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So my 360 died. Again. 3 Times Now.
desperaterobots
perth, ausRegistered User regular
perth, ausRegistered User regular
You might remember me from such threads as 'So my 360 died'.
Well, I thought I'd update you all on my excellent run of luck with my 360.
This weekend I decided to go all out and buy a HDTV. 32" of glorious Samsung electronics. A few grand in the hole (on finance, of course, since I don't have that kind of money lying around). A few hours after watching LOST on my 360 and my sexy new screen, I turned it off, and on again, and the loading screen fucked-out a little. Paused and the video got all distorted. Weird.
Oh. A restart fixed it. LOLZ. Nothing to worry about. Happened again. Restart. Fine. Again. Restart. Fine. Some gaming, some media-extending. All fine.
Until this morning. Had the house to myself. Plopped myself merrily on the couch to go explore Oblivion in HD, but when I went to put the disc in, what do I see?
3 fucking red lights. Same as last time. Although this time, I'm about a week out of warranty. One week.
Of course, what I should have done at this point, and I would recommend everyone else to do, is immediately call Microsoft/XBOX support and buy a 2 year extended warranty. Why's that? Because it's actually cheaper than a single repair which gives you only a 1 year warranty. Unfortunately I only thought of this loophole when I was butting heads with an incomprehensible indian brick wall call-centre 'supervisor'.
I spent an hour and a half on the phone asking, nay, demanding that I be given some consideration given that my 360 has already been repaired once, that this repair obviously wasn't sufficient, that I was a single week outside of warranty.
So hey guys what do you reckon. I'm looking for the cheapest way to get a new and/or repaired 360. They told me if I could get a receipt showing I bought the console after april 8, I'd get another free repair. Anyone? Heh. I hate to beat a dead horse, but it's horseshit that a supposedly 'repaired' console which has broken a second time should wind up costing me more than a 2-year extended warranty. I mean, what the fuck! So here I am, on a long weekend, with a new HDTV, and nothing to do but play my 360, and I've wound up with a two-hundred dollar slap in the face with a dripping corporate phallus.
Fuck.
UPDATE: Wangled another free repair. 360 returned. Games would freeze after 5 minutes. Same with DVDs. 2 days after getting the console back, I got another 3-red-light error, persistently. So I've sent it back for its third repair, along with a note explaining all the problems I've been having. I'm expecting to receive the console back and the same happening again, and I'm concerned that I will never, ever have a functional piece of hardware ever again.
Well, I thought I'd update you all on my excellent run of luck with my 360.
This weekend I decided to go all out and buy a HDTV. 32" of glorious Samsung electronics. A few grand in the hole (on finance, of course, since I don't have that kind of money lying around). A few hours after watching LOST on my 360 and my sexy new screen, I turned it off, and on again, and the loading screen fucked-out a little. Paused and the video got all distorted. Weird.
Oh. A restart fixed it. LOLZ. Nothing to worry about. Happened again. Restart. Fine. Again. Restart. Fine. Some gaming, some media-extending. All fine.
Until this morning. Had the house to myself. Plopped myself merrily on the couch to go explore Oblivion in HD, but when I went to put the disc in, what do I see?
3 fucking red lights. Same as last time. Although this time, I'm about a week out of warranty. One week.
Of course, what I should have done at this point, and I would recommend everyone else to do, is immediately call Microsoft/XBOX support and buy a 2 year extended warranty. Why's that? Because it's actually cheaper than a single repair which gives you only a 1 year warranty. Unfortunately I only thought of this loophole when I was butting heads with an incomprehensible indian brick wall call-centre 'supervisor'.
I spent an hour and a half on the phone asking, nay, demanding that I be given some consideration given that my 360 has already been repaired once, that this repair obviously wasn't sufficient, that I was a single week outside of warranty.
So hey guys what do you reckon. I'm looking for the cheapest way to get a new and/or repaired 360. They told me if I could get a receipt showing I bought the console after april 8, I'd get another free repair. Anyone? Heh. I hate to beat a dead horse, but it's horseshit that a supposedly 'repaired' console which has broken a second time should wind up costing me more than a 2-year extended warranty. I mean, what the fuck! So here I am, on a long weekend, with a new HDTV, and nothing to do but play my 360, and I've wound up with a two-hundred dollar slap in the face with a dripping corporate phallus.
Fuck.
UPDATE: Wangled another free repair. 360 returned. Games would freeze after 5 minutes. Same with DVDs. 2 days after getting the console back, I got another 3-red-light error, persistently. So I've sent it back for its third repair, along with a note explaining all the problems I've been having. I'm expecting to receive the console back and the same happening again, and I'm concerned that I will never, ever have a functional piece of hardware ever again.
desperaterobots on
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Even though I keep hearing about these breakdowns, nothing has happened to my 360.
In the meantime, I'm going to invest in one of those laptop cooling things that apparently works as well or better than anything officially supported by Microsoft.
