Euro Repair Company Halts 360 "3 Ring" repairs: Claims Fault is "Endemic"

Micromart, a UK-based console repair company, is ceasing its repair service for Microsoft XBOX 360 units suffering from the "3 Red Lights fault."

An update on their company page (http://www.micromartltd.co.uk/) claims that "(the) problem is endemic on the XBox 360 console and the volume has made this repair non-viable." They continue to support other XBOX 360 repairs.

Via their "Customer Info" page, Micromart suggests that customers with "3 Red Lights" errors contact Microsoft directly.

(Micromart Ltd has been providing a comprehensive repair service to Games Consoles for over 10 years.)

[kingofps3]

What happens when they contact Microsoft directly for customer support on their XBOX 360's "3 Red Lights fault" repairs?

Another unit?

Edit: @nobizlikesnowbiz
"Sony paid them!" for stopping the repair on the issue, you say. That's just ridiculous kid. Grow up and see the facts for what it is and not what you believe it to be or feel like. Damn

@dantesparda
k. Hopefully, you will be set :) (No negative intention)

[Sangheili85]

My friends went out he called they offered to send a box got it within like 2 days then sent it out. Easy and fast i mean it still shouldn't happen but at least they took care of it fast. He go a new one within a week of sending it out.

Sometimes i really don't get this place kingofps3 asked a simple question i replied with what actually happened with my roommate and i get disagreed 4 times? its not like i said HAIL 360 DIE ps3!... damn you fanboys need to stop hating on anyone who says something kinda good about another system.

[PSTripleOG]

Piece Of SHlT 180 heheheheheheheheheheheeheheheh ehehe...... I would never buy a Ringer!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA MOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[Machety]

Wow so much 360 heat that the company couldnt work in that condition so they stopped. I understand where they are coming from. OK Xbots here what I think yall should do, whenever you are geting a 360 or if u have one already, yall should also get a freezer to cool down yall xboxes. Can anyone beleive that an Xbots told me not to get a PS3 because its made by an american company so its better quality. I laughed at him

[dantesparda]

Well i ordered my repair on Friday (June 22nd) and im not scheduled to get it (the coffin) til tomorrow (Thurs the 28th). So 6 days (and thats if i get it tomorrow) and i still have to take it to UPS myself cuz MS doesnt want to have to pay $15 for UPS to come pick it up. Vevn though they did the the 1st time, when my 1st 360 died, about a yr and 4 months ago. To tell you the truth, it all feels kind of long to me. I'll let you's know how long the whole thing takes.

@ Sano
I heay ya, but if it breaks again (which i think it will! i just hope that its during the one yr warranty), i will just have to send it in AGAIN. You have no real choice, but just to take it up the a$$ from MS, but see, fanboys dont seem to mind that sh!t to much because they are so in "love" with their 360s, that they dont mind taking it up the a$$ from MS, they like it

[Sano64]

My 360 died twice,I dont know what I will do if it dies again?

[nobizlikesnowbiz]

Eh. M$ just fix this problem and your console is golden. New heatsinks for FTW!

This company is a bunch of pussies they don't wanna work anymore wah wah wah I'm tired of fixing things. Sony paid them!

Lol that sounds ridiculous I know guys. If M$ fixes this, theres really nothing else to hold against it.

EDIT @ all who disagreed, especially kingofps3 above: WTF why do you take everything so seriously. Did you even read the comment? --"Sony paid them!......Lol that sounds ridiculous I know guys." Wow maybe you should read before you just try to pathetically rip on people.

[Arkham]

They have such a lead in the market place that I think this will all be resolved when they go to 65nm.

I wouldn't be surprised if they just swap the old motherboards for newly-designed versions, tack on a new warranty, and get this business behind them once and for all.

[360Sheep]

man you guys are too funny... They are going to be two years into a console with a 4 year lifespan. they are not going to make any design changes, save for the smaller ship. Just wait it out till the 720 comes out, just hope they will have a better backwards compatibility than the 360 had.

[SKullDugger]

MS says there is no problem remember and a second heat sink will not fix DVD drive issues, loud fans and video diplay issue and sound problems. People that plan on buying this console or remaining in the MS stable need to do some research. I can't belive that people pay $400.00 for this and are OK with all theses problems after my 3rd I said no more I did the research and jumped from this sinking ship and now own a PS3 and have peace of mind and before U start I LOVE FNR3 and Motorstorm and will buy Rainbow Six Vegas today and NINJA GAIDEN SIGMA next week and play with no fear of HARDWARE failure.

[Bill Gates]

HAHAAHAAHHAHHAHHHAHAHHAHAHAHHA HHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHHAHHA HAHHAAHAHHHAHAHHHAHAHAHHHAHAAHH HAAHAHAHHAHAHHAHHAHHHAAHHAHAHAH HAHAA................I'll comment later. I'm too busy LAUGHING OUT LOUD!!...haahahahaahahahahHAHA HAAHAH....HA!

