The AbyssThe Abyss

Posted on Jun 12th 2008 at 07:27:24 AM by (TraderJake)
Posted under Modern Gaming, Microsoft, 360, RRoD

[img align=right]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/hardware/U-115/bf/U-115-H-0001C-B.jpg&sizex=200[/img]Now, in about three days, I can officially say that I am a Civil Engineer. Now, Civil Engineers do a lot of things. Designing Bridges, Creating Dams, Building Things, Creating Traffic Jams, Mitigating Floods, yeah, we do all that and much more. See, there is this thing though. Most, if not all Civil Engineers specialize in something. I, for example, specialized in transportation. Seamar, specialized in structures. See, from an ethics standpoint, we agree only to practice in the fields we're competent in. We know better than do attempt to do something when we have no idea how. So, we know better than than to do and market things that we have no idea how to do, so why does Microsoft then try to do something it doesn't really know how to do?

Microsoft does a bunch of things well. I personally enjoy their Wireless Mice and Keyboards. Windows XP was and still is amazing. So Microsoft can in fact do things well. But there are certain things that Microsoft doesn't do well. Vista, for example. Windows 98 is to Windows XP like Windows Me is to Windows Vista. So, some things that Microsoft do are just terrible.

So, Microsoft has this wonderful little console that many of you might lovingly refer to as the Microsoft Xbox 360. It's lovely little console, but it had some problems. These problems caused Microsoft to issue a recall for the 360, and with that recall came quite a monetary hit on their ledger. So, what caused this problem?

So, this wonderful guy at the Gartner Group, Bryan Lewis, who happens to be their research VP and chief analyst, has stated that the source of their gigantic recall lies in the fact that Microsoft decided to design their original GPU by themselves. Did you know that Microsoft designs GPUs? Neither did I. When I think Graphics Accelerator, I think NVidia and ATI. Turns out, once a massive recall is initiated, that Microsoft also thinks ATI for their graphics needs, as that's who they contracted to redesign their 360 GPU.

Here's to you, Microsoft. If only you had used ATI or NVidia to begin with, you wouldn't have had this massive recall and all those extended warranties. I bet you all don't care, as your warranties are longer. But then, there are probably several of you who wish they didn't have to send their 360 in because of a RRoD. If only Microsoft stuck to what it could do well and contracted out that what it couldn't, you might have never had to send out your 360.

Xbox 360 RRoD finally explained? [CVG]




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Comments
 
Ahh, so that what went wrong with the 360.
My younger brothers don't even want one anymore incase it fries itself.
 
Yes they are end of discussion.
 
I think I am the only person on the face of the earth that hasn't had any issues with Vista. Perhaps it's because I disabled most of the Vista-exclusive features (User Account Control, for instance), or because I set it up to look just like Windows 98, which reduces the strain on the system resources.. Whatever the case, I haven't had any issues, and I happen to like it quite a bit.
 
OS's really are what you make them. Windows ME worked like a dream if you knew how to use it, I really loved it. WinXP was a bag of shit until after SP1 came out, even then it never touched ME for performance.

Vista, well it's a fat gluttonous pig but it works well once you learn it's in and outs and know what to disable. I daresay with a healthy 2 gig or so of RAM at it's disposal, it's faster than XP with a gig or so. That may not sound good relatively speaking, but RAM is only $39.99 a gig nowadays. But to put it into perspective, Vista took a lot less time to become a decent OS than XP did.
 
Whoops, I didn't really mean for this to be an OS discussion.

Go Linux!
 
My question, so does this mean current Xbox 360's are now safe, or are they still at risk of burning out?

That said, we still have our 2600, C64, Master System, MD 2 (sadly not my original Mega Drive as I had to replace it with the MD 2 I have now as the original didn't like the 32x), Mega-CD 2, 32x, and all still work fine Wink
 
Since January, all 360's have the new chips in them. I have one myself and it's twice and cool and half as loud as my first one, no hotter than a Wii or PS3 now. I haven't heard any RRoD stories in many months either and certainly none from the newer models.

If you buy a used one, make sure the power supply brick says 175w not 203w, 175 is the newer model. Wink
 
Ah cool (pun intended), so the newer models shouldn't need the purchase of the cooler either?
I'll have to pass the word on to my younger brother who has changed his mind and is now thinking of getting a PS3 based on the life span of the old 360s.

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