Surge protectors causing Xbox 360 failures?
Technical problems and complaints have been hounding Microsoft‘s Xbox 360 for quite a while now. Overheating has been given as the reason most of the time, but a recent post on the Law of the Game blog by Mark Methenitis has revealed a new and unexpected culprit: surge protectors.
According to Methenitis, he got the following explanation during a call to 1-800-4-MY-XBOX to report his dead Xbox 360:
The Xbox 360 is highly sensitive to reductions in power, and even the slightest cut in power can cause things like the fans and even the DVD laser to malfunction. Surge protectors can cause this, and probably 90% of the consoles they see have all failed in 6-12 months of being plugged into a surge protector.
Methenitis says that according to the Microsoft rep that he talked to, the explanation allegedly comes from “somewhere up the Microsoft chain.” A Knowledge Base article for the Xbox 360 also tells users to “plug the power supply directly into a known good wall outlet. Do not use extension cords or power strips.”
Surge protectors, extension cords, and power strips are present in a lot of homes, and devoting a socket to a single console is just not possible sometimes. What do you guys think about this? Leave a comment and tell us your thoughts.
Via Law of the Game
Technical problems and complaints have been hounding Microsoft‘s Xbox 360 for quite a while now. Overheating has been given as the reason most of the time, but a recent post on the Law of the Game blog by Mark Methenitis has revealed a new and unexpected culprit: surge protectors.
According to Methenitis, he got the following explanation during a call to 1-800-4-MY-XBOX to report his dead Xbox 360:
The Xbox 360 is highly sensitive to reductions in power, and even the slightest cut in power can cause things like the fans and even the DVD laser to malfunction. Surge protectors can cause this, and probably 90% of the consoles they see have all failed in 6-12 months of being plugged into a surge protector.
Methenitis says that according to the Microsoft rep that he talked to, the explanation allegedly comes from “somewhere up the Microsoft chain.” A Knowledge Base article for the Xbox 360 also tells users to “plug the power supply directly into a known good wall outlet. Do not use extension cords or power strips.”
Surge protectors, extension cords, and power strips are present in a lot of homes, and devoting a socket to a single console is just not possible sometimes. What do you guys think about this? Leave a comment and tell us your thoughts.
Via Law of the Game
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