Microsoft explains Xbox 360 Opus motherboard

Microsoft said Friday that the Opus motherboards are indeed making their way into pre-HDMI Xbox 360s sent in for repair, but stopped short of suggesting that the board will prevent Red Ring of Death failures.

[fafoon]

You see this button here
Touch it
It turns on
And then
These 3 Red Lights flash
But Don't worry its perfectly normal

[ps360fella]

OMG be original please, how much intelligence does it take to make up a rrod joke, like come on be more creative U TOOL.

[Menchi]

Umm... It's an article about RROD, what sort of joke can you possibly come up, that has relevance, outside of a RROD one?

My my...

[ps360fella]

i dunno say something like 'its not only the red ring thats gonna make the the console fail msft will help along the way" but jus saying rrod is gay

[fafoon]

Or not being able to come up with somthing yourself
Well that to is Bent as F*ck

P.s your attemt at what you call a joke
Was Crap
Dont give up you Day job(road sweeper)

[NoxiousD]

you guys are wrong lmao

[Skynetone]

huh..........

[Idonthatejustcreate]

Both Sony and Microsoft messed it up in at the beginning with thier consoles. The only difference between them is that Sony has less things to un-mess.

[FantasyStar]

I'd defend Microsoft as well, but I worked over 100 360s and they all reek of "rushed, messy Hardware designing". Microsoft has no room to talk concerning why their hardware is failing other than their own obsession to get their console on the market before the competition.

Sony however had advanced technology in its systems each gen. PS1's really took advantage and initiated the age of game-based discs, but suffered drawbacks for overheating and weak rotating motors during launch. PS2 introduced the DVD-medium storage that every console is using now. Launch PS2s suffered quite a bit of drawback because of the Disc Reading Errors. I personally never had this problem, but sources say that the lens wore out too quickly because people were using the PS2 to play DVD movies. PS3's suffer the same DRMs, but to a much, MUCH lesser degree. You see there are plenty of reasons for Sony to say why their consoles died, but Microsoft only has one reason as to why their consoles have died, and Microsoft isn't even using any kind of brand new technology at all. Just the same, tested-and proven hardware; tested against time.

[ChefDejon]

"Were doing it right this time"

[yanikins111]

again?

[outlawlife]

from all accounts this board seems to be leaps and bounds over the launch board

red rings seem to be getting rather infrequent these days at least in my circle of friends

so kudos to microsoft for working on the issue

[shazam]

they still have that small ass heatsink on the gpu, the hottest chip on there.

[TOSgamer]

Its been almost 3 frickin years! All they had to do to reduce red ring of death was get rid of those stupid X-clamps... I have no clue why they used them in the first place.

[FantasyStar]

Move the GPU away from the DVD Drive and that would kill RroDs immediately. The GPU is seated directly under the DVD-Drive. The DVD-Drive spins at a fast 8x-12x and dumps most of its heat inside of the console itself. First destination- ALREADY HOT GPU.

[Megatron08]

From what ign said the board is something like the "faclon" and uses a 65 chip and while that might not completely fix rrod it will definetly help. What ps3 fanboys dont realize in that rrod is cause by a lot of different things. Almost anything that is wrong with your system will give you rrod. THey only way to fix it completely is to have a 0.0 failure rate

[yanikins111]

ahh. Its funny. I remember when gran turismo 5 Prologue came out a whole bunch of fellas from this side of the fence were asking how it feels to pay to beta test a game.

So umm, hows it feel to pay to beta test a console?

The fact that microsoft isnt the laughing stock of the games industry right now is a testament to the intelligence of the average gamer. In what market could you release a product with a (and being generous) 30% failure rate and not get boo'ed, sued and laughed out of town. Its quite pathetic that so many of us still support them. Add that to their lack of innovation in every thing they do (go look up who invented the gui, who pushed the internet, who made mp3s mainstream, who pushed new high capacity media etc etc etc), their resource-hog o.s's and their sometimes ethically/legally grey business practices and i wonder how the company has survived so long.

I dont hate the 360. Its nearly fantastic. I hate the company that made it.

[FantasyStar]

ALMOST.....but everything you said is true and fair. Just in a twisted irony concerning GT5P.

[Megatron08]

about the say way I felt about paying for a pre alpha blu way player when I got my ps3. 2 years later and its almost to the beta stage hey sony making great head way. To bad I got my ps3 to play games and they have zero worth while exclusives coming out this year.

[yanikins111]

pre-alpha? yet it still works... odd that.

LBP, Resistance 2, mgs4, motorstorm all say hello.

lol at the disagrees with my first comment. Truth hurts huh?

[Megatron08]

@yanikins111 LBP a piece of trash game that will be filled with 1000's putting no effort in to making levels and trying to sell them online for insane prices.

Resistance 2 another boring FPS (and ps3 fanboys say the 360 only has FPS)

mgs4 this could be the most boring game in the history of video it ranks right up there with ET. I Had this game and after like 5 hours there was maybe 1 hour of gameplay to it. I tried to like it I tried to go back in play it more but everytime I thought about turning it back on I remember those 5 looooooong hours of painful torture. After abotu 3 days i realize I was never goin to play it again and sold it a few days later to get what money back I could.

motorstorm after playing the 1st one that was godful and boring I'll pass on this one too.

On and btw if I had of wasted any money on buying blu ray movies I'd soon be forced to buy them all over again to get all the features that should of been there in the 1st place. All the same movies that I own already on dvd that have all the featues that are now missing from blu ray. Buying the same movie that I over over and over and again while sony tries to fix their blu ray players I think I'll pass on that too.

