Another Xbox 360 Bites the Dust

[meancode]

Son of a bitch. Right when I am going to have some friends over, my 360 gets a Red Ring of Death. It did this a week ago, and it rebooted just fine. Now it won't turn on at all.

I had plugged in my play and charge kit, was charging my controller, and didn't want to leave the 360 on all night, so I turned it off. Right when I hit the power button, I got the three blinking red lights. One more push on the button turned if off, never to turn on again.

Maybe it was all the Guitar Hero II play it has seen lately.

It is dead, R.I.P. little buddy. My little blast furnace, a.k.a "missile launcher." I am going to miss ya. 11713 Gamerscore is a lot to through with one piece of plastic and metal, ya know?

Now that I have joined the club, its seems like a lot of people I know have had dead Xbox 360s at some point. Mine didn't even last a full two years!

[BHvrd]

I went through 2 in less than a year. Crazy in't it.

[PDorr3]

Theres two ironic things about this post. My 360 also died the day after I got guitar hero 2 (is this game cursed? I have heard about alot of 360's dieing after playing this game) and my zip code is 11713.

I'm suprised mine lasted like 1 1/2 years of me playing final fantasy 11 for over 10 hours a day for about 8 months or so.

[theMot]

10 million sales later and MS still cant produce reliable 360's.

Here in Australia you can buy 2 years extended warranty for $180, thats about $150 US. What gets me is why i have to do this? I should be able to buy a 360 and expect it to last at least 5 years. FOr F$%^& sake my SNES is 15 years old and still fires up, is a few trouble free years from MS too much to ask >

..... it's such a great system apart from these reliability probs though

[Anthony1]

thank god I bought my 360 at Costco before they revised their return policies.

[meancode]

HA HA thats funny Pete.

I have been playing GH 2 on my 360 for a LONG time.

I don't blame it on MS not being able to produce better systems, I got this one on November 22, 2005.

Luckily I know some people who know some people, so I won't have to raise holy hell to get this issue resolved. But what a pain in the ass!

[Nesmaster]

Hmm... GH2 didn't kill my 360... ;/

My 360 and I have had a lot of great times. It pains me to think that it could die at any second. It's seen lots of use over the last 13 months.

Here's to many more months out of my 360, at least I hope it doesn't go until the cooler chip die is released in the fall.

[gepeto]

Mine died Friday. This is totally abnormal. I see a serious class action and Ms doing a number of refunds. The increase to the year warranty was a early strike to at least make it look like they were addressing the issues.

430.00 for 18 months or less just wont fly. Too many systems are getting hosed up. How do you know it is not from all these updates? I bitched and moaned until I got 50% off the repair price. I think they need to do a recall on the earlier models.

I could live with the 50% because it would be like getting the 2 year warranty that was in the box for 60.00.

The only thing that leaves a bad tasted in my mouth. Is I have been a loyal ms customer for years. I have been with live since day 1 and you have to haggle like a car salesman just to get the treatment you deserve. I know they have alot of serial returners and stuff. I think loyal customers that have a dedicated history should be treated accordingly.

I am a recreational gamer, non smoking home the 360 is kept in a clean environment and is not abused by kids. I have more games than I play and it still went down for the count. If I were a kid were I didn't have the money my head would explode.

My wife put it best she didn't want to pay anything. She says a company should stand by there product especially at 400.00. Like I said before with mine going out everyone I know of that bought the system at launch has had to send it back. I still love the system though.

The lady told me the three lights were a firmware problem. I believe the reason mine took so long is because I wasn't playing heavily day in and day out.

[slip81]

I keep wondering why these things don't work. To me it seems worse than the PS2.

I had a 360 for about 4-5 mnths and even in that short amount oftime I got the ring of death once, but thankfully it didn't die.

Now that GTAIV is on the horizon I really want another 360, but it's countless threads like this one that make me think a PS3 is a better buy, even at the elevated price. As long as it works, it's probably worth it.

[geneshifter]

I keep wondering why these things don't work. To me it seems worse than the PS2.

I had a 360 for about 4-5 mnths and even in that short amount oftime I got the ring of death once, but thankfully it didn't die.

