XBox 360 Red Ring of Death!!!

**TimCollier** · 05-13-2007, 08:03 PM

So, as I had been hearing stories of late about people who have owned a 360 for about a year and then started having issues, I sent it to the back of the list of the "BS" file, until my son turned his on today and received an error message...

The front ring of lights, which normally are associated with the controllers that are active, were now displaying red. Each of the four quadrants of lights have a different meaning behind that light being on....and the majority of red lights have either been four-lights on, or three-lights on with the upper right being the only one not lit up.

So, I did some searching at xbox.com and found...

Xbox 360: Four lights flash red on the Ring of Light

This isn't a bad sign, necessarily, and probably indicates that your video cable has come unplug from the back of the unit. That is apparently what the upper right light is for.

But then...

Xbox 360: Three red lights flash on the Ring of Light

This is serious. It means you either have an overheating issue, or a hardware failure.

First, you should shut off the unit and let it cool down and see if the lights go away. Now our unit has been off the past 5 days, so I know that's not it! So I read on and found that the third light means a hardware failure and the unit has to be sent to Microsoft for repair. And of course, we have the standard warranty so there's no telling what it will cost to fix it!!

You can contact Microsoft and they will send you a box to ship the unit to them for repair, and you should remove the hard drive and not include anything that wasn't a part of the original case. But before I go through all of that, I might want to check on how much it will cost to fix, as we might be better off just getting the new Elite...ok, maybe that's crazy talk, but still!!!

But, I wanted to let all the 360 owners here know about it before it happens to you....

Here's a great article on everything....it really lets you know what's going on and what to expect as far as return time.

**Rickypro** · 05-13-2007, 09:36 PM

Tim, I am a member of a group of about 200 people on another site that are all 360 owners. The rate of failure is amazing! Mine went belly up after about 6 months. Out of the 200 people, I would say at least 55 have had failures. Some of them more than once. I got lucky and got my refurbished 360 back in about 2 weeks from start to finish. Others have had to wait 3 weeks just for the box to put the dead XBox in to send back.

**TimCollier** · 05-13-2007, 09:47 PM

What site Ricky?

**Rickypro** · 05-13-2007, 10:05 PM

Originally Posted by TimCollier

What site Ricky?

http://xmg360.com/

xmg stands for Xbox Mature Gamers. lol
It is mostly just a message board where you can organize games and stuff so you know who you will be playing with. You are not forced to play online with a bunch of 12 year olds that like to make up new cuss words while you are playing.

Here is the link to the thread reguarding failed units. Not sure if you can see it without being a member but here it is in case you can.
http://xmg360.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1517

**Rickypro** · 05-13-2007, 10:17 PM

Tim, I am almost positive that Microsoft extended all the warranty's to 1 year from 90 days because of all the failed units so you should not have to pay anything unless it is over a year old.
Here is the link to that info.

http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/13170/...-360-Warranty/

**Rickypro** · 05-13-2007, 10:43 PM

This is a quote in the article you posted Tim. I personally think this is way under the actual failure rate.

"Each incident is unique and customer inquires are handled on a case-by-case basis. The overall return rate is within the CE industry average of 3-5%"

I know for a fact the group I am a member of has had a MUCH higher failure rate than the one mentioned above.

**davidan** · 05-13-2007, 11:18 PM

My first 360 went bad after about 9 months. I had it replaced via the process Ricky describes. When I did that they gave me an additional 1 year warranty on the refurbished unit ... So give them a call Tim and they will fix you up.

**Rickypro** · 05-14-2007, 01:06 AM

Well, there is 3 people from just this little group here so I guess 3-5% is conservative.

**TimCollier** · 05-28-2007, 12:19 AM

Just to give everyone an update on my (son's) 360...

I called Microsoft and spoke to someone about sending it in for service. The guy I talked to was nice, but he was a bit confusing to understand but it was clear that the unit was well out of warranty since we bought it in December of 2005. He said that they would still repair the unit, but it would cost $135 or so. So, I told the guy I'd call back, after deciding whether or not I'd rather just go get a new unit, even an Elite to replace it...

Giving it more thought, I decided to go ahead and fix it and called back speaking to someone who certainly was native to this continent if you know what I mean. He pulled up the reference number from the previous night and said that I did have a warranty on the unit. After asking him to check, so that things didn't get tied up somewhere along the line, he checked with two supervisors and determined that it wasn't a mistake and that after my call the other night a one-year warranty was placed on the unit...why, I don't know, but no complaints here!

So, a box is on the way for shipping it back for repair, and was told it should be returned within 10 days of their receiving it. So all is good here, and Microsoft really earned a loyal customer (as if they didn't have one already!)