I just sent my 360 in for repairs earlier last week. I am just now starting to feel the withdraw. I could go for some G.R.AW. 2 now. At the very least, I still have my PS3 and Gamecube, but it would be nice to have the 360 back. I played that the most.
I never thought I would have a new system like that just crap out on me. It was working one minute, then I resubscribed for XBox Live, turned off my system, then the next time I turned it on I got the infamous 3 Red Rings of Death. I read some things online regarding solving the problem, tried them, no dice.
When I called the help line, there was a section dedicated solely to this problem…wow, that’s sad. Necessary, but sad. I explained my problem to support, and let him know that this occurred directly after I signed up for Live again. He added insult to my problem by saying, “Well…yes, it will cost you $140 to fix it, but the good news is that we will throw in 1 month free of XBox Live Gold as a courtesy to you!” I let that comment slide, despite the fact that:
A. The death of my system occurred directly after I signed up for Live.
B. 1 month of XBox Live is chump change. You can get that when you buy a game. It is like they literally were slapping me in the face. What was I supposed to say? “Gee, wow! Really!? A whole month free!? That is like, a whole $2 dollar value! Awesome! Thanks customer care guy! You rock!”
Hopefully, I will get my 360 back either this week or the next, and with my year renewal intact. To be fair to the Xbox Support, I called a second time to Microsoft and that customer service guy was much better, and more helpful. I guess it is just a toss up of getting the right person on the other end. Well, here’s to hoping I get it all back right, and that I never have to deal with this again!
Hey hans, I stumbled across something interesting on Wikipedia whilst writing your Xbox’s eulogy last week.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_of_death
It seems there might be a link between G.R.A.W. 2 and the Three Red Lights of Death…
That was an interesting read. It lists many things that hav elead to malfunctions. I have never had a problem with G.R.A.W. 2, thankfully, and hope I never do. THey listed a host of other update problems. It almost makes me paranoid to do anything on my 360 once I get it back. Such a great system marred with incredibly serious issues. That is really sad.
And the kicker is that i don’t think you get a new warranty with your repair/replacement… so i’d be paranoid too. the Wii has had a few similar update issues.
I will now refer to Hans as Lord of the 3 Red Rings. I could just lend you my 360 while I play Wii Zelda. I’ve only powered up my 360 a handful of times recently because of this damn Wii. My next blog will be all about the Wii btw. Anyhow GRAW2 is a fun game, and I have a hard time believing that it would cause a system to fail. Coming from the IT world, I’ve never seen non-bios software destroy hardware before. That’s just my opinion though. Hopefully the trend of year and a half old system failures doesn’t hold too true, my 360 will be dead by holiday time. Hans, if you need to get a fix, feel free to stop by my place and we can play on my DLP.
Actually, I do get a warranty. That is one nice thing about this whole situation. Cory, that is cool that you have Zelda. If I came over, I would probably just play your Wii. I’ve been wanting that system, too! At least I have my PS3 to tide me over…although I have mainly been playing PS2 games on it. Last generation titles still hold up really well, and have great relevance still. FF 12 has my name on it.
It’s funny, Wii is my primary system right now but the vast majority of what I play is the Virtual Console.
Maybe i’m reliving my childhood after my parents denied me videogames until i was in junior high.
Artie that’s just wrong. I remember that my parents won $100 on the “Kicker” lottery game. They promised me any lotto earnings would go toward an NES. I totally lucked out. My Atari 2600 was boring me as they stopped making games. I’ve had video games in front of me since I can remember. Junior high though? Wow. Apparently your parents loved you. I raised myself on Zelda, Mario, and Megaman. I can’t wait until I have children so I can make Video games raise them. Just like those 7 year olds pwning people in Halo 2.
Anyhow, I have fought the temptation of getting virtual console games. I really don’t want to buy a new controller. Can you use the gamecube controllers with the virtual console?
It’s true, the only chance i had to play videogames was at friends’ houses… or at my grandparent’s house where there was an old Intellivion and tons of games. Belonged to my uncle.
but yeah, you won’t need to buy an additional controller for the VC… at least not at first. For NES games you can just turn the wiimote on its side. i actually prefer playing NES games this way rather than the Classic Controller. In fact, a good majority of the SEGA and TG16 games work perfectly using this method. The only games that don’t work are the N64 and SNES games. for those you will need a Gamecube controller or a Classic Controller. One word of advice though, the Gamecube controller is horrible for SNES games. Contra 3 and Super Mario World are all but impossible on it.
To interject, the classic controller seriously rocks, and when I get a Wii I will definitely invest in it. The Wiimote works on NES and Turbo Grafx games, so feel free to pick up those if you don’t want a new controller. Also, I’m another child raised on Nintendo….Good memories.