[Arkham]

Please go pollute the comments somewhere else.

[Machety]

This dude BillGate on top of me is a funny dude. But I thinks its ashame that he can only comment once. Can we help him get his bubles back please.

[Ignorant Fanboy]

Bill Gates wrote: "HAHAA......I'll comment later"

Uh, no, dude you wont. You dont have enough bubbles!

[Shadow Flare]

oh man! What other product in history has such CRAP build quality that the repair company refuses to fix them anymore cos there are too many? AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Somewhere in this world, there's a landfill with an iconic landmark that the employees fondly refer to as 'xbox mountain'

[BIadestarX]

deja vu? mmm... ohh no way... it's the same Sony fanboys posting the same crap on every post about the same issue... don't you get tired of saying/repating what every other Sony fanboy say?

[ImWithStupid]

reduced to COMPLETE DENIAL about his beloved ringer and even FANTASY about a nefarious PS3fan conspiracy to destroy the ringerrrrrrrr.

Like Bill said.....LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[Rikitatsu]

MS is screwd unless the announce something at E3 , the made the crappiest console to date Congrats

[MoonDust]

New heatsink.

[snoop_dizzle]

apparently while many go through so many 360s, they really want to play games. Look my PS2 raped me but i stuck with it.

But anyways this is bad.

Europe always seems to get the bad end of the deal.

[Expy]

No, they only replace the "heatsink" in defective 360's returned to them (actually they put them into refurbished ones and keep yours). They don't offer new heatsinks in new consoles and probably never will. They'll wait for their "next" console and add in proper cooling for once.

[_insane_cobra]

Expy, your trolling is ridiculous even for a troll. Grow up.

[MoonDust]

You don't even know what you are talking about.

[Maddens Raiders]

that's just too funny and wierd.

I took this as the most interesting portion of the article:

-- "This problem is endemic on the XBox 360 console and the volume has made this repair non-viable." --

Now that is one he77 of an excuse from m~M. There's a lawyer in Redmond right now pulling his hair out.

[Skynetone]

.

[_insane_cobra]

A good point there. Are they paying for repairs out of their own pockets or what?

[Arkham]

The only reason I could think of is that they're not that big of a company. I didn't find much information on their volume or capacity, but I'm wouldn't be surprised they're just one of many smaller companies contracted by the regional Microsoft presence.

[thewhoopimen]

-SHOUND'NT A REPAIR COMPANY BE HAPPY WITH THE BUSINESS [?"-

A repair company contracted by Microsoft probably isn't getting paid per unit to fix each defective console. Most likely it is just a flat negotiated amount with a minimum quota. Basically, this repair company found out (much to their chagrin) that it was costing them more to support and fix all the red ring faults then it was worth the money they were making. The volume of it must've interfered not only with their ability to service other consoles (whom they might be contracted to also do repairs), but was probably eating into their material cost (soldering material, chips, boards), man hours, not to mention their credibility/pr (imagine tons of screaming xbox360 fanbois who can't seem to get a replacement unit within the "promised" repair time.) Basically, the opportunity cost was better dropping the service than handling it.

[ImWithStupid]

not when you as a "repair company" add yourself to the warranty chain for a product. A small company could lose its short honoring that many repeat failures of the same box. It's a design flaw, no amount of hardware is gonna fix that. I'll say it again MS(a "software" company) will be out of the console business in 3 yrs time. Be it shareholder revolt or upper management pulling the plug because will have turned into a massive money pit for them.

[PS360WII]

Ouch. Not hating but it is now an issue. Before it was just some customers spouting out how they get defective 360's and why oh why is it me. Now we are hearing for an actually repair company that's been doing this for 10 years and they are saying this isn't working.

If MS is going to say anything about the 3 Rings now is time to come up with a statement.

[pwnsause]

hahahahahahaha lolz, Im gonna go listen to that 360 song again

[pwnsause]

Seriously, if they dont fix this problem, EU is gonna get really mad and jump ship to PSWii

[DrPirate]

More or less, this is what's happened already.

[satanslilh3lp3r]

PSWii is my name on PSN!

anywho, seriously, does Europe get the shaft on everything console-based?

[VaeVictus]

An actual company claiming this adds even more merit to the complaints. The voices are getting louder Peter Moore, what do you have to say now?

[THAMMER1]

The word endemic was used but do you know what it means.

Endemic - –adjective Also, en•dem•i•cal. 1. Natural to or characteristic of a specific people or place; native; indigenous: endemic folkways; countries where high unemployment is endemic.
2. Belonging exclusively or confined to a particular place: a fever endemic to the tropics.
–noun 3. An endemic disease.

