Disk Inserted

Good afternoon to all my fellow gamers and gamerettes out there. In case you were wondering why I have not posted anything in the last few weeks, my Xbox was sitting in a repair depot in The Lone Star State, being fixed for the red ring of death. For those of you that aren’t familiar with the red ring of death and your 360, I will enlighten all of you on the particulars. Usually, the red ring of death on your 360 signifies a hardware problem of some type, whether it be the X-clamp cracking and needing to be re-soldered, your console overheating, or any other numerous problems, the causes of the ring of death are many and varied. You will usually need to send your console out for repair if this should occur. Unfortunately, the closest repair station happens to be in Texas, so you’ll be Xbox-less for a few weeks.

First, allow me to share with all of you my experience in dealing with the ring of death, as this was my first time encountering this problem on my system.  I was watching one of my favorite movies,  The Waterboy, to be exact, when, in the middle of the movie the screen froze. I had watched this movie a lot of other times and never had this problem. As I had taken the DVD out to check it for scratches, I thought the CD was bad. It turned out there wasn’t a scratch on it. I then tried to see if National Treasure 2 would work. No luck. It was then that the upper left, lower left, and lower right quadrants on the 360 flashed red. I thought to myself  “well, that does it. I’ve been cursed with the red ring of death.”

After looking for the number for the Microsoft repair center for about fifteen minutes, I placed a call to Texas and after being on hold for ten minutes, wound up talking to a middle-eastern guy named Andrew (I doubt that was actually his real name) who informed me that the ring is a problem often associated with the 360 that could be fixed, and that thankfully, my system was still under warranty. Just as an aside, the ring of death was so common when the 360 was first released, that Microsoft had to place an extension on the RRoD warranty that came with the console. When you call the service techs, they will tell you to give them the serial number on the back of the console, and your email address.

They will then send you an email with instructions that include a shipping label for you to tape to a box to mail to Texas. When you send it out, firstly make sure you use a box with no writing on it whatsoever. you will also need to remove any games or movies inside the system, as well as disconnect the hard drive and remove any custom faceplates if you have them on there. BE WARNED THAT MICROSOFT CANNOT RETURN THOSE ITEMS TO YOU SHOULD YOU ACCIDENTALLY MAIL THEM! Along with the emailed shipping label, will be a tracking number. You can go to the Xbox support website and track the status of your console repair.

For more about how to prevent and fix the ring of death, click here.

Jonathan says: If you’re console is still under warranty, you’re crazy to try to fix it yourself. Send it in!