MS: Xbox 360 Racing Wheels May Overheat

No, you're not imagining it—your 360 wireless racing wheel may literally be burning rubber. But instead of issuing a recall, Microsoft is offering a "voluntary retrofit."

Microsoft released a carefully worded statement yesterday, warning that the AC power supply for the Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel may "in rare cases" overheat and actually emit smoke while charging the wheel. The software giant is offering a free, "voluntary retrofit" for the power supply; the word "recall" never appears in the bulletin, but that's basically what we're talking about, isn't it? Microsoft also points out that "there have been no reported incidents of fire, personal injury or property damage" due to the defect.

Personally, I'm getting a little annoyed by these non-recall recalls; just last week, Nokia issued its own "voluntary retrofit" for a series of overheating cell phone batteries, and then chastised news outlets for calling it a recall. Call me crazy, but if you're putting out a product that's overheating or even belching out smoke, I'd say a full-on recall is in order, even if it means you might get dinged on Wall Street for a day or so.

Anyway, if you're the proud owner of an Xbox 360 racing wheel, go to Microsoft's Xbox support site, fill out the form (you'll have to print it out and snail-mail or fax it in—did we just time-warp back to 1987?) and wait for a replacement power supply. In the meantime, you'll still be able to use your wheel on battery power, but you won't get any force feedback.

Oh, and in other Xbox overheating news, my fellow blogger Chris Null pointed out this story on Kotaku about a 14-year-old North Carolina gamer who plunged his 360 into a pan of water, hoping to cool off the console. He's OK (a few small burns aside), but I suspect his Xbox is down for the count.

Related:
Microsoft Providing Free Retrofit of Wireless Wheel [Planet Xbox 360]