Microsoft has admitted that it has received a number of complaints about technical problems with its new Xbox 360 gaming system.

Some owners complained that their systems were crashing during game play, sometimes with error messages coming up.

"I popped Perfect Dark Zero in and about 30-40 minutes in the 360 just turned off. I had no clue what happened," wrote one gamer by the name of 'Makaveli87' on the Team Xbox enthusiast website.

In an informal poll run by the site, 48 users claimed to have had issues with their new gaming systems. Eighty five per cent of the respondents reported no issues.

Another user was told by Xbox support that his issues appears to be related to a broken hard drive that comes bundled with the Premium version of the gaming console.

"[Microsoft] said they have received numerous calls already. I unplugged my hard drive and it worked fine. Put it back on my box and red [error] lights again," 'Zeebo' reported on Xbox Scene.com.

"Now it doesn't even work without the hard drive. I still get the three flashing red lights," he later added.

Microsoft has asked anyone with problems to contact the company so it can ship the device back for testing if it cannot be solved over the phone. It said the glitches reported so far are within expectations for a product of such complexity.

"We have received a few isolated reports of consoles not working as expe cted. The call rate is well below what you'd expect for a consumer electronics product of this complexity," said an Xbox spokeswoman.

"Each incident is unique and these customer inquires are being handled on a case-by-case basis."

According to gaming website Spong user reports mainly centre around Project Gotham Racing 3. Some have complained of lock-outs and other errors, seemingly stemming from a faulty memory unit within the machine. 

Other faults have included error numbers E79, E67, E74, E35 appearing on the screen, again thought to be related to Ram problems.

Microsoft started selling the Xbox 360 in the US at midnight on Tuesday. The device will go on sale in Europe on 2 December, followed by an Asian launch on 10 December.