Check into an extended warranty directly with MS. I'm not sure of all the logistics but they were offered fairly cheaply to people who had to return their boxes when the red ring of death started becoming common. For the life of me I can't seem to find any links with pricing, but I thought I remember people saying it was alot cheaper than best buy's deal. In the event that anybody is really interested in this problem, you can check out this thread: http://www.xboxhacker.net/forums/index.php?topic=1193.180 . Page 10 has some really good hi-rez photos showing exactly what the problems are.
How does that MS plan work? I remember it with the old Xbox but I never got it with it. The 360 seems like it needs the plan. Like does the MS plan mean that if you ever have any probs, after you pay for the plan you can easily get a replacement?
When you buy your system and open the box, along with all the documentation there should be a extended warranty application. You pay I think it's $39 per year (don't quote me on that price) of extended coverage. Catch is, like AppleCare, you have to buy the extra coverage within a set amount of time, like 30 days after buying the system or somewhere along those lines. If anything goes wrong, they'll attempt to troubleshoot the issue over the phone. If this doesn't help, you'll just be asked to follow the general repair procedure which involves the shipping carton deal. It's not a bad deal, though I don't know how it stacks up to a Best Buy plan since I don't bother buying extended warranties through stores since the sales monkeys constantly push that crap on you.
BestBuy's deal was 50$ for 2 years. And basically unless you clearly damaged it yourself, you get a brand new unit on the spot. Beats waiting. Beats getting a refurbished unit too. So apparently these Xbox 360's are dieing because the cooling on the GPU is insufficant and/or the soldering job on the GPU was crappy? Seems like a silly question, but then wouldn't it make sense to get one of those Nyko intercooler things?
Whatever I guess. I suppose it's convenient if you live in the general vicinity of the Best Buy, but not everyone has that luxury. I don't know exactly what the issue has been regarding all these failures...I never did get a straight answer as to what caused mine to crap out save from the fact that it exhibited the same flashing red light issues as everyone else. Definitely something was overheating, as to what I don't know exactly. Word on the street is NOT to use the Nyko intercooler...check google before spending your money.
Yeah theres no Best Buy around here, I was gunna get mine online and see if I can get it for cheaper then 500$ and not have to pay tax. I read intercoolers can cause the plastic to yellow from getting too hot or something and void the warranty? What about the Pelican fan stands or anything like that? (Btw how loud are 360's? does it vary?) Hopefully this 360 doesn't die on you Zilla! If it does, and you didn't have the warranty, do you think you would get another one or pay the repair fee?
I didn't know what the best buy plan was exactly (i was guessing somewhere around a hundred or more since thats what my camera cost at about the price of a 360). I would say best buy is definatly more convenient though. The only issue here is, and I don't know for sure, but it seems like BB makes you buy a new warranty each time you have it replaced (correct me if I'm wrong). However the remainder of MS's warranty should get transfered to the new console at no cost. Just something to consider. It seems like a trade off of convenience (dropping it off at BB and immediatly getting a replacement) vs cost (not having to renew the warranty every time from MS). On a correctly assembled 360, the stock cooling system is more than adequete (unless you live in a very warm climate, like to block intake/exhaust vents, or try modifying the case in some strange way). People can debate this back and forth all day, but its pointless. Now on a system that was incorrectly assembled, more specifically one that suffers from one of the afflictions I mentioned in my previous post, the heat cycles will cause cold joints on the BGA chips to form more readily or break contact with the pads if they are already there. Attempting to alter the cooling by changing heat thermal interface material, modifying the heat shroud, or adding fans will only *prolong* its life, but chances are good it will still eventially seccumb to the ring of death way before it has a chance to die a natural death (by natural death I mean the failure of almost all electronic equipment over a period of 5-20 years). The intercooler is about the dumbest thing I've seen. Aside from the obvious fire hazard that it presents (nice pic) it uses 3 smaller fans (one of them isn't even positioned in a way that can be useful). At best, the 2 useful fans creates a small vacuum in the few centimeter space in between them and the stock fans. How this is supposed to cool the system, I'll never know. Replacing the stock fans with more powerful ones is much much smarter, but completely unnesecesary. The lesson here is that sadly, if your box is not assembled properly, there isn't any amount of peripherals that you can buy that will keep it from eventually dying prematurely.
If I hadn't had the warrenty I'd spend all day on the phone calling M$ until they agreed to fix my Xbox for free. jwhazel, you're right when you get that replacement you need to buy a new plan for another 50$ (for 2 years, less for 1 year). Well from what it sounds like, the intercooler is useless. I'd say I'm convinced that my 360 probably had bad solder joints like you said and it was just a matter of time before it got this way. I'll look through the paperwork in the box about getting an extended warrenty from Microsoft. I do have to say I'd be alot less motivated to replace the 360 a second time. Once, I can deal with that. Again would just be ridiculus. And like I said, even if I hadn't had the repacement plan I wanted to get my Xbox 360 fixed or replaced even if it cost 140$. Once isn't bad, but if the replacement dies, I won't be happy at all.
As a cautionary measure, leave some space around the system if you haven't already and don't put it on top of other systems or devices that get warm. Well ventilated systems are longer living systems I'm sure you already do all that though.
Aren't the 360's manufactured in Mexico like the old Xbox? It seems like the old Xbox had bad solder points too, remember the power cord fiasco? Maybe all the solder guns are broken or something lol.
Taucias, indeed my 360 sits by itself with about 8 inches of space behind it. It sits up on a wooden plank of sorts. So it's in a pretty optimal position. The power brick likewise is in a nice spot somewhat elevated and actually suspended in the air. Fancy way for saying it's on a plastic crate. Xbox 360 is made in China. I don't believe any are made in mexico.
The current 360 batches are all being made in China through 3 main subcontractors: Wistron, Flextronics, Celestica and more recently, Chartered. Mexico and Hungary have not been involved in Xbox manufacturing since the midway through the original Xbox's lifecycle.
my 360 just died too, with not even 100hrs of use logged on it.. (but well outside of warrantee) .. but i had someone at OXM call M$, and now i got a working one (ps: don't try calling OXM, they can't do this trick for readers; i'm their IT dude)
Motorstorm is killing them XD Poor ventilation probably as Ive had no freezing issues. But yeah the EB guy said that it keeps crashing and the target one was DOA too.
