How likely is a 360 to fail?

I am planning to buy a 360 this week sometime. I have a growing concern about its reliability. I'm having terrible thoughts of me taking it home to be a bricked system out of the box. Basically my question is, how reliable is a new 360 today?Has Microsoft improved them over time? And I'm not talking about the elite, I plan to buy a normal premium, and basically my concern is its reliability and if/how it will fail. I hear that MS began to repair systems with better cooling, I assume they are using these measures in the new consoles they manufacture as well.Is this the case? Have the amount of 360 errors dropped from previously? How likely is a 360 to fail?
[QUOTE=''hiho24''] I am planning to buy a 360 this week sometime. I have a growing concern about its reliability. I'm having terrible thoughts of me taking it home to be a bricked system out of the box. Basically my question is, how reliable is a new 360 today?Has Microsoft improved them over time? And I'm not talking about the elite, I plan to buy a normal premium, and basically my concern is its reliability and if/how it will fail. I hear that MS began to repair systems with better cooling, I assume they are using these measures in the new consoles they manufacture as well.Is this the case? Have the amount of 360 errors dropped from previously? [/QUOTE] The 2006 batch of 360 seem to be more reliable and I dont think anything will go wrong with it unless its damaged before you open the box, otherwise you wont get any disk scratching or anything they have made some improvements to these so your OK and defintely recommend to get Forza 2, Shadowrun and Oblivion those three are the best the 260 has to offer.IMOHow likely is a 360 to fail?
If you got it bricked out of the box - consider yourself lucky. You can take it back and get another. Now, having it for a while then having to ship it back, wait a few weeks, is a LOT worse.
[QUOTE=''sadikovic''][QUOTE=''hiho24''] I am planning to buy a 360 this week sometime. I have a growing concern about its reliability. I'm having terrible thoughts of me taking it home to be a bricked system out of the box. Basically my question is, how reliable is a new 360 today?Has Microsoft improved them over time? And I'm not talking about the elite, I plan to buy a normal premium, and basically my concern is its reliability and if/how it will fail. I hear that MS began to repair systems with better cooling, I assume they are using these measures in the new consoles they manufacture as well.Is this the case? Have the amount of 360 errors dropped from previously? [/QUOTE] The 2006 batch of 360 seem to be more reliable and I dont think anything will go wrong with it unless its damaged before you open the box, otherwise you wont get any disk scratching or anything they have made some improvements to these so your OK and defintely recommend to get Forza 2, Shadowrun and Oblivion those three are the best the 260 has to offer.IMO[/QUOTE]2006? or 2007? Hopefully they didnt take a step back. :P I plan to buy the 360 at Fry's with a 2 year warranty for 55 bucks. The warranty states that you can return a broken 360 for a new one at the store to avoid shipping it for repairs. So thats pretty good but I dont even want to use it ever. Plus I'm pretty sure that it only works once and after that I'd have to buy a new warranty. I'm not sure about that though...As for games, I'm going to only have enough to buy one game and thats going to be DiRT. Played the demo the other day and that game is awesome. I'll be out of luck of buying anything else after that until I can find a new job. :P
I bought my one this year and I've not had any problems whatsoever with it; I must admit I was un-sure at the start as well but everything's been fine, you should be ok, even still they come with gurantee's you know!
I'd say it's a 75%-80% chance it will fail with-in 2 years or less. Good luck.
Two words: Extended Warranty.My Elite is doing so far so good.
Mines been working perfect since i got it last year. Never had a problem with it. Just make sure you look after it, keep it in an open space and so on.Don't buy into the drama of the red rings, it's not as bad as people make out and it's certainly not worth missing out on the 360s game collection for. :P
had mine for about a year and a half and is fine so far **touch wood**the occasional frozen screen but nothing major.failing... nomajority of the problems have been ironed out and hopefully microsoft have learnt from there mistakes..ROLL ON ACECOMBAT =P
had mine for about a year and have about 20 friends who have had it about the same and none have broken
Considering I'm on my 5th box....I'd say likely.
[QUOTE=''JohnWinger'']Considering I'm on my 5th box....I'd say likely.[/QUOTE]wow what did u do to become so unlucky. I've had mine since launch and haven't had a problem with it.
