No 360 gaming for me!

[Father Goose]

...come here, Billy...gotta...tell ya...before I...die.....

My Xbox 360 got the dreaded 3-light Red Ring of Death. Gotta box on it's way from Microsoft. Supposed to put the 360 in there, send it off, and they'll send me back a fixed up (refurbished, in their slick city-talk) 360.

But....I just don't know if I can make it that long......

.....tell....my 360 games.....I love them......


[death rattle....eyes go blank]......

[wihadmin]

My condolences FG.

What exactly cause this problem?

[Vryllyn]

Were you playing Dead Rising? Some people were saying that DR was causing it to use more of the cores and was causing some 360s to get the 3 Red Lights.

[sir_digalot]

hehe there was that "fix" video for that *LOL* with the heat gun and everything

[f1sh3r]

i'm seriously thinking about replacing the fans in mine. it's out of warranty anyway according to MS, by about 2 weeks. it's starting to get random lockups here and there and more disc unreadable errors than usual, and even the cache clearing trick isn't always working. i dunno if it would help, but it surely couldn't hurt.

[Father Goose]

Well, thank God I was dumb enough to get the extended warranty. Normally I say those are a rip-off, but I look at it this way:

3 3.2 Ghz processors running at the same time, sharing RAM and the video processor and all that jazz

=

Something could go really wrong whenever it wants to. So I bought the warranty and they are honoring it.

I couldn't say what caused it to die, really. Last week it gave me some really weird freezing problems, but they seemed to clear up and I had no issues the rest of that night playing lots of Dead Rising.

On Monday, Mother Goose brought over his hard drive and we were going to play Saint's Row, but it froze as soon as it loaded. So MG popped the disc out, closed the tray, and turned off the 360.

When I restarted it, BAM. Three flashing red lights on the "Ring of Light". I tried all their troubleshooting "steps" (brilliant suggestions such as "turn the console off and then back on again" or "try unplugging everything, then plugging it back in"). It pretended it was going to play Dead Rising, but JUST KIDDING! The three red lights just came right back on. It does this with or without the hard drive in, with or without a game in. The power supply does seem to be working.

So I should get a box sometime this week to send poor ol' Whitey off to a repair center.

By the way, I doubt it was overheating. It was well ventilated and the problems cropped up all of a sudden. If heat was an issue the 360 would have let me know earlier this year, I think, since it's been in the same place since I got it.

[Bonez]

i got a flashing red once, i had my intercooler hooked up and it caused a "fault in line" error.

[Father Goose]

i got a flashing red once, i had my intercooler hooked up and it caused a "fault in line" error.

Yeah, while I was messing around trying to fix the THREE red lights, I got my video cord plugged only halfway in and I got all FOUR red lights to flash. I thought, "Oh, good, progress. Next it starts the self-destruct mechanism and Picard and I have to climb down the turbolift shafts to the main shuttle bay before the ship is destroyed."

Then I figured it out :)

Even though I don't think overheating is the problem, when I get it back part of me wants to baby it and get the intercooler. Sigh. So by the time I get the 360, the warranty and the intercooler, I'm at $500 for a base system, and all the Sony fanboys start snickering. :wallbash:

Of course, I'd buy a warranty for a PS3 anyway, so I guess they can pipe down. :D

[f1sh3r]

let them snicker, they still don't get dead rising or saint's row. i guess maybe i'll go pick up an intercooler today and try that out.

[sir_digalot]

warranty??? warranties are for wimps! i live dangerously...

hehe i nearly bought a 360 with buggered fans.... it was so cheap.... i like broken stuff so i can customize it and such

[f1sh3r]

this is the first time i'm kicking myself for not buying an extended warranty. knowing microsoft and the troubles i had with my first xbox i'm not sure what i was thinking. oh yes, it was "surely they couldn't create another console with a 6 month life span, and if they did they would certainly extend their factory warranty as not to piss on their faithful fans once again...right?" unfortunately, i thought wrong. my xbox 360, born on 04/06 (FIVE MONTHS AGO) is already developing problems. such is life on the bleeding edge i guess.

hehe i nearly bought a 360 with buggered fans.... it was so cheap.... i like broken stuff so i can customize it and such

i wouldn't touch an ebay xbox 360 because at this point it's almost guaranteed to be one that has been fixed (probably many times) and is still buggy, or is having issues and the owner wants to dump it. it might even still have a warranty, but really is it worth it? my skull throbs with pain just thinking about it.

oh, and if you ever have to call MS tech support, the first thing i've learned to do is start asking for tier 2 or a supervisor, because otherwise (in MY experience) you will have a long convo describing what is possibly a simple problem to a person with limited english skills and a handbook on how to fix your problems, step by step. considering how much i've dealt with dell in the past i was surprised it took me so long to figure this out with microsoft.

[Father Goose]

...you will have a long convo describing what is possibly a simple problem to a person with limited english skills and a handbook on how to fix your problems...

No doubt, brotha. My guy was really nice but he had a strong Asian accent and we sometimes had a little trouble understanding each other. Besides the fact that he lives 4,598,208,097 miles away, he too had a very robotic process of "Do step 1. Do step 2. Etc" before he could send me a box.

He was really nice, and he didn't sound dumb. But the partial language barrier and the very limited training they give him meant the discussion did have some rough patches.

