XBox 360: Red Ring of Stupidity

What’s to say this isn’t just FUD being spread by Microsoft to make it sound as if it’s not all their fault?

LOL returns because the video cable isn’t plugged in.

The new 3year warrenty only coveres 3 rings of death, and who is to say that in a most recent firmware update, that it has made consoles not show the 3 rings when it has an error so MS doesnt have to pay to fix systems that will soon break?

I got the 3 rings of death yesterday on our xbox 360.

our’s lays on its side, and my roomie had stacked some empty game boxes on it, thus covering the holes, my buddy was playing MLB2K7 and it kept freezing so he kept bitching. I came out to the living room and reboot the thing and BOOM, red ring of death. I shut the system down, removed the boxes, let it cool down for a bit (plus did a lil blowing myself) and although it took 5 power ons to get it back to life, it eventually kicked back on.

Twas a close call.

Chad – How long have you had the 360? I just bought one last night…. Wondering how long it will take for me to know if it is ‘defective’ or not.

I can only assume that the reason for no firmware update in this regard is that the error code is at such a low level (hell, just a simple circuit that stays closed to the LEDs with the video cable opening it sounds good to me) that it can’t be fixed in software.

Anyway… with the quantity of people actually experiencing issues (I personally know 2 out of my three xbox 360 owning friends w/ the three ring error) that it isn’t so much “hysteria” anymore. I’d wager it’s just terrible business and bad hardware at this point.

Enrique; The second of my friends to have it happen occurred last week or so. His was from launch.

Ouch…. So just to confirm – the 3-ring error IS covered by the new MS 3-year warrantee, but the 4-ring is not?

The stupid ones are the store employees who accept returns without checking if the error is 3 or 4 rings.

The other stupid ones are designers who made the console “death” error look very similar to a cable unplugged error.

The incompetent ones are the original designers of the 360 who didn’t foresee all these defects to begin with.

When it comes to industrial design and engineering, if something is making users look stupid, you failed as a designer/engineer.

My Xbox 360 just experienced the 3 rings of red and will not work. If I send my 360 in to get fixed, will Microsoft check to see if it has been modded? I had it modded to play backups, and wondering if they will still fix for free.

I had mine for 2 years, and barely even play it (mostly watch movies).
Was playing poker last night and first the thing just kept freezing, and after a few minutes,…got the 3 rings,…basically,..the thing just died.
Called MS and they said they’ll fix it. Let’s see.

Yeah, I got mine from launch too and it just gave me the 3 red rings. Maybe the things were only built to last so long. I’m waiting for an email as to what to do about mine.

Got mine in Dec ’05. Just got the RROD last night. MS is sending me a prepaid return box for repair. 3-4 Weeks.

My 360 is just a couple months old. I don’t play hours on end like the majority of most gamers. Just a few hours a week. I bought “Dirt” yesterday and the console red ringed on me. That really sucked!

what is up with all this talk of bad hardware and bad business my m.s……………..i have gotten the error a few times and it doesnt mean your system is broken……..simply wait till it cools off or just turn it on and off a few times and it should work again…………hint: get a fan that hooks on the back…………..it adds hours to your sessions you are able to play…………..bad hardware………what do you expect for 300 bucks, a super computer………the processors are fast and are not that good quality………but they do work good for games, just overheat all the time……….dont like it, dont buy it…………

LOL@bill

When i buy a car, i expect it to run,..when i buy a refrigerator, i expect it to cool. I don’t expect to have to stop by the side of the road and let the car cool so i can keeop going, or do i think it’s acceptable to have to unplug the fridge and pack the thing with ice until i can plug it back in.

If it doesn’t work the way it’s supposed to, IT’S BROKEN! And btw,..it’s not 300,..it’s $500 (and the price was set by the manufacturerer,..not like we came up with it), and even if it was $50, if it doesn’t work as advertised,..IT”S DEFECTIVE! Now,..it’s great that you installed more fans,..more power to you, but the point is,…you don’t buy things “hoping” they would work as intended, you buy things EXPECTING then to do what they are supposed to. (unless you bill buy your stuff at swap/pawn shops)

my xbox died last night and i just reserved halo 3 now how long will it take for M.S. to fix my $350 piece of crap will i have it back in time, so as i can own all online?

They told me 3 weeks minimum.

is the 3 yr warranty somthing you have to buy or is it for all 360 owners regardless of weather they have bought a warranty before.

I just got Halo 3 and i can’t play it cus of the red ring of death…
it really sucks

i just bought halo 3 and beat it when my damn 360 fucked up and now i feel like kicking it into the wall…well shit i have no clue what to do can anyone help me?

i turned my second xbox 360 today without connecting the av cable… and when i figured out what the problem was i felt so fucking stupid.. 3 months ago i broke down my old 360 because of that, i thought it was fucking dead but it wasn’t.. im stupid i know.. but o well.. can’t do nothing now. :)

Now im not a n00b when it comes to gaming, i play for hours on end sometimes. this most recent “console update” sent my system into a cataclysmic shock. i had never had problems with my beloved white box before this, however, i did get freezing gears of war. I freak out start calling microsoft going through the bullshit and then they tell me to ship it to them. i said hell no, but i did some troubleshooting and kept getting the three red lights. i found a quick fix, and i even bought an intercooler that blows from the bottom, and it still took a gigantic shit all over Halo 3. i reboot. nothing now im waiting for my new paperweight to come back.. Fucking microshaft.

I just got a new Xbox 360 today. 3 weeks ago my Xbox 360 of 3 months old (bought the end of June 2007) Red Ringed on me. And today Oct 13th not even 5 hours old the new one Red Ringed on me again. This is no joke and I am pissed. What is up with microsoft. I thought companys are suppost to test and back up the products they sell. I feel I just bought a box of crap….Good luck to eveyone using microsoft’s products.

this is rediculous. playing GRAW2 and it freezes and i get the 3/4 red ring… is this because of certain games that screw up the 360 or is it more the system just breaking down. ive had trouble before with nhl08, but not like this…

Mine just got the three RROD this morning. I bought Assassins Creed a couple of days ago, it updated, worked fine for 3 days and this morning it just stopped working.

Perhaps this is related to overheating… but I have played for hours on this 360 in the past with no issues. Last night I played for about 3 hours, no lock ups or other issues.

Tried all the known fixes and none of them work. When I called MS they said my box is covered under the warranty (3 year extended), and are sending me a pre-paid shipping box but it won’t be here for 7 business days, and it will be up to 30 days before I receive a replacement… which means the whole holiday season is shot for me this year (as far as the 360 goes).

Somthing has to be done about this. I just bought Assissins Creed and the game kept freezing up couldn’t even make it to the first save point. disconnected all the cables took the hard drive off, tried other games kept freezing. One day later I go to turn it on (hoping) 3 red rings. Microsoft will never come out and give the actual numbers to this problem, not only because of the fear of repair cost but the the fear of losing future new gamers. How can we legaly handle this wide spread problem.

I like the comment about the pawn shop. Although that is where i got mine and i still expect it to work. I got the three rings of death and they fixed it for free. now i have a new question. Mine is giving me a disk read error. What the hell do i do?? call ms and this time they are going to charge me $100 bucks to fix this. that is a hock of shit… Any fix to this?

Mine red ringed me just as I turned it on to play some music before jumping in bed with the lady.
I Freaked out, three rings, I counted it several times.
I took everything off of it, reconnected it, took out the disk and everything,
Eventually, It worked again, making me all happy on the inside, I believe this is the second time this has happened in 6 months, I have confidence yet.
360, I love you.