3 flashing red lights... of death.

[B_MAN]

so yet another 360 has bit the dust: mine
they've sent me a box and i'm about to send it back for repairs
but i'm just wondering if there are other peeps on here that have had theirs repaired.... and if so what was your experience like?
was it fast? did they replace your console with a new one or did they simply replace the failed components? and more importantly, did they do a proper job? is it still working now that you have it back??
a friend of mine was telling me how he has gone through FOUR "repaired" consoles, each with a different serial number... which leads me to believe that they simply take someone elses busted 360, repair it and clean it up and send it back claiming it's brand new
anyways, speak up and share your experiences!
:cheers:

 

[CyberPitz]

I've read some horror stories, then I've read some happy ones. So I think it's a mixed back in this part. Hope yours comes back good as new

 

[jimbo118]

that sucks B_MAN, i keep expecting mine to bust one day too :| whats the warranty on them btw? i got mine last xmas.

 

[Cavalry]

I have a 1 year warranty
if it breaks,they send you a "new" one with an extended 6 year warranty

 

[OmegaX]

Microsoft will fix any Xbox 360 that gets the red ring of death within 3 years of purchase. I recently sent off my 2nd one because of that very problem. Got it back very quickly though, only took about 2 weeks after shipping it to them.

 

[A True Canadian]

I didn't get the rings of death, but my Xbox 360 stopped reading games in October. I kept getting a "please insert this disc into and Xbox 360 console" error message whenever I tried to play my games. My CD drive was, for a lack of a better word, busted.

Since I got the 360 last Christmas, I was covered by their 1-year warranty for any problem. So I called them up and placed a repair order with them. They told me that a box (which people have nick-named the coffin) will be sent to me in 5 business days. I placed the repair order on a Sunday, so I figured it would arrive on Friday at the latest.

It didn't arrive.

So I thought, ok, I'll give them until Monday and then it should be there by then.

It didn't arrive.

Now, I'm currently in my fourth year at University getting a computer science degree, and since the University is only an hour and a half drive from where I live, I come home for the weekends. I still have a place near the University, but I enjoy coming home at the end of the week to relax and spend time with my friends back home.

Anyway, I wasn't able to call Microsoft support back until the end of that week (Saturday morning). It turns out that the repair order that I had setup two weeks earlier was never activated, so I had to start up a new one.

The box arrived mid-way during the next week, and I sent it out through Purolator (Canadian version of UPS) to be sent to Microsoft.

I recieved a refurbished 360 console the following week.


The turn-around time from when I sent the console out in its coffin was only a week, but it took 4 weeks total to get my 360 repaired; and by repaired I mean exchanged for a different console. It's been working great so far, but my only concern is the CD drive (the reason I sent my old 360 for repair in the first place). The new one is very, very loud. Almost as if it's spinning the discs faster than it should.

The good news is, I recieved a 1-year warranty for this new console, so should it fail on me, I can get it "repaired" too. And of course, I'm still covered from the rings of death for another two years as well.

 

[Dalamari]

I sent mine in for an A/V problem and got a refurbished one back within 3-4 weeks, set it all up online, went smoothly

 

[Unfocused]

I don't get this. Is that 'feature' hardcoded into the console? Did they set the X360s to break themselves over time? I never heard of this happening on other consoles; my SNES still works, heh.

 

[Asus]

That sucks. A couple of my friends have had to send theirs back too (RROD). Took a few weeks. My Wii gets a blue light from time to time.

 

[TCfromBN]

Why would they hard code a feature that is loosing them millions of dollars?

:|

It was just poorly designed.


I'll be sending mine in soon, as it gets the ring every once in a while during play.

 

[B_MAN]

Why would they hard code a feature that is loosing them millions of dollars?

:|

It was just poorly designed.


I'll be sending mine in soon, as it gets the ring every once in a while during play.

ya that's how it starts...
i had it go red a couple of times but it was fine whenever i restarted the system
only a matter of time!

well im gonna send mine off tomorrow so i'll let you guys know how it goes

 

[Fliko]

a friend of mine was telling me how he has gone through FOUR "repaired" consoles, each with a different serial number... which leads me to believe that they simply take someone elses busted 360, repair it and clean it up and send it back claiming it's brand new
anyways, speak up and share your experiences!

Actually, they tell you over the phone the process "And after we recieve your Xbox 360 we will either repair it or ship you a refurbished Xbox 360".
It's no secret you don't get a new Xbox 360, that's wasting a bunch of boxes.

Anyways, my service was great, took me about 10 minutes to finish the call, the lady was real nice and explained the entire process in detail. I got my box fairly quick, I still have yet to send it though (Gonna get the box tomorrow and send it out the next day).

 

[Agent.M]

Im on my fourth one! :|

 

[mastag]

I took it back to circuit city and they replaced it free of charge.

 

[Dalamari]

I took it back to circuit city and they replaced it free of charge.