My hasn't given out, but has given me plenty of problems. Everyone I know has had issues or breakdowns.
[QUOTE=''sadikovic''][QUOTE=''hiho24''] I am planning to buy a 360 this week sometime. I have a growing concern about its reliability. I'm having terrible thoughts of me taking it home to be a bricked system out of the box. Basically my question is, how reliable is a new 360 today?Has Microsoft improved them over time? And I'm not talking about the elite, I plan to buy a normal premium, and basically my concern is its reliability and if/how it will fail. I hear that MS began to repair systems with better cooling, I assume they are using these measures in the new consoles they manufacture as well.Is this the case? Have the amount of 360 errors dropped from previously? [/QUOTE] The 2006 batch of 360 seem to be more reliable and I dont think anything will go wrong with it unless its damaged before you open the box, otherwise you wont get any disk scratching or anything they have made some improvements to these so your OK and defintely recommend to get Forza 2, Shadowrun and Oblivion those three are the best the 260 has to offer.IMO[/QUOTE]1% chance

every second person ive talked to's 360 broke, the others are just a matter of time, sorry dude, and 360 fans.
It's hard to tell, unless you have some official figures. I've had mine for 6 months. It froze once, but other than that it's been fine. My PC is less reliable than my 360 right now... Admittably, there certainly is a problem with reliability, but I don't think it's more than any other console has had. My friends N64 would only play games every so often, the infamous Disc Read Error with the PS2, the Blue Screen with PC's, and now the 3 red lights with a 360. Just make sure you have warranty, and you'll be fine.
Had mine for 10 months then it bit the dust. I have an elite now and it's going strong. My concern is more for the long run how long they will last. It seems that if they can breath fine and you treat it well it should last a long time. You just might run into issues down the road but if you have the warranty you're good to go. I'd recommend the 360 any day
[QUOTE=''hiho24''] I am planning to buy a 360 this week sometime. I have a growing concern about its reliability. I'm having terrible thoughts of me taking it home to be a bricked system out of the box. Basically my question is, how reliable is a new 360 today?[/QUOTE]I know you said you don't want to buy an Elite but honestly if I were you I would seriously consider buying one, in the long run you'll probably be glad you did it. I don't own an Elite - but for someone that doesn't already own a perfectly-fine-working Premium 360 I would buy the Elite. I'm on my secondPremium since 4 months after its release date back in September '05. My first one lasted almost a year but thanks to a complimentary warranty from M$ for owning an 'early' console I got a new one sent to me which I still have and works great. If something happens to it then I'll buy an Elite.Why I said you would be glad in the long is this: It's a great idea to get the new 120G HD which sells for $179 (ripoff yes, but that's M$ - I mean that's life :lol: ), you'll eventually need the extra space and will probably be something you'll end up buying in the near future anyways. Add that to the price of your premium and you've paid for an Elite plus some. The only reason I say all this is only because you don't already own a 360, because I'm not all about buying a new console for $479 just because it's black (which I have to admit is nice) and has HDMI cables. The HD is the 'main plus' of the Elite, well HDMI cables are nice if you have a 1080p TV that's at least 42'' and higher so you can tell the difference - if not, then HDMI doesn't help - in my opinion.But just consider all these options and see what will work best for you and go with it, either way YES I would buy a 360 because it's the best gaming console in the world hands down. An incredible line-up of games that's ever-growing and we even steal games from other consoles WE'RE THAT GOOD! Either way we'll see you online soon! Decipher my sig and it will lead you to the Promised Land... Enjoy! :lol:....:arrow:Next-Generation Gaming is playing games with your friends on Xbox Live. PERIOD.
I personally believe there are a bunch of trolls watching the 360 forums for threads like these so they can say how they've had several consoles fail. Of those who've actually had multiple failed consoles, I wonder how many were refurbished. I find it hard to believe that I am so lucky to have had only one 360 and never have a problem while others go through 5 or more. It just seems like a statistical impossibility, especially for people who say MOST people have had a 360 fail. There is no way I believe that to be true.
...I hate it for them too, but unfortunatley many peoples have, multiple times...