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360 "Red Ring of Death?" Don't sweat it, it's on Microsoft!

Dryden

Sober as Sarkisian
Staff member
Tech Admin
All XBox 360s, effective immediately, now have a three year warranty.

Xbox.com | Open Letter From Peter Moore

As of today, all Xbox 360 consoles are covered by an enhanced warranty program to address specifically the general hardware failures indicated by the three flashing red lights on the console. This applies to new and previously-sold consoles. While we will still have a general one year console warranty (two years in some countries), we are announcing today a three-year warranty that covers any console that displays a three flashing red lights error message. If a customer has an issue indicated by the three flashing red lights, Microsoft will repair the console free of charge?including shipping?for three years from the console?s purchase date. We will also retroactively reimburse any of you who paid for repairs related to problems indicated by this error message in the past. In doing so, Microsoft stands behind its products and takes responsibility to ensure that every Xbox 360 console owner continues to have a fantastic gaming experience.

Wow. Just ... wow.

Whatever happened to Moore's, "Things break!" remark?
 
Cost of repairs? ... 1 Billion Dollars!

drevil_million_dollars.jpg


Excessive Xbox repairs cited in $1B charge at Microsoft - Jul. 5, 2007

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -- Microsoft said on Thursday "an unacceptable number of repairs" to its Xbox 360 will force it to take a charge of more than $1 billion for its most recent quarter, and it announced a new, extended warranty for the videogame console.

The announcements come amid mounting complaints about Xbox 360 failures on the Internet. Microsoft said it had investigated the sources of hardware failures indicated by three red flashing lights on the console and had identified "a number of factors" that can cause such failures.
 
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jwinslow;877349; said:
If I were to go on ebay and buy a 360 w/ 3 flashing red lights... do I need the original receipt? Or should the serial number tell them enough?
From the XBox 360 site - original proof of purchase needed.

B. OBTAINING WARRANTY SERVICE
To receive instructions for obtaining repair or replacement warranty services you must call:Within the U.S., U.S. Territories and Canada: 1-800-4MY-XBOX (1-800-469-9269); TTY users: 1-866-740-XBOX (1-866-740-9269).
You must also:
  1. Submit proof of purchase in the form of a bona fide, dated bill of sale, receipt, or invoice (or a copy) evidencing that your request for service is made within the Warranty Period.
  2. Follow Microsoft's shipping and other instructions if it determines that all or part of your Xbox Product requires return for repair or replacement. To obtain the warranty service, you must take or deliver the Xbox Product in suitable packaging that provides an adequate degree of protection against damage during transit, to the location specified by Microsoft. Except as otherwise required by legislation in your jurisdiction, costs associated with transport (including packaging) for warranty service shall be at your expense.
  3. Delete or remove any files or data you consider private or confidential before sending the Xbox Product to Microsoft. Copy and keep any files or data stored on the Xbox Product that you don't want to lose.
 
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Sony paid this price last generation with the PS2's Disk Read Errors "DRE." I had one of the first shipments of PS2s, had my system for several years before the errors got to be too much. Found out about the class action lawsuit, sent it to Sony and they fixed it (or sent me a refurbished one) free of charge. So far my PS3 has been running like a dream, and I haven't heard many hardware complaints online, so hopefully they don't run into the same mistake this time around. My only complaint with my Wii is the friggin' endless supply of batteries I need for the dang controller :smash:
 
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ulukinatme;877994; said:
My only complaint with my Wii is the friggin' endless supply of batteries I need for the dang controller :smash:
I went to Kmart and bought 8 2500mAh Energizer AA rechargables. The charger came with 4, and I picked up another 4 -- I think the total cost was about $20. These batteries last twice as long as alkaline AAs as it is, and they're good for about 500 charges without "memory" burn-in, even if you slam charge a partially drained battery. I move them around between the Wii remotes and my Logitech Wireless PS2 controllers.

I have an original, big ugly launch PS2, and have never had the DRE. It's been a tank, even though the drive has always roared like a jet engine.
 
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Will the rechargeable batteries last as long or close to as long as an Energizer or Duracell? After the original alkalines burned out that came with the controllers, I've been replacing with Energizer/Duracell, they still seem to die out pretty quick. I've probably replaced the batteries in each of my controllers 3-4 times and I only play the Wii at friend's houses :( I like everything you can do with the Wiimote, but I really would have liked it if Nintendo allowed you to recharge the controllers at the console like with the PS3, that way I can keep playing without buying more batteries or waiting for rechargeables to charge. Maybe Nintendo will release a charger that will connect through the nunchuck port, that would be nice.