Now that GTAIV is on the horizon I really want another 360, but it's countless threads like this one that make me think a PS3 is a better buy, even at the elevated price. As long as it works, it's probably worth it.

Well, my situation is almost exactly like yours. I got 2 red lights twice and was able to bring it back on using the techniques on the internet. It seems to me that the soldering job on these is very subpar. I would suggest to the OP to try the towel technique if he's out of warranty.

I also sold my 360 after 5 months and bought a PS3. I love it and the game drought is almost over with so many games coming out this year. The quality of the games coming out soon is amazing to me. I have Oblivion, Motorstorm, blazing angels, Splinter CellA and Resistance for the PS3 and they are all good games but the stuff coming is going to sell consoles. The 360 still has some good games but I'm not rebuying until I see a redesign or a significant manufacturing change. I've just been playing some of the 360 games I like like Condemned on PC with a 360 controller And, the Live Arcade is coming to the PC so I can get my Uno back!

[gepeto]

The crazy thing is you can't tell what the error is for. I heard firmware motherboard,heatsink or is it just a general defective error?

[koster]

If the problem is the firmware, then the "Red Ring of Death" may be a secret Microsoft plot to boost sales.

I'd wait for their next console. It seems that Microsoft always get the third version right (ie. Windows)

[BIG-JG]

you can temporaraly fix it with the towl trick...i swear it works

[njiska]

Oh whine, whine, whine. You aren't even gonna have to pay for repairs.

[geneshifter]

you can temporaraly fix it with the towl trick...i swear it works

Yup, this is the technique, lol. It does work.

[geneshifter]

Oh whine, whine, whine. You aren't even gonna have to pay for repairs.

True, but I feel sorry for the poor guys with systems over a year old. No way these things are going to last 5 years or 10 years. But, by then, there'll be good emulators anyways so who cares I guess. Just sad for collectors

[Anthony1]

You know one thing about this abnormally high failure rate that I think is a bit interesting, is that this has to be costing MS alot in regards to their bottom line. They are hoping that Q3 will be the first profitable quarter in the Xbox division since it started, but man, having to extend these warranties, and cover eveybody's shipping and all that crap, it has to be affecting their bottom line in a huge way. I'm sure they are keeping those statistics guarded like Fort Knox. It's like the Elephant sitting in the room that nobody mentions.

Of course, you reap what you sow, and apparently Microsoft designed a system that simply runs too hot for it's own good, and ultimately it's their responsibility to deal with that. They are extremely lucky that they don't have a serious challenger right now, to the type of entertainment that they are providing. I don't consider the Wii to be a direct challenger, because it doesn't have the kind of gaming experiences that the hardcore set are looking for, and the PS3 is still trying to get their own situation straightened out, and finally get some compelling software out that is unobtainable anywhere else. Luckily for Microsoft, they've basically had two full years to themselves, before they will have a serious challenger (once Heavenly Sword and Uncharted and Lair, etc, etc, finally come out) threaten their top spot with the hardcore set, so people have been very forgiving of all these hardware failures, because they don't really have another option to turn to. Not yet, anyways.

[sabre2922]

I keep wondering why these things don't work. To me it seems worse than the PS2.

This is the main reason I have decided to pick up a Wii until both the 360 and PS3 go through a couple revisions in both hardware and pricing.

Hell Im still perfectly content with my PS2's until GTA4 or MGS4 is released after that I will definitely have to pick up a 360 or possibly a PS3.

btw my oldest PS2 was about 4 years old and still worked great but the system itself had been through hell parties/friends borrowing it/dropped/stepped on etc. but its officially DEAD now after my "friend" that I mentioned from my "mainstream gamers: friend or foe" thread decided to yank the damn door out becuase it was slightly stuck when he tried to put a game in.
Anyway I pieced it out and saved what was good and have decided to customize the old "fatty" case for future use so not all is lost.

[PDorr3]

Are the black elites limited or will they be making black consoles from now on out? because if they are gonna be switching to white for the 120gig eventualy, and the black elites die, theres no black elites to exchange for (if you have something like best buys replacement plan)

[s1lence]

Bummer that yours died now to. I think almost all of my friends have done through at least one.