X-Box 360 -Life after a Red Ring of Death-

[Daniel E.]

A couple of days ago, my little nephew's X-box 360 died on us. The thing was less than 2 years old before giving us the E-74 System Error screen. We called Microsoft costumer support and send (yesterday) the console on a trip for repairs.

Now... the reason I start this thread is because I want to hear from other X-box owners that have gone through this in the past. I am mostly interested in hearing how your consoles have hold up after it was repaired and how long has it been since you had it fixed.

My little nephew is pretty bummed about all this and I would hate to see him go through this yet again in the future. >_<

[Cub-Sama]

My Elite RROD'd on me and I was about to cry tears of manliness but then I took out the plug from the back of the Xbox, blew on it and it turned out just to be the dust in the back of my 360 which caused it to RROD. When I put it back in it was working perfectly, my suggestion is get an Elite, it doesnt have a high chance of RRODing

[davie]

I used to have a 360. It first RROD'd year+ ago after few months of usage. Sent it to repair and got it back and worked well. Then suddenly it started to make weird scratching noises. Thought nothing of it at first but when I took the CD out, it had a scratches in the form of rings lol. Had fall out 3 playing and it would just stop working right before a big climax :-(

Dumped it and bought a PS3. I don't want to get into a deep debate of which console is better but PS3 has been dependable. If your xbox ever rrod'd then the future won't look good heh.

[jpwong]

It's really quite variable. You might get a bad console back that breaks quick, but you might get one that lasts a long time. My initial 360 broke down after 4 months (not RROD), but the replacement I've gotten has lasted over 18 months so far. You aren't going to actually get a repair, they'll take your console and swap it with a refurbished unit of the same type.

Failure rates might be down, but I still think the overall average is pretty high when you compare it to what Sony and Nintendo have.

[Daniel E.]

Originally Posted by Cub-Sama

My Elite RROD'd on me and I was about to cry tears of manliness but then I took out the plug from the back of the Xbox, blew on it and it turned out just to be the dust in the back of my 360 which caused it to RROD.

Curiously enough, we went through something similar a few months back. I was playing The Last Remnant when the console suddenly stopped working. I unplugged everything, cleaned the cables and it was back to business as usual after that.

Originally Posted by davie

I used to have a 360. It first RROD'd year+ ago after few months of usage. Sent it to repair and got it back and worked well. Then suddenly it started to make weird scratching noises. Thought nothing of it at first but when I took the CD out, it had a scratches in the form of rings lol. Had fall out 3 playing and it would just stop working right before a big climax :-(

In our case, the screen went green with many black dots in between. I reseted the console and it went back to work properly; 15 or so minutes later the pattern returned and we couldn't game anymore.

And I agree about getting a PS3. I sure as hell don't plan on rolling a dice with an X-box 360 after all this.

Originally Posted by jpwong

It's really quite variable. You might get a bad console back that breaks quick, but you might get one that lasts a long time. My initial 360 broke down after 4 months (not RROD), but the replacement I've gotten has lasted over 18 months so far. You aren't going to actually get a repair, they'll take your console and swap it with a refurbished unit of the same type.

Oh, I wasn't aware of this. If it's just a swap, I hope I can get the console back before Christmas. We did promise our nephew a new game as a gift.

They better send me one that last longer than the first. >_>

[Cub-Sama]

Originally Posted by Daniel E.

And I agree about getting a PS3. I sure as hell don't plan on rolling a dice with an X-box 360 after all this.

You could add some money and get yourself an Elite, from my experience it doesnt seem to break and I have had it for a year now and the biggest problem I have had is my Fable II CD getting scratches from my sister moving the console while the disk was inside.

However it depends on your preferences, if you like to play online, play all the RPG stuff or you like shooters then you should stick with the 360, also the 360 has more games and a lot of the games you can get on the PS3 you can get on the 360.

