It was only a matter of time, X360 RRoD...

Yeah, it's been over a year since I owned the X360 Premium, and just within the last couple of days, I was booting up my X360, hoping to play some of the Bioshock Demo that I d/led, and all of the sudden, boom, just started to boot up, then the three red flashing lights came about. I was giving it some adequate ventilation, and it was sitting in the horizontal position, and such. I thought to myself, well, it was only a matter of time. Guess this is another one in the many millions that Microsoft has to fish through. Nice going, I'll never buy a Microsoft console again as long as I live. Of course, Sony's not doing all that well either. Guess the Wii will live on as the best console this gen.

Just glad I'm building a nice desktop rig, at least I won't be missing out much. The computer will STILL be the #1 platform for quite some time.
Hard to believe that the X360 was left with that "Red Ring of Death" after owning the console over a year like this... There goes $400 down the drain. I wanted that console to last at least 3 - 4 years! :(

RAM,

Contact Microsoft as they will repair it for nothing (including collection and re-delivery).

Yeah, chances are that call may wind up in India like half of them anymore...

All right, I sent a support e-mail to them, telling them that I had this working for well over a year, all connections were proper, it was well ventilated, all that jazz. I told them that I was wondering if it was an internal problem that I'm not aware about, and all that. Hopefully this is an easy fix, but I dunno...

..so far my PS3 has no problems at all...

Yeah, I'm just glad that the Wii is not only the cheapest, but the most durable console out of all of them. Just proves that Ninty was around the block far longer than the other two, and knows how to make a GAME console. Reasons like this with the X360 is what put Nintendo back on top in the first place.

Indeed. I think the whole hard drive thing is over-complicating this, as well, making game consoles way too much like PCs. Particularly annoying is when a game decides to install a bunch of data to the hard drive to "improve performance", which happens to take a few minutes (and really sucks). "Improve performance" has always been a dirty word with game consoles, because they all have identical hardware; nobody should have to worry about compatibility, and the developers should thus be easily able to optimize the game to work on that hardware. The PSP slim is a disappointing departure from that, and so is the hard drive thing.
Remember when we could just pop the cartridge in and have the game, with all of our save data, right there?

Making people have to choose between three different versions is just stupid. That both Sony and Microsoft are doing this shows, in my opinion, that they have lost their direction, and forgotten why game consoles are good for games: Because they are supposed to be Easy!

Naw, the Wii is just running on slow, weak hardware that doesn't generate much heat.

Microsoft has extended the warranty on any Red Lights of Death XBox, so you should be able to get it fixed for free.

I agree with "slow", but I'm not sure about "weak", TaskMaster.
I have a computer with comparable specs to the Wii, and it generates a lot more heat and consumes a lot more power. (I can tell with my hands, too; it's obvious enough I do not need to use measuring tools).

But yes, you should have no problem with getting the lights of death dealt with. MS's tech support - at least by email - is actually really good! (Never tried their phone support, though, so that one may be different).

Well, on top of that, the QC that Microsoft has on the X360 just doesn't seem to fly, either. I mean, even tho Microsoft charges $400 for a console, yet uses cheap hardware to make it, just doesn't seem to fly, and I just wish that they'd understand that batch testing X360s ain't gonna cut it. That's probably what it was, they don't test each individual X360 before they go out onto the shipping lines, thus that widespread RRoD problem. At least Nintendo tests every Wii, and Sony every PS3 that leaves the warehouse. Guess that's what happens when a computer software company wants to go into consumer electronics, what can I tell ya?

Leads me to wonder... What would have a console like this have been if Apple were to make/brand this instead of Microsoft? Maybe iBox instead of Xbox, and such?

Except there are too few great games for it...

Microsoft is offering exceptional service, admitting they made mistakes, and then replace/repair every faulty unit isn't free. Extending the warranty to 3 years, is beyond what other companies would do in a similar situation.

Even with the original XBox they were generous to early adopters, who got an extra controller and two games after they dropped the price.

Of course they could just have made it right the first time :)

I bought a Wii recently and it's pure fun!

But be careful when comparing prices. The Wii unlike the other consoles only makes fun when you play with others (in the same room, not over internet). Buying additional controllers for 4 players will double the price of the Wii :(

Besides that, I had some nice evenings with friends sicne then, making weird movements in front of our TV ;)

Forget about graphics, forget about surround sound, forget about benchmarks...we played some games with ugly graphics and bad sound - but it all got compensated by the way how we played them. Wise decision from Nintendo to stop the tech-race and changing inputdevices fundamently instead.

Even simple shooting galleries are pure fun when four ppl are standing in the middle of the room and targeting the TV.

Buy one, you even can use the Wii remote with your PC. I used it for controlling FruityLoops effects yesterday. Funny thing ;)

My friend had to send his in because the disc drive stopped working. I think he said that they will send him an Xbox to replace the 360 temporarily. There was this one guy who also had a disc drive problem and they weren't able to fix his 360 so they sent him a new one. I really don't think that its a waste of money.

Yep, just sent them an e-mail earlier this morning, hoping that they'll be back by Monday or so... No automated confirmation e-mail? Interesting...

Thats cause they can afford to. What other company would have no trouble dropping a few billion dollars in order to make their way into the gaming industry and still not make a cent up to date?

Microsoft pretty much has to -- with a 90% market share on the desktop, there pretty much is no real way for them to grow much in that area. Investors demand growth. Just making a brazillian dollars by itself isn't enough, it always needs to be *more* than last year, or at least the perception that there's a lot more to expect *next* year.

Microsoft pretty much is investing a few billion go tap a new growth market, so they can keep on growing for years to come as well.

I call BS on this... No way in hell. What do they do, turn them on, look at the screen and turn them off? Or do they have someone sit down and play a game for 10 hours? This is BS. And it would not have fixed the Red Light of Death problem. Since, those boxes work fine for a while then fail.

Anyway, Nintendo has shipped 10-20 million units. You are trying to tell me they turned everyone on? BS. No way in hell!

No they can't. They're already close to 27 billion USD in the hole on the XBox venture.

Precisely.

Like thats going to stop them from jumping for that first penny.

Well, sent my X360 off over the weekend, and it's making its way south starting from the wee hours of the morning this morning. I know that it may void my warranty, if I do this upon its rearrival, but if I added a Zalman 9700 or a liquid cooler to the X360, do you think this would ease the solution a bit? IMHO, this was where Microsoft was lacking, because of the fact that they just didn't design it well enough for the X360 to "breathe" and cool itself off in the right way. I mean, it's almost like a computer in a way, and should be cooled down similarly.