My Creaky Xbox 360: Aches and Pains Aplenty

Like many an Xbox 360 gamer, I'm already on my second console (after my first one bit the dust last spring). But while it's still chugging away, my little beige buddy is suffering from a litany of ailments—some merely minor and annoying, others more serious. And from what I've read on the Microsoft forums, I'm one of the lucky ones.

Before I begin my latest rant, I'd like to point out that hardware issues aside, I love my Xbox 360—I think the software platform is brilliant, I love the games (my wife has threatened to hide my "Halo 3" game disc), and I'm a Video Marketplace junkie. No quarrels there.

But almost all the fun came to a screeching halt last May, when my barely six-month-old Xbox 360 got hit with the Red Ring of Death. About a month later, Microsoft tech support sent me a brand-new console, and I was gaming again. Luckily, the dreaded RROD has yet to reappear (although many 360 owners are on their third or even fourth consoles), but over the past few months, a series of bugs and glitches have cropped up—and sadly, just about every one is well documented in the Xbox 360 support forums. Among them (starting with the most minor):

• Busted USB port flap: It's a little, spring-loaded plastic flap that covers the twin USB ports below the main power switch. Anyway, the spring broke several weeks ago, and now the flap just lies flat, leaving the ports exposed. Not the biggest thing in the world, but annoying nonetheless. (Click here for similar complaints on the Xbox forums.)
• "Unreadable Disc" errors: My new console seems to have a particularly sensitive DVD drive. Many games play just fine (I've played dozens—nay, hundreds—of hours on "Halo 3" with no problems), but with "Gears of War" and "Madden '08," I regularly get "This disc is unreadable" alerts—an error that stops any gameplay in its tracks, forcing you to return to the Xbox Dashboard. Both game discs look almost completely free of scratches, and if I eject them from the 360 drive and put them back in, gaming usually resumes. Luckily, "Gears of War" auto-saves regularly, but I've cursed like a sailor after my Madden matchups (with 15-minute quarters, mind you) come to a sudden, unrecoverable end in the third quarter. (Similar complains here, here, and here.)
• Disc tray won't open: Oh, one more thing. That DVD drive I was just complaining about? It won't open anymore—at least not on its own, anyway. When I hit the eject button, the green light on the "eject" button flashes, the drive makes a few little clicking noises, and then...nothing. Now, if I want to open the DVD tray, I have to press the eject button and then give the tray itself a little push, which seems to do the trick. (More gamers with the same problem here.)

So, are any of these bugs fatal? Not at all, and luckily, none of them are bad enough to warrant sending my replacement console back to Microsoft for repair (well, not yet anyway). And yes, Microsoft did step up to the plate and extend the 360's warranty to a full three years, and I give Redmond credit for that. But based on the problems I'm having—and the ongoing complaints on the Xbox forums—it sounds like plenty of shoddy 360 consoles are still rolling off the assembly lines. (And say what you will about Sony's PlayStation 3, but that console appears to be as tough as nails.) I have to say, when I plunked down my $400 for the Xbox 360, I expected more from Microsoft—a lot more.

OK, fellow Xbox 360 gamers: getting any grief from your consoles? Sound off.