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red ring of death
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microsoft
xbox 360
Pretty Sure This Violates the Warranty
From reader Michael Hurt comes this: a watercooled Xbox 360. As casemods go, this one looks like someone locked the A-Team in a barn, Murdoch and B.A. improvised with some aquarium tank hose and an aerator, and the gang saved the day. I love it when a plan comes together.
My first instinct was to call b.s., on this, but then I don't know what the hell I am talking about, either in the realm of casemods or electrical engineering. And, clearly, there are holes in the top of the console where he's routed the cooling tubes. So it looks like he gave his 360 a cochlear implant. (Seriously, you ever seen an old geezer with one of those? Looks like Lobot from Star Wars.)
The guy who made this also laid a better heatsink on the power supply. Check the link for pics of that, and more. Now I'm wondering if I can get his phone number.
Watercooled Xbox 360 {Thanks to Michael Hurt]
rumor
The Truth Behind The Red Ring Of Death
Jake Metcalf over at 8Bit Joystick.com has recently posted an interview with an "individual who has worked on the Xbox 360 project for many years", who goes into explicit detail about the extremely high failure rate of Xbox 360 consoles since the console's launch in 2005. While normally we take such anonymous interviews with a grain of salt, you may remember Metcalf as the man who broke the story on Bungie leaving Microsoft a week before any official word was released. His source details everything from the various reasons for failure, and how much Microsoft knew about the system's instability before the product was shipped. If there's truth behind this, it's downright disturbing. More »
pumpkin
This, yes this, is what we've been waiting for: The Red Ring of Death jack-o'-lantern. According to reader Zhao:
It's like the mouth of Hell.
RRoD Is Truly Frightening
This, yes this, is what we've been waiting for: The Red Ring of Death jack-o'-lantern. According to reader Zhao:
Every gamer's worst nightmare... the center fell out and had to be taped *cries due to lack of skill*
It's like the mouth of Hell.
warranty
Repaired Xbox 360 Comes with Freebie
My Red-Ringed Xbox 360 Elite showed back up at my house when I was in Leipzig. The majestic black console was cloaked in bubble wrap, stuffed between two pads and placed in a box along with a letter of apology from Microsoft.
The letter apologized for the inconvenience of having to ship my console off to have it repaired and said they were going to give me a free month of Xbox Live Gold membership. Sure enough, there was a plastic card taped to the bag protecting the Elite good for one free month.
Of course I'd prefer that Microsoft get to the bottom of their RROD issues, but this certainly is a step in the right direction.
rumor
Xbox 360 Repairs Slow to Crawl
Rumor has it that a spike in Xbox 360 returns, both valid and not so much, have lead to an increase in the return time for repaired Xbox 360s.
I've heard that the turnaround time for Xbox 360 repairs has skyrocketed to as long as six weeks and if you do the math, that could mean that some loyal 360 fans may be console-less when the Halo 3 launches. Talk about bad juju.
confirmed
Xbox 360 Falcon Chips Are Coming This Year
It's coming. Obviously. Later this year, Xbox 360s outfitted with 65-nm chips should be hitting store shelves according to The Xbox 360 Uncloaked author Dean Takahashi. Dubbed "Falcon," these chips are smaller than the current 90-nm processors and should use less energy. And that *should* lead to fewer Red Rings of Death. Well, theoretically! We won't know until these consoles are out in the wild, performing under real world conditions. However, Takahashi has confirmed that the chips are in the first batch of consoles currently being made, meaning that they could be there by fall. But Microsoft isn't going to disclose to customers which consoles have what. Takahashi points out: More »
rumor
The Xbox 360's Other Red Ring
Sure Microsoft has been flooded with a slew of Xbox 360s returned after blinking the dreaded Red Ring of Death, but we hear that not all of them were due to overheating.
When the console seizes up and dies, three of the "circle of light's" quadrants blink red, but when the video cable pops out four of the quadrants blink. Apparently, a large number of consoles returned to Microsoft with the dreaded Red Ring of Death were perfectly fine and just the victim of a bit of red ring hysteria.
There have been so many returns, in fact, that we've been told Microsoft plans on disabling the four ring error code on future builds of the console. No word on whether they will remove the three-ring coding as well.
