First of all, he love the unit and it made a great party activity.

Halo 3 online rocks!

Questions:
1. Are the new units still having the "Ring of Fire"?

2. Is there a link to the new 3 year warranty?

3. Any suggestions for 360 care?

4. Any other info that would be helpful to a 360 newbie?



Thanks

1. I believe the Newer units are not having the same issues as earlier ones, but I dunno for sure.
2. http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/sy...edwarranty.htm
3. Don't stand the 360 vertically
4. choose a short gamertag

My suggestion is to take a good look at the lower priced titles for the 360. Since it's two years old, there are many great games that you can buy new for $20-$30.

The three biggest tips for long 360 life are 1) don't stand the 360 vertically, 2) make sure there's plenty of ventilation space around the 360, and 3) don't buy a third-party cooling fan.

Thanks for all the help.

1st thing today, I put the 360 flat. It was on it's side with something under it to allow for airflow.

My son will be going to GameStop to pick up "Call of Duty 2 or 3".

Have a great day.

No way your tag must be as annoying as humanly possible. Preferably you should have a halo reference followed by something like Sn1p3r with 420 on the end and some Xs

Get COD2 or 4, skip 3 unless it's still free with COD4.

"Ring of Fire"?? What fire?

The correct term is "Red Rings of Death" or RROD.

I just wanted to make sure I made a 360 rookie mistake to give everyone a good laugh.

Well if it happens to my 360. It will be the ring of fire!

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I dont get how standing it vertically causes it to die faster?

I don't believe it causes it to die any faster, but may be the cause of scratched disks

Because there's only two vents are on sides - if you put it vertically - it reduce the vent on the bottom.

When I first bought 360 and I put it flat, had no problem for almost a year. Till I moved it to my PC desk and I put it vertically - got RROD within 2 weeks.

On the pre-July 2007 units, the heat from the console can actually slightly melt the adhesive holding the heat sink in place. Horizontally, the adhesive just solidifies once powered down and cooled off.. vertically, gravity can slightly dislodged the heat sink before the adhesive has a chance to solidify. Obviously, if the heat sink isn't aligned properly to the CPU/GPU, bad things can happen quickly.

So what if I just bought one a few days ago new? Its an elite but does it need to be horizontal?

I wouldn't chance it, even if they've supposedly fixed the issue.

I don't buy into the vertical/horizontal debate. My 360 has been vertical since launch day and I haven't had an issue apart from a couple of freezes from some of the earlier titles.

How can I tell if I have a "Pre-July 2007" unit?

look at the manufacturer's sticker on the back of the system. It has the date it was made printed on it.

Thanks, I am at work and my son's 360 is at home.

Concerning your son, the parental timer launches in early December with the fall update. You will be able to limit his usage to an hourly range if you ever have a need to.

That is just what I want, any links to the "parental timer"?

Great info!

There isn't a great deal of info out on it right now, but it's very similar to Vista: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/community/...amilytimer.htm

The Xbox 360 Family Timer can restrict children's activity time and can be set on a per-day or per-week basis. Helpful "notifications" will appear to warn the gamer that the session is nearing the end and the feature will automatically turn off the console when a pre-determined time limit has been exceeded.

Beyond that, nobody really knows. In Vista, you can also set the highest ESRB rating that can be played as well as block content. For instance, if you allow your son to play M rated games, you can block out any M rated games with drug use or sexual violence. You can also block specific games by name. But it's unknown if the same features will make it into the 360.