My friend's 360 RRoD'd a while back and he phoned me up in tears. He'd been playing about 18 hours a day for like two months (get a fuckin job rob, seriously.) and STRANGELY it had decided it had had enough.
Seriously, if anyone's xbox was gonna die it was his.
So he rings me up and he's all like "dude it's fuckin RRoD'd! CAN'T PLAY HALO! WTF DO I DO MAN I'M FREAKING OUT!" and I felt really bad for him (though I was pissing myself laughing) so to give him some faint glimmer of hope for something that was clearly broken I said to him "ok, heres what you do, turn it off, let it cool down for like half an hour then power it back up. I heard this sometimes works (I hadn't, but i wanted to stop him crying).
It DID work. His xbox went straight back into its 18 hour snipefests with nary a hiccup!
Obviously this won't work for all xboxes, but don't assume the worst straight away.
All 360s have a one-year warranty from Microsoft for any issue. There is also a three-year warranty for a general hardware failure, which is what the three flashing red segments mean on the Ring of Light (RRoD). When you send Microsoft your box they will try and repair it if it's a simple fix, but more often than not they will simply replace your 360 with a new one, or a working refurbishment.
When you send your 360 you need to send it in a nondescript box, not the original 360 box it came in. They want just the console - no hard drives, cables, faceplates, or anything. Make sure you take the disc out, too. They will send you a DHL label to attach, and you phone DHL to come and pick it up at a convenient time. They will do what they will with it and send it back fairly soon - mine took around a week.
When you download something from Live, you are granted two licences. One that grants your console unlimited usage, meaning that any profile on the console that was originally used to pay for it can use the content. This applies to Arcade games, gamerpics, Rock Band songs - anything that you pay for on Live. This is the default licence that paid content searches for when you attempt to access it offline and is stored on the console itself, not the hard drive or memory unit.
The other licence is tied to the profile that paid for the content. This means that you can take your profile to your friend's house and redownload your copy of Street Fighter (for example) and play it with him. However, they want to prevent you from buying content on one box, going to your friend's house, downloading it on his, and then him disconnecting his console and you leaving your profile on there so that he can play Street Fighter without playing it. You could then go home and recover your Gamertag from Live and keep playing.
To prevent this, Microsoft will only allow you to use content on this licence if you are connected to Live.
Now, on your original box, it doesn't matter whether or not you are connected to Live. If you are offline, you have the console-wide licence. If you are online, it can verify that you own the content and you can play it worry-free. But when you send your console into Microsoft to get a repair, it is likely that they will replace it rather than repair it. This means that you lose the licence that is tied to your console, and so you have to use the one that is tied to your profile at all times.
This means that you will not be able to use any of your paid content if you are not signed in to Live. Depending on your situation, this may or may not be important to you.
A previous solution was to get Microsoft to refund you the total amount of Microsoft Points that it would cost to repurchase the content. You could then create a new profile on your 360, add the points, and redownload everything. This would reinstate the console-based licence, and allow offline play again.
However, now it seems they have a more elegant solution. Note that this new solution has not been experienced by me, though, so YMMV. This has also been pieced together by sifting through Major Nelson's on-message discussion about it on his podcast and from what I know of the service currently.
Now, when they issue a replacement, they transfer the licencing and make it 'open' again. This means that when you next download the content with your Gamertag, it'll re-tie it to the console you re-download it on. The procedure for doing this is:
Delete all your content
Enter Account Management from the Marketplace blade
Enter Download History
Open everything you want to reassociate and re-download.
This procedure would allow you to redownload content in the past but would not allow you to reassociate the licences to your console. It seems that they've changed that, but I have no guarantee that it works. Your best bet on this is to talk to the people at Xbox Customer Support.
Now, if you're not fussed about not being able to play content when not connected to Live, then go ahead and swap it out at GAME. You paid for the extended warranty service, so you might as well use it. However, if you want to transfer all your licences over, you're best to go with Microsoft. It's still free as you got a RRoD and are under the three-year warranty, and it will take longer than going into a shop and swapping consoles, but you have a much better chance of getting your content to work offline afterwards.
Willeth on
@vgreminders - Don't miss out on timed events in gaming! @gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
No problem. I think I'll save that post for later use, actually - a lot of people tend to get caught up in this. I think the only reason that I ever managed to get my points reimbursed is because I made them promise to do so before I ever sent my 360 to them.
Willeth on
@vgreminders - Don't miss out on timed events in gaming! @gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
My friend's 360 RRoD'd a while back and he phoned me up in tears. He'd been playing about 18 hours a day for like two months (get a fuckin job rob, seriously.) and STRANGELY it had decided it had had enough.
Seriously, if anyone's xbox was gonna die it was his.
