expecting it to work?

    Come on man, it's MICROSLUFF.

  6. Chad H.

    Err...

    Quote:

    Xbox spokesman Major Nelson wrote on his official blog that Microsoft’s “aware some of you may be experiencing a few hiccups along the way”.

    Major Nelson???

    Are Microsoft expecting Jeannie to solve this problem?

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    My preferred NEW XBOX EXPERIENCE...

    ..would be NOT having it RRoD every 4 months! That would certainly be something new and exciting!

    They haven't fixed the underlying product defects that are casuing the RRoD, and the new dashboard is so much more graphically demanding that it's not surprising it would be shoving some 360s over the edge into a RRoD.

    Furthermore I can't get anywhere in that New Advertising Experience thing without crapulent product shills flying everywhere.

    Why can't I just start directly at the Friends or My Xbox screen? They've really bollocks it up in this regard - the old interface presented everything one needed to know right on the main page (orange button for new live stuff, new msg count, friends count, etc) and it was super easy to get right into a game with your friends. I guess the old blades just didn't have enough sellable ad space on them.

  8. Mr Bear
    Gates Horns

    Should've waited.

    They should have waited until they brought out a service pack for it.

  9. Rich
    Go

    bad?

    I've just downloaded it, and i think its really good. Much better than before.

  10. Daniel Bennett
    Stop

    Corrupt Download I bet

    I bet, that people have been getting it during peak time and theres been a sort of corrruupt download or something...

    I downloaded it as soon as I got the email at 11 at night.. No probs downloading it was downloaded in 30 seconds and installed fine and everythings working.

    I bet its a server load issue of when people was downloading it...

  11. Heff
    Coat

    someone, enlighten me

    How do they manage to fuck up a firmware update for a locked set of hardware?

    this isnt a PC, or even a mac where there could be hundreds of thousands of user-configurations and hardware configurations, or a million-and-one-points-of-potential fail. this is MS, producing a firmware update for a set of system hardware that they themselves produced. theres no grey areas, right?

    So how is it still a bag of shit?

    mines the one with the System specs in it.

  12. eric carter

    Fixed mine in under an hour

    I had this problem last year twice the first time I took it back I got a new one at best buy. The second time though the warranty was up and microsoft said they could not do anything about it, unless I paid $140 for the repair and that didn’t include shipping and handling. I was pretty mad but I did some across a repair guide, with videos for like $20 and it saved my gamer score from suffering ha. It took about an hour to fix my rrod error and opening the console was a snap. I got it from redringxbox360.com if you are having the same problems and microsuck wants you to shell out more money I suggest getting a repair guide.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Mixed bag

    I let my 360 do the upgrade when prompted the night before last, and it seemed to go okay. I kinda like the new look, but I realise that it's probably going to make things more difficult to find - at least until I get used to it. Played around with the avatar stuff - but don't think I'm really in the target audience for that kindy of trendy nonsense. ;)

    One thing I did notice though were some lag issues on the two CoD2 levels that I fired up to test post-install. Almost as if there wasn't enough system resource to run the game - which given that CoD2 isn't exactly cutting edge is worrying me slightly.

    Look on the bright side - it could have been worse - it could have been something like Vista or the latest version of Orifice - they truly are design disasters. And hey, maybe MS's desire to get folks to use the new features will mean that they'll revise the price of the 20-120GB disk upgrade downwards! (fingers crossed).

    Apart from the odd issue with that crappy DVD drive, my 18-month old 360 has been pretty reliable - certainly more so than the PC that's it's more or less replaced as my main gaming platform. He says, hurriedly looking to do a 'touch wood' for that last statement.

    My coat's the one with the DSlite in the pocket... :)

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Gates Halo

    Mines ok too.

    I'm not having any troubles with the NXE. Only installed it last night though;)

  15. Iain Turnbull
    Stop

    Plural of "anecdote"...

    ...is not "data". People are still getting RRODs periodically - so would it not seem likely that some would coincide with the rollout of the new interface? Correlation does not prove causality!

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    We're 3 for 3 now.

    All of the current gen consoles have now recieved at least 1 firmware update that has damaged some users consoles.

    Though given the 360's anomalously high failure rate, it's fairly likely that some fo the consoles that this update has allegedly bricked died of the "Old School" RRoD.

  17. Andy Worth

    Re:Corrupt Download I bet

    Then they should implement some sort of verification into the download to make sure that it doesn't bugger consoles.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Gates Horns

    Which Xbox RRoD's most?

