Well kiddies, it finally happened. No, I'm not going slightly mad; my Xbox 360 has officially decided to call it quits. the Red Ring of Death has arrived and refuses to leave. In the coming weeks -- perhaps months -- I will be chronicling its repair here on X3F.
The Red Ring of Death made its first visit about a week ago, after some extended sessions of Crackdown. It popped up on a few other occasions throughout the week, but would go away after a brief period of downtime. Finally, after a quick local session of Bomberman Live with my friends, the next power cycle produced a red ring that won't go away. For the record, my 360 was situated as you see it above. It was vertical, in completely open air, and placed at a diagonal angle behind my TV in a very feng shui kind of way. Considering that fateful game of Bomberman had been the first time my close friends and I had played the game since the Saturn Bomberman days of yore, I find the timing to be somewhat poetic. Or perhaps overtly cruel. Depends on how you look at it I guess.
The next day (yesterday) I placed a call to Xbox customer support. The first step in one of these calls is to argue with an unhelpful automaton for a few minutes. After exhausting every combination of unplugging, replugging, and hard drive removal, I was finally directed to an agent. Or, rather, I was directed to some very upbeat hold music. After several minutes of tapping my toes to the beat, I was connected with a human being. The agent was perfectly polite, no hassles or anything like that. He took down my shipping info and told me that my coffin would ship out in 5 to 7 days. He then hit me with gut-wrenching information that the repair itself would take 4 to 6 weeks. Ouch. And yes, if you've extended those dates out to their extremes, that gets my Xbox back to me just days before the release of Halo 3, and that's without adding any shipping time. Now I know what it's like to live every moment of my life in fear.
Next time on the Red Ring Chronicles: the coffin.
Reader Comments (Page 4 of 6)
8-02-2007 @ 2:14PM
Jacob P. said...
I'm paranoid about mine going out...I got it last August, and it's never given me any problems...I don't see how either...it's not particularly well ventilated...I just hope that if it is going to go out, it goes out now, instead of closer to Halo's release date...
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8-02-2007 @ 2:20PM
erivera3 said...
Question about my 360:
When I turn off the console, sometimes I can still hear a fan type noise going on and the power supply light is still green even though the console is off! What does this mean, the games run fine and nothing seems to be wrong at all except for when I turn the console off. There are no lights left on as far as on the console goes, but the power supply light is still green and there is definitely a fan sound that still goes.
I have to unplug the 360 from the power supply to get the power supply light to go to the yellow/orange that it is supposed to be when the 360 is off. Does this mean my 360 is broken and I should send it in DESPITE it still functioning for now, do you think this is a serious problem that I should get checked out before Halo 3 comes out or is this natural?
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8-02-2007 @ 2:21PM
Mauricio said...
Hey, I called microsoft a week ago!! Got my coffin on saturday, and sent it today!! They told me 3 to 4 weeks!!!
Mine was not a RROD, but it was the dvd drive reading all my disc as dirty disc!!
Als, richard? Have u had trouble with your discs scratching or damage of no playing at all do 2 have the 360 standing up?
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8-02-2007 @ 2:29PM
Mauricio said...
erivera3, so u say it is only when u are done playing and everything is off!!
I ask, because that is how my disc drive started and now it will not read discs correctly!!
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8-02-2007 @ 2:35PM
erivera3 said...
Shit, yeah Mauricio when everything is off there is still a humming/fan type sound, and the power supply still appears on despite the console itself not being on. Every once in a while I will have trouble loading maps on halo 2 matchmaking too, does that mean it is starting to not read disks?
What do you think guys?
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8-02-2007 @ 2:36PM
TORO said...
@MyPS3killedmyXbox360 (or some shit like that)
I rather have my Xbox360 replaced 100 times before I buy a POS3! POS3's holiday line-up does not compare at all to Xbox 360's! IMO.
My wishlist:
-Halo 3 >> check
-Mass Effect >> check
-Assasin's Creed >> check
-COD4 >> check (fine PS3 too)
So I'd be crazy to "save" up money for a PS3!
