Red ring of death?

Jeff Parrott · Sep 2006

I was playing Saint's Row on Sunday and it froze. I restarted the Xbox because it's frozen on past games. The ring in the front just flashed red. So I called the support line and it ended up with it costing me $140 to send it in to get it fixed.

Also the game got scratched when I was removing the cables and resetting the console. I bitched enough that they are sending me Gotham Racing from free. But still having to eat $140 plus if the Saint's Row game doesn't work.

I know they offer a 2 year extended warranty when you buy the system. For some reason my billing info was wrong when I sent it in and wasn't able to get it back on time to get the warranty.

I've had PS1 and PS2 systems take a while to load a game when they get 2+ years old. But they still work. I guess it teaches me to not buy a console at launch anymore.

Any simliar stories?

Joshua Stubbles · Sep 2006

Did you play The Outfit recently and get it's update/patch?
My 360 just started red-lighting and locking up on me this morning. Played a few hours, then I decided to try Outfit again (haven't played it in about 3 months). Got the patch, rebooted and red-lighted right off the bat.

I removed all cords and HDD, then put it all back into place. This time it booted up, but I tried playing PGR3 and I got all sorts of red and black squares. Looks like the ATI card died, or there is some kind of software conflict with the graphics card, and the Outfit's patch.

I'm still under warranty at BestBuy, so I think I'll just take it back and get a new one.

Pseudo · Sep 2006

I forget the exact Ring of Light code, but a lot of the "red" errors are caused by overheating. Try removing the power cord from the 360 unit for a bit (5-10 mins) and then hook it back up and try again. We had that problem all the time with our dev kits, and unplugging/replugging in the power cord usually solved the problem.

hawken · Sep 2006

the very fact it has an error light is enough not to buy one.

although I have been playing dead rising at my mates house so I am a hypocrite

ebagg · Sep 2006

So did they revise the 360s a bit after the initial launch issues?

Ferg · Sep 2006

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the very fact it has an error light is enough not to buy one.

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seriously, why buy anything that isn't perfect? I mean, everything else you buy works forever without breaking down, why should the 360 be any different?

The 360's ability to get bios and core system updates via live is a very useful feature... until something like this happens. Usually it's a good thing, though.

Steve Schulze · Sep 2006

Mine died on me after just under a month of not particularly heavy use. Got it replaced and haven't had any problems since. I think there was a dodgy batch early on - there are loads of people who've had to have them replaced.

Tulkamir · Sep 2006

Umm... every console released will have critical errors and some. You got the shitty end of the deal and got one of the ones that died. I remember hearing about shit loads of people with GC, PS1/2 and Xbox's which died out. :S

eepberries · Sep 2006

Apparently alot of people's 360s have been scratching discs and dying. I just read someone's post over at quake3world a couple days ago talking about his 360 up and dying for no apparent reason.

Asherr · Sep 2006

it's all a part of Microsoft's sinister plan to build xbox360s with 1 year lifespans so they get a sales boost this Christmas when the PS3 and Wii are released.

KDR_11k · Sep 2006

Another idea they stole from Sony.

Jeff Parrott · Sep 2006

I tried disconnecting the power and the HD and everything. I still get the 3 red lights in the front. The support person on the phone did say the number of lights meant different things. She said 3 lights means something isn't working inside, which is pretty spot on I'd say. 4 lights must mean that something isn't working outside of the console. A friend sent his back and they just turned around and sent him a previously repaired system. He said they just do that or give you a new one to speed it up. I just wish it would have happened 2 months ago when there weren't any games out for the system.

This wasn't as bad as a month ago my HD was acting weird. So the support person had me reformat my HD thus losing all my game saves. That apparently wasn't the issue. So now I have a memory card to back up my saves on.

I'm amazed that this many people here have had issues with it. Vassago got the idea. I'm just not getting a system till I can go to Best Buy and get the warranty. Although I'll be shocked if the PS3 or Wii have anything close to this percentage of messed up systems.

doc rob · Sep 2006

I have mine sitting on top of my receiver which generates a lot of heat. The one game I have stopped loading properly every time, but I think I just melted the disc. Everything else seems to work fine and no red lights yet.

eepberries · Sep 2006

I know I'll definitely be getting a Wii, but I'm going to have to decide between the 360 and the ps3 when it comes out (no way in hell I'm getting both). I was already leaning towards the 360 in terms of price, but if I keep hearing of people's 360s messing up, I might end up not getting either one for a good while.

Robert Headley · Sep 2006

I've never got a Red Ring Error, Dead rising gave me the disc unreadable error.. but that is nothing new.

Joshua Stubbles · Sep 2006

Well, this only happened AFTER I updated The Outfit, via it's auto-patcher. Prior to that, it ran great. No crashes, no errors, no overheating.

I'll try disconnecting it for a while, see if that helps.

ScoobyDoofus · Sep 2006

red ring of death? I had that once, but a quick shot of antibiotics and it was all cleared up.

Jeff Parrott · Sep 2006

Maybe it's your TV Vass. Send me your Xbox Vass and I can see if it works.

animatr · Sep 2006

so if your xbox dies and shit, or you out your save games and gamerscore and all that? that would totally blow.

hope you guys have better luck. Ive only had mine for about a month now, hopefully it wont crap out on me. I bought the $40 warranty at gamestop. they said if anything at all happens to it, you can get a new one.

Jeff Parrott · Sep 2006

You never lose your gamerscore. Gamesaves if you have to reformat your HD and you don't back them up on a memory card, you'll lose. Wish there was a way M$ could save them like your gamerscore. Be nice to not need memory cards or anything.

animatr · Sep 2006

guess i should go out and get some memory cards then. thanks for the heads up. $40 for a memory card is a rip though. Wish you could just plug in an external HD or a flash drive. thatd be badass.

Marine · Sep 2006

you can animatr, there's a guide on how to do so here

Jeff Parrott · Sep 2006

The support people had me reformat my HD a few months ago when it was messing up and I lost all my saves. So after that I went out and got one just in case that happens again. The worst thing was losing the save for Oblivion.

Psychon · Sep 2006

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The worst thing was losing the save for Oblivion.

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God forbid you replay the 10 minutes you played of that game! This is great payback for all the fun you had when my 360 died

Joshua Stubbles · Sep 2006

[ QUOTE ]
Maybe it's your TV Vass. Send me your Xbox Vass and I can see if it works.

[/ QUOTE ]

hehehe

Nah, I tried it on my HDTV, my SDTV and my PC LCD - all the same issue. I think the update for Outfit caused some issue with my first-gen hardware (got it day-1). So I returned it for a new one today (they only had premiums, so now I have 2 HDDs). The updated Outfit runs fine on this new machine, so that makes me think I'm right about the patch.

At least I didn't lose anything - it was all on my hdd

Red ring of death?

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