Knackered consoles/handhelds

[Morkin]

Inspired by the Vita thread reference Sony's build quality, I was wondering which consoles/handhelds that you've owned have been faulty & needed repairing or just completely crapped out. Here's mine.

GBA SP - Dead pixels, returned for a new one.
DS Lite - Same as above.
PS2 - Nasty grinding noises after a few hours use. Replaced by Sony immediately.
Wii - Completely knackered & got a refund.

[Misery]

I've been through ten PS2s.

TEN.

Not two, not four, not five, TEN.

I've had amazingly terrible luck with these ridiculous things.

Beyond that.....

I think the only console I've ever had go wonky on me was the original model NES, that grey box that sorta never worked quite right from the start.

Oh, and a couple of 2600 units died. I still gotta get a new one here soon.


That's it though. Everything else works just fine.

[theantmeister]

I've been pretty lucky, well, until recently:

Gamegear - Totally dead now.
DS Lite - Stopped reading DS carts. Turned out it just needed a clean!
Xbox 360 - My original 360 bit the dust with a RROD out of warranty. MS wanted £80 to repair it. Bollocks to that.

All my older consoles work perfectly. My Dreamcast's battery is dead, but that's too be expected and it doesn't really affect it. Oh, and the glue that held my Gameboy's glass on has totally gone.

[DreamcastRIP]

PlayStation - stopped reading certain game discs, repaired within warranty, still works
PS3 - nightmare! Constant problems with its Blu-ray disc player and it eventually succumbed to the YLoD = £400+ written off , replaced with PS3 slim
Xbox - stopped reading game discs, repaired within warranty, still works
Game Gear - was handed a used one for free, sound stopped working (a common problem), replaced it with another one off eBay for a pittance
PC Engine Duo R - it fried itself! Still need to get it repaired as they're too expensive to replace
DS Lite - the common issue of a cracked hinge, still works fine though
ST - disk drive had issues with certain disks, e.g. Blood Money
Virtual Boy - slight crack on its stand (another common issue) but otherwise it's fine

... and yet my launch day purchased Dreamcast (an unreliable console according to many) that's been so heavily used over the years still works perfectly. Go figure!

[firebreather]

Most of the consoles ive had have been 2nd hand so not a huge suprise when they die

think i have 3 dreamcasts that all worked fine when put away then refused to read discks when brought out of storage.
A PS2 that refused to read PS1 discs, would read PS2 Games fine though.
2 PS1 again disc read errors the lens cleaner couldnt fix.

only thing ive had from new that died was my original megadrive, it just started smoking, left a lovely smell of electrical burning in my room for weeks after

[Liamh1982]

Dreamcast - sudden reset syndrome
GB Advance - temperamental power switch, turns on when it wants to
GB Color - broken speaker
Game Gear - blown caps, since repaired
Jaguar - blown AC adaptor
Lynx - dead pixels, loose AC adaptor socket
Master System II - cartridge cover snapped clean off
Mega Drive 2 - broken AV out socket, blown AC adaptor
PlayStation - wouldn't load, replaced with PSone, eventually ditto
PlayStation 2 - on my third, first two both had stuck disc trays
PSP - also on my third, first ended up with cracked screen, second wouldn't boot UMDs or read Memory Sticks
SNES - three AC adaptors blown
Wii - two broken Wiimotes

[thevulture]

Mk 1 Playstation, went through good few due to the classic lens holder warp.
Game Gear:Screen died on me.
Game Cube:Would reset once it warmed up, say after 30 mins play.I, ahem sold it to a friend of mine who runs a chain of game stores, said it worked fine, even let him test it, so he sold it as in V.G.C
Numerous Dreamcasts, would keep having to open up, tweak prongs, as they'd reset.
PS3:Had 'excess' oil on part of the drive mechanism, oil getting onto discs, Sony told me i was lying, had indie repair shop sort it.
Handelds been fine, mind you i never use the GB or GBA as the screens themselves are wretched.

[James A]

An Amiga that stopped working after my Mum sprayed a load of Mr Sheen on it to clean it

PS1 the just stopped dead after 36 hours of play

PS2 that stopped playing PS1 games and DVD's. Assuming that was a laser problem.

4 Xbox 360's. 2 due to freezing, 1 drive break, 1 hard drive blow out.

[felgekarp]

I'm on my 3rd 360, the graphics went on both the previous ones and the last time I used my Playstation I had to use it on its side for it to read discs.

[psj3809]

I've been through ten PS2s.

TEN.

Not two, not four, not five, TEN.

Thats a ridiculous number ! I would have given up after a couple and given my hard earned money for games to another console, 10 is just laughable

[DreamcastRIP]

With the reliability horror shows that were/are PlayStation, PS2, PS3 and Xbox 360 I'd sure love to know what their respective 'true' sales figures were/are, i.e. total units sold minus number of units purchased by consumers as a replacement for broken units. I know such a figure will never likely be revealed though.

For instance, iirc PS2 reputedly sold around 150 million units but I bet many millions of that figure were replacement units. Kinda makes hardware sales charts redundant to a certain extent.

[thevulture]

With the reliability horror shows that were/are PlayStation, PS2, PS3 and Xbox 360 I'd sure love to know what their respective 'true' sales figures were/are, i.e. total units sold minus number of units purchased by consumers as a replacement for broken units. I know such a figure will never likely be revealed though.

For instance, iirc PS2 reputedly sold around 150 million units but I bet many millions of that figure were replacement units. Kinda makes hardware sales charts redundant to a certain extent.

Very true and then (as i mentioned to friend of mine the other day), wonder how many PSP/PS1, DS, Wii, 360, DC etc units have been sold purely to run pirate games on.

Know there's been sales spikes after way to run CD-R's, CFW etc has been found and judging by amount of folk blatantly advertising they'll chip your machine or for small fee get it running back up's over the years, it does make a mockery when firms start banging the sales figures drum.

[Rayne]

The only system I've ever had cause me trouble was the 360 - I've had three of them break on me.

What's worse is that none of them suffered from RROD, meaning for every time they broke, M$ wanted repair money off of me.

[Misery]

I've been through ten PS2s.

TEN.

Not two, not four, not five, TEN.

Thats a ridiculous number ! I would have given up after a couple and given my hard earned money for games to another console, 10 is just laughable

Unfortunately, for that particular console era, the PS2 had pretty much ALL of the games that I cared about. Well, no, the other 2 had some, but the PS2 had far more.

Also I can be REALLY persistent.

[DreamcastRIP]

With the reliability horror shows that were/are PlayStation, PS2, PS3 and Xbox 360 I'd sure love to know what their respective 'true' sales figures were/are, i.e. total units sold minus number of units purchased by consumers as a replacement for broken units. I know such a figure will never likely be revealed though.

For instance, iirc PS2 reputedly sold around 150 million units but I bet many millions of that figure were replacement units. Kinda makes hardware sales charts redundant to a certain extent.

Very true and then (as i mentioned to friend of mine the other day), wonder how many PSP/PS1, DS, Wii, 360, DC etc units have been sold purely to run pirate games on.

Know there's been sales spikes after way to run CD-R's, CFW etc has been found and judging by amount of folk blatantly advertising they'll chip your machine or for small fee get it running back up's over the years, it does make a mockery when firms start banging the sales figures drum.

Yep. Harking back to the 8-bit home computer days, I wonder how many Spectrums etc were sold to children who pirated nearly all 'full price' games in their collection and who only bought budget games. I say that with a nod to the Bruce Everiss interview in this month's RG.