R.I.P Xbox 360 24/03/06 - 28/02/08 (3 red rings of death)

[MinusTheBear]

Well this dreaded day has finally arrived, my xbox 360 has finally felt the wrath of the 3 red rings of death. It first started out with freezing issues that had vertical lines running through the screen which eventually got worse and now the 3 red rings of death. I have had this console since 2006 (2 years old) and have treated it really well so this would not happen, here is the list.

1) Xbox console and power brick on hard flat surface
2) Plenty of ventilation for console and power brick and away from heat sources
3) No excessive playing (on for maybe 2-3 hours max at a time)
4) Areas dusted around console so no excessive dust accumulation
.....and so on.

I do not put this much care into any of my other electronic equipment because i am not paranoid about them but the 360 i was so i went to those lengths.

I treated this thing better than myself and it still happened. I called microsoft and they are sending me a coffin for it to be repaired, and said it would be fixed for free along with a free month of xbox live gold.

I was SO CAREFUL with this console and still....

BEWARE!!! The 3 red rings of death are coming for you!

 

[koebner]

Consider yourself lucky you got almost two years out of your 360.
Hopefullly you won't be sent a refurbed old 360 as your replacement.

 

[MinusTheBear]

Well i am hoping to get the same one back or a brand new one (I wrote down my serial #) but from the sounds of it i think their could be problems with the GPU or graphics card.

I received the coffin in less than 24 hours from the time i called and purolator came back the same day to pick it up 2 hours later...i was thinking it might be a week before i got the box to send it off.

All is well so far with the process but like you said i dont want somebodys abused, old refurbished xbox so it breaks down in a month and have to send off another one.

 

[Thunder18]

I have had this console since 2006 (2 years old) and have treated it really well so this would not happen, here is the list.

1) Xbox console and power brick on hard flat surface
2) Plenty of ventilation for console and power brick and away from heat sources
3) No excessive playing (on for maybe 2-3 hours max at a time)
4) Areas dusted around console so no excessive dust accumulation
.....and so on.

I do not put this much care into any of my other electronic equipment because i am not paranoid about them but the 360 i was so i went to those lengths.

I treated this thing better than myself and it still happened.

Sorry to hear that man. I don't own an Xbox360, but I shudder everytime I hear one of these stories. It just makes good sense to take care of expensive electronics, but it seems like the Xbox360 has a serious design flaw and it seems that no amount of babying will increase the mean time between failure rate.
Ventilation, the power brick away from heat and dusting around the console all make sense, but what reason does Microsoft give for putting the console and brick on a hard flat surface though? If I had one, the brick would be on the carpet next to my surge protector. Also, if I'm in a marathon session of gaming, I don't want to be turning the system off every 2-3 hours. It's a shame that Microsoft is obviously not concerned with or capable of properly diagnosing the problem and updating the system in a way that makes it more reliable. I mean, haven't they had enough sample units come through that they should have been able to determine exactly what the problem is? At this point, they should have a few of the engineers take units home(perhaps with special transparent, quick opening cases) with them, put them in an enclosed box(to speed up the process) and let their kids play until the RRoD shows up. Have them open them up the consoles and use a non-contact thermometer to take some readings of key areas inside the console so they can determine what's going wrong in there.

 

[TLS Guy]

When this happens it is usually a vital chip custom to the unit that causes the trouble. My son is a chip designer, electromagnetic simulation engineer and researcher. He does not work for Microsoft. He works for Seagate now and used to work for micron designing memory chips. We have discussed these issues often.

Believe it or not the custom chip sets are only made once. It is hugely expensive to set up for a chip run. They produce millions once, for the expected life of the product.

If the chip has a design flaw or a Chinese worker spits in the semiconductor mix then the result is as above. Almost all chip manufacture is now in Asia. It is cheaper for the manufacturer to just repair or usually replace the boards. Another chip run seldom happens no matter what.

 

[MinusTheBear]

I know for a fact that the xbox 360 generates excessive heat which creates a lot of the problems that people are having. In my opinion there might be a problem with the heat sinks in the console which causes excessive heat and effects any soldering that is inside the machine (there are probably more design flaws). I think Microsoft also didnt think things through enough and rushed out the 360 to be the first player to be out in the next gen era and rushed consoles out to meet demand.

 

[TLS Guy]

I know for a fact that the xbox 360 generates excessive heat which creates a lot of the problems that people are having. In my opinion there might be a problem with the heat sinks in the console which causes excessive heat and effects any soldering that is inside the machine (there are probably more design flaws). I think Microsoft also didnt think things through enough and rushed out the 360 to be the first player to be out in the next gen era and rushed consoles out to meet demand.

If that is so, then everybody who owns one should add a DIY fan pronto.

 

[MinusTheBear]

There are intercoolers for the xbox 360 but from what i know none of them are authorized by Microsoft (if that means anything). Some people say they will prolong the life your xbox and other say it will hurt your xbox by drawing power from the console and make the factory cooling system inside the system work harder...those are the 2 schools of thought on intercoolers. I have never used one so i do not know what to believe. Maybe someone else knows?

I do not know what a regular fan might due if positioned properly but probably not much. Hopefully we can hear from someone that has done this!

 

[Rickster71]

The newer Xbox 360 version had a smaller, lower voltage 65nm chip architecture.
It's called Falcon.
Here is a link, to the Xbox 360 forum, to check if your 360 has that new chip.
http://forums.xbox.com/15804553/ShowPost.aspx

 

[MinusTheBear]

I definetly would not have one of these chips since i was an early adopter of the system. From what i recall the manufacturing date on my console was December 2005.