IMO the only downsides of the 360 is paying for Xbox Live and the RROD

Btw the new 360 will probably only come in about 6 or so weeks so the probability of getting it back before christmas is low, unless you feel like buying a new 360 then waiting for the one from Microsoft to come back and selling it/trading it in.

[-KarumA-]

Originally Posted by davie

I used to have a 360. It first RROD'd year+ ago after few months of usage. Sent it to repair and got it back and worked well. Then suddenly it started to make weird scratching noises. Thought nothing of it at first but when I took the CD out, it had a scratches in the form of rings lol. Had fall out 3 playing and it would just stop working right before a big climax :-(

Dumped it and bought a PS3. I don't want to get into a deep debate of which console is better but PS3 has been dependable. If your xbox ever rrod'd then the future won't look good heh.

that is a mistake they made with the Xbox 360 DVD player, though Microsoft didn't acknowledge it at the time, they improved it with the new ones I think

But the lens was sticking out too far in an area that it would scratch over the CD in the outer ring. A Dutch program did research on this subject cause so many people had this problem and all they were told is that the 360 needed to be put on a stable platform, well even then it would make scratches. So they covered a CD with a marker and played it and the result was that a side of the lens turned black, so that was what was scratching against the CD's. It was easily prevented if they had put a sort of protection around the lens, in the form of 4 small cushions



I don't think the new ones have this problem, only the older ones and Microsoft finally admitted that it wasn't the users problem but theirs.. (typical of Microsoft..) and repaired it

because of this hassle I would buy another console as well
However the 360 has been out for a while now, I simply don't trust Microsoft and anything entirely new being released
For me they will always have the reputation of not repairing the bugs before the release date, regardless of the goods they promote

[chikorita157]

Microsoft seems to always have this notorious problem of the RRoD and other problems with like scratching, which aren't new problems. Also, with the new NXE update, it caused overheating once it was first released. I would of thought that it would be fixed with the Jasper motherboard they are replacing with, but I thought wrong.

Oddly enough, The Wii and Playstation 3 are alot more reliable than the XBox 360... I don't own a 360 myself not only because it's high failure rate, but online isn't free and Wifi adapter costs over $50, which is ridiculous since the Wii and PS3 (except the 20GB model) had Wifi built in.

[Daniel E.]

Originally Posted by Cub-Sama

Btw the new 360 will probably only come in about 6 or so weeks so the probability of getting it back before christmas is low, unless you feel like buying a new 360 then waiting for the one from Microsoft to come back and selling it/trading it in.

Yeah, I figured as much. That comment I made was mostly wishful thinking on my behalf.

And thanks for the bits of info -KarumA- and chikorita157.

I have another question, btw...

If I get a new console....... do I get a renewal of my warranty? It is another console after all.

[synaesthetic]

I am highly amused that the 360's optical pickup block is so poorly-designed that it actually comes in contact with the disc.

[jpwong]

Originally Posted by Cub-Sama

You could add some money and get yourself an Elite, from my experience it doesnt seem to break and I have had it for a year now and the biggest problem I have had is my Fable II CD getting scratches from my sister moving the console while the disk was inside.

Btw the new 360 will probably only come in about 6 or so weeks so the probability of getting it back before christmas is low, unless you feel like buying a new 360 then waiting for the one from Microsoft to come back and selling it/trading it in.

IIRC the guts of all the "new" 360s these days are the same as the Elite now. It's only because right when the Elites were being released that MS was introducing the 45nm low heat chips that they were better because all the elites had it, but only some of the arcade and pro consoles did. But at this point, any new stock console should have the same technology, and it's been confirmed that refurbished units are shipping with the updated chips.

Turn around time depends on volume they get. The fastest I've seen is 4 weeks, though I've read some people can get them faster if they live closer to the replacement centres. Though at this time of year it would be dicey as increased mail volumes for the holidays (regular parcels) may affect transit times.

