I got mine the day it was released, and no problems until this. I've pulled it apart once to clean it because it was having a little trouble reading some discs, and that fixed that little problem. And one of the controllers has a little glitch that crops up now and then, but not very often, and unplug/replug usually takes care of it.
Can't really say I'm surprised, poor thing was on when lightning hit nearby and power flicked on an off a hundred times, ending with a distant explosion sound from somewhere outside (transformer exploding I guess).

hock: But yeah, I know they aren't the most reliable device, seems like a lot of people only get a couple years out of them, max. Kinda like a VCR? That's why I was hoping someone had one with a dead drive or something for me.
If not, I'll pull one off eBay. Yay!