Red Ring of Failure

[JBaker85]

i found this on yahoo.

is your Xbox 360 still working? You must be one of the lucky ones
Over 18 million Xbox 360s have sold through since the console's launch in November 2005, but just how many of those are still working? Squaretrade, a company that specializes in providing warranty support to purchasers of electronic goods from various manufacturers, claims 16% of Xbox 360s experience a hardware failure within six to ten months after a warranty purchase. Three out of every five failures were for the infamous "Red Ring of Death" general hardware failure error, a problem often linked to overheating.

The Xbox's figures compare poorly to competing consoles, which have a failure rate of around 3% -- and if anything, the Squaretrade figure underestimates the scale of the Xbox 360's reliability issues. It's a good bet that some buyers of Squaretrade warranties went straight to Microsoft after experiencing hardware issues and don't factor into the 16% number. On its company blog, Squaretrade pointed out that failure rates are "certain to go up" as the machines in their study group grow older.

Microsoft is cagey about coughing up official failure rate figures, which has lead some commentators to speculate about the actual severity of the problem. Luke Plunkett, a blogger on respected games news site Kotaku, said in a recent post that if the real failure rate wasn't in the 30-40% range, he'd "wolf down humble pie until his sides split."

Plunkett's sides are likely safe. Stories of 360 owners making their way through eight or nine consoles aren't hard to find, but to its credit, Microsoft has been working with the affected individual in at least one of those cases to lessen the impact of the constant failures.

16 Percent of Xbox 360s Are Likely to Break, Report Claims

Even so, there's a surprise lurking for consumers who return their 360s for repair. When you purchase content -- arcade games, extra tracks, etc. -- over Xbox Live, it's playable by any user on the console you used to make the transaction. If you go to a different console and sign in with your gamertag, you can download the content and play it only for as long as you're signed in. Once you move back to your main machine, it will no longer be playable. Sounds like a handy system to let you take the content you own from place to place, right?

But the trick with this system is that once a broken machine returns from its little vacation, it generally has sufficient internal changes to make it look, to Xbox Live, like a different console. So all your downloaded content -- which, if you're a heavy user, could amount to hundreds of dollars worth of purchases -- are only accessible to one gamertag, and only when the console has a live internet connection.

Getting this situation resolved can be difficult. Affected users have reported having to make repeated calls to the Xbox support line, often to no avail. Some fortunate individuals were able to eventually convince the MS reps to refund all the points they'd spent so they could repurchase all the affected content, although they had to do it using a different gamertag.
How to Avoid Hardware Problems

* Air it out. Many failures are attributed to the inadequate cooling system of early-model 360s, so anything you can do to give it an easier time will pay off. Make sure you put the console in a place with cool, steady airflow.
* Move it and lose it. Don't change the orientation of the console when it's running. The DVD drive's running gear isn't as well secured as it could be, so knocking over a vertically-standing console can cause the machinery to collide with the disc surface. Characteristic circular scratches are the result and are generally fatal for the game.
* Think new. Thanks to a well-publicized cooling system redesign, newer machines are less likely to suffer problems. Any console bought in the last six months or so should have much better chances of surviving.

Red Ring of Death: What to do

Is it a "real" red ring of death? Somewhat confusingly, the true red ring error only has three of the four quarters of the ring illuminated. If all four are lit up, you have a much simpler problem: your A/V cable is loose!

Enterprising 360 owners have discovered a homebrewed way to fix the problem, although it only works for a short period of time. It involves turning on your console, wrapping it tightly in a towel, and leaving it on for 20-25 minutes. This might void your warranty from Microsoft, so consider yourself warned.

If all else fails, hit up the Xbox web site to request a warranty repair. They'll send you a cardboard "coffin" for you to return your console and send back a fixed machine in a few weeks. The official warranty was extended to three years for this specific problem, so even launch-day 360s are technically still covered.

[Kona Palangi]

This is old news. The source they cite, Squaretrade, admitted the "majority" of their claims were "old motherboard" 360's. MS no longer manufactures the old motherboard so the claim that failure rates will increase is sophist and illegitimate. With over 18 million Xbox 360's circulating throughout the world, Squaretrade bases their assertion off a meager 1,000 claims. Not a very scientific conclusion. The horse has been dead for months ... let's put the stick down and stop beating it.

[friedkarma]

Since we're talking small, non-scientific sampling, Sony has a 100% failure rate as experienced by me.

[axeman2008]

Originally Posted by friedkarma

Since we're talking small, non-scientific sampling, Sony has a 100% failure rate as experienced by me.

Mine ****ed up last night and i've only had it 3 weeks i put the disc in and all i got was a black screen, sometimes though the ps3 restarts itself or i hit the power button.

[Trisixx]

Stats aside, mine is now down for the second time...actually been 15 days since I called and had my second repair order generated, and I still havent even gotten the box to send it back in.

Im still going to have to be a 360 fan over PS3.....thats where the games and online play are...

This is a huge pain in the neck for me to send it in as I host tournaments with mine, but in the end, there just isnt the right games on the PS3 for me yet. XBox 360 (when working) and the PC completely fill my gaming needs (again, when working)

[vote4fairtax]

my launch day console gave me the red rings finally last weekend while playing Rock Band. I just let it cool down and it restarted... havent had a problem since! Woot!
indistructable first unit out the door on launch day, left on for days, console!

[mistercrow]

Originally Posted by Trisixx

Stats aside, mine is now down for the second time...actually been 15 days since I called and had my second repair order generated, and I still havent even gotten the box to send it back in.

Im still going to have to be a 360 fan over PS3.....thats where the games and online play are...

I feel the same way exactly even though I own both systems. I've got one of the new falcon models.

[sprinc4]

i've had the dreaded 3 red lights for the last week or so. but as soon as i turn it on and off again it works fine.

Im wondering how long this will continue for before it completely breaks. had mine for 15 months

[ElderScroller27]

be safe, call customer service and generate a repair order. before my 2nd repair i suffered for 2 months with the RRoD during 50% of my start up attempts and then it progressed to crashing/freezing during play. just bite the bullet and deal with it fromt he start... rather than suffering for months then still needing to wait 2 weeks+ while they ship and repair....

[bevo1981]

i've had mine for about a year, used off Ebay. just a rare freeze here and there during gameplay, but overlly well functioning. i did a ton of research before i bought it to determine exactly what i'm gonna do if i get the RROD. i've had this link bookmarked ever since just in case.

Save your 360 from the dreaded red lights with this fix

[Bobby Roc]

Mines just died last week which will be my second one now within a 6 month period. Hopefully they will send me a newer replacement that runs cooler but I am probably dreaming too hard. This time when I called they told me to include the power brick as well because it might be overcharging the console.

[ElderScroller27]

I'm on my 3rd individual 360 with 1 store Exchange and 3 Repair Center visits,

My 360's have lasted:
#1(11 days-RRoD),
#2 (6 months-RRoD, 3 months-Drive Failure ),
#3(6 months and counting- Starting to Run EXTREMELY Loudly like a hairdryer),

I'll also mention that this one was initially NEARLY SILENT but has started to run EXTREMELY LOUDLY like a hairdryer on medium speed. I have to Jack up the volume of my TV to drown out the sound of the 360, and it has had 1 RRoD which has not repeated itself so customer service can't do anything for me.

[Xbox360ownz]

heahahahahaha my xbox never stopped working for 3 years! mwahaha or since it came out... btw.. im baaccckkk! mwahahahahaha

[bevo1981]

way to tempt karma