It's more reliable than their software, then.

* Do not use your Xbox 360 for prolonged periods of time

* Reboot your Xbox 360 regularly

* Defragment your hard drive

* Check for viruses regularly

* Turn off visual effects

1. "Do not use your Xbox 360 for prolonged periods of time"

-> BS, I play a few hrs at a time & it's still working like a charm. GIVE the damn console room too vent & not shove it in a "closed" area.

2. "Reboot your Xbox 360 regularly"

-> LOL, More BS. This is not a PC & it does not have a "reboot" option nor do you need to do this. Does this guy mean unpluging it ? Does he even own a 360 ?

3. "Defragment your hard drive"

-> BS, The 360's OS does not have a "Defragment" option like the PC's. Does this guy mean the "LB" - "RB" - "X" - "X" - "LB" - "RB" code ? All that does is clear the 360's cache. (temp... memory)

4. "Check for viruses regularly"

-> BS, are you for real lol ? The 360 cannot get a virus, this is not a PC were talking about here. Again do you even own a 360 ?

5. "Turn off visual effects"

-> More BS, I mean really ? No comment on this one lol.

If HISTORY is any indicator (G3 PowerBooks, G3 and G4 iBooks and MacBooks documented failures and lawsuits) then the X Box 360 would make a better notebook than the MacBook Air!

Oh hey! Apple FINALLY called Ruch Limbaugh after TWO WEEKS of Crippled operation of his 4 mega buck top of the line Mac Pros to "see what's wrong" ..... bwah ha ha ha ha ha, and Macs are Sooooooo perfect! Tooooo funny!

...would leave a xbox 360 in a closed space without much airflow and expect it to last forever. I would happilly bet a grand that of those 16.4%, a good 85-95% were caused by negligence on the part of the owner, bringing it on pair with the Nintendo-Sony crowd. So, if someone buys a £250 quid machine that requires breathing space [it's in the manual, you know? No? You should have read it, you 3RROD victim (read unlucky numpty)], what should he expect? LOL.

The heart is because it's Valentine's and my 360 is taking a rest today.

Looks like someone neglected to add a 'JOKE ALERT' to their posting.

At least they've done a reasonable job dealing with broken consoles under warranty... I don't know about anyone else, but it has made me think twice about getting a second hand xbox, on the assumption that it will burst into flames within minutes of being 'fired' up, and I'll have no option but to go buy a replacement :-/

"I'm down to 7% health, I've only got two rounds of pistol ammo left, there's a whole bunch of Covenant round the corner and visibility is waaaay down cos of the smoke coming out of the X-box..."

Everybody knows a) Microsoft are a software company, and b) they can't even get that right half the time. So buying a Microsoft games console when its two competitors are a company who is world famous for its games, and a company who is world famous for its consumer electronics equipment?

You've got to be a special kind of stupid think it would all be plain sailing... I wonder how many times you'd need to stare at your defunct HD-DVD add-on, your wireless add-on with its annual subscription, and the gaping hole under the TV where your 360 was before you sent it back to be repaired, before you start thinking PS3 might not be such a bad idea?

Paris would own a 360

I'll take your grand, cheers. Pleasure doing business with you. Based on the principle that people would be equally negligent with a Wii or PS3 and they haven't suffered the same failure rate, your argument doesn't hold water.

Or are you arguing that 360 owners are significantly more stupid than Wii or PS3 owners?!

Even consoles that don't break have problems though.

I'm on my 3rd now (from Microsoft) and getting the same problem "This disc can not be read".

tried new hard drives, new disc's.. and it occurs at the same point on the game. I.E in fifa 2008 when on xbox live, prob a 1 in 8 chance of the message coming up, even with a brand new disc!

I used to be in love with the 360, but so many errors and problems, it's hard to stay faithful!

My Xbox 360 is currently away for repair.

After one year it got the three red lights of doom. It was repaired for free.

One year later (now), it has had the DVD drive fail, and worse still destroy two of my game discs on it's way out. I'm now paying £55 for the repair, as the extended warranty only covers the red lights fault.

Maybe my friends are particularly unlucky but the failure rate for consoles owned by people I know is something above 90% - only one person I know has had no problems with his console after a couple of years.

Is people defending Microsoft and/or the Xbox360.

The bottom line is, as a consumer, you should not be rewarding Microsoft by buying Xbox. Why? Because Microsoft have screwed you over, in their greed for profits.

Sony took their time, waiting until the PS3 was reliable and feature complete, and launched when the product was ready.

Microsoft ripped HD DVD and HDMI out of their console, brought the launch forward, and decided reliability testing and stable well designed hardware was not required, as long as they got there before Xmas 2006.

As a consumer, Next time you think about defending Microsoft or ripping into Sony for the PS3 remember these things. We should be rewarding Sony for doing the RIGHT thing, and punishing Microsoft for doing the WRONG thing.

That is the end of my rant...

My flatmate has had his 360 since it was released, and it has been running for long periods without any problems. I can only recommend it. I might get one myself, then I can kick his backside without paying Live membership ;)

Well almost!

By any quality control standards (do they HAVE any Quality Control or QC Standards?) that's SHITE!

Hope the sleeves don't fall of my 6th coat!

I got my PS2 on the day of release. That had a problem with crackling, distorted sound. That got exchanged in a week or so - the replacement was DOA - DVD drive did not work at all. The third one lasted for years... Sony UK handled the whole thing in the UK very poorly and BBC's Watchdog were involved at the time. As compensation, I got a couple of uncased magazine review copies of games but only after complaining.

Now my XBox 360 lasted two years, the replacement about a week, and now the third one seems OK a few months down the line (with the new motherboard this time). As compensation gave me the choice of a live vision camera or wireless controller. Also MS extended their warranty to 3 years.

From my point of view, MS + Sony are just the same regarding rushing consoles to market, but MS (never thought I'd say this) have done a better job of looking after their punters IME.

It'd be nice to just have a console that worked from day one though!