    Is it the cheapest one, the not so cheap one, or the most expensive one?

    Do the newest units die multiple times a year?

  19. Liam

    hmmmm

    re: This is why the Wii is still #1 on my "new console" list.

    dont bother mate - everyone's wii i know is sat in a cupboard gathering dust. its a useless games console. get a ps3 and dont look back - plus BR on a decent tv and audio system is amazing :)

    the wii is ok until you realise that any arbitrary hand movement will do and you just end up looking limp wristed playing anything. its really a console for girls and old people/small children imho... great at first - then you realise it looks and sounds worse than a ps2 and the controllers are pants for anything other than novelty games :( £300 wasted imho

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Buggered up mine.

    It rebooted after installing, played a movie, then locked up (no RROD), rebooting does the same each time.

    Microsoft said it's busted, and because it's a launch console (well 3rd replacement of a launch console), and it's not RROD, that It's no longer in warranty. I'm certainly not paying the £180 they want to fix it.

    Traded all my games in against a PS3, and so far, couldn't be happier, it's a total breath of fresh (and quiet) air.

  21. Alex Walsh

    Statistically so so

    There are 14m Xbox 360's out in the wilds. Even if this update destroyed a 100,000 of them, that would be less than one percent, which would be statistically insignificant. Unless it happened to you personally of course. But its not as if it is breaking machines and then making you go and buy a new one, MS should cover any RRoD's under the extended 3 year warranty for such things.

    The sad thing is, half these reports on forums are probably being made by PS3 owning "fanboys" who have to justify their purchase by making crap up about the opposition. There are an equal number of Xbox fanboys about, and now days you read as much about the SDF, MSDF and NDF (Sony Defence Force, Microsoft Defence... well, you get the idea), in forums as you do about the consoles or games themselves.

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    One Problem

    I have only played Oblivion since the update and found it very jerky - could be just coincidence I will try again tonight. I do like the new look, its clean and if you do not like it all you have to do is press the big button on your controller to get a mini menu you can easily flick through.

  23. Matthew Shaw
    Thumb Down

    Xbox running OK...

    ...and the download was fine for me. Just fed up with the change in some features and the whole starting point after booting it up.

    Fed up already of the constant pushing of new products.

  24. andy
    Thumb Up

    a big thumbs up from me

    I sat and waited patiently for the update. As soon as I got word that the launch had begun, I turned on my box and it downloaded very quickly. The new front end looks so much better than the old. I love it.

    It is a real shame that we have not got word on the Jaspers yet, I'm waiting for an Elite Jasper to hit our shores and then I will be a very happy gamer. I have heard that the Falcons are running well and I think that the RROD issues will be on older machines.

    Peachy001

  25. Thomas Bottrill
    Gates Horns

    My console RRODed

    It RRODed when I turned it on, before I even got to the dashboard to be able to sign in to be asked for the update. Even more annoying since it's the first problem I've had with it in almost two years.

    Which is very annoying. I don't get why it takes two to three weeks to return though. I thought they just sent you a refurbished console in return, rather than fixing your one?

    Though they do cheap out on shipping - UPS Standard my arse. I want Express!

  26. Joe K
    Gates Horns

    No surprise

    Fart too loudly near that thing and its a paperweight.

  27. Secretgeek
    Unhappy

    'Playing a waiting game.'

    Is too right. I've had NXE for 48 hours now and am thoroughly sick of the sight of the 'sandtimer'.

    There's lots about NXE I do like (copying to hd mainly) but all the errors and waiting around is really starting to fuck me off something chronic.

  28. AndyC

    <title>

    Managed to get mine installed yesterday - all went fine, though it has hung a couple of times when flipping around the new dashboard. The box doesn't get used for anything bar games and Fallout3 still working so I'm happy...

  29. Sir Runcible Spoon
    Unhappy

    It's a bit poo

    d/loaded last night and the interface is crap compared to the old one, things I might want are in faded out boxes off the to the right hand side somewhere. I have know where it is to get it.

    And what's with needing the disc in the player to play a game you've just uploaded onto the hard drive? What's the effing point (apart from trying to stop rrod from the ever spinning disc).

    Preferred the old one. Can anyone tell me where the the

    Start>Run>Add/Remove Programs section is ?

  30. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Downloaded it

    And loved it.