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8-02-2007 @ 2:37PM
s.tillings said...
Mine died last week -- Fantastic Four was the last game played. Called it in on Tuesday morning and received my coffin on the following Monday. Sent it off on Tuesday and now I wait. I've been wanting to play so badly that I'm seriously considering buying another once the price reductions go into affect.
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8-02-2007 @ 2:46PM
Iliad Force said...
@ 57 (Jeff):
Thanks for the info. I'm somewhat puzzled because my understanding was that new Premium systems were not in production yet--only Elites. Apparently I was mistaken.
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8-02-2007 @ 2:49PM
Little Lee said...
Mine and my friends has gone. I think the launch consoles are finally dropping!
Annoying though as its happened a month before the Elite! Grr!
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8-02-2007 @ 3:24PM
Scooter said...
I sent mine in 2 weeks ago and got a new one back yesterday. The letter said to speed things up they sent me a replacement instead of fixing mine and send it back. Fine with me! The replacement doesnt sound like an air plane taking off like mine did.
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8-02-2007 @ 3:26PM
Mauricio said...
erivera3, I don't want 2 scare u but it COULD, call microsoft and see what " merry-go-around" they put u on!! I have NCAA 08 waiting 2 be played and I have Madden 08 paid 4 and it will get here after da Madden launch date!! UGH,UGH,UGH!!
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8-02-2007 @ 3:27PM
has128 said...
I am sorry but i don't really know whats new about this!! we've been hearing about red rings of death since ever, i personally experienced that, and a lot of my friends did.
Don't tell me you just realized that?
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8-02-2007 @ 3:30PM
Mauricio said...
Scooter, what problems did u have?
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8-02-2007 @ 4:07PM
ogvor said...
" I am surprised at you Mitchell. I would think you would have been smart enough to get a in store warranty. They are so much better then sending it to MS. Just give the store your broken 360 and they give you a brand new one on the spot."
Actually, most of these instore warranties don't kick in until after the warranty from the manufacturer so that wouldn't have mattered. That's why these warranties are often not worth the money.
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8-02-2007 @ 4:45PM
Jimmah said...
Question: is your 360 is gone for 4-6 weeks, does MS refund you on the your Live Account? If you paied for a year service and your machine is gone for a month for repairs do they give you another month back on Xbox Live?
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8-02-2007 @ 4:51PM
WiFi Pirate said...
I feel your pain. I just took mine to the UPS store yesterday for the same reason. He told me that they had been getting quite a few in recently. I guess its like everything else in the world, nothing goes wrong until the warantee runs out. Lucky for us they extended the coverage for 3 years.
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8-02-2007 @ 4:59PM
ToastedSoul said...
hm... my xbox360 broke down 10 weeks ago and I still haven't received it back from MS support (Germany). First, it took 6 weeks (!!!) to send the empty carton box to me, and now it's been 4 weeks at the repair center. the MS-support staff was nice and everything, but it's a little bit disappointing when it really takes that long!
Achievement Unlocked: 10 week console round-trip
at least I get it back before BioShock arrives!
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8-02-2007 @ 5:09PM
Brent Kailbourn said...
why not go ahead and call Microsoft way before your 360craps the bed to get a coffin sent. all of em are going to go belly up sooner or later anyways. May as well save a week waiting for the coffin.
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8-02-2007 @ 5:27PM
Urza said...
My original Xbox took a diva a month before the 360 release. I know your pain Richard. Get it repaired, buy a new one, or hope to get a 360 before withdrawal set in.
Look on the bright side, if you don't get it back, you can give into temptation and buy one of those snazzy new Halo3 edition 360s when Halo3 comes out. :)
It's a shame that the problems with the 360 can't be homebrew fixed (all I had to do was replace the DVD drive in my original Xbox.. I didn't get 360 until Dec 26 sadly.)
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8-02-2007 @ 5:49PM
DeadPlasmaCell said...
Damn 4-6 weeks? that's crazy.. I've had to send my 360 in twice (First time for DVD drive issues & second time for the RROD via Crackdown's release) each time it only took me a week to get the system back.
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