
We've written about the Xbox 360 before - see
Xbox 360 Recall: Penny Wise, Pound Stupid and
Xbox Faults Cost Microsoft - but a new report has looked further into the failure rates of Microsoft's gaming console. A rather astonishing 23.7% have problems within the first two years...
The study by
SquareTrade covered 16,000 consoles and found the Xbox eight times more likely to hit problems than the Nintendo Wii, and twice the Sony PS3, reports
Information week.
The biggest reported failure for the Xbox 360? The notorious "red ring of death" - subject of a special warranty - that is associated with flashing red lights on the device and the display of an "E74" error message.
According to the report:
Continue reading "Xbox 360 hits striking failure rate" »
I live in a part of the world where I used to dread the frigid days when I had to deal with the nasty inconvenience of frozen car door locks on my 1995 VW Jetta. Solution: Hair dryer and a long extension cord. That is until the lock barrel finally corroded and fell out two years ago. (Really.)
Given my run-ins with mechanical locks, I am especially leery of electronic locking systems.
You might be too, after reading:
Continue reading "Keyless Entry Fob Sports Crappy Solder Job" »

Over two million pets in the UK have an idENTICHIP RF tag in the scruff of their neck that works as a kind of electronic ID tag. So what are the chances that two new devices based on the same technology -- which has had a good track record up until now -- would fail in three different dogs (including Barney, shown here with his pal Georgia, who coincidentally lives next door to one of the other dogs). And then to have those same devices weirdly and spontaneously rectify themselves after "xray"' investigations?
The odds must be, well, big enough to be almost impossible.
Continue reading "A Dog's RF Tag Fails - Is RoHS the Culprit?" »
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