Fincher Fan

After seeing how much fun people here on the forum are having with the 360 and the possibility of the HD add-on, I decided to take the plunge on the new Xbox. I've only had the system for two days and only been playing Dead Rising pretty sparsely when the screen locked up and three red lights started flashing. Around this point I'm pretty boned, aren't I? Is returning it the only option? I read on a Microsoft site their returns are only 3-5% but considering the amount of information I found about it makes me seem certain it's probably a lot higher. Has this happened to anyone else?

Eric D.

Yes, I got the red ring of death and I had to send my system back to M$ and pay for them to send me a new one. If possible, you should return it to the store while you still can and get a new one. It's not worth the hassle of trying to fix it.

Fincher Fan

I will do. Thanks, Eric. How long did you have the console for and what did M$ charge you? There's no way to save my game files, is there?

movieking

If you only have had it for two days, you should return it to the store that you bought it from (assuming that you bought it from a store). If you bought it from someone, check the manufacture date to see if it is still covered by the warranty.

If you don't already have one, I would highly recommend getting a warranty. I also had the red rings of death, but I had to pay to get it fixed. After that, I got the warranty, and now I am covered until October 2008

Michael Corvin

From what I have read(possibly here), Dead Rising runs especially hot, due to using both processors or something like that.

Before I put in my copy of dead rising, I rigged up my system with two pieces of 1/2" square tubing. Covered it in electrical tape as to not scratch the system, and placed them underneath(not covering the vents) the system to elevate it a bit.

My first 360 died, and this is my replacement one. I haven't had it freeze on me yet since I rigged it up. It did freeze a couple of times prior.

flashburn

Use this to try and figure out what 3 Ring error you are getting:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=717200

Fincher Fan

Thanks, guys! That link was especially helpful, flashburn. When I exchange the system tomorrow I'll try and swap the hard drive over as well.

Rob V

I've been without my 360 for two weeks now due to the red rings of death and I couldn't be more disappointed. With great games out like Saints Row and SW Legos II, Im really behind in quality gaming.

Cusm

If you have had less than the store's return policy, take it back and return it. Also when you get a replacement register it via telephone and find out how long your actual warranty is for, the 90 days is not correct, most are actually longer. Buy the extended warranty from MS before your regular one expires.

RichC2

Yeah, Dead Rising uses 66% (2 of the 3 cores) of the X360s processing power apparently, and I guess they just didn't expect anything to do that.. weird eh?

Eric D.

I got a discounted price and had to pay around $90. As for saving your games, you only have to worry about that if you are getting rid of your hard drive too. I had to get a new hard drive as well and transferred all my saves to a memory card which I them moved to the new hard drive. It worked really well.

clappj

How did you get that price?
I paid MS $140 to fix mine.

Cusm

You have a 90 warranty on it, but if you call and check, most of these are a lot longer. My first one bought in December had a warranty good through June, and my replacement form April had one good through November, my current one is good through October. I will buy the $60 2 year plan from MS and not have to worry about another problem for that time frame.

yotd576

Hey, you guys who paid to have your 360 repaired. If it was manufactured before 01-01-06 they're doing it free until the end of the year now.

http://forum.teamxbox.com/showthread.php?t=471333

I'd see if I can get my money back.

tenaciousdave

They are refunding people who paid to get it repaired. Call 1-800-4-MY-XBOX.

Daryl

sweet. I'll be getting my money back for my 360 I just had repaired (replaced)

Fincher Fan

My Journey to K-Mart by Fincher Fan (rant)

So I just got back from returning my dead Xbox to K-Mart (my first mistake) this afternoon. After doing everything short of smashing the display cases with a baseball bat, I finally got the attention of the twelve-year old girl behind the counter. She at first tried telling me that I would have to call Microsoft and jump through their hoops. I was adamant about an exchange considering I only played it for two days before it died.

After some back and forth finally she called up the Microsoft support line and handed me the phone. After aligning three sacred artifacts and sacrificing a lamb on the digital camera case, I finally got through to someone. At least, I think I did because I couldn't understand a fucking thing on the other end. My best guess is that was some kind of pigeon-english and I started wondering where along the line the copper line joined the cup and string.

After registering the dead 360 over the phone (a tedious process when the operator at the other end keeps interrupting by putting a jihad on you - either that or repeating back what I was saying... it was hard to tell), it turns out that Microsoft was operating at their usual capacity. That's right, the system was down and they were unable to enter my data or issue a return # until Monday at the earliest. K-Mart, being a multi-million dollar company yet too cheap to exchange a defective item were hesitant about swapping the console without it. The girl agreed to go ahead with the exchange anyway and asked for my details in case they ran into problems on Monday. I figured that was just a cover and politely told her she was too young for me. Not realising I was joking and judging by her look I'd have to say if the 360 was hamburger and I was at McDonalds, there'd be a unhealthy amount of spit in my meal that night.

After the 45 minute call to Microsoft, I wait another ten-to-fifteen minutes for her to wander out the back and get felt up by the stock boy before bringing another system out. Then I drop the bombshell; I'd like to switch hard drives. You know that moment at a party when everybody stops talking at once just in time to hear you blurt out about how you shouldn't have slept with that hooker because now you have genital warts? I immediately had an additional two K-Mart "workers" pop-up like daisies from underneath the counter. I wondered if they had been there the whole time.

Thankfully the replacement Xbox was placed on the counter so while the K-Mart 'special-needs' employees were bickering amongst themselves if it can be swapped over or not, I just opened the box and did it anyway. Finally thinking I was home free they stated I simply needed to stop the front desk on the way out and get the receipt photocopied. What was coming next was so obvious even John Edward could have nailed it.

After standing in queue for another ten minutes (don't you think I know I was lucky it was that fast!) I hand the eleven-year old boy my receipt. Looking around I didn't see a photocopier and my heart sunk as I knew what that meant. In between answering the phone and "helping" other people, he placed a call in to get it photocopied. I was wondering how this worked and figured somebody must come and get it but nope, he put in one of those tubes like from The Simpsons, you know, where the pipes run outside and the beavers make a dam out of the containers. Another ten minutes pass before my receipt pops out the return chute and I finally leave the hell-hole that is K-Mart two hours later.

Let me just say, Gears of War better be really fucking good!

Eric D.

The rep on the phone said I supposedly missed my warranty by less than a week, so he was able to give me a discount.

Eric D.

Awesome, thanks for the info! I'll call later today. Has anybody done this yet?

tenaciousdave

Great story Fincher Fan.

Michael Corvin

Where do you live? Can I be your friend? You sir are a great storyteller.

As long as you know your first problem in this whole mess was shopping at K-mart, not buying a 360.

redcat

So if they're just offering free replacements for any made before that date, doesn't that mean they must have made some kind of hardware modification on 360's made after that date? Anyone know anything about what those modifications are?

Rob V

Thanks Fincher, I just fucking spit coffee on my computer screen.


Good news about getting our money back. M$ is finally stepping to the plate. If I didn't love my 360 so much, I'd tell them to shove it up their hiney.

xmiyux

Am i bad for hoping Fincher has other mishaps occur so i can be entertained by the stories of them?

Rob V

Good news - just called MS and it was confirmed that I'll get my $140 back in 3-4 weeks!

Bad news - will have to wait 3 more "working days" to get my system back. That'll be over 2 weeks w/out a working system!