Xbox 360 R.I.P. - almost, then dead again
One of my Xbox 360s died last night. I left the room for a few minutes while it downloaded the free Franz Ferdinand video from Xbox Live Marketplace and returned to find it paws up.
Three quadrants of the Ring of Light were flashing red - all except the upper right quadrant. I let it rest for eight hours and then tried again - same deal. Microsoft has a knowledge base article about this, but I'll save you the trip: try and power it off and back on. If that doesn't work, your 360 is dead. Call 1-800-4MY-XBOX.
The support person said I'll receive a UPS mailer in 24 houra, and my 360 will be repaired and shipped back to me three days later. In theory, this means I could have it back by next Wednesday.
FYI- This is different from what the Best Buy employee in Bellevue told me when trying to hard sell me a service contract at 2:30 in the morning Tuesday. He wanted to convince me that it would take six months to get a replacement from Microsoft if I didn't hand over $40 right that second to him. I said no, but many others didn't. I'd rather pay $60 per 360 and deal with the pros.
I suspect overheating caused this problem. I have my 360 in an entertainment cabinet that's closed in the back except for a few enlarged openings for the cables. I keep the doors open, and that seemed to work well for the PS2 and the original Xbox that was just evicted. But maybe that's not good enough for the 360.
In fact, I'm almost sure that's the problem. When I went to take a picture of the mostly red Ring of Light, the broken-down 360 booted right up. All systems go. Perhaps disconnecting the cables and handling the system for half an hour while dealing with support staff was all it needed.
I'm not going to call Xbox support back until Friday, in case it dies again. If that happens, I'll already have the confirmation number and mailer ready to go. In case this happened due to inadequate ventilation, I'm going to move the unit so it's surrounded by as much open air as possible - even if that means (gasp!) laying it on its side and placing the power brick so it's visible on the shelf next to it.
Better that than have it dangle in midair and eventually yank the 360 to the floor.
-=Gamewatcher
UPDATE: The 360 ran for a few more hours and then died again, so I'm sending it in for repairs. It was well ventilated and the power supply was off the floor and balanced neatly on the edge of a cabinent for maximum air flow, per several suggestions I've seen online. As you can see, I got a picture of it this time. Now it's time for Thanksgiving dinner.
UPDATE 2 (Dec. 3): I received a replacement Xbox 360 yesterday. Read about the odd little wrinkles (and rattle) I experienced.
