Xbox 360 burns house down An Xbox 360 has allegedly caused over $100,000 (£50,000/€62,000) worth of damage to an US gamer’s house, after the console’s power brick caught fire. Can't see the video? Download Flash Player from Adobe.com Firefighters called to the blaze in Little Rock, Arkansas told local reporters that the console’s power brick was the …
Where's the story exactly?
Could've been a router, printer, laptop or many of electronic devices power supply, this kind of thing happens daily across the world.
Moral of the story: treat potentially dangerous equipment with respect.
...is a typical example of American news scaremongering. "Parents, sit up, pay attention, GAMES CAN BURN YOUR HOUSE DOWN."
"The red ring of death is connected to overheating of the interna-"
CUT!
He said overheating, that's all we need. BE AFRAID!
On another note, that's the first time I've seen a 360's power brick. Holy shit! My Spectrum's got a smaller power brick than that thing!
"But the company claims gamers can minimise the risks by unplugging the console and avoiding bending the power brick’s cord."
Better yet, don't buy XBox and avoid all of the risk.
I wonder who picks the tab on this? I am sure the insewerence (deliberate smelling pisstake) co passes the claim straight to MS, if not why not?
Paris, because I can (or I cannot more like).
Isn't this interesting? We all joyfully pounce on every little hardware defect in an Apple product (including sparking power supplies!), but when Microsoft get into manufacturing hardware, they manage to build something that burns down houses and nearly kills people.
Gives one a sense of context, that does.
:)
MS "claims gamers can minimise the risks by unplugging the console."
Leave it up to Microsoft to point out that removing electricity from electrical devices reduces the chances of electrical fires...
In a related brief, Server 2008 was found to be the least likely OS to crash while the computer is powered off.
</cynic>
@ AC - Microsoft suxorz: How you managed to type http://www.reghardware.co.uk instead of http://www.4chan.com or http://www.gaiaonline.com is really beyond me. Please try again and have a nice day.
@ Scott - Give it a rest: Electronics that catch on fire, or set other items on fire are a staple of El Reg reporting.
This is El Reg, the XBox 360 is electronic hardware and it was involved in a news-worthy event, hence the article. And El Reg frequently reports on household appliances attacking their human masters! Have you not heard of RoTM?
To be fair to MS, it sounds like it was the stupid owner's fault for putting the power supply in a poorly ventilated location and it probably won't be long before the same idiot is back in the news when his hair-dryer electrocutes him in the bath, although you may have to go El Reg's sister site "The Coiffurer" to read about it...
If you are designing a power brick you should expect it to be kicked under an entertainment center, covered in dust with a severe kink in the cable. This is the natural environment of the power brick. This is bad design pure and simple, done to save a few bucks, a few inches of space, or a few decibels of noise.
Utterly unacceptable.
The V1 does have a brick, my mate's V1 power lead fits my V2 console. Go figure.
Also: all power bricks heat up. he probably had something flammable on or near the brick. these things happen. I've never had an issue with my 240v brick... hmmm... maybe it's Australian mains power that makes Xbox 360s more reliable?
They should be designed for stupid users, being accidentally covered or the cat shedding on them. etc. Designing for safety is pretty simple. Polyfuses (resettable fuse thingies) can be used to kill power within the unit when it reaches, say, 80 deg.
What I want to know though was if the person was running pirated games? Perhaps this was a new form of DRM.
I'll go with you on that one, if you market a power brick separate to the console, you can hardly blame people for wanting to hide it out of the way as it looks ugly as sin. Although who knows what he had stuck on top of it which may have held the heat in more.
Still at least his console won't suffer the RROD now. :)
Playing pirated software- or games that are rated too old for you- WILL CAUSE YOUR XBOX TO EXPLODE!
You just know that Sony will now probably be packing their consoles with C4 so when they blow up it's a bigger explosion than the Xbox. I can just imagine the comments in a week or two- "OMFG! The Xbox sucks! My PS3 did a full million dollars of damage!!!11! MS cant even make a console that explodes properly!"
Paris because that Xbox is hot.
"Ever noticed the Xbox owners shout foul almost instantly, whilst at the same time love running around like idiots foaming at the mouth, when it's some other manufactuers hardware..."
I've noticed the very same thing with Sony owners, if not more so. And Nintendo owners are a holy terror if you dare take His Holiness Shigsy's name in vain. There are plenty of insecure fanboys on all sides it seems.
and I thought it got hot so I could cook my breakfast whilst gaming!
* Preheat Xbox360 for 1 hour whilst playing favourite game.
* Make a little tray out of tinfoil.
* Place on top of power brick and add a little olive oil.
* Crack open egg and pour contents into foil tray.
* Continue playing game for around 10 minutes.
* Serve up in a butty.
Yum!
"Microsoft has already recalled thousands of power bricks worldwide because of worries over a potential fire risk. But the company claims gamers can minimise the risks by unplugging the console and avoiding bending the power brick’s cord."
Nope, that was the XBOX and the recall of the power lead
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