[Exorgasm]

It isn't beta testing a console , it's releasing something extremely flawed and then eventually trying to catch up with hardware failure rates and do right for your customers. The PS3 is rock solid and a great addition to any game room but it doesn't offer a third of what the 360 does so far.

if there was any other option when it comes to playing most of their heavy hitters that didn't involve upgrading my computer I would be all for it but there isn't. The reason you see such blind loyalty to the 360 is that for the most part it provides an unmatched console gaming experience.

The rrod problem is exaggerated by fanboys on one side of the fence and swept under the rug and overlooked by those on the other side. I have a launch 360 that still works great but I'm lucky and I know 4 people personally that have had to ship theirs out in coffins so it is definitely a terrible problem but the game library outweighs the risk.

[Lmann]

Well, that it... your commits put you in the fan boy group of people. And your statements are so skewed that it hurts your creditability. Sorry man

[ICUP]

Yo yanikins111! i think u hit a nerve with Megatron08, he went RRODed. :)

[yanikins111]

@ exorgasm

When they send me a replacement 360 and a dozen games ill say they are doing right by their customers ;)

And while you are entitled to your opinion that the ps3 doesnt offer a third of what the 360 does i just cant agree with it. There are few titles exclusive to the 360 that i would purchase if i had one. Gears of war 2 (already finished the first a thousand times before the box croaked), burnout 3 (waaaaay better than paradise IMO) and forza 2/3 are the only games id really be interested in buying, and even if the price drops to the rumoured $200, with wifi and online and a game thrown in thats still up around $500 australian dollars.

I really do want to play gears2. And it sucks because i just cant justify that purchase. I mean think about it. if the console i have plays bluray discs, has online play for free, has a great line up of 1st-3rd party exclusives and multiplats, and has more potential for developers, how do i justify buying a 360 for maybe one or two must buy titles a year? I think this is what ms is missing. If you have a 360, the ps3 still offers considerably more potential as a games machine and home entertainment hub. If you already have a ps3, the 360 really offers nothing. The online "might" be better in places, the games catalogue might be bigger, but is that enough to justify spending money on a faulty piece of hardware, that may or may not have all its bugs sorted out, that i cant play online for etc etc etc.

And thats the thing. If ms didnt have the insanely deep pockets that they do, the 360 would be dead by now. The 1 billion dollars for rrod repairs would have made sure of that, the law suits that any other company would have faced, the public ridicule. But because ms is so powerful, and is so wealthy they have been allowed to "get away" with totally f***king over gamers. Im sure im not the only person who has lost upwards of a grand thanks to microsofts stupid cost cutting procedures.

Edit:

Bubbles for megatron 08. Seriously guys. Bubble him up.

He single handedly managed to post the most factually inaccurate post in the history of the internet.. Congratulations Sir.

I salute you.

[Mighty Boom]

I just got my Elite back three days ago. I wonder if it has the Opus board??? I know its a new console because I have to download all my content again to use it off line.

[outlawlife]

the elite wouldnt have the opus board because the opus board is for early boxes without hdmi

[Death]

There are atleast two sperate boards being used in the Xbox 360. You have the HDMI equipped boards and the non-HDMI equipped boards. One of the features all Elites have had since launch was the inclusion of an HDMI port. Your Elite can't have an Opus. This board looks like it was designed to eliminate the higher than expected failures of early consoles. This doesn't mean these consoles are better and that HDMI boards are the suxxor though since the HDMI equipped consoles have had a number of revisions also.

In short, all the newer consoles including the newer repaired consoles will use the latest and greatest boards since 1 billion isn't chump change and Microsoft knows controlling costs by reducing repairs under warranty is just as important as consumer confidence in the product.

-Death

[Pain]

They have No chance at "fixing the "joke of the XBOX 2's hardware" problem until they screw there fans with another Mandatory Upgrade to xbox 3 in late 09 early 10.

untill then its fix fix fix lol 360 back to the drawing bored.

[IaMs12]

Most of the problem shave been resolved..... and i just hope they get it right for the next console... remeber MS is still new to the consoles this is their 2nd one and SONY is on their 3rd they have 1 whole generation over them so you would think they know some kinks or two that they worked out way back that MS might be just figuring out...

[yanikins111]

MS is new to consoles doesnt really mean much as far as component quality goes. MS is new to hardware design, but the people they employ shouldnt be.

[Megatron08]

It does prove tho that MS keeps looking for way to imprve the rrod problem

[DevastationEve]

rrod...haven't come across it yet. is it something real? honestly, i've had my console since 05/06. i was thinking of getting a ps3 this year, but instead am looking at a 360 elite. 120 gbs sounds tempting! and waiting for the opus board might sound like a better option, if this rrod is really much of a concern to anyone.

i can't be without grid for too long, so if rrod does exist in the way you people are saying then maybe i should be scared. i'll buy another 360...anything to stay away from ps3 (OMG! have you SEEN a ps3 gamer? they're not normal man. THEY DONT HAVE EYES!!!)

*be a sport and take my comment for what it is and not what you want it to be...just merely humor*

[DevastationEve]

Everyone knows that this whole thing has cost MS valuable credibility. So, in spite of all the good they've done this gen, this was the Achilles Heel they've been forced to limp on for some time. And guess what?!

They have limped on...and on...and on! They NEVER accepted defeat. They pressed onward.

I want you all to look up The Mojave Experiment for a good look at what they've had to do in response to people's negative, and blatantly prejudice views of Windows Vista.

Decide for yourselves.