All cool now, though. My box should be here before week's end and in the meantime I have some sweet comics arriving today or tomorrow to ease the pain :)

[sir_digalot]

me i'll buy anything of ebay if it is cheap enough, i love tinkering around to fix things.... besides i tend to feel anything that has the m$ name on it should be buggy, it is like peanut butter and jelly.... they just go together so well

[Father Goose]

My problem with the eBay approach is that Xbox Live is a big part of why I play on the 360. If they release a software update clever enough to find out the hardware has been modified in any way, BAM. You're off. And it's not just getting a new account. They ban the MAC address of your device as well (so I have read, anyway). So I'm not really up for modding anything that goes on Xbox Live.

[sir_digalot]

i hate paying for online services.... i maybe will buy an 360 one day... but for the amount of play time i would use it for, games like saints row look interesting, but still not worth it, not yet, we have 1 TV in our house and 4 people needles to say mr. MAN here is at the bottom of the pecking order when it comes to tv time... and internet, and relaxation, and...

aww hell....

[Father Goose]

UPDATE: As of this evening it has been over a week since I called Tech Support, and I still have not recieved my box. This has been 5 business days, which was the maximum time they said it would take.

Starting tomorrow: A phone call (at LEAST one) every single day until I get my farking box to send my 360 back in.

Tonight I had Mother Goose bring his over here so I could play just a leetle bit of 360, I'm having withdrawals...

[Father Goose]

Okay, so the box arrived today. It came with pretty clear instructions. The 360 seems as though it will be held securely in the box.

However, they said that I could just have UPS charge Microsoft for the pick-up fee, but UPS wouldn't do it- either I paid up front or no pick-up for me.

So I'm taking it to a UPS store this afternoon. I hope I get ol' Whitey back soon :(

[wihadmin]

good luck FG! Keep us informed of how things go.

[Bonez]

my "ol whitey" might not be so white after i get a fit of boredom.

[Knottwobad]

my "ol whitey" might not be so white after i get a fit of boredom.


:icon_confused: :dunno:

[wihadmin]

He's talking about choking the chicken, spanking the monkey, squeezing one out, a date with Rosy... :D

[Bonez]

no, there are some complete case swaps that i found online that i might "aquire"

[Father Goose]

[chokes back a sob]

Must be nice to HAVE a case! I hate you! I wish I'd never been born!

[runs to room, slams door]

Hey, on this continuing topic, though: When I first got the 360 and ordered the warranty they never sent me the info on it. I guess they just decided I didn't need it. So I e-mailed, and they said, "Call us". I called them, and they said, "Write a letter".

That was THREE months ago and I never did get my damn warranty info!

However, something about me sending in my 360 must have knocked it loose from the crusty inner core of Microsoft, because they finally sent it.

What's weird? My warranty is now extended through October of 2010. Good deal, eh? Pay for the 2 year warranty, get the special hidden 4 year warranty! By then, the Xbox 720 will be ready to hit the market!

I called customer service and they confirmed that my 360 does show a valid warranty through October 11th of 2010. He had no idea how it happened, but there ya go.

I am still, on the other hand, waiting for my actual 360 to show up!

[wihadmin]

dude! yo're missing out on some good 360 gaming! Hope you get yours back soon.

[Father Goose]

Well, Mother Goose has been bringing over his 360 and I've been getting SOME Saints Row action.

I plan to get Lego Star Wars II 'cause it's one of those games my wife and I could play because it isn't real violent, it has co-op, and we both like Star Wars.

I want a driving game, too, now that Forza is being pushed back. I kinda want to try TDU but everybody is so "meh" about it. I've always preferred the NFS games to TD games, and now that NFS is $30 I might do it.

Still, I can't be that upset about a four year warranty IN WRITING. Heh.

[wihadmin]

If they'd improve the multiplayer experience in TDU so that it truly is seamless, I'd move my comment from "meh" over to "woah!"

[Bonez]

i would be moved from a "sorta meh" to meh, if they improved some game dynamics, being damage models would be nice.

[GorroXXII]

HEY ALL YOU XBOX 360 OWNERS... found this

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=4263

[f1sh3r]

HEY ALL YOU XBOX 360 OWNERS... found this

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=4263

sweet, so what about my POS busted 04/06 xbox? oh yeah, it's gonna cost me 100 bucks. woo.

[Father Goose]

IT'S BACK.

It's back, up and running, and I got Lego Star Wars II. It's not the Game of the Year but it's really funny and MG and I have been playing some co-op.

I feel like a whole person again....:thumbsup:

[wihadmin]

welcome back kotter!

[Sirus]

Just got my 360 back today from the same problem you had Father goose, bet it was like hell without havin a nice white 360 around. lol! But it seems they didn't fix -my- xbox they just gave me a new one.

[Father Goose]

But it seems they didn't fix -my- xbox they just gave me a new one.

Before you go assuming it's a new one, check the "created on" date or whatever it is on the back sticker right by the serial number.

They sent me a sheet making it sound like they were giving me a new unit, but when I looked, my new unit was created in December of last year. Suckers.

At least, like I said, my freakin' warranty is extended through 2010 now!

[Bonez]

if it was december of last year, it's an unlimited warranty.

remember, they will repair/replace all units made before 1/1/06

[Sirus]

well yea, I didn't mean brand new just a diffrent one then my own. The one I got was made december of last year as well.

Also if anyone wants to add me my tag is Sirus89