Users Unhappy With Damaged And Non-Working Xbox One Consoles

The Xbox One has only been on sale for a few days now, but it hasn’t taken long for a swarm of unhappy customers to hit the internet and air their frustration over damaged or non-working consoles. It also appears that there is not just a single issue that you may face. Alongside reports of consoles having large scratches or chunks of plastic missing and consoles making a clicking / grinding noise when discs are inserted, there are also claims of controllers not connecting or disconnecting after a couple of minutes, error messages, games not installing and no sound being passed through from HDMI connected media devices.

Scratched and damaged consoles

The biggest concern that a number of users have been commenting online about is their consoles having scratch marks over them even before they have taken them out of the box. Whilst not every console is damaged in this way, there is the feeling that the quality control stages may have been cut short – or out entirely as Microsoft worked to build up as much stock of the next generation console as they could. As images of the marked consoles crop up online, such as the one above, we have seen varying degrees of damage from small scratches in the upper part of the casing, to chunks of plastic missing out of the chassis entirely above the ports on the rear of the chassis. Granted these are not going to stop the consoles from working, but let’s be honest – when you are paying in the region of £450 for a brand new console marks like these are not acceptable; especially from such a high-profile company.

Discs not reading & clicking/ grinding noise heard

Whilst scratches are a cosmetic issue, there is one issue that is topping everything else. Some users have effectively got consoles that simply won’t read or play and discs that are inserted into the console. As seen in a number of videos that users have uploaded to YouTube, as soon as a disc is inserted into the console, a grinding or clicking noise can be heard followed by a message on-screen that the disc cannot be read. What I will note is that it appears that the discs are not even being spun up when the noise occurs as the disc is ejected from the console in the same orientation as it was inserted. Its appears to sound as though the Blu-Ray drives read head motor is getting jammed and the noise heard is the read head knocking back and forth against another part of the drive.

Like the marks on the casing, this is perhaps a sign the quality control measures may have been relaxed a little – evidence that is backed up by one user who discovered a Microsoft confidential disc in their console when taken out of the box.

Reports are now coming out however that Microsoft are offering users with the damaged drives a free complimentary game; with either the choice of Dead Rising 3, Forza Motorsport 5, Ryse, or Zoo Tycoon given as a digital download. Users are required to contact Microsoft Support regarding their console, so they should be able to play a game on their new system, even if it isn’t from a disc.

Xbox Live Service Status

We’re not finished there with reports from upset users, after checking the status of Xbox Live, there are a number of Live features that are unavailable at this moment in time. If you’re worried that your console is not connecting to Xbox Live properly, it best to head over to http://support.xbox.com/en-GB/xbox-live-status where you can see the current status here in the UK.

Image courtesy of Geek.com & Digital Trends

Sources: Geek.com, Kotaku, Airing News, Reddit, Gamespot