July 30, 2007
3 red lights of death, aka, red ring of death.
Tonight, the teens xbox 360, which we have owned since May 2006, finally displayed the red lights of death.
When I say finally, I don't mean *phew* we finally achieved greatness, I mean this is a common and known issue with the xbox 360.
Flashing red lights on the Xbox 360’s normally green ring of light is a bad sign, no matter how you cut the cake, but all red lights don’t mean a visit down south is necessary. Some issues can be resolved from the comfort of one’s own home. The Xbox 360’s ring is divided into four separate quadrants. Each division turning red indicates a separate problem, all with a different way of resolving the issue. It should be noted that when gamers call the support line about their defective unit, the standard procedure of operation is to have gamers unplug all cables from the unit, reinsert them, and try booting the system again. The support worker will also have players remove their hard drive and reboot the system to check and see if that is the problem. In the hope of speeding the process along, it might be a wise thought to run through those procedures before calling the Xbox 360 support line.I did all the above before just deciding to use the 2 year replacement warranty I bought when I purchased the xbox from Best Buy. At the time, I didn't want to spend the extra $50 for the warranty, but the kid who sold it to me, said to get it, he said it would be needed, had I heard of the red lights of doom? I had, but thought it wasn't that common a problem. It is. Big time is.
So I bought the 2 year warranty, and tucked my plan away for safe keeping.
I dug it out tonight after we experienced complete hardware failure.
Red ring of death is a scary moment after you have invested $400 in a piece of hardware man.
I called Best Buy, spoke to Carl, he told me to just come on in, and they would take care of it, and take care of it he did.
He called xbox, told them about the complete hardware failure, gave them my phone number, and they saw that I had indeed purchased the machine, had not modded it, and did have the warranty.
They replaced it at absolutely no cost to me.
I was offered another 2 year warranty, but I chose not to do it tonight, and will instead do it through xbox themselves in a few weeks.
They cover unlimited parts and labor on their plan, plus a replacement if I choose that, for exactly the same price as Best Buy's plan.
I am hoping that we never experience it again.
If we do, Microsoft will be getting the xbox back along with a really nasty letter.
