My Xbox 360 finally experienced the dreaded Red Ring of Death (RRoD). Over the last few weeks my 360’s been randomly freezing-up while playing Dead Space. It crashed/hung more and more frequently until I couldn’t run the console for more than 10 minutes without locking up. Many times it froze on the boot screen and initially I didn’t get the classic Red Ring of Death.
I called Microsoft support, expecting to have to pay for a warranty repair. Happily, while the support rep walked me through his trouble-shooting script, the console displayed the Red Ring of Death for the first time. I was able to boot the 360 a couple more times after the first RRoD, but it inevitably failed to the Red-Ring-of-Death state within minutes or seconds.
The reason why I’m happy about this, is because I was one of the ‘lucky’ ones that acquired the 360 at launch – November 22, 2005. Microsoft’s extended RRoD warranty lasts three years from the date of purchase. My 360 RRoD’d just days before the third anniversary of my purchase date. As a result, I qualified for the free replacement.
Having dealt with Xbox customer support 3 times now in less than a year, I have learned a trick. When you are on the phone with those guys on the phone (who are all in India) just repeat “3 red rings” over and over and over again.
I once had my console get stuck on only ONE red ring, with this “E” error message on screen. I told this to the Xbox customer support guys, and they were like, “we only cover for 3 rings”. So I just called them back and kept saying “3 red rings” over and over again, and that worked.
If something goes wrong with your 360, you should post on YouTube.
Won Ton, I’m not sure if that’s such good advice. If you tell them you have 3 red rings and it shows up in the repair depot without 3 red rings, I think you risk paying for the repair, shipping back and forth etc. I understand this will get you through customer service quicker but could get you in more troubles down the road.
I had the same problem with the RROD But i also got the Free Replacement i wonder what they have changed?
I got the RRoD after about a year of using my xbox, that I got as a gift. Gave up after unbelievably rude email from Microsoft ( “Tough sh*t. Buy a new one…” ).
My xbox has been collecting dust for a couple of years now. Just turning it on for five minutes and it fails into RRoD. Worthless.
Anything made by Microsoft ( Vista, xbox, Zune, Window Mobile ) has intentional built-in obsolescence, obviously. How else could they stay in business if it wasn’t for forced upgrades so you can recover your own data that has been encrypted into their proprietary format?
Todd, give them a call and get it replaced for free. And then give it to a neighbor or ebay the working one, if you don’t want.
No thanks. Made the effort years ago. Got nothing but hostility in return. Every Microsoft product manager can just “F” off as far as I am concerned. I am the Consumer, I have all the power, not them.
“Microsoft Keeps Your Repaired XBox For 4 Months, Calls You A Thief For Wanting It Back”
http://consumerist.com/381798/microsoft-keeps-your-repaired-xbox-for-4-months-calls-you-a-thief-for-wanting-it-back
I personally love microsoft, and always have. I think that Vista is the best operating system to date. People complain that it runs slow, but don’t take the time to turn off some unwanted features. The first xbox had nothing wrong with it, windows mobile = win. Microsoft has never let me down. RRoD sucks, but all of my personal friends who have experienced it have had no problem getting it taken care of. Just because you got a couple of ignorant people on the phone doesn’t mean the entire corporation is worthless.
I got the RRoD 3 times already! This last time my warranty is expired and I am looking for some fixes. Here are my results http://www.everythingtech.net/?p=44
FrankDaFixer – it’s been my experience that Microsoft uses cheap products and doesn’t repair correctly so they can continue to make money off their products.
If I were you, I’d check out therunningbox.com. I got rrod a few weeks ago after my warranty had expired and a friend told me about this company. I don’t have time to sit down and fix it myself and the shop is actually in my area, so I dropped it off with them and had it back the next day running better than when I first got it!
The owner is a real nice guy and really knows what he’s doing. When I picked it, he wouldn’t let me leave until I had played it a good 10 or 15 minutes just to make sure everything was good. They also service nationwide if you’re outside the Seattle area and can ship your 360 to them. It’s worth checking out and the price is right at $65.
Everything I read about the 360 seems to say the PS3 is well worth the extra 100 bucks.