Rob's Red Ring of Rawr

[Rob Williams]

From our front-page news:

Xbox 360 owners all share the same fear - the dreaded Red Ring of Death. Like many, I picked up my Xbox 360 at launch and played the beast for months on end with nary a complaint. After a while, the RRoD problem rolled onto the scene and many had their systems cease to function. Launch consoles had the highest RRoD rate, but somehow I continued to escape the issue.

Until this past weekend, that is. While out of town, a family member decided to kick some ass in Halo 3 online, only to be welcomed by three red rings. It's hard to complain though, since I have had the system work fine for just over two years without much of an issue, whereas others have gone through multiple consoles. I was one of the lucky few.

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To some degree, I might have seen this problem coming. I picked up Need for Speed: Pro Street a few weeks ago, only to have the entire console halt after about ten minutes of gameplay. I turned off the console and decided to use the PS3 instead. It's now that I realize that the halt could have been the beginning of what was to come. If you find yourself in a similar situation where a game crashes for no apparent reason, be warned of what could happen.

The big question... when will I find myself in the mood to deal with Microsoft support?
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[Greg King]

If you can wait the couple of weeks, it's painfully simple. You call them, they try to troubleshoot the problem over the phone by eliminating the hard drive as the point of failure, and when it still doesn't work, and you have stopped pulling your hair out/banging your head against a wall, they will take your name and address and mail you out a cardboard coffin. You get said coffin, mail your console to them and they replace it. It's quite simple if you can get past one of the most painful 15 minutes on a phone imaginable.

They will tell you that it will take anywhere between 4-8 weeks but I got mine back in just under 3. Good luck.

 

[Rob Williams]

I understand how the process works - I just hate waiting around on a line, so I need to find myself in the right mood. I might just pick up a new one while I wait for this one to be RMA'd. Then I'll have two and will be prepared to link the two together in the future for some multiplayer action.