The Red Ring of Merriment and Glee
November 30th, 2007 |
It finally happened to me.
Anyone who’s familiar with the Xbox 360 console knows that it has a few technical problems. Chief among them, is what’s infamously known as the ‘Red Ring of Death’. Occasionally, this occurs when the console is overheated or when the power supply is faulty — but this also occurs as a result of unspecified hardware failures within the system itself.
And today it happened to me. Suddenly, my Xbox 360 stopped functioning, and displayed the red ring (which starts off as a full ring, but quickly turns to the “three flashing lights” variety.) It took about a minute of the standard troubleshooting tips to determine that I would need to part with my console, as it would need repair (or replacement).
For those of you who haven’t gone through this, here’s the drill: Microsoft will send you an empty box via courier. Once you receive it, you place your console (sans hard drive or accessories) in the box, and ship it back to them using the prepaid labels they provide. They’ll then send the repaired console back to you, unless they discover that you’ve tampered with your system — in which case they send it back without repair. According to the agent, this process will take about 3-4 weeks in total.
My console isn’t under normal warranty anymore, but Microsoft has provided an additional 3-year warranty only for the red-ring problem. This is my first encounter with the red ring, but this will be my second time sending my Xbox 360 in. About a year ago, my console recognized all games as DVDs and refused to play them. That repair process (which I believe was simply a replacement) took about one week.
The main frustration for me is that I had just moved on to the final level of Mass Effect. I’ve been enjoying that game, and now I’ll have to postpone its finale until the end of the year. This also means I probably won’t have my Xbox 360 for the holidays.
Microsoft is compensating me with a free month of Xbox Live Gold…. an incredible $9 value. Yippee.
I’ll try to use this new free time for good (getting work done, maybe writing some reviews for this blog) and not evil (buying a PS3).
#1 The Red Ring of Merriment and Glee | Console Gaming
December 1st, 2007 at 2:56 am
[...] post by Xbox Living [...]
#2 Paul Bradish
December 1st, 2007 at 4:33 pm
Colin,
Sorry to hear about the red ring. I’ve been hearing more and more about this one the news. It’s good to hear that Xbox is honoring the issues though.
How often do you play your box? To be honest, I’m only on 5-10 hours per week in total so am I most likely safe from the overheating and crashing?
-Paul
#3 Colin Temple
December 2nd, 2007 at 12:47 am
I play it almost daily, if only for an hour or so per day.
Overheating can happen within an hour or so of play. Generally, try to keep your Xbox in a cool place, where it has some open space. Try to keep it separate from other consoles, DVD players or cable/satellite boxes if you can help it.
Small compartments in an entertainment unit could also make it overheat faster.
- Colin
#4 ashame
December 11th, 2007 at 9:43 am
“Microsoft is compensating me with a free month of Xbox Live Gold…. an incredible $9 value. Yippee.”
LMAO! Well it happend to me to a few months ago. Couldn’t wait and bought me a new 360 straight away.
#5 Colin Temple
December 11th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
Ha, really?
I was house-sitting/dog-sitting for my parents late last week and they rented me an Xbox 360 because they heard mine broke and they wanted me to have something to do. So I did get to play while I waited.
Hopefully it won’t take too much longer.
#6 Xbox Living : The Xbox Returns
December 12th, 2007 at 3:57 pm
[...] my recent run-in with the Red Ring of Death, I’m happy to report that I received my Purolator package today with my Xbox 360 inside. [...]
#7 Xbox Living : Save your Xbox: Avoiding the Red Ring of Death
February 10th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
[...] is pretty quick about replacing consoles with this problem. When I got the red ring a few months ago, I got my replacement in 6 business days. I’m told that’s quick, and [...]