I remember my mother having to buy my brother and I a new NES every Easter because we would burn them out.
My original Playstation broke when a friend pulled on his controller and it toppled off the top of my desk. Only the clip on the CD cover broke though, so I was able to just put something on top of it to keep it closed and continue playing on it.
My original PS3 died on me right after Arkham City came out. I hadn't gotten around to getting PS Plus yet so I had to restart the game. That was a bit of a shame, and also probably why I didn't get as much out of the game as I wanted to.