THE BLOG

Link: http://pofm.org

According to the statistics I am reading on the net, about one third of XBOX 360 owners have purchased defective consoles.

I happen to be one of those consumers, and with a price tag of $400.00 each, I'm not happy about it! As opposed to shipping it back to Microsoft (where it "never" should have left the factory to begin with) and paying $140.00, (for their mistake) I fixed it myself, and I will show you how to do the same later in this article.

First, I want to complain a bit and invite anyone with a similar horror story to post it here. For one thing, I fail to understand why there has not been a recall of these consoles! Sure, Microsoft stated that they were saddened by losing 1 Billion dollars by extending their warranty from 1 year to three, but that's little consolation for people like myself, who didn't know about the warranty.

It was not boldly printed on the box when I purchased the unit, neither was there a warning on the box: "WARNING!! There is a 1 in 3 chance that this item will quit working and you may have to ship it back to us for repair, and be without it for 1 to 3 months!"

But execs at Microsoft, which admitted to widespread "RROD" problems and extended the 360's warranty to a full three years back in 2007 (at a cost of $1 billion), recently told Edge magazine that they've "put the worst behind us" when it comes to making sure that repaired Xbox 360 consoles stay fixed.

I purchased the unit December 2007. I only found out about the extended warranty today! (after fixing it myself) Oh well, who wants to wait 3 months while your xbox live account keeps running out anyway?

What happened to me, was the same thing that happened to thousands of other innocent consumers. The famous "Red Rings Of Death". Does this look familiar?

What do red light errors on the Xbox 360 mean?

• 1 light means that your system has experienced a general hardware failure. Sending it back to Microsoft without a warranty costs $140. It can also take up to a month for you to get your Xbox 360 back. Make sure you keep reading to learn how to fix red light errors at home.
• 2 lights inform you that your console is overheating badly. SWITCH IT OFF INSTANTLY TO AVOID DAMAGE TO YOUR CONSOLE.
• 3 red lights also indicate a general hardware failure.
• 4 lights are far less sinister. It simply means that there is a problem with the AV cable - plug it back in and check the connection. Everything should be fine.

Mine happened to be 3 red lights! So now for "The Fix!" I'll show you the same video that I watched on youtube that allowed me to fix my XBOX 360. (thus becomming a hero to my sons) Yep! I'm da man! (well, for today anyway)

DON'T! I repeat don't jump right in after watching the video, without reading the rest of this article and warnings!!

This guy (the awesome, almost faceless, 3 rings of death killer, mystery man and credit to nerds everywhere) is a patriot! Everywhere else I looked for a solution, they were money grubbing and trying to make a buck off of your misery. This guy just shows you for free.

I did exactly as shown in the video and guess what? It still didn't work! But that's okay! The reason that's okay is because, once you've gotten the three rings of death, a chip in your 360 mother board needs to be reset, because it is still telling the 360 system that it's broke!

I reset it by using another famous fix called "The Towel Trick" The towel trick works by purposfully "over heating" your xbox, so that you get only "2 red lights" instead of three. Then you let the unit cool down, plug it in and it works!!

I will not give the instructions for the towel trick, because of the many warnings I have read, that it can do permanent damage to your xbox. Instead, try this at your own risk. Go to youtube and type "xbox 360 towel trick" and you will surely find it easily! (Don't use this method for over 15 or 20 minutes)

I hope this helped! It is a shame that a corporation as large as Microsoft can sell defective products, and then charge their faithful customers $140.00 to fix their mistake. But then, this is the same company that for years has sold software "before" it is in 100% working order. (updates, fixes, service packs etc...)

I was never sure that it was acceptable to sell software to consumers before it was ready. However, I "am" sure it is not acceptable to sell "hardware" in this fashion.