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The Olsen Saga – Part VII – RROD

I feel like Frank Herbert or something… after the first triology becomes two trilogies, and we think it’s all finished, I have to suddenly write another trilogy.

I came home from work today at around 8:00pm and turned on my new improved Olsen so I could pipe some MP3s over my wireless to play through my 360 connected to my sweet home theatre. Alas… RRRRRRRRROD!. Sure enough, Red Ring of Death, and my heart is filled with sorrow.

So I open the relevant support page on XBox dotcom and confirm the issue.

  • 3 flashing red lights – CHECK
  • powersupply light is steady green – CHECK
  • turn it off, wait for 10 seconds, try again – same result? CHECK

He’s dead.

Well, this saga begins very much the same way the last saga did (ironically both of them started in the same time frame – right around GDC – I wonder if there’s a correlation there?). I phoned 1-800-4MY-XBOX at 21:20, March 3, 2008.

I spoke with the automaton ‘Max’ who had me in a Support call queue by 21:22.

I was on hold for about seven minutes until Jarred answered at 21:27

I explained the problem, confirmed my contact info, gave him my serial number, and had him politely remind me that although my original coverage had expired, due to Microsoft’s generous extension of the warranty, I was still covered under the new 3 year plan.

I explained the steps I had followed to troubleshoot already, and Jarred put me on hold for another 3 minutes until 21:30. Then he came back on and told me (surprise) that I had a hardware failure and would need to send the box in for repair.

A shipping container like this one should arrive from Purolator (probably tomorrow or Wednesday if what happened last time is any indication) and then I can pack up poor Olsen and ship him off.

I have my handy reference number and they say it will two to three weeks. Let’s hope they fare better than last time.

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3 responses to “The Olsen Saga – Part VII – RROD”

  1. madsax Avatar
    madsax

    Wow, good timing. My Xbox Fred also has given up the ghost, and it happened during GDC. I’m not sure what his deal is though, his RROD is sporadic and doesn’t occur at boot most of the time; instead he waits until you are in a game, or sometimes just until the boot screen comes up. So hmm. Sigh.

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  2. Manveer Heir Avatar
    Manveer Heir

    Does anyone have an original Xbox 360 that still works? I got one on day 1 direct from MS and it still magically works (I just jinxed it didn’t I?). Now, I don’t play nearly as much 360 as many people, but I play a good amount. I’ve logged way too many hours in Guitar Hero II and III, beaten Assassin’s Creed (including collecting all the flags), Halo 3, Gears of War… playing Mass Effect now.
    I’m seriously scared to turn the thing on now, hearing everyone’s horror stories. I wish I could just get a new one, with the HDMI ports and all that fun stuff, and not have to worry that my 360 is going to bite the dust one day.
    Funny thing is, my PS3 was DOA (Blu-ray slot didn’t want to accept discs).

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  3. Nat Avatar
    Nat

    I have an original 360 that still works. My theory on the RROD (which I think I read confirmed on some site) is that for whatever problems it has, it just overheats. Naturally if you play it for a long time, you increase its heat exposure. If it routinely overheats, the GPU or other hardware can get warped at which point you need to mail it in. I’ve gotten a RROD on my devkit at work several times but I found that a $10 clamp fan pointed right at it keeps it cool and RROD-free. If you RROD, turn it off, wait for 10 seconds, try again, in my scenario it’s definitely going to RROD again. Let that sucker cool off!

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