    I must be one of the few people who actually think NXE and Vista are quite good. Silent majority me thinks.

    Although as a .Net programmer I get quite frustatrated with that sometimes....

  31. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Stop whining

    The majority of idiots that suffer from RRoD have placed their 360 into an underventilated space, people forget that it needs airflow, if you look hard enough and take off your blinkers then you will also find the PS3 suffers from an overheating issue aswell. The Wii well that doesn't have any power so it doesn't need cooling

  32. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    OH FFS!

    I was about this far "." from getting a 360 for myself this Christmas. Now I'm this far ".................................................. " and this far ".." from getting a Wii.

    Are consoles supposed to be easy to develop for or what? Never mind test on, WTF?

  33. Tom
    Gates Horns

    got it last night

    much prefer it to the old one as it seems a little more lively.. however it does not feel like a gamer console anymore and more like a fisher price console.

    Looking forward to getting avatar specific clothing... bring on Gears/Halo armour thats all I say.

    Also the NXE Premium Themes look good, but its not possible to preview them which is a massive downfall.

  34. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    no problems here

    Mine is working fine

    As for quick access to the friends list...etc if you hit the silver xbox button it brings up a mini version of the old interface for anyone who yearns for simpler times.

  35. Steve Rowsell

    Freezing issues with NXE

    I've installed the new dash board on my new 60gb premium (bought a few weeks back in readiness), and whilst the avatars should really have been called 'Twees' as they are pretty unnecessary and overly 'cutesy', I do like the new look. I also like the party chat and install games to hard drive idea. The overall look is a lot cleaner and I prefer it to the old blades layout.

    However, I have experienced issues where the system has locked up entirely when on the new dashboard, 2 or possibly 3 times. Whilst this is undoubtedly a pain, its not that much of a problem, as I just have to turn the box off for a second and restart the system.

    I think its inevitable that there will be some teething problems, and I'd imagine there will also be an element of rogue posts being left all over the internet by childish PS3 owners, claiming their 360 RROD'ed immediately after installing the dashboard update.

    Presumably 360 owners will end up retaliating occur as and when 'Home' finally launches on the PS3, and I can't help thinking its all a little bit sad. I can't see why people just can't be happy with what they have and get on with enjoying it. Competing systems engenders an atmosphere in which developers are constantly trying to outdo each other, and that can only mean good things for gamers, whatever their system. As many thousands of people have written before, why can't we all just get along?

    Of course, there will be some people unlucky enough to have the installation coincide with a RROD problem (that would most likely have occurred, new dashboard or not). If you are one of those people, my sympathies are with you.

  36. Anonymous Coward
    Gates Halo

    Well NXE worked for me (so far)

    It's not destroyed my conmsole yet (RROD is surely waiting, like every Xbox owner). However I really don't liek NXE, it feels very like a dumbed down FischerPrice UI, that's a last-minute, rushed out response to Playstaion Home and Nintendo Mii.. Typical Microsoft following everyone else as per-usual.

  37. baddress
    Unhappy

    MS should warranty this forced update!

    This is a forced and required update in order to use one's pre-paid-for XBL subscription. Opting out is not possible.

    Surely Microsoft would pick up the costs for any console stuffed by said required update?

  38. Marco Alfarrobinha
    Gates Halo

    Well...

    Downloaded it, played a few games already, no lag whatsoever (other than the ones on certain games, which I know are there), no problems so far *knock knock knock* and I quite like how it looks.

    Those that had problems are either lying PS3 fanboys or idiots that tried to remove the HDD while the update was installing/downloading. For them, I have no simpathy at all.

    Xbox 360 = Gaming satisfaction. PS3 = Film lover wannabe gamer...

    P.S. NFS Undercover actually better on the 360 than on PS3, just don't tell them.

  39. Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse
    Stop

    No problems here...

    As the title says, no problem updating mine apart from selecting 1080p rather than 1080i on the HD settings and then being unable to see anything on screen to re-select the proper setting. Had to disconnnet the HD cables, plug in the old SCART interface and re-select using standard RGB, then reconnect the HD cables etc, etc... majorly disappoined by the new install to disk thing though, Far Cry 2 is neither noticeably quicker to boot or run using this feature.