I am hoping they put new falcon chips in the refurbed consoles.

 

[koebner]

I definetly would not have one of these chips since i was an early adopter of the system. From what i recall the manufacturing date on my console was December 2005.

I am hoping they put new falcon chips in the refurbed consoles.

It is hit or miss with what the refurbs are equipped with.You may very well just get a rehabbed older model.
The heat issue is the culprit in 360 failures;it eventually leads to the motherboard warping and losing contact with the other components.
I have seen too many pictures of those intercoolers melted to the 360 to ever consider using one.The fact is,that even with the newer chips,additional solder and better heatsink,the 360 is poorly designed from an engineering perspective.
The recently released info from people who worked on the project indicate the 360 was rushed into the marketplac without proper design/build QA and testing.

 

[MinusTheBear]

Makes Sense Koebner!!!

 

[MinusTheBear]

On wednesday i got my repair back from Microsoft, 6 days in total from the time i called them about the 3 red rings of death....not to bad. I have heard a lot of horror stories about Microsofts customer service and the repair process in general but for me it was as painless as possible and was very very fast.
What I did notice is Microsoft gave me a different console. From looking at the console from the outside it looks brand new, the casing, the usb inputs and the video and power outputs look brand new but who knows it could be a new case with refurbished parts inside but i will never know because i will not take it apart.
I hooked up the console and it works fine, it sounds a little different when it is running though and when the dvd drive ejects it sounds different..but i digress, it probably has a different dvd drive from what i had before.
So, from all the horror stories that i have heard about the repair process mine was really good, and i am very pleased.

 

[mytzen]

You can also tell that it is new unit if it has a HDMI output on it. Microsoft started shipping HDMI capable units in Fall 07.

I am surprised to hear that it took a total of 6 days for you to get yours back and that it was free. I had mine for about a year and then month ago it started to freeze within 1 minute of being turned on. When I called Microsoft they told me it would cost $100 just to look at it. Luckily I remembered that I bought an extended warranty from the store and so got it replaced for free.

 

[Biggiesized]

Consider yourself lucky you got almost two years out of your 360.
Hopefullly you won't be sent a refurbed old 360 as your replacement.

He'll likely get the Xbox 360 re-design that fits into the original case. I forget what the code name is called.

 

[jliedeka]

Mine just dies this weekend. I got almost two years use of it on and off. I was noticing a lot of crashes a couple of weeks ago and stopped playing. I tried to fire it up Saturday and got the dreaded 3 red lights.

Does anyone know if they are insistent about having a receipt for the warranty work? I have no idea where mine is.

Jim

 

[mytzen]

Mine just dies this weekend. I got almost two years use of it on and off. I was noticing a lot of crashes a couple of weeks ago and stopped playing. I tried to fire it up Saturday and got the dreaded 3 red lights.

Does anyone know if they are insistent about having a receipt for the warranty work? I have no idea where mine is.

Jim

Some stores like BB, CC, and Target, can look it up based on your credit card (if you paid that way). Other than that I would assume that they would want the receipt especially since so many 360's had problems.

 

[abboudc]

Mine just dies this weekend. I got almost two years use of it on and off. I was noticing a lot of crashes a couple of weeks ago and stopped playing. I tried to fire it up Saturday and got the dreaded 3 red lights.

Does anyone know if they are insistent about having a receipt for the warranty work? I have no idea where mine is.

Jim

You should be ok...they extended the warranty to three years and the 360 hasn't even been out three years as it was released in November 2005.

 

[mjfoster77]

Well I can finally join this listof lucky xbox 360 owners. I bought this bad boy on day 1. I was extremely careful rwith keeping it cool and clean. So much for that. Here is the real kicker though .. it broke in March I called for the box to ship it in. A few weeks go by ... ok no box I call Again. Oh we'll just send you another one. No problem. A few more weeks go by nothing. I get a email from microsoft "we haven't received your xbox yet we were wondering if you still need the unit repaired." Of course you haven't received my xbox You can't even figure out how to send me a D**m box. I call a third time.. UPS should have sent the box here is your tracking #. I call UPS who checks the number. They only received the billing info they never picked up any box. I call Microsoft again... via INDIA of course (It's frustrating when the people supposed to help don't speak english very well) they say oh ok we'll send you A THIRD BOX. Hey maybe the third time is the charm I'll keep you posted.

 

[EJ1]

Well I can finally join this listof lucky xbox 360 owners. I bought this bad boy on day 1. I was extremely careful rwith keeping it cool and clean. So much for that. Here is the real kicker though .. it broke in March I called for the box to ship it in. A few weeks go by ... ok no box I call Again. Oh we'll just send you another one. No problem. A few more weeks go by nothing. I get a email from microsoft "we haven't received your xbox yet we were wondering if you still need the unit repaired." Of course you haven't received my xbox You can't even figure out how to send me a D**m box. I call a third time.. UPS should have sent the box here is your tracking #. I call UPS who checks the number. They only received the billing info they never picked up any box. I call Microsoft again... via INDIA of course (It's frustrating when the people supposed to help don't speak english very well) they say oh ok we'll send you A THIRD BOX. Hey maybe the third time is the charm I'll keep you posted.

Wow, sorry to hear that. What a waste of time. I lucked up having Best Buy's warranty as I can just exchange/upgrade it if anything happens. Hope you get a box though. I've talked to Xbox Live support and it's so frustrating to talk to someone who can't fully understand what you're talking about.