Microsoft PR Photo
There has been a lot written of late about the Xbox 360, the "red ring of death" failures, and how Microsoft has addressed them. There has been a lot of hearsay, rumor and innuendo. I recently experienced this very problem, here is my first hand report.
What happened
A couple of weeks ago my Xbox 360 froze in the middle of a game of Guitar Hero. My first reaction was uh-oh shut it down and restart it. Much to my chagrin, upon restarting it, I got the "red ring of death". The red ring of death is a malfunction that is indicated by three of the four colored rings around the power switch turning red. It's not good. In fact, it means your unit is done until repaired by Microsoft.
What I tried
I let the unit sit and tried it again a few days later. Same result.
I tried a home remedy that a friend told me about. This consisted of wrapping the Xbox in three towels, turning it on and leaving it on until it reset from being overheated. This did not work.
What I did
It was time to look into getting the unit repaired. I started by logging onto the Microsoft Xbox 360 Web site. After putting in the necessary information I was informed that I could indeed schedule a repair. Since my unit is no longer under warranty said repair would cost me a flat $99.95. To my mind this was unacceptable on a variety of levels. First, this has been an ongoing issue with Xbox 360s since the day they were introduced. Second, Microsoft has acknowledged the problem, yet hasn't eliminated it. Third, I had recently heard Microsoft had extended the warranty to three years for units that experience this problem.
It was time for me to make a phone call. What I hoped would be a single phone call turned into, for a variety of reasons, three phone calls. On the third call I got someone who ran me through the troubleshooting routine. This consisted of telling her what color the light on the power supply was when the red ring of death appeared. When the state of my unit was confirmed she told me I could arrange for the repair online. I should mention that every step of the way the recordings you get and the people you talk to suggest the Web method.
I explained that when I tried the web method I was told it would cost me a 100 bucks and that it was my understanding that there is a three year warranty. After giving my serial number for the umpteenth time along with the date of manufacture of my unit I was told the repair would indeed be at no charge and that she would take care of setting up the repair. I was told turn-around time is two to three weeks.
Shipping it
I was not offered the option of having a box, or as it is commonly referred to, a 'coffin" sent to me for returning the unit. There has been some controversy over this of late and some even think there is a sinister reason that Microsoft isn't offering the "coffins" anymore. Personally I think it's as simple as a time and cost saving measure on the part of Microsoft as this is a very widespread problem and it is costing them a fortune to make these repairs.
I was offered a prepaid UPS label for shipping my unit back. I felt this was fair and saved me the time of having to wait for a box to arrive. I was able to immediately download the label from the Xbox support Web site just by entering the repair ticket information that the Microsoft support person gave me. I printed the label out and was off to the UPS Store to ship my unit back.
Since I wasn't sent a coffin I decided to let the UPS Store pack my unit. As I entered the store carrying my Xbox 360 the girl behind the counter said, do you need us to ship that for you? She said she knew exactly what box and packing material to use because she has shipped so many of them recently. It cost me about $11.00 for them to pack it up but I felt It was worth the money to have it packed so securely.
I live only one shipping day away from the repair depot and I received an email from Microsoft the next day that my unit was received. You can also easily track every step of the process on the Xbox repair Web site.
The results
Surprisingly, just a couple of days later I received an email that my repair was completed. Shortly thereafter, I received yet another email that it was shipped back to me. I received my repaired unit back six days from the day I shipped it out. Happily, it took nowhere near as long as the quoted two to three weeks.
Now I have my "coffin" as it was shipped back to me in a customized box designed just for the Xbox. Along with my repaired unit was a letter apologizing for the inconvenience to me and a card for a one month Xbox Live Gold membership.
My unit was fixed and I'm up and running again less than a week later. All in all I was quite happy with the way it turned out. It's a shame that so many units are afflicted with this problem but at least they are being corrected at no charge. I believe the initial contact could have been streamlined. I'm also afraid some folks have paid the $99.95 because they didn't know of the warranty extension.
This was my personal experience just days ago, your mileage may vary.
Comments
Ouch, for $99.95 bucks to get it fix (even if you forgot about warranty extension). I have my eye on Special Edition of Resident Evil 360 limit edition (red console). Now, maybe I am having second thoughts and rather purchase Playstation 3 instead.
When you look in the online repair system, if you select the three flashing red lights symptom, the price should reset to $0. I had a very similar experience recently, but this isn't my first time doing the defective dance with an Xbox 360. You CAN still get a coffin... you just have to ask for it. You can also "order" a pre-paid-shipping coffin (on MS' dime) or print your own shipping label from the repair site. That's mostly is you want to get it back faster instead of waiting for the coffin.
And, jMS_97, Microsoft has stood behind their warranty like you wouldn't believe. People who don't keep up with this news might not know that Microsoft took a $1 billion pre-tax charge earmarked to deal with this issue. It might be a little bit of a hassle, but MS will make it right if you know how to talk to them.
I for one buy Best Buy replacement plans. They are nice enough to replace them in-store most of the time (something they don't have to do). Plus, I got the difference since the price drop in store credit to the tune of $111, upgraded hardware, and a few free pack-in games. On my large purchases, BB TOTALLY has my RP business.