I've got a 2 year warranty with Microcenter where I can exchange my 360 at any time for free (with a valid reason obviously) but they say it doesn't start until the 3 year warranty with Microsoft wears out, so I have to wait the 3-4 weeks instead of being able to just go and get a new one

 

[Bad^Hat]

Just sent mine off for the fourth time, five if you count the first problem but that was replaced in-store. First was a DVD drive malfunction, then 2 red lights, and most recently a recurring issue with the fan. The store was nice enough to give me a "courtesey" model, though (the boss's ).

Sending it away is the only thing I really hate about the 360, other than that it's a kickass console. In my experience they normally take anywhere from one to three (in extreme cases) weeks to get it back to you. The most annoying part besides the wait is just organising it, really. I was never offered a box to send it in so I had to track one down myself, aswell as packing material. Also, every single time I call MS support to arrange it I get someone with an accent, which isn't a problem until I have to start repeating things 3 times. I think one call went for nearly an hour, guy put me on hold for about 30 minutes looking for my address because HE GOT THE WRONG DAMN COUNTRY. Wtf.

Anyway, good luck.

 

[B_MAN]

Also, every single time I call MS support to arrange it I get someone with an accent, which isn't a problem until I have to start repeating things 3 times.

hahahah that's EXACTLY what happened to me
also, she said it would take 3-5 weeks
i really hope it's not that long though!!

 

[Cormeh]

I've had the three red lights twice before. The first time it just appeared when I turned on the console after standing it up. Leaving it for a while before turning it back on seemed to fix it.

The second one was when I tried to use a 3rd party cooling fan add-on and the system didn't like it one bit. After removing that and restarting it worked again.

My system operates really loud though, Mass Effect crashes a lot and discs that are being read actually sound like they're being trodden on whilst lying on a gravel path. :|

I still <3 my 360.

 

[jimbo118]

i think its pretty disgracegul the level of failure the 360s suffer from, wtf @ Microsoft tbh. I remember when i first started playing my 360, it was ther loudest console i've ever had, you could hear the DVD drive chugging all the time, i get Cd errors alot with certain games. Considering the money people paid for the things its not really good enough.

 

[boglito]

Why would they hard code a feature that is loosing them millions of dollars?

:|

It was just poorly designed.


I'll be sending mine in soon, as it gets the ring every once in a while during play.

It may be considered beneficial to MS and their partners that chipping the xbox is risky business to the consumer.

 

[lePobz]

i think its pretty disgracegul the level of failure the 360s suffer from, wtf @ Microsoft tbh. I remember when i first started playing my 360, it was ther loudest console i've ever had, you could hear the DVD drive chugging all the time, i get Cd errors alot with certain games. Considering the money people paid for the things its not really good enough.

The CD errors you get occur only when the 360 is turned on whilst the game is in the drive. If you open and close the drive before launching the game, you won't have any 'disc is unreadable' errors or an 'idling' dvd drive.

Guess they are working to fix this, too - since this is a well known issue to them.

 

[Acepilotf14]

I broke mine, but it wasn't Microsoft's fault. [dropped it while it was playing.. screwed over the CD reader.] I decided to just buy a new Elite than go through the 100$ process of non-warrantied Xbox. Did me a good 2 and a half years, though.

 

[VictimOfScience]

Exactly the reason I waited for the HDMI Premium units to come out--the ones with the extra cooling power--the way it should have been made. Oh well. Live and learn...let's hope. :|

 

[B_MAN]

Exactly the reason I waited for the HDMI Premium units to come out--the ones with the extra cooling power--the way it should have been made. Oh well. Live and learn...let's hope. :|

ya well if i had known of all the issues when i bought the system, i probably would've waited too!

 

[CrazyHarij]

guess why they call it 360.. it practically bounces between your home and tech support

 

[lePobz]

My 360 isn't working right. It hasn't gone wrong ONCE since I bought it. I think i'm going to send it in for repairs, it's certainly not behaving as it should.

 

[Drackard]

It's surprising how many people have had problems, I know my Brothers on his 2nd or 3rd now, can't remember exactly. However i've sort've dropped mine on the floor once or twice and it's still going as if it was just purchased .. guess i'm lucky.

 

[craig]

so yet another 360 has bit the dust: mine
they've sent me a box and i'm about to send it back for repairs
but i'm just wondering if there are other peeps on here that have had theirs repaired.... and if so what was your experience like?
was it fast? did they replace your console with a new one or did they simply replace the failed components? and more importantly, did they do a proper job? is it still working now that you have it back??
a friend of mine was telling me how he has gone through FOUR "repaired" consoles, each with a different serial number... which leads me to believe that they simply take someone elses busted 360, repair it and clean it up and send it back claiming it's brand new
anyways, speak up and share your experiences!
:cheers:

Mine broke a while ago:

http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=131384

I didn't get sent a box by M$, simply a sticker to add to a box for the free postage. Anyway, I made note to jot down my serial to see if they'd give me my unit back. Sent it. 10 days later got it back. Low and behold it was my unit, and it's been pukka since.

They also included a free card for a month of gold XBL service as they damn well should!

No free Halo3 tho. Speaking of Halo 3, I was 3/4 of the way thru it when I sent it off, when I got it back the save games wouldn't load, so I needed to restart the game.

 

[Cormeh]

My mate sent his off with his silver faceplate still attached, and it returned intact, so you do always get your 360 back.