Two Sundays ago, I popped in Call of Duty 4 into my XBOX 360. I went straight through the title screen and chose to continue a previous game. The game started loading and cut right to a cinematic. After the cut scene, the in-game engine started and right as I was about to start playing, the screen froze up.
No problem, I thought. I’ll just shut off the 360 and restart it. When I turned the machine back on, I saw what every 360 owner fears the most. We all know it’s coming one day. It’s not a question of “if”, but a question of “when”.
What did I see, you may ask? It was the dreaded Red Ring of Death.
This is the mark of death for any XBOX 360. When you see this, it is literally “GAME OVER”.
This is the 3rd time I’ve seen this. My launch unit lasted about a year, the second one lasted only few months, and this one also only lasted about a few months.
So I called 1-800-4MYXBOX and spoke to a repair specialist (in India, I think). Now, I’m positive that they spend their entire day handling “3 red light” issues because they knew exactly what to ask and what procedures to take. They had me check the power source, which was fine and to remove all cables and the HDD and reboot, which didn’t work. After about 10 minutes, they informed me that my unit was not going to work and that I would need to send it back to MS for repair.
Let me give you a little back story here. I am far from the only one who has had the “3 red light” issue. In fact the 360 has an over 60% failure rate!!! Due to the enormous outcry from 360 owners, MS has extended the warranty on all 360 to 3 years. The operator on the phone acted like they were doing me some huge favor by repairing the machine. I wanted to really ream into this lady, but I bit my tongue and remained calm and polite.
I was given a repair code and was told that they would send me a box (coffin) to send the 360 back to MS for repair. The whole process, from initial call, to receiving a repaired unit back, should be about 2-3 weeks. They told me that I would receive a free month of XBOX LIVE for my trouble. That’s really generous considering that it’s going to take a month to get the machine back to begin with.
Fast forward to Monday evening. It’s been 8 days and I’ve yet to even receive the box to send the unit back. I called MS and you will not believe what they told me. ”Call back in 4 hours. They are having computer issues.” Are you kidding me? My opinion of MS is going down hill more quickly with each call I make. After 4 hours I call back and am told that I should receive the coffin sometime today via UPS ground. Well, that explained it. I could walk the box to Texas faster than UPS ground.
Finally around 3:00 today, UPS delivered a DAMAGED cardboard box. The whole side was crushed in.
I opened up the damaged box and found some foam, tape and a letter.
Here is the packing instructions that came with the box. The poor quality of the image is not from my scanner. The quality of print on the page that they sent was really that bad.
So I packed up the box, attached my repair number, filled out the form and sent it back. I can’t wait to see how long it takes to receive a repaired unit back. I’m also curious if I will get back my same unit, a “Frankenstein” unit made of spare parts, or a brand new unit. I also took a pic of my serial number, so I can compare it when I eventually get the unit back. I’ll keep everyone posted.
0 Responses to “Red Ring of Death”