Bah HUMBUG

[zola]

We got the X-Box 360 for Christmas this year.

Got it hooked up but we were having trouble with the video connection. It worked for a short while, but when Ben and I moved it just to straighten out the area where it was set up, we lost the video again.

At first we thought it was just a bad connection, but further investigation proved that the connection at the xbox itself is bad--the plug doesn't seat snugly, and if you wiggle it in place, you get picture but if it isn't aligned just so, you lose the picture again.

I don't know if it's the console or the plug, but the plug itself looks just fine, so I suspect the internal plug in the console is bad or mis-aligned.

Pissing me off even further is that if I want to find out quickly if it's the xbox or the cable, I will have to go and purchase a new plug but they won't refund my money if it turns out its the unit. They'll send me a new cable in 8 to 12 business days, but if it proves to be the console, I'll have to send it in for repair which will take 8-12 weeks.

At this moment I am seriously considering just eating the loss of the $150 worth of xbox games we just purchased and returning the stupid thing to the store. Since one is unopened and the other two were never played, just looked at, I can probably recoup some of the loss on E-bay.

Then I'll spend the extra $200 to get a PlayStation III--those at least work when you take them out of the box and plug them in.

Comments

[fenchurche.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry it's not working for you, but I do have to say that you've got just as much chance of getting a defective P3 as an Xbox 360... these things sometimes happen in mass production (and with the ranges of games available, you'll probably be happier with the latter in the long run). Do you know anyone else who has a 360? You could try borrowing their cord to see if that's the problem or not, or even see if you can rent one from Blockbuster or something.

This is one of the big disadvantages to knowing people all over the world... I would normally offer to run one of our cables over and give it a try, but I'm pretty sure it would be a bit of a drive from here! :-)

[zola.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, I don't know anyone close by with a 360. I obviously have to try another cable to be sure, but I'm very suspicious that it's the unit itself because everything looks perfect on the cable, it's not bent or damaged, the problem is with how it seats itself.

I'm just really disappointed and angry--I won't even be able to find out what the problem is until I can bring the unit to the store on Sunday--they may have a spare cable there that we can try, and perhaps since it was just purchased, they can swap it out, assuming they have anything left to swap with.

Adding to the unhappiness of the situation, it was the only Christmas present purchased this year aside from a few stocking stuffers--we were trying to keep our spending to a minimum and figured that we'd get one thing that everyone in the house would enjoy.

Of course, it's kind of hard to get any enjoyment out of something that doesn't work correctly...

As sometimes happens, despite the best of efforts, there were many factors making this year's Christmas a decidedly un-joyous occasion, so having the only gift we purchased turn out to be defective just kind of frosted the cake.

Undoubtedly I'll get over it--there's still plenty to be thankful for. ;)

[fenchurche.livejournal.com]

Ouch. Yeah, I can definitely understand the frustration. I really hope it turns out to be something as simple and quick as a bad cable...

[madclarinet.livejournal.com]

Ugh - that is a real annoyance.

Sounds very much like a bad connection within the 360. If cable is not seating correctly it does tend to lean to the bad socket in the 360 (dry solder joints and/or badly seated connector).

I hope you can get it sorted sooner rather than later - I understand how much an annoyance it is. Are you going to add better quality control to you list of things to sort out when your evil hordes take over the world???

[zola.livejournal.com]

When I had to pick up the unit and tilt it to get the serial number, I heard a little piece of something rattling in the case... care to bet that it's a solder joint?

If you brace the cord under the plug, you can get picture, but I didn't really want to start my game only to lose anything I'd done when we return the unit--the local store is out, but the one in Buckhannon still has some, so we're going to bring it there.

[madclarinet.livejournal.com]

Could be a solder joint - more likely a mounting piece of plastic. Sometimes you can tell if its solder to plastic by the noise it makes.

I see the point about losing anything of your game. I bet the cats would be annoyed if they lost their save games.