More Xbox 360 Hardware Problems as Controllers Smoke

Poorly made hardware has become a trademark of the Xbox brand as Microsoft today announced yet another defect with one of their products. The $130 wireless steering wheel used with games such as Forza 2 has been sold to 230,000 customers, according to the Associated Press. Microsoft announced in a statement that they are taking “a precautionary measure and voluntarily providing customers with a free retrofit to the Xbox 360 Wireless Wheel.”

According to the company, “a very small number of incidents” have occurred where “a component in the Wheel chassis may in rare cases overheat and release smoke when the AC-DC power supply is used to energize the Wheel. There have been no reported incidences of fire, personal injury or property damage due to the component failure in the Wheel.” Microsoft advises its customers to visit www.xbox.com/support and register for a retrofit of the hardware.

Disclosure: We may earn a commission from links on this page

Aside from overheating Xbox 360’s, which have cost the company over a billion dollars on top of the other losses they have incurred from a lack of profit, the original Xbox also had hardware issues with its Thomson disc drive and power cable. The company had a similar recall with the original Xbox when it was found that the power cord of early models could short circuit, causing fire, injury and property damage. In that instance, 14 million systems were affected.

Leave a Comment