My Xbox got the Red Ring of Death...

I think I got two in the span of a week. It died three or four weeks later. I wasn't using it intensively at the time, though.
 
My false alarm was only a day before it broke.

Anyway, just updating here that I've received a replacement 360 today exactly two weeks after sending it out. It came in a box, I plugged it in, confirmed a few settings, slapped on my hard drive, and that was pretty much all there was to it. Lots of people complain about losing data but I don't see how that's possible unless you lose your hard drive... so anyway, I'm back on now.

Manufacturing date on this new 360 is 5-16-08. It's good to have a brand new model like this around.

The whole experience, IMO, really wasn't worth all the drama it provokes on the internet. Yea it was kind of a lot of work to get a box and drive the 360 over to UPS for shipping... but from then on I just spent time playing PSP games and Okami on the PS2. And now I have a new console and an extended warranty so my worry about it breaking again is pretty much nil. The new models with the improved heat sinks (supposedly) fix the old defects, and even it does break it's like "Oh no, now I have to drive to UPS and play Okami again".

Well, see ya'll on the battlefield at the next Arena night.
 
After several weeks of having problems with my Xbox 360 reading game discs the problem continued to develop and grow. First it would stop reading discs in shorter amounts of time then when I originally noticed the problem. Then my Xbox started freezing on startup either on the Xbox logo screen or just a few minutes after signing in. Sometimes when it did this the screen would be covered by a a transparent red checkerboard pattern over whatever was on the screen at the time. Finally it developed a full blown red-ring of death. I tried restarting my Xbox several times over several days and every time I received the red ring of death. So i contacted microsoft and they mailed me a box to ship it back to them. My machine is currently en route for repairs.

In the meantime I bought a second Xbox 360 to have as a spare in case something happened again or it still had problems after the repair. I also figure I can have one Xbox in the living room and then one in the bedroom that way I can play in either room. I also picked up a memory card so i can transfer gamesaves and my profile between the two machines.

I was wondering though, can I download the content I've bought off of live and have it on both machines? I'll be using the same profile on both xboxes and the way I understand it, one of the xboxes will have the content licenses meaning that I can use the content any time, with any profile, online or offline. But from what I've read on the xbox site and xbox forums, I could use the content on my second xbox as long as i'm connected to xbox live and logged into the profile the content is attached to. Is my understanding of the licenses and how they work correct?
 
ck9791 said:
I was wondering though, can I download the content I've bought off of live and have it on both machines? I'll be using the same profile on both xboxes and the way I understand it, one of the xboxes will have the content licenses meaning that I can use the content any time, with any profile, online or offline. But from what I've read on the xbox site and xbox forums, I could use the content on my second xbox as long as i'm connected to xbox live and logged into the profile the content is attached to. Is my understanding of the licenses and how they work correct?
Click to expand...

That's right. They also said there was going to be a license tool at some point that allowed you to manage what system had the primary (offline) license, but I don't think there has been too much on that recently. As long as you're logged in online through your profile (probably permanently set on your memory card so you can easily switch rooms), then all of your DLC will work on that XBox.
 
I get the red ring of death on mine all the time, except only 3/4 of the ring will blink red.

I just turn it off wait a couple minutes then turn in back on and its always fine.

~BlackHawk
 
BlackHawk said:
I get the red ring of death on mine all the time, except only 3/4 of the ring will blink red.
Click to expand...

That's exactly what the "red ring" is. You should send it in for repair before it gets worse and/or its warranty expires.
 
Just thought I'd drop by to say that two nights ago, I too got the red ring of death on my 360. I was one sad panda about it too because I had the next day off and I had aimed at playing Halo 3 well into the night.

Now I gotta dig up all my paperwork on it and send it in. Weeee!
 
Shipgate said:
Just thought I'd drop by to say that two nights ago, I too got the red ring of death on my 360. I was one sad panda about it too because I had the next day off and I had aimed at playing Halo 3 well into the night.

Now I gotta dig up all my paperwork on it and send it in. Weeee!
Click to expand...

When you get it back up and running hit me up. I typically play Halo3, COD4 and Kane's Wrath.