So he rings me up and he's all like "dude it's fuckin RRoD'd! CAN'T PLAY HALO! WTF DO I DO MAN I'M FREAKING OUT!" and I felt really bad for him (though I was pissing myself laughing) so to give him some faint glimmer of hope for something that was clearly broken I said to him "ok, heres what you do, turn it off, let it cool down for like half an hour then power it back up. I heard this sometimes works (I hadn't, but i wanted to stop him crying).
It DID work. His xbox went straight back into its 18 hour snipefests with nary a hiccup!
Obviously this won't work for all xboxes, but don't assume the worst straight away.
We was crying?!
You HAVE to start recording your phonecalls. ;-)
Yeah he was sniffing and shit and everything. He attends college, only he doesn't actually attend. Xbox is pretty much WHAT HE DOES so when that was taken away from him he was a bit lost.
It's funnier when you understand that this dude is like 19/20 (not sure which).
To be fair, at the time, you probably didn't. Originally it was one-year, flat. They increased it to three years for RRoD only late last year some time, whereas the GAME one you have will cover a busted disc drive, etc.
But yeah, shops sell bullshit warranties all the time.
Willeth on
@vgreminders - Don't miss out on timed events in gaming! @gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
How so? If they sold you a 2-year warranty, that covers everything. The three-year one you get is exclusively for the RROD problem. If your dvd drive (or something) dies outside the first year, that's not covered by the standard stuff.
Yeah. The GAME cover is worth having anyway as it covers accidental stuff too. I bricked my PSP trying to homebrew it up and they fixed it, as I just told them it was a failed update. Which it was. Kinda. Sony would not have covered this. I've got it for most of my consoles.
I had to buy a new Xbox when my old one RROD'd... this was JUST before the new warranty came in (was gutted). Obviously, I have the problem that I can only play the arcade games downloaded on the old console when logged into Live now... which is quite annoying. I tried to talk to the people at Xbox support a couple times... but they had difficulty understanding what I was asking them (not least because the call centre is based in India... trying to explain such a situation to someone whose first language is not English is a huge pain) and therefore I could not sort out the situation.
Because I never sent in my console for repair, and instead just bought a totally new machine (both were core, bought a HD seperatley that has been used for both machines)... does that mean I'll never be able to play my games when not logged into Live? Or is there a solution to this? Will deleting all of those games I downloaded on my old 360 originally, then redownloading them help, or will I just have the same problem? It is a pain in the arse really.
Try deleting and redownloading, let me know what happens. I doubt it will work in your case.
They do have centres in Britain, it's just a matter of trying a lot. However, I know I've read somewhere that they no longer refund points. I'd speak to a supervisor straight off if you can, after explaining your situation. Might get em on a good day.
Willeth on
@vgreminders - Don't miss out on timed events in gaming! @gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
A mate of mine (Adam, since at least 2 of you have met him) just sent me a text asking for my uni address, he wants to send me a bunch of 'old games he's not going to play anymore'.
By which he means Assassins Creed, Crackdown and GRAW.
A mate of mine (Adam, since at least 2 of you have met him) just sent me a text asking for my uni address, he wants to send me a bunch of 'old games he's not going to play anymore'.
By which he means Assassins Creed, Crackdown and GRAW.
This means Adam is dead, and his family are giving away his stuff.
I imported the collection anyway, even though I can't play it, just for the new boxes and artwork. CD Universe is the best place I found to get it, £3 shipping and no eBayer mark up.
And I have the £80 LE of MGS4, and the £40 headset preordered. And I bought Saga 2.
I have a problem when it comes to Metal Gear stuff.
Since it seems to have come up, I have something of a red ring dilemma myself I'd love to get some advice on.
I've had over 8000 mspoints sitting in my account (thanks to lewiep's tesco deal) waiting for the release of Rock Band (thanks to lewiep's PLAY deal). and of course my xbox craps out at the last possible second. It isn't a nightmare scenario because (through no shilling of my own) most of my male friends have picked up 360's along the way, so I'll be sure to get a decent amount of play in since it's a party game anyway. However I was looking forward to customizing the games setlist with my purchases from day one, and this is my dilemma.
My 360 will be gone a few weeks for repair, during this time I am going to be sorely tempted to just purchase the DLC while using my harddrive and account on a friends console - however when it comes to getting my licenses transferred I can definately see this becoming a sticking point. MS from what I've heard does not let you transfer licenses in any case other than replacement - your xbox broke so you bought an elite? Too bad.
When they free up my licenses do they free up everything on my account? Ala the Rock Band DLC I am going to buy tomorrow on a pals console? Or do they somehow only free up content associated with my console? Do you guys have any advice on the matter? If so please factor in my extreme impatience!
My other option is to perform the towel trick and buy all my DLC tonight, as UPS is coming for my poor white brick in the morning.