They stopped taking them because the issue is not as large as it seems. Reading is fundamental. Comprehension is necessary

[PS360WII]

2. Belonging exclusively or confined to a particular place

So Europe is not a large place?

[THAMMER1]

The point here is the issue is not as big as it may seem. For them to stop or halt repairs clearly shows us that this RROD issue is dyeing faster than the pride of a Sony fan boy.

[GrooveChampion]

If it was a small problem, why would they stop fixing it?

"(the) problem is endemic on the XBox 360 console and the volume has made this repair non-viable."

Endemic - –adjective Also, en•dem•i•cal. 1. Natural to or characteristic of a specific people or place; native; indigenous

They seem to be saying the problem is a characteristic (not a good one) of the 360. It seems that they believe the problem is apparent in all 360s, or at least the possibility of the problem is present in all 360s. The quote does not seem to say it's a small problem, it's saying the opposite.

[PS360WII]

I'm sorry to keep asking but I'm not understanding the logic. If the problem was dying then the company would still be taking in the repairs and going about their business. That's not the case they are saying this is a problem and they are now calling it an endemic and in turn will not accept anymore repairs dealing with the RROD

Edit: looks like Groove got to my question first.

[360Sheep]

characteristic of or prevalent in a particular field, area, or environment <problems endemic to translation> <the self-indulgence endemic in the film industry>,

"Endemic means a disease occurs all the time, and with predictable regularity, in a specific area or population"

when you use the word endemic, it is meant as a something that is prevelent and is constant, although to a particular region. You do not use this word when the cases are diminishing or reducing. The red lights are a DISEASE that will NOT GO AWAY. Get your head out of the sand sheep (or should i say ostrich)... baaaaaaa baaaaaaaa

[THAMMER1]

So your saying they are just throwing there hands in the air and giving up on fixing them. Sounds like good old logic to me. Riiiight.

[crck]

They are saying the 3 red lights are a natural characteristic or part of the 360 ownership experience. They may not want to repair them any more because repairing them costs more in time and effort then what they can reasonably charge their customers. They also have to warranty said repairs. So since the 3 red lights are a natural characteristic of the 360 additional repairs would probably have to be done again free of charge.

[GrooveChampion]

We aren't in on all of the information, and while there could be very good reasons for them to abandon red ring repairs, we don't know what those reasons are. you asked a good question, they're hired to fix broken boxes, so why would they stop if that's their business? Perhaps they were inundated with repairs and they were simply overwhelmed. It would then stand to reason why they would stop servicing those issues but won't stop repairing other 360 issues. The likelihood of them stopping this specific repair work because the problem is going away doesn't make much sense and as an argument it simply does not hold up to both the anecdotal or factual evidence that there is a problem with 360 hardware.

[i Shank u]

hey no limit guy. See how what u wrote says "like countries where high unemployment is endemic." replace it with like consoles where high failure rates are endemic, and you end up at xbox360.

[kewlkat007]

different toilet...

Moving on...

Anyone seen this discussion on gametrailers, E3 will be the bomb. We should have a discussion panel like this on N4g..haha(right)

http://www.gametrailers.com...

[CrazzyMan]

oh, yeah, there is no such problem?
but in any case, x360 failure rate is much bigger then ps3, because, if ps3 would have atleast half failure rate as x360 has, then it definately would be on all internet sites.
x360 has a failure problem, and ps3 doesn`t. The end.

"There's no smoke without fire". ©

[solidt12]

I think that this will be the first time in history the worst quality Console made ever is also the best due to software. At least for now. PS3 is coming along very well.

[Boink]

any response from MS yet?

[PS360PCROCKS]

Hmm...Microsoft I really really hate you I decided this last night as my 2nd console decided to start to act up on me. I can't get away from my 360 because I just love it too much, and Gears and Forza but oh how fun Gears is. I am a sad sorry person I know, but Microsoft is going to lose a customer really soon if this is their build quality for their next machine. But Microsoft I will never pay you a dime to fix these issues if their this prevalent I will keep buying new machines from Wal-mart and returning them with broken insides, or Hard Drives. You hear me? geesh

[Blankman]

i definetly didnt see sumthin like this coming. Msoft needs to adress these issues or this could be bad for their public image. I this gets out to the general public less ppl will be inclined 2 drop 400 on faulty hardware

[XbugPosse]

Here you have it xbugs, that's your 360. "The problem is endemic" haha in other words it's dominant and then "the volume has made this repair non-viable" haha oh dear that's a disease :-O Add to it the ridiculously overpriced peripherals with 3 freaking times the price for a HDD on top and a pay only online gaming service and then you have the complete package - XbugAssRapingCrapOfDisease3$h1 tty haha on your knees xbugs, on your knees, Billyboy is comin to feed ya haha and down go the bubbles ohhhh

[i Shank u]

im sorry for your mother that she turned out such a flamer. go to that gaygaming site to write your comments. and dude. why would you ever use the word xbug? that makes you sound like a girl. fanboyism is the GAYEST man holy shi'ite. FYI, i love 360 games, my 360 died a month and half ago and i still havent fixed it, i refuse to pay their bullshit. So, F*ck yea to 360 games, f*ck you to MS, and f*ck the word xbug thats what little girls who fight over consoles say.

