The inevitable has occured... the Red Ring of Death (Xbox360)

[Chris3123]

I've had my Xbox 360 for over a year with no problems. I thought I'd be one of the lucky ones who would never have to experience the classic error. But I was wrong. Today I go to play some Halo 3, and all I get is the damn RROD. The purpose of this thread is threefold:

1. rant
2. Who else here has had this problem?
3. Yeah, I 've looked online, but in your guys' opinion, what is the best way to solve the problem?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Aragorn]

Did you buy the Xbox 360 new? I believe they extended the warranty for RROD to three years. You should check out your status at xbox.com.

I had my 360 for almost three years when RROD happened. So I sent it in for repair and a couple weeks later it came back to me. They didn't actually fix what was broken, they just replaced it so I had to do a license transfer.

 

[Chris3123]

Did you buy the Xbox 360 new? I believe they extended the warranty for RROD to three years. You should check out your status at xbox.com.

Yeah, I read about the extended warranty earlier.

I had my 360 for almost three years when RROD happened. So I sent it in for repair and a couple weeks later it came back to me. They didn't actually fix what was broken, they just replaced it so I had to do a license transfer.

I know that's an option, I just wanted to see if that option is reliable. 'Cause you know, it's Microsoft.

 

[Aragorn]

Well my Xbox hasn't died since. Of course, I later bought an Elite and the repaired Xbox only gets played on game nights.

 

[CaptJimboJones]

They should definitely honor the warranty, so don't sweat - it will be replaced. Yes, it sucks to have to send it in, but you won't lose your investment.

 

[gh4chiefs]

Yeah as others have said, they will "fix" it. Meaning you'll mostly likely get a different unit back. My girlfriend's son sent his in recently and it was probably less than 2 weeks total turnaround time.

 

[mrcoaster]

Just go to xbox.com (register if you haven't already done so), and you can put in a repair request. Once you identify that you have a RROD, the one year warranty will change to three years, and it will indicate that there is no charge for the repair (initially, it might show a $99 charge until you identify the RROD). Then you have the option to print out a label that is prepaid to ship your console to the repair center, OR you can request a box be sent to you, then send it back with the console. Obviously, printing out the label and packing it in a box yourself is much, much quicker.

From dropping my box off at the UPS store to getting it delivered on my porch was about 10 days total. Less than two weeks, so it was pretty fast. I got a new/different unit, so I had to get the licensing changed on the box (called for that since the online site wasn't showing the right information for my console and I didn't want to mess up the "once a year only" licensing change. The licensing was swapped and everything is perfect. Actually, it's better than before. My USB ports had shorted or something, so the RROD got me a console with fixed USB ports, too.

Now we have a second unit, so if one goes down, we aren't completely without (plus it's just nice to have a second console).

The whole repair process is very easy and quick.

 

[Thrall]

I wonder when you buy the limited edition Red X-Box when it crashes it has a Green Ring of Death?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

This is really weird. Do they know *why* all these RRODs keep happening?

 

[Timby]

This is really weird. Do they know *why* all these RRODs keep happening?

Horrific and rushed industrial design of the box, including woefully inadequate heat dissipation for a CPU and GPU that, combined, generated enough heat to power a thermonuclear reaction.

When production of the systems reached its full speed, 68 out of 100 were coming off the lines as defective.

 

[firehawk12]

The system runs too hot.

 

[James Bond]

I got a new/different unit, so I had to get the licensing changed on the box (called for that since the online site wasn't showing the right information for my console and I didn't want to mess up the "once a year only" licensing change. The licensing was swapped and everything is perfect.

In my case, Microsoft switched the licensing, etc for me so I didn't have to do a thing.

 

[Trekker4747]

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

If you ever get to design a game console don't park the processor next to a major source of heat like say, oh I don't know, a friggin media drive!

 

[Timby]

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

If you ever get to design a game console don't park the processor next to a major source of heat like say, oh I don't know, a friggin media drive!

Thanks for playing, but you don't have it quite right (and an optical drive isn't a major source of heat).

The GPU (at least on the early runs of the box, I'm not sure if revisions changed this) is located underneath the optical drive, and because of the constricted space in that location (a problem exacerbated by Microsoft's internal edict to have a small box), the heatsink had to be drastically reduced in size -- not a good idea for a GPU that ran hotter than hell. This, combined with poor solder work and the insane amount of heat generated by the CPU, causes warps in the motherboard and cracks in the solder, and ultimately it ends in a general hardware failure.

The biggest problem was the rushed nature of the 360's development, and Todd Holmdahl being a barely functional retard when it came to the industrial design.

 

[firehawk12]

I take it that you probably don't have any kind of working relationship with Holmdahl?

 

[Trekker4747]

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

If you ever get to design a game console don't park the processor next to a major source of heat like say, oh I don't know, a friggin media drive!

Thanks for playing, but you don't have it quite right (and an optical drive isn't a major source of heat).

The GPU (at least on the early runs of the box, I'm not sure if revisions changed this) is located underneath the optical drive, and because of the constricted space in that location (a problem exacerbated by Microsoft's internal edict to have a small box), the heatsink had to be drastically reduced in size -- not a good idea for a GPU that ran hotter than hell. This, combined with poor solder work and the insane amount of heat generated by the CPU, causes warps in the motherboard and cracks in the solder, and ultimately it ends in a general hardware failure.

The biggest problem was the rushed nature of the 360's development, and Todd Holmdahl being a barely functional retard when it came to the industrial design.

Eh, I had the gist. I was trying to remember stuff I heard several years ago which in my mind pretty much came down to that the design was flawed where the GPU/CPU or whichever was located in such a manner that it wasn't getting cooled properly.

I may not have had 100% correct, but I was in the ballpark.

 

[Praetor]

I just got RRoD'd last week. My shipping label is here as of yesterday via mail, but I'm still waiting on the box. Apparently you're only supposed to send the CPU and nothing else, not even the 'brick.' Apparently they've redesigned the CPU and you may end up getting a new 'brick.'

I really want my damn box.

 

[Aragorn]

Weird, my shipping label came with a box.

 

[Praetor]

My label came in an envelope, in my post box.

 

[firehawk12]

Yeah, they expect you to use your own box now.