I would just hold fire. MS will sort out any licenses that were bought on your old console. However, if you plug your HDD into someone else's console, things are gonna become more complex. Just follow the normal procedure, and buy the Rock Band DLC when your Xbox returns.
If you buy an Elite, there are things MS can do. You have to order a transfer kit. After using it, with the serial numbers of both consoles, MS will transfer the licenses.
Cheers for talking me down, though those points are still going to be burning a hole in my pocket for the next couple weeks. Apparently the DLC is up today as well, fate is just twisting the knife. I should have sent away the xbox earlier but it briefly came back to life for me, and even though I knew it was nothing but a grace period I hoped against hope it would live to see rock band. Anyway it's probably better that I play with just the core setlist for a couple of weeks, if I bought all my favourites right away I might end up ignoring some pretty fun songs.
Look at it this way - if you buy them on your new, fixed Xbox and transferring the licences doesn't work, at least you'll be able to play all the RB songs online.
Willeth on
@vgreminders - Don't miss out on timed events in gaming! @gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
Hurrah! Instruments in the post! Though the game disc itself is still at 'order placed' - presumably the big box needs more travel time? Them arriving on different days would be a kick in the teeth, really why do we not have a complete bundle? The instruments are actually completely useless without the game aren't they?
Play.com send the monies to the affiliate agency once they have charged peoples accounts, and then there is a month delay whilst they process it, then I get it.
I'll have it by my birthday (3rd July) hopefully so I will probably use that as an excuse to buy nice things.
Got my "box o' instruments is on its way!" email too, so huzzah! Bet it gets here on thursday or something, and I'm sat without a game for the day.
Well I'm leaving for Finland for a few days so this is of no concern to me. (though it is concerning that I can't play til saturday irregardless...)
On a completely unrelated note, I was wondering if we should have a UK (European?) 360 Rock Band gamertag for friending. My reasoning? Our American cousins are never online at the same time as us lot so it would be nice to actually be online at the same time as other people on the list.
There seem to be plenty of us picking up rockband so what d'you think?
Posts
We was crying?!
You HAVE to start recording your phonecalls. ;-)
All 360s have a one-year warranty from Microsoft for any issue. There is also a three-year warranty for a general hardware failure, which is what the three flashing red segments mean on the Ring of Light (RRoD). When you send Microsoft your box they will try and repair it if it's a simple fix, but more often than not they will simply replace your 360 with a new one, or a working refurbishment.
When you send your 360 you need to send it in a nondescript box, not the original 360 box it came in. They want just the console - no hard drives, cables, faceplates, or anything. Make sure you take the disc out, too. They will send you a DHL label to attach, and you phone DHL to come and pick it up at a convenient time. They will do what they will with it and send it back fairly soon - mine took around a week.
When you download something from Live, you are granted two licences. One that grants your console unlimited usage, meaning that any profile on the console that was originally used to pay for it can use the content. This applies to Arcade games, gamerpics, Rock Band songs - anything that you pay for on Live. This is the default licence that paid content searches for when you attempt to access it offline and is stored on the console itself, not the hard drive or memory unit.
The other licence is tied to the profile that paid for the content. This means that you can take your profile to your friend's house and redownload your copy of Street Fighter (for example) and play it with him. However, they want to prevent you from buying content on one box, going to your friend's house, downloading it on his, and then him disconnecting his console and you leaving your profile on there so that he can play Street Fighter without playing it. You could then go home and recover your Gamertag from Live and keep playing.
To prevent this, Microsoft will only allow you to use content on this licence if you are connected to Live.
Now, on your original box, it doesn't matter whether or not you are connected to Live. If you are offline, you have the console-wide licence. If you are online, it can verify that you own the content and you can play it worry-free. But when you send your console into Microsoft to get a repair, it is likely that they will replace it rather than repair it. This means that you lose the licence that is tied to your console, and so you have to use the one that is tied to your profile at all times.
This means that you will not be able to use any of your paid content if you are not signed in to Live. Depending on your situation, this may or may not be important to you.
A previous solution was to get Microsoft to refund you the total amount of Microsoft Points that it would cost to repurchase the content. You could then create a new profile on your 360, add the points, and redownload everything. This would reinstate the console-based licence, and allow offline play again.
However, now it seems they have a more elegant solution. Note that this new solution has not been experienced by me, though, so YMMV. This has also been pieced together by sifting through Major Nelson's on-message discussion about it on his podcast and from what I know of the service currently.
Now, when they issue a replacement, they transfer the licencing and make it 'open' again. This means that when you next download the content with your Gamertag, it'll re-tie it to the console you re-download it on. The procedure for doing this is:
Delete all your content
Enter Account Management from the Marketplace blade
Enter Download History
Open everything you want to reassociate and re-download.