Always nice to see a friendly ship on XBL :)
 
Thanks Dundradal. My and my few friends on Xbox Live are always looking for good players to team up with on Halo. My gamertag is Siaynoq. Add me if you like and we'll kick some ass! :D
 
I just opened mine up after getting the red ring of death and when I got down to removing the heat sinks I had to scrape of the enormous amounts of thermal paste someone put on there. Once the Heat Sinks and Chips where cleaned I put on a thin layer of Silver Thermal Compound then reassembled using bolts and washers instead of the X-Clamps. The reason I did this was because the X-Clamps are apparently the problem with most X-BOX 360 hardware failures (3 Red Lights).

The case is purposefully not fully closed on my system allowing more clearance between the disk drive and heat sink below it... although this causes problems when you want to open the disk drive to play a new game.

So far I will give this fix a success, minus the less then appealing gaps in the x-box case that by no means have to be there.


I USED:
Crown Bolt
x 16 - #10 Nylon Flat Washers
x 08 - #10 Zinc Split Lock Washers
x 08 - 10-32x3/4" Stainless Steel Bolts
*Note; A low profile head is needed for the bolts in order for the motherboard to fit back into it's case.

*Note; Two nylon washers are needed to fill the gap between the Motherboard and the Heat Sink

The order of assembly is as follows:

- Heat Sink
- Nylon Flat Washer #1
- Nylon Flat Washer #2
- Mother Board
- Split Lock Washer
- Bolt


I don't believe in getting a second X-Box only for it to fail. If my first one happens to die again I will simply look for more fixes to keep it running.
 
Michelle D said:
If my first one happens to die again I will simply look for more fixes to keep it running.
Click to expand...
You will have to since you voided your warranty.

This is some terrible advice right here. If you get the red ring, just phone up Microsoft and have it replaced. I think Hades had two failures in a row and they sent him a more expensive model the second time.
 
LeHah said:
Not only terrible - but dangerous. Why would you even want to do this?
Click to expand...

I'm sure there are people with the technical prowess to do this, the advantage being that you get your Xbox back immediately instead of not having it for two weeks... but I think for the average user the free repair from Microsoft is probably a better idea (especially given how the DVD drives also like to fail... which would be a much tougher do-it-yourself fix with a voided warranty).
 
Bandit LOAF said:
I'm sure there are people with the technical prowess to do this.
Click to expand...

I'm reminded of a discussion I had with a construction foreman a while back. He said the best thing that ever happened to him was the DIY Channel on cable; he explained that every Joe Sixpack thought they could do electrical or Sheetrock and screw up the project spectacularly - and they end up calling him to fix the problem *and* finish the work.

I expect similar results with the average Internet "intelligence" with the average Internet FAQ on a topic as undoubtedly hazardous as fixing a Xbox.
 
I agree that anyone unfamiliar with computers should send it in if they're not up to DIY fixes, but it doesn't hurt to know you have other options. I left out "how to open the X-Box" for the purpose of discouragement, as well as neglected to list tools and more detailed procedures for the same reason.


Why did I choose to open the X-Box and fix it myself vs sending it in?

1) Sentimental reasons I suppose. This was my brothers X-Box, which I got when the Military shipped his belongings home. Sadly he wont be playing it anymore. :(

2) From my friends experience with his X-Box 360 being that he is on his third one. Yes, sending it in will get you another X-Box. However, there is no guarantee that it wont fail as well, which to me suggest that the system was not "FIXED" but rather replaced or reset. I didn't want to play games with Microsoft, or the monkey that doesn't know how to apply thermal compound.

3) From my own experience being around PC's since 1985. The X-box, however unfamiliar it may be to me does contain familiar components that are relatively easy to fix, replace, or modify. So after some research into the potential causes of the RRoD I felt comfortable I could get the X-Box running again.
 
Are people getting different Xboxes now? I can never keep track - I sent mine in about eight months ago and had the same one returned (... which is kind of a shame, because I'd sure like a new one with an HDMI output).
 
When I sent mine in in January, I got the same one back, Ironduke sent his back a month ago and apparently got a new one.
 
I got a different xbox when I returned mine in 2005. The turnaround time then was like 72 hours though, so they were immediately shipping one as soon as they received the broken ones.
 
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