[Firewire]

and still we have little xbots in denial!
for shame xbots/MS, for shame!

[AngryTypingGuy]

Wow, the Sonytards are out in full force on this one. I don't mind that people like the PS3, it's a great system, but many people believe that it's not the best. All you know how to do is say "AAAHHHHHAHAHAHAHAHAH it's overheating, you're a bunch of Xbots and zombies". (Not all Sony fans are retards, just a portion).
Zombies? Newsflash, Microsoft are the new kids on the block when it comes to making videogames. Some people are willing to give them a chance and not blindly follow a company because they've been around a little longer. People that think Sony is going to have the best game lineup this gen. just because they've been around the longest are the zombies. You have to understand that not everyone will crave an endless supply of mediocre RPG or beat em' up games. Or a bunch of games with silly Japanese characters and plots.

Most 360's are just fine. Mine is, and so is almost everyone else's. Microsoft is a hugely popular system, and it's easy to develop for. The fact that so many games that previously were only on a Sony console are now on the 360 should tell you something.

[PS360WII]

I hear ya but this isn't about how great the games are. It's about the system not being able to play the uber games cuz of the endemic of RROD in Europe

[i Shank u]

the thing frustrating me is that with all of the evidence against MS, its all anecdotal so far. when a class action suit is brought against MS, the truth may come out then. i just read about the guy on his 11th xbox from 1up, and thats friggin nuts. ive only had one break, i could never put up with 11. anyway, im willing to bet MS have cooked up a way to classify him as having 1 broken 360 that was repaired 11 times and not 11 diff boxes. they have to be either skewing the numbers or just flat out lying.

[TOM]

They get paid to fix these machines.Why on earth would they whine about more work...its what they do.Doesnt seem logical for a company that is in the buisiness of fixing systems would stop fixing them because there are too many of them.The more that brake the more income for this company.Either the owner is a freakin' moron or this cant be true.
We may not have to pay to get them fix,but MS has to pay someone to fix them.

[PS360WII]

It was said somewhere above but most likely the company only gets paid a flat rate vs money for each console fixed. With that in mind and the amount of console that keep coming in with the same problem they found the cost/income ratio was actually dipping into their own pockets. Any freakin' moron owner knows that going into the red is never good business.

[power of Green]

Keep digging. Every day the same sh*t by non 360 owners.

[PS360WII]

I like pie!

lol well these guys don't own 360's maybe but they fix em.

ps this is a full edit of my first post ^^

[Testo]

@ "They get paid to fix these machines.Why on earth would they whine about more work...its what they do.Doesnt seem logical for a company that is in the buisiness of fixing systems would stop fixing them because there are too many of them.The more that brake the more income for this company.Either the owner is a freakin' moron or this cant be true."

If GM paid a company to fix all problems with a certain car. And this certain car had a REALLY big problem that took them 10 hours to fix. But the car also had relatively smaller problems which take 2hours to fix.

They get paid 20 dollars for every car they fix and ship back.

If they are getting the REALLY bad problems with this car its not worth it for this company try and fix because it's too common and takes too much man power to complete.

[THAMMER1]

They did say it was non-viable so yeah I was wrong. So they have found the flaw to be a hardware characteristic. I guess that is also why the ATI graphics cards come with that big @ss heat sink also. The heat produced against a non lead adhesive kills the mother board.

WOW M$ needs to fix this fast. If the 720 comes out with the same issues I'm out on that @ss M$. Just having the best looking games is not enough you console needs to hold up too.

@ groove

No problem BRO. No disrespect taken. Thanks =]

[GrooveChampion]

I'm glad to see you admit your error, that's reassuring on these boards. No disrespect intended, just being honest.

[THAMMER1]

lag post.

[Shaka2K6]

x360 the lord of the red rings!!!!
ha!!!!!!!!!!!

[PortableCow]

Since I'm on Xbox #3 my gamerscore would be wicked good. Each 3 rings should give you 1000 pts, then maybe I could make it on the leader boards for something.

[XxZxX]

Justin beat you to that

[akaFullMetal]

there seems to be a problem, seems like we hear lots of stuff about 360 breaking down and how we get websites on how to your fix your system with a towel, and how it is known their is a heating problem, plus how microsoft said their first year systems were faulty, well maybe the others are too?? but who knows if it will be or get resolved, but in my opinion i think their is, but mine probably doesnt matter anyways, cant wait for e3