If you do ever get the DRE errors on your old PS2, Dryden, let me know. I can send you the info on how to get it fixed for free, I'm amazed its running so well for you. I always took care of my system, eventually the DREs got to be more and more numerous. I would occasionally open the system up and clean the laser's lense with some alcohol, this would clear things up for awhile, eventually the problems would come back and this cleaning no longer worked. I cleaned PS2s for friends and family as well that had the same problems, they had later models though.
 
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Dryden;878057; said:
I went to Kmart and bought 8 2500mAh Energizer AA rechargables. The charger came with 4, and I picked up another 4 -- I think the total cost was about $20. These batteries last twice as long as alkaline AAs as it is, and they're good for about 500 charges without "memory" burn-in, even if you slam charge a partially drained battery. I move them around between the Wii remotes and my Logitech Wireless PS2 controllers.

I went the same route for my kids' VSmile and Leapster. I have 20 batteries that are in rotation for these two devices alone.

Dryden;878057; said:
I have an original, big ugly launch PS2, and have never had the DRE. It's been a tank, even though the drive has always roared like a jet engine.

Still going on a PS2 bought the year it came out. I've cleaned the laser three times from dust build up, but now keep a towel over it when not in use to keep the excess dust out. Running like a dream.
 
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New 3 year warranty not enough? MS to lower prices in response to Sony:

Microsoft to drop XB360 price to $350 this week? | Xbox 360 News | GamePro.com
Analyst Micheal Pachter said on Monday that Microsoft will, in fact, reduce the price of the Xbox 360 tomorrow at the start of the company's E3 press briefing. He believes the $299 Core will drop to $249; the $399 Premium to drop to $349; and the newly released $479 Elite to drop to $399 in response to lower-than-expected sales of all three systems.

FWIW, Pachter is a tool, but he's also a smart tool who happens to have a lot of industry contacts and is presently at E3 schmoozing, so if this proves true tomorrow, it wouldn't be a shock.

$399 for an Elite?

... who bankrupts their games division first? Sony or Microsoft?
 
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Dryden;878877; said:
New 3 year warranty not enough? MS to lower prices in response to Sony:

Microsoft to drop XB360 price to $350 this week? | Xbox 360 News | GamePro.com


FWIW, Pachter is a tool, but he's also a smart tool who happens to have a lot of industry contacts and is presently at E3 schmoozing, so if this proves true tomorrow, it wouldn't be a shock.

$399 for an Elite?

... who bankrupts their games division first? Sony or Microsoft?

The price drops for the core and prem. seem a little weak to me, but the Elites 80 dollar price drop is more then enough to make a sale on me. Even with the 3 year ewarranty though, i'll still wait until August to get one with the 65nm
 
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I'm on my 3rd 360, bought warranties at EB Games each time. I love the system more than anyone but it's sort of ridiculous to pay that much for something only to have it break down twice in 2 years. And yes I take great care of it and keep it well-ventilated and all that jazz.
 
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i bought a 360 last year and within 5 days it had crashed and burned..i took it back to target and they replaced it for nothing...microsoft called the store and told them that they needed to replace it immediately...had no problems since..knock on wood
 
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President of Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices division, Robbie Bach, attends Martha Stewart school of fraud, corruption.

'Bach Sold Stock as Xbox Problems Mounted' : Next Generation - Interactive Entertainment Today, Video Game and Industry News

'Bach Sold Stock as Xbox Problems Mounted'
By Tom Ivan

Regulatory filings indicate that Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices division, has sold $6.2 million worth of company stock since May, a period during which mounting Xbox 360 technical problems have come to light.

Market Watch reports that filings lodged with the Securities and Exchange Commission show Bach sold $6.2 million in stock between May 2 and last Thursday when Microsoft officially acknowledged it would be necessary to fork out around $1.15 billion to cater for an "unacceptable" number of Xbox repairs. Bach had sold no stock for eight months prior to May.

Microsoft also announced last Thursday that it had missed its shipping target of 12 million Xbox 360s, the figure coming in at 11.6 million units for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2007.

...
 
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