is my 360 busted?

Dying consoles... meh...

Since my 360 died recently (crashed 2-5 seconds into any game, Arcade or otherwise, cooled down or otherwise, HDD-less or otherwise, cables checked or ot... etc.), I called up MS and after a night of not getting through on a cell-phone up in the mountains, managed to secure a box. Sent it in roughtly a week later, and just got it back last night. No cost since it was manufactured in October of '05

It's awesome--it's not much cooler than the other one, but the DVD drive is significantly quieter! One of the ones manufactured in April, and coming with the DVD drive from (Toshiba? whoever built the second version).

Too bad it's got problems of its own. Now I receive lovely disc-read errors (absolutely none on my previous console). Gears isn't even recognized as EXISTING if the console is vertical (really, it goes from "reading" to "open tray"while the disc is in there and still spinning... er, yeah, sure! Not even acknowledgement that the 360 doesn't or can't read said disc due to error or wrong disc type), and Oblivion will sit there reading forever, but never load. If the console is horizontal, Oblivion will boot up and then get a DRE somewhere between 30-min and 1-hour into the game, causing you to lose several minutes of progress at the very least. It also crashed once during that time. That was cool... in a nightmarish way. At least Gears will boot up after ejecting the disc and closing the tray 3 or 4 times. A rather lovely fact is that it seems to totally fail to slow the disc down before ejecting(EDIT: By which I literally mean that it's still spinning, albeit slowly, when the disc opens as opposed to being stopped), so I get to hear the edge scraping against the plastic when it's vertical. That is another step down from the previous 360 console I was in possession of.

I still have some things to test--while I made sure it was cool, that the power cable and AV cable going into the back were secure and such, and removed the HDD, there are still some things to test and play around with. Have to check the power-brick/wall outlet connections, check some of my other games, etc. But really, that's almost a formality at this point--I can put up with noise and such, but these disc read errors will put me off gaming for good if I have to deal with them even in just one gaming session per week.

Really disappointing. I'll go through the process the same way again, but I'll make sure somebody pays if the 3rd one isn't a charm. I don't feel like being one of those unfortunate souls who goes through 3+ replacement units because MS can't properly fix their defective product. (if anybody actually is that unfortunate in reality--Internet, certainly never blown out of proportions)

 

Call 1 800 4my Xbox

I think it's $130 depending on when it was manufactured.
did you check the born on date on the back yet (I posted this info early in this same thread)?

1 year full warranty (no charge) for systems built in 2005.

 

Mine has been giving me issues for about a month now. I called MS and got a case opened. It wouldn't come on at all this morning, then out of the blue it started working again. I was getting 0110 and 0022 as errors (TeamXbox has the supposed meanings). So I am gonna try to wing it till the New Year and then send the unit in (they give you 30 days).

 

glad it worked out.... yes I replaced my launch unit recently (preemptively under warranty) and the newer build is much quieter cooler.

 

my launch unit is being sent in for repairs as I type (hopefully the wife can get it sent out...) So I will be down (no games or HD-DVD's for a few days at best)

 

I have a question for those who turned in their broken consoles:

Do you send the HDD aswell or do you just send the console by itself and get a free HDD in return. I know that used to work during the launch days, but by now, I figured MS stopped playing the role of santa claus

Also, when you call the customer service, do they just ask for the console serial number or do they also ask for purchase receipt and all that type of stuff?

 

they explicitly told me to turn in the system only: no hard drive, cords, memory cards, etc...

 

No nothing, unless they ask for it explicitly. The second time I sent it in, they didn't even want the faceplate (and so DID send me an extra one of those ) BTW, I have now received my second replacement unit. It's almost as old as my original unit! However, it does have a newer model DVD drive than the ones they were initially manufactured with. There's all kinds of little things I can nitpick. The tray will often get hung up and I have to tap it in or move things around so that it doesn't get stuck coming out. It makes clicking noises on startup that I never heard on the previous two. It's slightly grayer than it should be, blahblah. But, thankfully, it does actually work, and it plays all my games. (on top of that, it's quite noisy, both the fans, as well as the DVD drive which is slightly worse). I'll definitely end up replacing this with a unit later this year (black or some other dark color scheme, please...).

But so long as it works, it's good. (since I said that, I'll make sure I have plenty of warranty time for this. I don't want to pay $130 to get another refurb unit if/when it dies)

In the meantime, I have not only NOT played through Knights of the Nine, but I have instead downloaded and watched Enterprise's first 4 episodes in HD (never watched it on TV).

 

Thanks, thats good to know

So they dont ask for the purchase receipt right? because if I somehow misplace the darn thing, I keep thinking I wont be able to send it for repairs

 

Just the serial. AFAIK

 

I purchased the extended warrantee for my PS3. I don't trust the PS3 farther than I can throw it...

Even tho the system has been trouble free, the peace of mind the warrantee offers is worth it. I let a friend borrow it for a few days to try it out. When he called to tell me the system was freezing and he didn't know what was going on- I simply shat my pants, instead of drive off a cliff - thanks to the comfort of my extended warrantee.

Turned out the F1 demo had somehow become corrupted. He was so freaked out over "breaking it" that he didn't bother to try any other games.

 

Turn around time

Does anyone know the turn around time for getting a system? I sent it in on the 8th. They got it on the 12th. Supposedly they sent out a box today and I should see something in 6 business days... Is that right?

 

It is my un-scientific sense from xbox forums that a surprisingly high proportion of launch to launch+3 month 360 dies with a decent amount of use! .. sooner or later.. Microsoft must be spending a lot to keep their users from rushing to the forums, with fast-turn arounds and basically giving them a new console (at least for the amount of money the exchange program must cost).

but of course MS/xbox is currently not cool to rag on
meanwhile 1 or 2 validated 'my ps3 overheated' storys get shopped around every forum and of course the dead demo ones in perspex kiosks are absolute PROOF that they're dying in homes like flies. Sigh.

 

hmm. UPS called me to let me know that someone needs to be here tomorrow to sign for a package... So I think my 360 is on the way.... I will update tomorrow after work..

 

This logic is flawed at best. Of course the people that have problems will be the most vocal. Especially when we're talking about the Internet. Out of 5 of my friends (4 bought it at launch) + mine (which is a launch unit) none of us have had a single problem. I keep my system on practically 24/7 aswell.

 

For the record. I didn't have any issues, till I started having power outages in Hawaii. Then when I was at my parents place there was another power outage... Ever since then I have had issues with my system.

 

I'm starting to believe it's a good 20-30% at least, both me and my friend who bought one on launch day had them eventually start freezing up, MS's extension of the warrantee also points to a very signifigant portion.

When you call MS and tell them it's broken, as soon as you tell em it's a launch day 360 the conversation is basically over, they're like "OK send it in", my guy sounded surprised it was still running last Oct!!

Customer support was fairly inept as well, taking 8 weeks, and 7 attempts to finally ship me an empty box! It just never got sent out, week after week after week....once I did get the box it was good though, they paid airmail both ways and it was basically 2 days each way.