  40. Matthew Partridge
    Gates Horns

    Matt

    I phoned Microsoft to report how the NXE update has caused my console to RROD, they repeated over and over again that it must be a coincidence. I then asked how many other people had reported similar problems with the update and the reply I got from the supervisor of the UK call center was "nobody". which judging from previous comments is a total bare faced lie. So Microsoft is currently asking me to believe in miraculous coincidences & lies. Hmm

  41. Mark

    Correlation does not prove causality!

    But it does show that it is likely.

    If there were no correlation, then there would be proof of no causality.

  42. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    LOL

    "Those that had problems are either lying PS3 fanboys or idiots that tried to remove the HDD while the update was installing/downloading."

    I see the Xbots are still in denial.. When will they finally admit, the Xbox quality is total crap, don't they already have enough overwhelming evidence? I mean most of the people defending Xbox's horrendous track record on reliability have already has multiple console replacements, what will the do when the replacements run dry next week? (Xbox360 RROD warranty ends next week).

  43. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Its running ok, except for...

    My console looks like it caught the GAY.

  44. g e

    Mine's bricked

    My 120GB Elite is useless (RROD) now since the update. It's worked flawlessly until now in exactly the same physical position in the living room since I bought it last year. Happily it's still in warranty.

    Unhappily I'm going to have to enter the gaping maw of XBOX support unless I can get the shop I bought it from to exchange it... unlikely.

    Flawless operation -> NXE -> brick within 24 hours... I don't believe in coincidences. Mind you I was expecting the update to fuck up in a big way somehow, it's MS after all.

  45. Mick Sheppard
    Thumb Up

    Friends hang

    I've got a pretty repeatable bug in the friends mode. If I've got a few friends online and I'm in a group then go in to look at a friend, or the popup box, then return to the gallery of friends the xbox hangs for 30 seconds or so before sorting itself out and continuing as normal. Its not 100% of the time but fairly often.

    Other than that its fine. I like the copy to HDD option for things like Fable2 and my Xbox seems to run quieter. I do have an Elite though.

    To those with RROD. Its coincidence, not the cause. Its similar to the '<new game here> killed my xbox' threads that appear on in the Forums of the xbox site when new games come out.

  46. David
    Gates Halo

    @Alex Walsh

    "There are 14m Xbox 360's out in the wilds. Even if this update destroyed a 100,000 of them, that would be less than one percent, which would be statistically insignificant."

    Insignificant? You're obviously not a statistician then.

    1% is a huge amount, and is massively significant for an operation that should have a 100% success rate.

    I agree with the wise chap above that said "correlation does not prove causality!"

  47. Anthony
    Gates Halo

    Re: Well...

    To Marco and others, here's a little analogy for you. Just because you smoke and don't have cancer, don't mean smoking don't cause cancer.

    My evidence is that my 2yr old console immediately RRoD after the download and install. No that doesn't mean the update caused the problem, but you've got to admit it's a pretty big coincidence (particualrly as it seems I'm not the only one).

    I'm happy about it; after a few painless steps on the web site a nice friendly UPS man picked up my brick up and now I just have to sit tight and wait for a new one.

    So kudos to Bill in this case ... now my only request is for all these x-box / ps3 fantools to just shut their collective pie holes until they've got something useful to say!

  48. Mark

    Problems Too.

    No RROD, but it hangs after playing the intro movie. Tried rebooting and removing memory card, no luck, It's a 4 month old Arcade, Microsoft are sending me a box to send it away. 6 week turnaround at the moment according to friends who recently have had RROD problems.

    Stay clear of NXE would be my advice right now.

  49. Thorfkin
    Alert

    Red Ring of Death

    The more stuff like this I see the more glad I am that I got a PS3 instead of an Xbox360. Not to say that the X360 isn't a good gaming platform, at least one of my favorite games is exclusive to that machine, but the hardware problems continue to leave me slack jawed.

  50. Inachu
    Flame

    A few I bet!

    I am also sure there are still a few out there who still keep the xbox power pack on carpet or inside a closed space like an entertainment unit that suffocates the unit and builds up heat and dies.

    I have seen those that still place a small TV or VCR on top or below the xbox where the VCR vents heat into the XBOX......

    People like that? You deserve the RROD then!

  51. Vik
    Thumb Up

    Love it

    I have both the Xbox 360 and the PS3. I must say at first I didn't like the 360 but the more I used it the more I got to love it. This update worked like a treat and the fact that you can install games on the hdd is a huge plus.

    Now I only buy games on the PS3 if they are exclusive to the system, otherwise it's the 360 for me.

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