Why Xbox Class Action Suit
My Xbox 360 is Class Action.

I bought the Xbox 360 in December of 2005 for more than $500.00 using my own hard earned money I’m 14 years old and my folks make me “work for it” as they say.   I had previously owned the original Xbox and loved it.   Now eight months later my "new" $500.00 Xbox 360 is DEAD.

About a month ago, I was playing Oblivion on the system and suddenly the video quality dropped drastically.  It all became fuzzy and it looked like the color-count dropped to 256.  This problem continued to happen on any game I played - Call of Duty 2, Oblivion, Halo 2.  This problem appeared and disappeared randomly regardless of what game I played.  I finished what I was doing in Oblivion one night and then turned off the console because I was so ticked off that the problem wouldn’t go away. 

The next morning I turned it on and I got no picture at all, only a brief flash of a horizontal white line.   After the flash  I could hear the dashboard startup sound.   I found it odd that I could hear audio but I could see no picture.  I wondered if the video cable had come unplugged, so I checked it and it was fine.  I tried the 360 on two other TVs in my house and instead of a horizontal line I got a grid of dots that seemed to move across the screen.    I tried to check the continuity of the AV plug wires and they all seemed fine.  I also checked the voltage on the power supply.  It matched the voltages on the label.  I called the Xbox tech support.  I told them my problems and they told me to try a new AV cable.  So I purchased a new cable, plugged it in and got the same problem: a grid of small dots spaced apart on the screen    Now I was extremely annoyed.  Here I had explained the problem in detail to Microsoft, the “experts,” followed their instructions, pulled $30.00 hard earned dollars from my pocket and it did not fix the problem.

A few days after I had a friend over and he brought his 360.  We used my cables and they worked well on his box.   So I called back Microsoft tech support and told them what happened.  They told me that it sound like a console issue and that I had to send it in for repair and it would cost about $130.00 or so.  They reminded me that I was out of warranty, which by the way is only a lousy 90 days? .   So I’m thinking $500.00 plus $130.00 is now $600.00 plus!   They want me to pay $130 (nearly the price of a brand-new Xbox console) to fix their junk.   I think that is totally BS. 

So I opened the console and took out the main board thinking that maybe there is something simple like a lose wire or connector.   At first when I started taking it apart I thought it was very sophisticated and complex.   Looking back at it now,  actually it was very easy.  There are so few parts that make up the 360: you have basically one main motherboard, a small power switch board on the front, the DVD rom.  The power supply is external as you know.  Compared to the first “Xbox,” the 360 has so few parts.   But there is a heck of a lot of parts that are shaped like an “X” inside.   If I compare what you get with the Xbox 360,  in terms of parts count or weight, say to a standard personal computer, the personal computer gives you so much more!



Getting back to the stuff inside the Xbox 360, when I looked at the connector pins for the AV cable connector, that are soldered into the motherboard, I noticed there was a white or light grey “oxide” all over the motherboard near these pins.  My dad gave me a 10x magnifier to look closer and I saw a few of the solder joints for the components had “sink holes” or what my Dad called “inclusions” ... meaning lousy solder joints.   Some of the components on the board were dirty  and I noticed fingerprints (not mine).  I was bewildered that this was a “Microsoft” product.  I cleaned the board with an old dry toothbrush hoping the oxide stuff was the problem but that did not help, same dots on the screen problem. 

I am ready to run it over with my folk’s car.  My Dad said I could take my pick: Mom’s old 98 Grand Voyager, my Dad’s old 96 Jeep, our 1960 Allis Chalmers tractor, the Ferris zero turn lawn mower, or my favorite... my Dad’s 1987 Porsche 911 Cabriolet.   No, I’m only kidding.  I would never use the Porsche. It could get a flat tire.

I downright refuse to pay another $130 to Microsoft to fix their quality problems.   I payed $500 for the system, $100 in controllers, $30 in accessories, $200 in games, $50 for xbox live, and about $20 on downloads.  That total comes to $900, not counting shipping or tax.           

I’d like to hear from other 360 owner’s out there, whether you have had similar problems with your console or with Microsoft.  If there are many more stuck in the same boat as me, having invested in the Bill Gates foundation unwillingly, maybe we can join up for a class action .