The dreaded 360 ring of death -REPAIRED!

[yoda313]

Yep I just got it this afternoon. Just after I bought NINJA GAIDEN 2!!!! MAN THAT SUCKS!

I bought mine used at gamestop last fall. It's worked perfectly since I've owned it. Of course I belive it only had a month warranty for being used. I printed out the initial test steps at the xbox website. I'm going to go check out what the symptoms might be.

Wish me luck.....

Glad I got the ps3!!!

EDIT - IT WORKS!!

This is very weird. I have my power supply behind some books and I moved them out of the way to look at the color of the power light. I turned it on and it works perfectly! Is it a change it overheated??? I got the 360 last fall sometime. I can't remember when. But my LIVE account is up in October.

Here in southeastern Michigan we're finally getting really hot in the 80's and 90's. It's been a really cool spring with little warm up. Could this be a symptom of overheating? I don't think I was playing it much.

I do have a fan addon for the 360 but the damn thing is loud as hell and makes it sound like a jet engine. I don't believe I have had the 360 in this warm of weather yet. ALSO could it be that Ninja Gaiden 2 is pushing the 360 beyond its abilities and causing it to heat up? I can play HALO 3 for hours with no symptoms ever popping up. The same with watching a hddvd movie with the addon drive.

I am just grasping at straws here. I think I might dig up my fan and hook it back up. Who knows?

EDIT 2 - I put it in my nyko fan. Its the type that has the power plug passthrough not an external supply. It has three pc case type fans in it that hooks into the back of the 360. It is a lot louder now. However I played two rounds of Halo 3 on XBOX LIVE and had no reoccurance of the problem.

I am going to play more of Ninja Gaiden 2 tonight. My thinking is that if it happens again I will return the disc to Best Buy tomorrow and ask for an exchange. I love the game but if its gonna screw up my system I can't have that.

EDIT 3 - Well no luck. It came back. I even took the fan off and still no luck. I am gonna go back to the xbox website and see what options are available for an out of warranty repair job. Wish me luck

EDIT 4 - Well a 100.00 and 45 minutes on tech support later I am going to be sending in my xbox 360 for repairs. They are going to be sending me a box with packing material and prepaid shipping via ups. They said about 1 week to get the box to me. Then approx. 2-3 weeks for a return shipping.

The upside is the 100.00 gets me a 3 year extended warranty. Not bad for a machine that has a built on date of 12/05! Now I figure 100.00 to get the same unit back is better than junking it and spending 350.00 for a brand new one.

Well this will get me to play my NINTENDO WII a bit more. Also I may end up finishing HEAVENLY SWORD on the ps3 after all! (plus I do need to pick up a second game for the ps3).

EDIT 5 - Wow I'm impressed I already got an email confirmation saying my shipping box to send in my xbox has been shipped. Expected delivery is Wednesday. Well that's something at least

[Bodyslide]

Good to Know. I'm looking at getting a 360 and was really worried about the red ring problem....Also Happy B-day...

[MeDiCo_BrUjO]

LOL!

Sorry to hear that it happened to you too Yoda... I'm already on stage 3: Waiting for my console to return.
They've had it for one week now, I'm guessing I'm still two weeks left from getting it back.
The only pain in the butt is that you have to look for a UPS store in order to drop the box with the Xbox, UPS will not pick it up (Unless you pay for the pick-up fee). It has to be a UPS store, since the drop boxes are too small for it.

I hope you will get it back soon, you are one week and a half, almost two weeks behind me. I will let you know when I receive mine.

[yoda313]

@Bodyslide - remember I bought mine used to begin with. It was built in 12/2005. I had it since about October so I have a lot of use out of it (and thanks for the greet by the way )

@medico - yeah its a bummer. At least mine is in transit to the repair site now. I guess I'm lucky I have a ups store not 2 miles away. Drop off was easy to ship it out. I made sure to get my receipt

- @medico - Was yours an HDMI model? Do you have the option of having hdmi video to the tv and a seperate fiber optic output for digital surround sound? My PS3 has that feature. The xbox 360 that I am returning is a "first gen" model that does not have an hdmi out. I have the vga high def cable with the fiberoptic port on it.

I am actually secretly hoping the unit died such a horrible death they will HAVE to replace it with a HDMI model (HOPING)

[MeDiCo_BrUjO]

Well, I got mine back yesterday and they replaced it with a new one!.
I had three months left in my guarantee and they transferred it to the new one.
I hope that they replace yours too, they even sent me a free one month LIVE Gold membership as well.
Now I do have the hdmi out, I didn't in my first one since I had it for a couple of years, it was a first gen as well.
Let me know how it worked out for you

[yoda313]

Sounds great Medico! Happy Gaming

Now does the hdmi model offer a seperate fiberoptic out port? I don't have a hdmi receiver but I do have a receiver with fiber optic in. That's what I'm hoping for as well

[ps2daddy]

yep it does

http://www.gamespot.com/pages/forums/show_msgs.php?topic_id=26276184

[budz]

yoda313 my friend ended up fixing his own xbox 360 by changing the screws & bolts that ms uses and also removing the heatsink to clean and apply new thermal paste. he paid $25.00 to some site to get the instructions on how to take the xbox apart. he's now happily gaming with his cooler xbox 360.

[yoda313]

Thanks ps2daddy. That is good to know. I just hope it isn't like the ps3 that has to be switched back and forth from hdmi audio to fiberoptic audio. With the ps3 if I want to watch with just the tv speakers I have to configure it to hdmi audio. If I want fiber output for 5.1 I have to manually go into the menus to switch to fiberoptic output which will disable the audio to the tv.

I was using the hdav cables with the vga setup for 1366x768 resolution with rca audio to the tv. It than has a split port for a fiber optic output. That way I am able to get 5.1 surround and tv audio without going into a menu setup.

I am suspecting, however, that if I do get the 360 with hdmi then I will have to go to the menu system to switch back and forth between hdmi audio and fiberoptic.

Small price to pay for improved visuals I guess.

Oh and my delivery is now set for the 24th

[ps2daddy]

yoda313 my friend ended up fixing his own xbox 360 by changing the screws & bolts that ms uses and also removing the heatsink to clean and apply new thermal paste. he paid $25.00 to some site to get the instructions on how to take the xbox apart. he's now happily gaming with his cooler xbox 360.

Here is a good one
http://www.llamma.com/xbox360/repair/ring_of_light_x-clamp_fix.htm

[yoda313]

Wow that is some operation there ps2daddy!

yikes I don't think thats for me. I'm glad I spent the 100.00 for the professionals. I am pretty sure I am getting a new model since it was only at the repair site for a day or two.

I am scheduled to get it back Tuesday

[yoda313]

Bump!

I got mine back Tuesday! It works

I unfortunately DID NOT get a replacement model. I got the same one back. However it works and that is all that matters.

Now I have a three year warranty on it so if anything else happens I am all set.