You're new around the Examiner world but I surely enjoy your solid reporting. Keep up the good work!
i recently had the same problem. started my system up to play some rock band 2 and I noticed the graphics were washed out and distorted. then the red ring of death struck.what i found out is that the gpu graphics processor unit solders had melted, and through gravity caused the chip to shift position and then it was doomed. i could not believe that the system had gotten so hot it melted solder.The colling issues are finally being taken care of by making the chips smaller and delivering more cooling to them in fact stopping the red ring of death from accouring.Now i have had the system since it first launched and three of my freinds who got the 360 at launch have gone through an average of at least two systems. I finally had to do the same. Although i was charged originally I called in to microsoft and they, after giving my console serial number agreed it was covered by the additional red of death 3 year warranty.I was then refunded my 100 dolars the next day.I have heard of probelms recieving the coffin but i got the coffin no questions asked in about one day.Also came with free shipping to the repair center in Texas. but after sending in the system it is just barely on its way back to me after 15 days from sending. im glad they are making an effort to fix the problems that were known form day one, yet no one decided to act upon it.it is known that head guys at microsoft new the x box 360 had a failing rate of 18-20 percent but did not act due to the system being launched in just days. I am also glad to hear that the x box 360s will no longer be having red ring of death errors due to hardware canges. all i hope is that they give me the new system or hardware so i dont have to deal with this again. all in all the x box 360 is a great platform in which to play next generation games.
I have had the RROD 3 times, so Im my fourth 360. I am not mad at all. The daytime Customer service reps are a little annoying. I still love my 360, in fact I bought another this past Janaury. It is an arcade "jasper". I bought the 20gb hard drive and the 3 months xbox live upgrade for $29.99. So that makes my count 5 360s that I have owned. MS is backing there peoduct. To bad the 360 I had the RROD with is past its 3 year warranty. I bought the original in December 2005.
I had the same problem, thank god I was still under warranty. The return process was quick/easy and M$ returned my box to me in exactly a week.
However, I game for HOURS and the picture started blinking after about 3 hours of continuous use. I immediately packed everything up and went to GameStop. The guys there tested the box for about 10 minutes and then gave me $135 for my Gen 1 360 console.
I just put the money toward a new xbox360 arcade (keeping my original HDD of course). I had to pay the diference of about $80, but it was well worth the peace of mind...
I love my Xbox 360 and it's great to see so many users that love theirs and are patient with the problems they've had. That being said, I'm not sure the three year warranty that Microsoft is giving is sufficient. This is a design flaw that dates back longer than three years and is only now, according to what I'm hearing, being corrected by changes in the circuit design. My unit was pretty close to the three year mark and I'm sure there will be lots of failures in units that are older than three years. I'm really not sure how a well known problem could have gone unfixed for so long. I know this whole debacle is quite expensive for Microsoft but they need to do the right thing for their loyal users.
I'm too old for this.
I was scarred as a kid when my dad used to buy me 64k games on cassette. Excited, I'd get home to find that they sometimes didn't load - or, weirdly, would load maybe once in 10 times. It was heartbreaking.
Never again. I just want things to work. PS3 for me.
James, I hear what you're saying and I totally understand where you're coming from. What I think is really interesting, is that with all the negative publicity the Xbox 360 has had, it is still blowing away the PS3 in sales. Personally, I'd like to have one each of the big three, I'll get there eventually.
yes the same thing happend to me ive only had my x box for a little over a year and it got the red ring and when i called they said it would cost me 100$ which i do not have the money to pay for that and everyone is telling me that it has a 3 year warranty for the red ring but i still cant get it repaird for free
Jesse, did you tell them that it was under three years old and read them the date code from the back of your Xbox. Please feel free to contact me directly if you need further help. My email address is in my bio above.
I have a question that no one seems willing to answer. I bought my 360 used, so I don't have a warranty and it's been registered under the previous owner's name. Is it possible to send it in still?
I purchased a used unit and got the red ring of death so i called MIcrosoft and rerigstered it to my name but when i went to have it repaired they told me it was tampered with and would not even repair it for the 100.00 charge they said it was no longer eligible for any type of repair by them. They produced this product and know they have a major problem with out a proper fix I feel they are ripping the public off by not comming up with a permanent fix and then they refuse to fix these units at all when they decide that it was tampered with what a great company they are deal with.
well i too have the same problem as all of you but i am way out of warranty i never recieved a problem with my xbox 360 until after warranty the way i believe it they need to fix the cooling system altogether because it traps dust real easily and heats up the mother board fast all of the processesing and other components are fine its just that when an average gamer wants to play a game that they absolutely don't want to give up after 30 mins. of play time it heats up the heat sinks and then the heatsink glue they used to keep the unit from over heating heats up and melts its not that the design is bad its the factor that the heat sinks are pretty much the core flaw that keeps your system from working when the glue stops holding on you gpu/cpu units. i think the design of the heatsink should have had more spacing between the mother board with another conductor piece underneath the gpu/cpu components that way the glue when it heats up stays intact with the units and the heat sinks
Microsoft and XBOX suxxx... first it was the mediocre Vista and than this low quality hardware machine that has racked the brains of millions of users.
For quality electronic hardware nobody can beat the Asian tigers ie Korea, Japan, singapore, hongkong etc. US companies cannot even match 1/100 of the quality and competency of the Asians.
I too have experienced the RROD. This my second system and the third time I've had Red Rings. I had opened it up previously so I could not send it back for warranty repairs, and I had no idea how to fix it myself. I did a little research and found the repair company www.videogame911.com . Within a day of them receiving my system they sent me an estimate for its repair. The day I paid they shipped it back to me. The whole process only took about a week and my system has never run better. I haven't had any problems and I strongly recommend them for xbox 360 repairs.
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