The XBox 360 launched in November of 2005 and we found a pretty good deal (given that they were in demand at the time) on one that next month. Little did we know at the time that the RROD (red ring of death) would become an annual event. Due to the design of the system, the build-up of heat in the system would cause the GPU (graphics chip) to overheat and render the now famous error status.
Last weekend we experienced our third such failure. The standard warranty is 1 year and I purchased a 2 year extension for $30 from Microsoft. For their part, Microsoft extended the warranty period for consoles suffering the RROD. So our first two repairs were covered under our extended warranty. I was a little unsure how Microsoft would treat all of the overlaps in warranties, but they said that they would fix it again without a repair charge. In all the instances, they paid for shipping and gave us a month of XBox Live gold service. The only problem is that they replace it with the same model and not the newer, more “RROD resistant” version.
One thing different this time around is that they didn’t send us a box to pack it in (referred to by many as a coffin). I had to pack it myself in an old motherboard box. I had some packing materials and the console was pretty well protected, but the box needed to be obscured since it just screamed out, “pilfer me”. I had already secured the box with some wide masking tape, but to cover the box I added a layer of reversed Christmas paper. That did obscure the box, but I need to make sure that the paper didn’t rip away easily. To do this I added another layer of the masking tape. In the end, it was quite the monstrosity and Connie & I got a pretty good laugh of it’s appearance. I’m sure it will provide a story for the UPS handlers and the person at the XBox repair facility. At least it made it there safely.
Always a little dissapointing to have equipment fail on you and it’s irritating to have one more thing to deal with during a busy week. Even given the failures of the console, the XBox 360 has been a great piece of hardware. I think everyone in the family has complained at least once about the void below the TV. Not that any consumer electronic is a necessity (because it isn’t), but it sure is fun to have. Maybe this third time will be the charm.
Update: Got my 360 back in record time: 8 days. Seems to work fine.
Mine failed last year – the apparently more resistant black model. I made a small but unique mark on the back of the case before I sent it off (in my own packaging as you had to).
Got it back quickly and the mark was there, so they had repaired my console, or at least re-used the case.
Despite the hardware failure, the 360 has given me hours and hours of gaming goodness plus LastFM etc. I would pay more for a quiet one though…
That’s interesting that you got the same repaired console back. I got a different one this time as well. I suppose that it’s only the launch model that gets replaced (hypothesis only since I have a sample size of 3). I would have been happy to have my other one repaired though. It was in great shape externally. Again, I agree with your summary.
There is a rumor going around that a newer hardware refresh will be released this holiday season (same specs, just different packaging). The added support of USB Flash storage yesterday seems to give credence to the change in packaging since they wouldn’t need the memory card slots. If it were more quiet, that would really be nice. I would seriously consider the purchase if the difference was noticeable.