RichC2

I bought a 100 bit "precision tool kit" with all the main Star Torx, amongst others, from Home Depot for $3. Should still be there.

Michael Corvin

I'm on my sixth so I speak with some experience. I think, for the most part*, they have done great. With Chess discussing his PS3 repair process, I think MS has them beat, hands down. Your 360 may die more often but repairs are $0 compared to $150 and the hard drive pops on and off so you don't have to worry about losing game saves, DLC and whatnot.** Also no worries of losing a backwards compatible system and getting a non-BC system back. Also if you call and complain enough they'll give you a free game or controller. I got a controller on my 3rd RROD.

Lastly, despite being on my sixth system, I don't cross my fingers and hope it works. That's just silly. Although the system I just got back is louder.

*The first year was hairy, but ever since they acknowledged the problem things have been smooth sailing.

** sure re-downloading the licenses for everything can be a pain, but nothing compared to losing hours and hours of gaming because you can't back up a save game.

lopper

Yup. This is the one.

DirkUSA

Had the RROD and got a kit from ebay for $12. I tried it tonight and the green light is back. Let's see how long before I get the RROD back, but for now my XBox is working again.

Dirk

asabase

Just got my system back from microsoft. It was back quicker than I thought.

JasonF

I posted this in the Gamer Tag thread by accident, but I might as well put it where it belongs:

My 360 is fried. It froze up, so I turned it off and back on and it froze up again, so I turned it off and back on and I got a red light in the lower right quadrant, which is apparently 360 speak for "Your unit is fucked in at least one of about fifteen different ways." Now when I turn it on, I get nothing. I hear the drive spin, but my TV keeps telling me it's not getting any signal from the 360. And, of course, I'm out of warranty.

This may be Microsoft's way of telling me it's time to break my New Year's resolution and buy a PS3. I need something to keep me busy while I'm waiting for my 360 to get repaired, right? Or maybe I should skip the repair entirely and just buy a new 360. Aren't the arcades almost as cheap as the out-of-warranty repairs?

Michael Corvin

If it's out of warranty you can try the do it yourself method that's been mentioned.

K&AJones

When mine went down I hit Google for anything about the evil "Red Rings of Death". The first thing that helped was getting the "code
as to the problem where you hold two buttons down and the lights will flash either 1, 2, 3 or 4 over four sequences. The chart I pulled up showing all the codes and from what the majority were saying is that Heat is the number one problem.

It's no different if a pc has a hardware problem where it's usually either bad RAM or the CPU gets to hot. Once I got the Heatsinks off it was obvious where the problem was. I cleaned the CPU's and heatsinks throughly and applied the Thermal Paste...The Correct Way....tossed the X-Clamps and used 5mm screws and nylon washers to firmly hold the Heatsinks down which some said could be a issue as well.

This is a simple DIY project with no circuit board work, soldering, splicing, major modding and such. As I've said for me the hadest part was tripping the small hiden Tabs in the rear to release the case and cleaning the old thermal paste off. Spend the $20- bucks for parts, some weekend time and save the other $$$$ for games.

DirkUSA

The $12 kit a bought on ebay came with a nice tool to remove the clips in the back, it also came with the 2 torx you need and the thermal paste plus the screws and washers. Shipping was free. Good deal. Instructions can be downloaded as pdf files thru the links they supply.
It's worth a shot.

JasonF

My wife reminded me why I married her: I told her I was trying to figure out if I should just send my 360 off for repair, buy a new one, or send it off for repair and buy a PS3. She told me to buy a new 360 and a PS3.

Michael Corvin

Wow. Take her out to dinner and hit Best Buy afterwards.

JasonF

The conversation actually went like this:

Me: Option 1 is I send my 360 off for repair for $100, but then I don't have it for a few weeks. Option 2 is I just buy a new 360 for $200. Option 3 is I send the 360 off but buy a PS3 to keep me busy until it gets back -- that costs $300 plus the repair costs, but then we have a Blu Ray player.

Her: Why not just by a new 360 and a PS3?

Me: Secret option 4!? I didn't know that was a possibility.

Her: Actually, I'm going to go with Secret Option 5: Buy the 360 and the PS3 and pick up some kitty litter on your way home because we're out.

Michael Corvin

Yeah, she's sleeping with someone else.

OldBoy

sniper308

And apparently he's doing a good job

JasonF

Update: I went with option #2 and bought just a new 360, largely because the Best Buy I went to was out of stock on PS3s and the PetCo I went to was out of stock on the brand of litter we buy.

foxdvd

I want updates on the fix...still working?

DirkUSA

So far, so good!

I played last night for a few hours and also this morning!

K&AJones

Wasn't sure if you were asking about mine but....let the 360 run and played for nearly 10 Hours straight and zero issues.

As to one here mentioned their wife let them get another I had that option also except my wife has been out of work for seven months. Right now getting another 360 would be like getting some fancy rims for my truck. Plus there's a bit more degree of satisfaction of DIYer while keeping more $$$$ in the pocket.

.

Save Ferris

I posted it in the other thread but I guess its worth reposting here:

MS has an unwritten rule that they will ALWAYS fix a RROD xbox for free. Free shipping too. Unless you've cracked open the case. Yes the website says your xbox is past the warranty. Dont cry about it. Call them they will ignore that and fix it. Free.

jeffbase34

The website also told me mine was out of warranty. I complained and they gave me the shipping label to print out.

The nice thing is you can track the progress of the repair online. Took 10 days to get an Xbox back.

edstein

I got the E74 error code last night. I shut the system off and then unplugged the power connector and let it sit for a few minutes. Powered the system back on and everything seems to be working ok. I have already sent this unit once for the same problem about a year ago. Hopefully it will last a little while longer but at this point I'm ready to upgrade to a new arcade system to get the hdmi port anyways.

bahgee

So my launch unit just RROD while watching netflix. I've wanted an elite for a while now. Just a few Q's:

1. Are all elites black? All my accessories are white.
2. If I remove the HD from my broken unit, I can sell it w/o having to worry about my personal info?
3. When I get the new one, what's the first thing to recover my xbl sub, games, points, etc.