wraggster
November 25th, 2013, 23:34
As night follows day talk of a hardware problem has accompanied last week’s global Xbox One launch.
Whereas PS4 has its now catchily-titled ‘Blinking Blue Light of Death’ fault, online reports suggest that some Xbox One launch units are suffering from a somewhat less catchphrase-friendly disc drive error.
Affected users are saying that not only will their new console not read discs, but the disc drive itself produces a horrible grinding noise when a disc is inserted.
A host of sites such as IGN (http://uk.ign.com/articles/2013/11/22/xbox-one-early-adopters-reporting-hardware-problems), Polygon (https://twitter.com/adambarenblat/status/404106271860604928) and GamesRadar (https://twitter.com/RyanTaljonick/status/404000730903621632)have received units suffering from the issue, while Kotaku (http://kotaku.com/reports-of-xbox-one-disc-drive-issues-increase-1470495704)claims to have received some 150 emails from readers whose units have done the same.
Even today’s issue of The Sun (http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/5283770/Gamers-blast-faulty-new-Xbox-One-console.html) has a story entitled “Vex box: Gamers blast ‘faulty’ new Microsoft console”.
Whereas Sony has said it believes the BBLOD affects “less than one per cent” (http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/sony-revises-ps4-failure-rate-estimate-to-less-than-1/0124598) of units (although his is an increase from its previous 0.4 per cent estimate (http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/sony-launch-ps4s-have-0-4-fail-rate-within-expectations/0124379)), Microsoft has yet to release any estimates of its own. But with over 1m units already in the wild (http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/xbox-one-matches-ps4-s-1m-day-one-sales/0124836), you’d realistically expect thousands of faulty units to be in the channel – the complicated nature of modern tech makes this an inevitability.
The only official Microsoft statement on the issue to date reads:
"The issue is affecting a very small number of Xbox One customers. We're working directly with those affected to get a replacement console to them as soon as possible through our advance exchange program. Rest assured, we are taking care of our customers.
"Customers have the option for us to send a replacement console right away without waiting until they have returned their old one. This means a customer only has to wait a matter of days, rather than weeks to get back up and running."
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/now-xbox-one-gets-its-own-launch-fault/0124855
Whereas PS4 has its now catchily-titled ‘Blinking Blue Light of Death’ fault, online reports suggest that some Xbox One launch units are suffering from a somewhat less catchphrase-friendly disc drive error.
Affected users are saying that not only will their new console not read discs, but the disc drive itself produces a horrible grinding noise when a disc is inserted.
A host of sites such as IGN (http://uk.ign.com/articles/2013/11/22/xbox-one-early-adopters-reporting-hardware-problems), Polygon (https://twitter.com/adambarenblat/status/404106271860604928) and GamesRadar (https://twitter.com/RyanTaljonick/status/404000730903621632)have received units suffering from the issue, while Kotaku (http://kotaku.com/reports-of-xbox-one-disc-drive-issues-increase-1470495704)claims to have received some 150 emails from readers whose units have done the same.
Even today’s issue of The Sun (http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/5283770/Gamers-blast-faulty-new-Xbox-One-console.html) has a story entitled “Vex box: Gamers blast ‘faulty’ new Microsoft console”.
Whereas Sony has said it believes the BBLOD affects “less than one per cent” (http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/sony-revises-ps4-failure-rate-estimate-to-less-than-1/0124598) of units (although his is an increase from its previous 0.4 per cent estimate (http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/sony-launch-ps4s-have-0-4-fail-rate-within-expectations/0124379)), Microsoft has yet to release any estimates of its own. But with over 1m units already in the wild (http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/xbox-one-matches-ps4-s-1m-day-one-sales/0124836), you’d realistically expect thousands of faulty units to be in the channel – the complicated nature of modern tech makes this an inevitability.
The only official Microsoft statement on the issue to date reads:
"The issue is affecting a very small number of Xbox One customers. We're working directly with those affected to get a replacement console to them as soon as possible through our advance exchange program. Rest assured, we are taking care of our customers.
"Customers have the option for us to send a replacement console right away without waiting until they have returned their old one. This means a customer only has to wait a matter of days, rather than weeks to get back up and running."
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/now-xbox-one-gets-its-own-launch-fault/0124855