If you thought disc drive troubles were bad, count your blessings, because some Xbox One owners are reporting far worse problems. How bad? About $500 worth of plastic and chips going up like a pack of Marlboros bad.
It's hard to believe, but that's the story of two users are reporting on the Xbox Support Forum, claiming that their consoles actually started smoking after showing an amber light.
Member innerWrAiTh wrote, "Got my Xbox One, played it last night and today. Was playing Ryse, went and done some quick cleaning, come back and the Xbox had a amber light. Plugged it into the wall like people recommended, ended up smoking through the top after I turned it on. Now I have to call and get a coffin. Seriously? its a new console? This is like PS4x2."
The following day, TheZeeMan reported the same problem, writing on the forum, "I had the same issue, played fine on launch night, played fine for the most of the 22nd into the 23rd until about after 16 hours of gaming, mine just shut off and power supply was amber. It wouldn't turn back on so I followed the instructions of resetting the power supply and then it turned on for one second, buzzed, then started smoking. Sent it back to Microsoft already. I'm really hoping this is just a fluke and not due to gaming, what's the point if you can't play for very long."
Microsoft has yet to comment on this issue, but given that there's only two reports to date, don't expect to hear much from the company on the matter.
Similarly, while Microsoft is aware of and dealing with reported disc drive errors, there's been no word on a problem that often goes hand in hand with disc drive problems: the green screen of death.
When discs in the Xbox One fail to load, owners are often faced with the loading screen indefinitely, or until they turn off the console. It's thought to be the result of the same disc drive problem, only it's being witnessed without the same "grinding, crunching, or clicking" sounds. As such, it's hard to conclude the root cause is the same.
YouTuber RajmanGaming HD caught the problem in action, and you can check it out below. Luckily, he was able to fix the issue using the "Emergency Offline Update" for the console. Unfortunately, this no longer seems like a viable workaround for others experiencing the issue, as Microsoft pulled the update last week, and has since been encouraging customers requiring an offline update to contact customer support, a company representative telling GameSpot, "Because of the complexity of this customer support process we've actually removed the page and we will work with customers directly to make sure they have a smooth experience."
Searching "green screen" at Xbox.com yields no relevant support information for the Xbox One. Interestingly, it seems users had a similar problem with the Xbox 360, also related to problematic loading.
Addressing the disc drive errors, Microsoft issued a statement earlier today, reading, "The issue is affecting a very small number of Xbox One customers. We're working directly with those affected to get a replacement console to them as soon as possible through our advance exchange program."
UPDATE: Microsoft has since issued a statement specifically regarding the reports of smoking consoles.