This procedure would allow you to redownload content in the past but would not allow you to reassociate the licences to your console. It seems that they've changed that, but I have no guarantee that it works. Your best bet on this is to talk to the people at Xbox Customer Support.
Now, if you're not fussed about not being able to play content when not connected to Live, then go ahead and swap it out at GAME. You paid for the extended warranty service, so you might as well use it. However, if you want to transfer all your licences over, you're best to go with Microsoft. It's still free as you got a RRoD and are under the three-year warranty, and it will take longer than going into a shop and swapping consoles, but you have a much better chance of getting your content to work offline afterwards.
@gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
Looks like sending to MS might be a good idea...
@gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
Yeah he was sniffing and shit and everything. He attends college, only he doesn't actually attend. Xbox is pretty much WHAT HE DOES so when that was taken away from him he was a bit lost.
It's funnier when you understand that this dude is like 19/20 (not sure which).
But yeah, shops sell bullshit warranties all the time.
@gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
XBL/PSN/Steam: APZonerunner
Because I never sent in my console for repair, and instead just bought a totally new machine (both were core, bought a HD seperatley that has been used for both machines)... does that mean I'll never be able to play my games when not logged into Live? Or is there a solution to this? Will deleting all of those games I downloaded on my old 360 originally, then redownloading them help, or will I just have the same problem? It is a pain in the arse really.
*Thanks Thanatos!
They do have centres in Britain, it's just a matter of trying a lot. However, I know I've read somewhere that they no longer refund points. I'd speak to a supervisor straight off if you can, after explaining your situation. Might get em on a good day.
@gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
A mate of mine (Adam, since at least 2 of you have met him) just sent me a text asking for my uni address, he wants to send me a bunch of 'old games he's not going to play anymore'.
By which he means Assassins Creed, Crackdown and GRAW.
@gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
This means Adam is dead, and his family are giving away his stuff.
Awful lot of coursework, though.
Also, I want to get the ultimate Metal Gear collection thing, you know the uber all games ever huge pack.
Questions: Is it even out in Europe.
Where do I buy it?
Worth importing if not?
I have only MGS2 Substance on the Xbox even though I have played all Metal Gear games, including 1 and 2 before Solid.
The collection looks super hot though.
Yes, all of this.
If anyone can answer that man's question then it would make me happy as well.
I want to know more PA people on Twitter.
And I have the £80 LE of MGS4, and the £40 headset preordered. And I bought Saga 2.
I have a problem when it comes to Metal Gear stuff.
I've had over 8000 mspoints sitting in my account (thanks to lewiep's tesco deal) waiting for the release of Rock Band (thanks to lewiep's PLAY deal). and of course my xbox craps out at the last possible second. It isn't a nightmare scenario because (through no shilling of my own) most of my male friends have picked up 360's along the way, so I'll be sure to get a decent amount of play in since it's a party game anyway. However I was looking forward to customizing the games setlist with my purchases from day one, and this is my dilemma.
My 360 will be gone a few weeks for repair, during this time I am going to be sorely tempted to just purchase the DLC while using my harddrive and account on a friends console - however when it comes to getting my licenses transferred I can definately see this becoming a sticking point. MS from what I've heard does not let you transfer licenses in any case other than replacement - your xbox broke so you bought an elite? Too bad.
When they free up my licenses do they free up everything on my account? Ala the Rock Band DLC I am going to buy tomorrow on a pals console? Or do they somehow only free up content associated with my console? Do you guys have any advice on the matter? If so please factor in my extreme impatience!
My other option is to perform the towel trick and buy all my DLC tonight, as UPS is coming for my poor white brick in the morning.
If you buy an Elite, there are things MS can do. You have to order a transfer kit. After using it, with the serial numbers of both consoles, MS will transfer the licenses.
XBL/PSN/Steam: APZonerunner
Woo!
@gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
I imported rockband for the PS3 and the tracks it comes with will last you ages, the DLC is amazing but there is so much game there already.
Also I forgot to mention in my previous post that I would only be happy if someone gave a positive answer....
I want to know more PA people on Twitter.
@gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
XBL/PSN/Steam: APZonerunner
Mine did that before changing to processing, packing and finally posted (not that I've been watching the order status all day).
Don't panic
Will you be getting your monies now lewie?
I'll have it by my birthday (3rd July) hopefully so I will probably use that as an excuse to buy nice things.
Well I'm leaving for Finland for a few days so this is of no concern to me. (though it is concerning that I can't play til saturday irregardless...)
On a completely unrelated note, I was wondering if we should have a UK (European?) 360 Rock Band gamertag for friending. My reasoning? Our American cousins are never online at the same time as us lot so it would be nice to actually be online at the same time as other people on the list.
There seem to be plenty of us picking up rockband so what d'you think?
@gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
Still says order placed... must not panic, must not panic..
XBL/PSN/Steam: APZonerunner
Exactly