Xbox Death

[Solwyn]

So my Xbox 360 started freezing right in the middle of playing the new fable pub games.

From everything I've read, I've had a defective unit for some time, I've just been dealing with it. I get random CD read errors, even when my discs are 100% clean. It hangs on startup from time to time, the disc tray won't open without me pushing really hard on it, and it's always been unreliable in the aforementioned ways. It just now started locking up. So I looked into it, and since it's not giving the three red rings, I can get it fixed but it'll require a fee of $99.

People have recommended that I wrap the thing in a towel and leave it on all day to force it to lock down with three red rings, so it'll be covered under the now-extended three year warranty.

My questions are the following: does this work? If so, should I take the hard drive off first to keep it from frying? Also, when I send it in for repairs do I send the whole thing out or do I take off the HD and they just send me a new console I plug it into?

Any info anyone has on this would be greatly appreciated.

[BlueCross]

Here ya go...

[Petrarch]

Sounds like you've got a launch motherboard - those are the ones that are the most prone to failure. The current revision is the 65nm Falcon chipset. They're far more reliable and run noticeably cooler.

The towel thing I've heard of, but it has mixed success. Sometimes it actually fixes the red ring rather than causes it. You ain't got a lot to lose mind since it sounds like a drive fault with yours.

Definitely remove the hard drive and don't send it back - if you do, odds are it'll be wiped and reset to factory defaults. Just give them the console.

[JC]

Step 1: Buy a Costco membership
Step 2: Buy a new Xbox pack
Step 3: Return it with your old Xbox in it
Step 4: Geometry Wars...

[Chucara]

I've had my first Xbox360 replaced (RRoD) and refurbished to the same model. It also broke. I had it firmware updated and no means of getting it back to the original, so I found a local electronics guy who would take my old model and replace it with the new model (cooler and with HDMI) for next to nothing.

The towel trick was originally intended to have the console run warm and thus let the soldering tin melt back connections that were lost. (Awful soldering around the memory and graphics device were a great cause of errors on the first model).

Some have succesfully forced a RRoD error by using the same trick, but this obviously voids warranty if discovered. Still, if your only other option is a bricked console, it might be worth a shot.

I did have the same problem as you, and in my case I solved it by moving it to a more open space to allow better airflow. In other words, my problem was not with the drive, but rather with the cooling. Try placing it on the floor or a table and see if it is still a problem. If it is, you know the problem. If it isn't: towel and start a game if possible.

The send in procedure (in Denmark at least) is the following:
- Call MS
- Receive mail containing printable FedEx shipment slip.
- Attach slip to box (sufficiently packaged)
- Call FedEx to have them pick it up (or deliver it to them)
- Wait 2 weeks
- Get fixed or refurbished Xbox (if you're lucky, a newer model)

You do not ship anything other than the console itself: No memory cards, harddrives, power cable or anything else. Oh, and remember to remove any disc in the drive (especially if it's burned )

[Solwyn]

It's been running for about 18 hours wrapped up in a towel and I'm not seeing the red rings yet. At some point last night it froze and showed two red rings, which means an overheat. But it didn't do anything after that so I'm not sure what's going on with it.
I'd love it if the thing just stopped freezing on me. I could deal with the drive being shitty and other various factors but not being able to use it at all is making me want to just blow the thing to pieces, especially since my original warranty ran out less than 3 months ago.

It's like they freaking knew.

In any case, it's at home whirring away from what my wife says, so either it'll fix the issue or it'll flip out and I can continue to the first step involving a lot of dynamite.

[BlueCross]

Find your own damn pic of blowing up an Xbox with dynamite!  I can't be expected to do ALL the work around here.

[Solwyn]

Find your own damn pic of blowing up an Xbox with dynamite!  I can't be expected to do ALL the work around here.

You don't have to post a pic every time someone says something...


_{fifteen monkeys wearing US Civil War Union uniforms while luke skywalker plays the guitar in front of the statue of liberty and a twelfth-century map of the orient while a klezmer band completes a suicide pact by jumping in front of a speeding Wal-Mart truck}

[Solwyn]

The towel trick was originally intended to have the console run warm and thus let the soldering tin melt back connections that were lost. (Awful soldering around the memory and graphics device were a great cause of errors on the first model).

So here's the craziness.

The x-box was being a total douche and freezing/etc. I couldn't get it to even start up without freezing. So we wrapped it in a towel for two nights in a row, and it just kept on cranking. So we pulled it out, stood it up on a side and let it cool for a day, and now it works perfectly.

I guess a solder came loose and we melted it back in place. Now I just wonder how long it'll last.

[Killmod]

I have seen it happen before.

Had mine for a couple of months, seems fine. I personally would not wrap the thing in a towel, as it may void any warranties. Heating the thing in a towel may be a temporary solution, because it forces the broken solder to melt together, but is not a permanent solution. Also, didn't Microsoft increase their warranty to three years?

[Petrarch]

Also, didn't Microsoft increase their warranty to three years?

Yes, but it only covers the red ring for the extra years, not other faults like drive failure. That's what Solwyn was trying to do, force it to ring since that's not the problem he's originally got.

[Solwyn]

Also, didn't Microsoft increase their warranty to three years?

Yes, but it only covers the red ring for the extra years, not other faults like drive failure. That's what Solwyn was trying to do, force it to ring since that's not the problem he's originally got.

What he said.

Also, voiding the warranty doesn't bother me at this point. They make a defective product and then only cover it if a very specific thing happens. To me that's shady as all hell.

I'm not sure if it was drive failure, it crashed during xbox live arcade games, so I took the hard drive off and restarted it with no disc, and it froze after a few seconds anyway. My guess is that it's some faulty wiring that was jury-rigged by my towel solution.

[BlueCross]

You don't have to post a pic every time someone says something...

But each time I do, I save a thousand words.  I'm doing what I can for the environment.

[Brugdor]

But each time I do, I save a thousand words.  I'm doing what I can for the environment.

It's true, Bluecross's posts are well known to contain dangerous gases.

[BlueCross]