EDIT: My advice for you? Unless you can coerce them to give you the benefit of the doubt, I'd suggest looking for a new 360. You're either spending $300usd on a new Core system (since you have a HDD) or spending, what, 200aus on fixing one that apparently has something inherently wrong with it? After that, consider getting one of those cooling units.
While you consider the possibilites, just dust off an old system and make due. Sorry about your system.
2nd Edit: Didn't realize we were mixing dollars. pshaw!
...who am I kidding I don't want a ps3. Heh.
DID YOU TRY TURNING YOUR 360 ON AND COVERING IT WITH A TOWEL FOR AN HOUR AND THEN RESTARTING IT OR SOMETHING???
EDIT: Jesus H. Macy. Many are reporting it works...more or less.
HWAA!?
o_O
HAAAWW???
o_O
WHAAT?
That's what I reckon anyway.
xbox GT: Big Will C H
The soldering in the 360 cracks because they used some kind of environmentally-friendly solder which didn't work quite right.
It's a tough universe out there. If you're going to survive, you really gotta know where your towel is.
I never asked for this!
Really? I thought it was because the system just ran too damn hot for its own good. I say fuck the environment... just give me a system that'll work for more than an hour at a time. Trust me, one working system with a little lead in it is a lot healthier for mother nature than four systems in the landfill.
Same old site, great new look! Check out The Gameroom Blitz at:
http://www.lakupo.com/grblitz
Bam, one new 360 under your TV and you're not 300 quid in the hole.
thats fraud - and additionally any place worth a damn will have recorded the serial # of the unit sold and comapre to the unit being returned
edit: beatd.
30 minutes towelled.
30 minutes cool-down.
Initially some more video fuck ups, but Oblivion is running good as gold right now.
Fucking wow.
Thoughts of a Part-Time Hobbyist - A Wargaming and RPG Blog
Although it *is* a working system now, as far as I'm concerned. And, as far as EB is concerned. hopefully. trade in/upgrade to elite for me, i foresee.
I'm struggling to believe it myself man. When I boot the thing up it takes a longer time for the intro screen to appear, but hey. it works!
"did u try blowing on the cart??"
"Give the system a love tap, just behind the cartridge slot!"
"JUST THROW THE THING ACROSS THE ROOM, IT FIXED MINE SOMEHOW I DUNNO MAN"
Truth.
but sometimes those taps would get very loving.
Nintendo Friend Code: SW-0689-9921-0006
Nintendo Friend Code: SW-0689-9921-0006
I'm talking like 5-10 minutes of blowing... every time.
I don't think it was dust.... cause how can it get dusty that often?
And this thread scares me because I plan on buying a 360 around Christmas this year.
Nintendo Friend Code: SW-0689-9921-0006
On the other hand, Microsoft recently upped their service program from what I understand. They claim free shipping and a quicker turn around, but who knows? We're talking about the same people who gave out personal information to anyone who could call up with a gamertag, so chances are they're not the most informed call center around.
Oh, and don't be too quick to praise the towel fix. It's not gonna last you very long at all. Trust me, you're riding false hope if you think it's a permanent solution. It wasn't for me.
then i can buy an extended warranty for less than the price of a repair, hey presto, cheaper repair.
alternatively i can trade the 'working' console at EB for an elite! ;D
Just, for christ's sake (it is easter after all), get an extended warranty.
Umm...
o_O
Ahh....
Nevermind.
You're 100% about being polite and firm. Yelling at some minimum wage schlub in the call office gets you nowhere, despite how good it may feel. If the OP can't find the contact information for executive customer service directly, his goal should be to get escalated up to them. I didn't have any luck finding it, so escalating might be his only option to get help that isn't located in India.
More advice to the OP:
The best thing to do is visibly carbon copy your e-mail to said representatives of a company to people like the Attorney General's office, the Better Business Bureau, sites like Consumerist.com and (once it's escalated high enough) to your local Congressional representative(s). The recipient of said e-mail will know that this issue is "hot" and being watched by eyes that could raise a stink a lot larger than one angry customer and will usually act in kind.
Microsoft knows there is a widespread overheating problem through normal use and their REPAIR under WARRANTY fixed NOTHING allowing the same problem to occur AFTER the warranty. That's just unacceptable and you should attack that angle hard. Be sure to include ALL relevant information that you can track down, like the name/employee #'s of the people you talked to on the help line, all relevant dates and repair numbers of your first repair and a choice selection of one of the many reports of the same Ring of Death problems that are occurring across the board. Basically, set up an impenetrable wall of information that will dissuade them from placing the blame of the broken machine on your head.
EDIT:
Oh, I just read the rest of the thread. The towel thing seems like a stop-gap measure. I'd still pursue a fully-functional replacement. Wet towels are fucking ridiculous required components for a $300-$400 machine.
Telling people to buy an extended warranty is NOT a solution. Planning for when, not if, the machine breaks isn't something I want to plunk down several hundred dollars for. It's actually sounding like in the long run that the PS3 ends up being the cheaper system, which is just wrong.
Sorry Microsoft. You had me sold on the games, but you haven't convinced me that your system can actually keep up.