QUOTE(Roam @ Apr 15 2007, 03:28 PM)
They not only need a CPU temp monitor, they also should have something that monitors what kind of load the CPU's are under. I know with my computer sometimes a background program will freeze and the CPU will be under 100% load until I kill the process. How much stress can the Xbox 360 components take?
[OFF TOPIC]
I've got this problem now. A few errant programs, don't exit gracefully, and when they do that, it leave the system running 100% CPU load or close to it. Which is a problem for me atm.. as I'm working on making my system quiet without going the water cooling route, opting for quiet fans, reduced fans, and larger heatsinks to dissipate heat. when this happened to the PC.. I went from 35 degrees celcius to 74+ and came home to find it had more or less choked, becoming unstable. (I'll never know how hot it got, as the software monitoring temps on the PC was likely no longer updating the screen properly either)
[/OFF TOPIC]
One thing I wan't people to understand, is that my views are simply that.. my views. however, they are based on my growing experiences. I personally view just about all major electronics manufacturers as crooks and con artists. Few, put their money where their mouth is anymore. Quality just isn't what it used to be. For every guy that can come into this thread and tell us a story how all of his recent stuff from the last 5 years still works great, we can find another who will damn his sotries, ans give us the opposite of how his such and such died prematurely and unexpectedly without abuse or modification having been a factor.
I have no doubt whatsoever, I can go out tomorrow, buy say.. a Samsung HD DVD set top player, and enjoy it. It'll probably last 2 years. maybe a bit longer. but there is no way it'll survive regular usuage and be working on it's 10th birthday. I can make the same guarantee if I bought some higher end hardware too. While all of this tech has become more advanced, and techniques in manufacturing have produced incredible innovation, it seems that a sacrifice to the longevity of the hardware goes hand in hand with the new toys we're presented with.
i'll still buy all the new things on the market. I'll still expect them to last.. but I'll know that in time, some of those things are going to cause me to spend great amounts of times in return lines, and on the help/support phone lines getting RMA numbers for shit. It's the new reality.
10-20 years ago.. If you have a Sony VCR, you either took it back to where you bought it if it was under the store policy, or, or contacted Sony. If you were lucky, there'd be one phone number, and their RMA dept was run by a few people. these days, these large companies have massive RMA depts. spread out across the country, and in different countires, etc. the Nature of the beast is that despite the claims by MS, and other manufacturers to what the numbers really are, this shit will die, alot of prematurely, and people aren't just rolling over and automatically buying a new one from a store. We want, and expect the manufacturers to keep this stuff running for a reasonable amount of time.
bitch is.. what is reasonable?
You will NEVER get MS, SONy, or anyone else to say, state how long these things SHOULD run for minimally. SONY/SCEA will never say.. our game consoles.. will RUN for 3 years. Will RUN for 5 YEARS before failure. At best.. all we have is their warranty policy periods. that is the only measure any manufacturer gives us.
some will give you numbers like MTBF, etc. But, the numbers that really mean something to us is how long will they cover it? For consoles.. for 360.. least we now have a universal minimum of 1 year.. 2 if you are EU if I am correct.
While no manufacturer would ever want to, or could really afford to warranty anything beyond it's expected life (after all.. I don't care how much you care about your customer, you really don't want to be ojn the hook for maintaining a device beyond a certain period of time) they come up with a number, that reflects how long they thing it will last, guantee run without issue. They take that number, and figure out the costs of what will fail even that number. there is some sort of equation that is used. Once that balance is met, that is the magic number. Clearly, the Warranty, is meant to be a worst case lifespan for a product, and one that reflect a small percentage or the product. Stuuf would clearly last longer. however, given that formula that is used, tehy know, statistically how long most hardware will survive, and how much is expected to fail.
I do think.. that things need to change. I do think that warranties, and their longevity should go hand in hand with the cost of the unit. I do think that a device that cost 500$ should last 5 years without fail. I think if the manufacturer needs to charge more up front to make sure that happens, then by all means they should. I'm not against any company charging a fair price to cover costs. I am against paying crazy money and getting little for it.
As for GHII, updated my 5 month old 360.. played a number of tunes.. no instant death, no issues. I don't expect any sudden death issues to arise from my GH sessions.. or the fact I've updated GHII. If I'm wrong.. you can expect a fuming DEMONZ to come back and rant and bitch like a maniac. Until then.. i'm going to enjoy my GHII.
Got my 100% achievement today, so I'm a happy camper all around. (literally, it's the first time in ANY 360 game where I made an effort to earn an achievement.)
EDIT: I was going to correct all the typos.. then I realized I made so many.. and it's late.. fuck it. Have a laugh at my expense tonight guys. Peace.
Guitar Hero II or it's new patch possibly bricking 360's
Apr 15 2007, 10:56 PM
