<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Ask any Xbox 360 owner what their greatest fear concerning their $300-$400 piece of machinery is, and you might receive a variety of answers. For some, the words ?Halo 3? and ?cancelled? being in the same sentence might bring nightmares to their otherwise soothing dreams. For others, terror might set in at the mere idea of trying to afford a new HD television to take advantage of all the bells and whistles associated with their beefy console. However, one concept that is sure to make the blood run cold in any Xbox 360 owner?s veins is the sight of the dreaded ?red ring of death?. More appropriately, the ring of light on the front of an Xbox 360 flashing red, indicating some major trouble is about to go down. Since its initial launch, the Xbox 360 has taken on a bad rap- in the media at least- as a system that constantly overheats, is poorly manufactured, and is too unstable to be on store shelves. The aforementioned problems are just a few of the reasons people claim to have experienced when the dreaded flashing lights illuminate on their beloved console. Whatever the reason for seeing them, these lights are never a welcome sight. We?ve read the plights of our forum members who?ve had to go through the process of getting a new Xbox 360 when they?ve gone caput, and heard the problems experienced with trying to get a new system. So when several of us at TeamXbox had our systems go the way of the dodo, we decided to record the process from beginning to end, to see what all is involved, and maybe offer up some friendly advice for those who?ve yet to experience this issue. We also gave Microsoft a chance to chime in on the subject, and they?ve obliged, which does show us that the console maker is all about righting the red-ringed fleet. <div align="center"> The dreaded flashing red lights of death!</div> Houston, we have a problem. Before we take a look at our Xbox 360?s journey to the repair center in Texas, first we must take note of why a system would have to be sent there in the first place. Flashing red lights on the Xbox 360?s normally green ring of light is a bad sign, no matter how you cut the cake, but all red lights don?t mean a visit down south is necessary. Some issues can be resolved from the comfort of one?s own home. The Xbox 360?s ring is divided into four separate quadrants. Each division turning red indicates a separate problem, all with a different way of resolving the issue. It should be noted that when gamers call the support line about their defective unit, the standard procedure of operation is to have gamers unplug all cables from the unit, reinsert them, and try booting the system again. The support worker will also have players remove their hard drive and reboot the system to check and see if that is the problem. In the hope of speeding the process along, it might be a wise thought to run through those procedures before calling the Xbox 360 support line. As mentioned, each quadrant on the set of flashing red lights indicates a different issue. If all of the lights but the first section are flashing, this means a general hardware failure has occurred. There is little to be done other than trying to unhook and reattach your cables. This problem is a sure sign a visit to the repair center is in your console?s future. If the problem is indicated in the second quadrant of the system, it is merely overheating. As too many hours of GRAW will do that to a unit, the proposed cure here is to unplug the unit from the power supply, let it sit to cool down, and perhaps begin scouting for a better location to store your precious investment. A problem indicated in the third quadrant of the Xbox 360 ring of light is diagnosed as a hardware failure. Once again, try re-inserting all of your cords and cables, but this problem should definitely be dealt with by the repair center. If all four lights are flashing on the front of your console, this is perhaps the easiest problem to fix. This is an issue with the AV cable not being properly inserted into the back of the console. The cure? Just make sure the cord ?clicks? once it has been inserted into the unit. If that doesn?t work, of course call the repair center, but the four lights are the easiest of the problems to rectify. Assuming that the assistance is needed, a phone call to the helpful people at the Xbox 360 support center is the next step. Every day from 9:00 A.M. to 1:00 A.M. Eastern time, and 6:00 A.M. to 10:00 P.M. Pacific Time, gamers can call 1-800-4MY-XBOX to get the repair process started. International users can dial 425-635-7180. Once the call has been made, and the problem identified, an empty box is then sent out to gamers. The particular problem at hand will determine what all contents are shipped back to the repair center. Unless you are experiencing a problem with the hard drive of your console, all you typically send back is the system itself. Detach the hard drive, remove and store all discs, and keep all controllers and cords. There are warnings throughout the instruction page sent out that if you send in anything not needed, it might not be returned. To the repair center?and beyond! Below you will find a complete breakdown of the time it took from the very first call we made to the repair center, to when we finally received a working unit. We had a bit of a unique experience with our system, as the first replacement console we received was defective as well, causing us to go through the procedure a second time. To compensate, we were told that we would receive overnight shipping for the whole process and a free game. We didn?t actually get the overnight processing (it was the standard shipping instead), but we did receive a copy of Perfect Dark Zero for the trouble. Sunday May 28th: Xbox 360 experiences red lights of death. The day the games stopped playing. Monday May 29th: Called Xbox 360 repair center. Explained the problem, and were told that a box would be sent out the next day due to the holiday (Memorial Day). Friday June 2nd: Received the empty box to ship the 360 back in. It was then packaged up, and sent out that same day. Wednesday June 7th: The Xbox 360 repair center received our broken console. Thursday June 8th: A refurbished Xbox 360 system was sent back to us. Tuesday June 13th: We received our refurbished Xbox 360 system. This unit was also broken, so we called the help center once more and were told a new box would be sent overnight to us. We also had our choice of a free game for the trouble. Wednesday June 14th: Another box was sent to us for this Xbox 360 unit. It was not marked for overnight shipping like we were told. Monday June 19th: We received the second empty box for our console. Tuesday June 20th: The second defective unit was shipped back to the repair center in McAllen, Texas. Friday June 23rd: Second defective unit was received by the repair center. Monday June 26th: Another refurbished Xbox 360 console was shipped back to us. Wednesday June 28th: We received our free copy of Perfect Dark Zero. Thursday June 29th: We received our third console, and so far, things are in working order.</div> The Red Ring of Death - Xbox
Cheers for that Beggsy, hopefully I can get mine sorted when i get home. i really want a game of GRAW2 badly!
I had the ring of death 4 months ago and sent it away. The bastards aren't even going to give me a new one they said the best they could do is refund me. But they have a 6 month policy apparently. If Microsoft have your Xbox for over 6 months then they istantly refund your money and you get a free hook up to live. I reckon it's about 12 days till 6 months so i'm hoping they don't refund the money by then. *<font color=""SeaGreen"">Max</font> checks his bank account* Nope not yet
man i got the ring of death before. i did nothing but it still worked must be cause i knocked it a bit while downloading someting off internet to put on it.
Actually, I've had my 360 for over a year now, and not a problem still, the only thing that bothers me is that it makes too much noise, kinda like an old computer, other than that, Im loving it. I think it has to do alot, on how much you use it and how well ventilated it is. I use mine 2 hours daily and 6 hours on the weekends..which is 32 Hours for the whole week....I happen to know ppl who use it 8-12 hours on the weekends they had their consoles replaced at least 3 times.
Use a fan to keep it well ventilated... and also use a big room, smoke free would help with the windows open.