[Vexx]

We ended up buying a 360 Elite package as a family holiday item and are sending the old 360 in for RROD refurb (and then we'll put it on craigslist or whatever).

The old 360 went through two "towel uber-heat fix" cycles which extended its use almost a year - but then finally went solid dead last summer.

The hopefully nice thing about the Elite is that it will play the old Xbox games as well as the 360 games (which lets us also get rid of the old xbox as well as the 360).

Given Microsoft's relative reliability in the hardware domain.... the implosion of the 360 series was quite a surprise.

[Daniel E.]

Originally Posted by jpwong

Turn around time depends on volume they get. The fastest I've seen is 4 weeks, though I've read some people can get them faster if they live closer to the replacement centres. Though at this time of year it would be dicey as increased mail volumes for the holidays (regular parcels) may affect transit times.

Just checked the UPS tracking number and the console has already gone through three different cities.

The repair center is several states away from my city, so it should probably take more than a month before we get it back.

[jpwong]

Originally Posted by Daniel E.

Just checked the UPS tracking number and the console has already gone through three different cities.

The repair center is several states away from my city, so it should probably take more than a month before we get it back.

The problem seems more to do with UPS transit times than anything else. Once the console gets to the repair/replace center MS usually seems to have the replacement turned around and back in the mail within a week from what my household has experienced.

[Wirbelwind8]

I find the failure rate amusing as well. My roommate has gone through 4 xbox's and his friend has gone through 8 xbox's. My old roommate has gone through 3. All of these just happened with no reason. They just left it, the next day turned it on and came up with the Ring of Death. I heard that the failure rate is 75%, how comforting, and I believe it, infact I think its 90% from what I've seen.

Everyone hates me though because I still have my first and only xbox purchase. I bought it 4 years ago, took it apart, took it everywhere I went, and still works without any hiccups. I think mistreating them actually works :P

[Wirbelwind8]

Originally Posted by jpwong

The problem seems more to do with UPS transit times than anything else. Once the console gets to the repair/replace center MS usually seems to have the replacement turned around and back in the mail within a week from what my household has experienced.

When I sold my friend's broken xbox through craiglist, I asked the guy why he wanted a broken xbox. He said he used to work for gamestop's refurb console something and they had to fix 15-20 xbox's a day. I have no idea if I heard him incorrectly or not, but I thought that was a little high.

So if this is true, Im sure microsofts refurb has their people fix a high number of xbox's a day.

[jpwong]

I think some magazine pegged the failure rates on the original console as high as 30%-35%, though it's supposedly lower now with the improvements to CPU and GPU chips. Some people are really unlucky, you can read online about people who've gone through 9+ consoles. Conversely you can also read about people who's console they bought on launch day still works like new.

[Daniel E.]

Got the console back already!

Against all odds, they managed to send it back before Christmas. It is a new console, btw.

The whole process was handled withing Mexico.

Once my little nephew lets me, I'll check how my lesbian waifus are doing in Fable 2.

[DragoZERO]

Yeah, they once they inspect your console they will send you a refurb, which is why you keep the hard drive and all. So now your chances of getting the red ring are the same as before, if not a little more (depending on who you ask really). I have friends who had it happen to them twice.

Luckily, it only happened to me once, so yeah.

*knocks on wood*

Be sure to keep it cool, I am pretty sure that heat a contributing factor in getting the ring and its something you can control yourself, so yeah.

[klowny]

I had my Xbox 360 for about 3 years, one day i was playing Gears of War 2 and i turn off the 360 with the button. Five minutes later i wanted to play again the thing shows up an error message, So i was like "Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!! Why?!?!?!?!?!?!" Since the warranty expired i did not want to pay to get it repaired.

So i waited until March because of the Microsoft Xbox 360 Elite Resident Evil Limited Edition Game console so i got that one instead

Then microsoft had that offer to fix the Xbox 360's for free, so i send the one that RROD on me and sold it to my friend

so far i'm just hoping my new xbox 360 doesn't RROD