More »
clip
Sure, I've heard of the "towel trick" used to revive Xbox 360s sporting the Red Ring of Death, but I've never actually seen it. Well, now I have! CheapyD from CheapAssGamer provides a step-by-step walk through so you can squeeze a few more minutes days out of your croaked 360 before it craps out again. For those who have already seen or done this, there's a Robo-Cop gun to keep you entertained. It even breaks. The irony!
Red Ring, Towels and One Busted Robo-Cop Gun
mr. bubble
Newsweek To MS: Come Clean On 360 Faults Or Recall It
N'Gai Croal of the Newsweek hosted Level Up blog has touched once again on the Xbox 360's hardware woes, the mysteriously secretive and deadly "red ring of death" that has plagued the console since its release and ultimately resulted in a new three-year manufacturer warranty. Croal writes that the recent extended warranty policy change simply does not reach far enough in addressing the issue. He contends the company must come clean on the specifics of its failure rate or issue a recall on the product. More »
xbox 360
One Take On the 360 Red Ring of Death
Australian site SquareHouse has a short and sweet summation of "what killed the Xbox 360," at least in terms of current ring-around-the-rosey, red ring of death warranty debacle: crappy planning and some cost-cutting measures to try and undermine the competition that led to the current problems and potential PR disaster (what's that old saying? 'Quality doesn't cost, it pays'?). Microsoft sees the silver lining, in that they're owning up to problems, perhaps bolstering their image (imagine that, a company taking responsibility for problems with their product!). More »
how microsoft almost jacked consumers out of 1 billion
Moore Talks About Red Lights
I spoke with Peter Moore, Microsoft's Corporate Vice President, Interactive Entertainment Business, Entertainment and Devices Division, for a few minutes a little while ago about today's announcement regarding the extended warranty.
The warranty, which gives all Xbox 360 owners a 3-year safety blanket guarding against the dreaded red ring of death, will cost Microsoft more than $1 billion, but Moore said it was about time they stepped up to the plate.
"It needs to be above and beyond because we haven't done what we need to do to take care of our consumers," Moore told me, adding that three years is quite a long time for a consumer electronic.
More »
red ring of death
A Dozen Xbox 360s, One Man's Tale Of Woe
1UP is running a feature on a diehard Xbox 360 fan's incredible run of bad luck, one that won't paint the console's hardware reliability in a remotely positive light. Justin Lowe, they report, is now on his twelfth Xbox 360, having sent eleven of those back to Microsoft for various repair issues. One of those allegedly even exploded (emphasis theirs and mine—I'm responsible for the bold). More »
just in time for summer
Repaired Xbox 360s Get New Heatsink
We've been seeing this come in from a number of sources over the past few days, but TeamXbox now has some crystal clear shots of new changes to the Xbox 360 hardware repair process. TXB refers to the internal hardware photos as "confirmation of the new 2nd heatsink/pipe technology...that Microsoft installs to provide additional cooling for the Xenos GPU." More »
what's in a number?
Ah, The Red Ring of Death. I've had it, Luke's had it, if you were cool, you would have it too. So how many people in the world are as cool and awesome as us? It's like questioning how many licks it takes to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop - The world will never know: More »
Failure Rate of 360s
Ah, The Red Ring of Death. I've had it, Luke's had it, if you were cool, you would have it too. So how many people in the world are as cool and awesome as us? It's like questioning how many licks it takes to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop - The world will never know: More »
warranty
Xbox 360 Warranty Now Better, Faster, Stronger
After extending the warranty of the Xbox 360 to one year from purchase date, Microsoft is making its warranty and service policies that much more wicked awesome. More »
xbox 360
Rash Of Year-Old Japanese Xbox 360s Crapping Out
Behind the times, I know. When the Xbox 360 launched in Japan, the focus wasn't on overheating consoles crapping out, but boxed consoles sitting on store shelves collecting dust. A recent flurry of three red-ring posts have appeared in The Land of the Rising Sun. It seems that consoles over a year-old are konking out in noticeable numbers. (Take the dead console in the pic for example.) And while America, gets a free fix it for fist batch machines, Japan gets the shaft. Funny, and at a month after warranty. Coincidence, we're sure. More »
original
