DanO vs XBox 360 and 3 Red Lights Part 2

Well, it finally happened - a couple of in-game lock-ups followed by three red lights that just won't go away. As I mentioned before, Microsoft have extended the warranty for the Red Ring of Death to three years, so even though the standard warranty is over, registering the console with Microsoft (via www.xbox.com) still allowed me to request a repair.



Sending back the XBox

Depending on where you live and how old your XBox is one of three things will now happen, either:

A: You'll receive the return packaging from Microsoft.
B: Microsoft will post you the UPS packaging slip.
C: You'll be emailed the link to a UPS Packaging Slip and a delivery receipt.

In my case I received the link to download the prepaid packaging slips. Once you've printed them out you'll need to find a box big enough to hold the XBox (don't use the original XBox packaging as it won't be returned) and something to keep it securely in place.

When you've packaged it up neatly (and remembered to write your name and the customer service request ID on the outside of the box) it is time to phone UPS and arrange a time for them to pick it up, or to be more exact a day that they can collect it as they refuse to be narrowed down to a time, and they won't collect on a weekend.

You can track the package at the UPS website. From the UK it takes around two days for the package to make its way to the repair center at Frankfurt.

As well as checking the UPS tracking status, you can also check the repair status with Microsoft, again via the XBox Live website. A word of warning to the impatient (like me): there is likely to be a delay from when UPS delivers the parcel and the status changing from "Waiting for device" to "Device received". In my case it took a worrying 20 hours. I'm guessing it depends on just how busy they are.

Of course, you don't have to keep checking as Microsoft will email you once the status changes.



The next email should be when the repair has (hopefully) been completed.

A couple of days later. . .

After checking the repair status today I found that my repair status had changed from "Device Received at Service Center" to "No pending repair". . .

What!?!??

As I haven't had an email to state that the console had been repaired or replaced this is more than a bit worrying.

I decided to contact Microsoft's customer support (0800 587 1102) and see what had happened.

After negotiating their phone system and finding out that the voice recognition system isn't keen on a Northern accent ("Check status. . . I'm sorry, I didn't understand that. Check Status!. . . I'm sorry, I didn't understand that. CHECK STATUS!!!") I was transferred through to a customer support agent.

Apparently my 360 has been replaced and is being shipped back to me as we speak - along with a one month gold card for XBox Live. Hopefully I should get an email and tracking number later on today - and all being even the console before the weekend.

I'd also like to mention that the customer service guy was extremely helpful and very thorough in dealing with my request - so full marks to Microsoft there.

Later that afternoon. . .

Still no email from Microsoft, but the repair status has now changed to "Device shipped to customer - Your console has been repaired or replaced. We are shipping it back to you," and there is a tracking number for UPS too.

Something else has changed too. The console has gone from being "out of warranty" to "in warranty". It is back under full warranty until June of this year.

A couple of days later. . .

UPS came to visit today, "Hi, here's your XBox." Yes!!!

So I've finally got my 360 back! Well, not my original 360 but a refurbished one. How can you tell that it is a refurb? Look at the tag on the back of the console. A console that has never been repaired should have a "manufactured date" on it. A refurb has a "serviced date" instead.

Also, the documentation that comes back with the console states that the console is a refurbished one, and that it has a different serial number to the original one - although all warranty / registration details will be automatically updated for me.

So how long did it take? From being collected by UPS on a Tuesday afternoon, I received the replacement back the following Thursday. Nine days isn't a bad turnaround in my opinion.

I've quickly tested the console out - and so far, so good. It actually sounds less like a washing machine on the spin cycle than the original 360 did, and has played the games I tried it on without any problems.

So is it worth sending your 360 back, I'll say a resounding YES to that. For Gods sake if you have any warranty left send it back before trying to mess around with the "alternative" methods.

The benefits of sending it back?

1 - You get a properly repaired 360.

2 - You get an additional three months of warranty on the repaired / replaced machine (longer if your machine was still under the regular warranty).

3 - You get one month's XBox Live Gold subscription as a "sorry" from Microsoft.

It certainly looks like Microsoft are starting to get their act together when it comes to dealing with customer issues, although there are some things to look out for.

Don't take their word for it about getting confirmation emails. Although I got the one to say that they'd received the console - that was it. I had to check to website to see how things were progressing (and eventually phone customer services).

The customer services phone system stinks, but once I'd got through to him the customer services guy was pretty good.

Overall - not a bad experience, although not without its problems.

Update: I've just received an email from Microsoft telling me that my XBox 360 has been shipped and should be with me within the week, the same XBox that arrived yesterday. . .

One of the things in the email was that all licenses should be automatically transferred from the old console to the new one, this would enable me to use my paid-for content when not online. All I should need to do would be to re-download the content. Unfortunately it didn't work.

There are a couple of things you can do at this point. One is phone customer support, another is to use the license transfer tool on XBox Live. Using it is actually quite simple. When you run it for the first time you are shown how many xboxes have your content is assigned to, all licenses are transferred to your live account, then when you log onto your live account from your xbox all licenses are transferred back.

After I'd run though this I redownloaded Space Giraffe, logged out of live and was still able to play the full version of the game.

The Pros and Cons of second hand software

Regular readers may have already read about my newly resurrected XBox 360. Having a console (for free) is A Good Thing, but having something to play on it is even better.

The Xbox 360 can allegedly play some XBox games. Some, but not all. Unfortunately for me, you need to have at least the 20gig hard drive for this to work, and all I have is a 256meg memory card.

Also, just to make life that bit more fun, I didn't have a controller either. My USB keyboard works the 360 Dashboard, but does sod all in games. Something I've got to say about the 360 is this - the controllers for it are bloody expensive, even second hand. After a bit of shoping around I managed to snag a wired controller for it for £15 (a wireless one would have been around £25).

As for cheap games, there are a couple of places that you can get cheap software. Aside from your friendly neighbourhood back-street games shop, there are a couple of places on the highstreet that specialise in second hand stuff.

Game (formerly Electronic Boutique) sells a mix of new and second hand gear. This was my first stop to get something to test my 360 with. After a brief hunt I walked away with a copy of Blue Dragon for £4.

As it turns out the game is, essentially, Final Fantasy 7 with Dragonball Z artwork. Spread over three DVDs it is a really nice, well paced little RPG, I'm actually surprised at just how good it is.

Of course, one game is never enough, so for our next jaunt I headed over to CeX. A bit unusual this lot, as all of their stock is second hand. You can also drop in your old DVDs, consoles or games and either get back cash, or use them against purchases in store (you get back more for your stuff this way).

I came out with Project Gotham 3 for a fiver, and the XBox 360 Live Arcade compilation for £4. Sadly Project Gotham 3 didn't work, but the Live Arcade disk did, and apart from me playing Uno into the small we hours on XBox Live, the rest of the family were hooked to Boom Boom Rocket.

Trying to return Project Gotham was a bit, well, strange. I still had the receipt for the game so I didn't forsee any difficulties in sending it back. As it turns out the game was physically damaged, and after a fair bit of muttering, huddled employees examining the game disk and "are you SURE you bought it from us?" they replaced the game. I've not had the chance to play it yet (hopefully later on tonight) so fingers crossed.

Looking closely at the game that I've now got in my grubby hands, I've actually ended up with Project Gotham 4 in a Project Gotham 3 box. As this retails for £12 then I'm quids in - assuming that it actually plays!

I also traded in some of my old DVD box sets and used the money to buy a 20 Gig hard drive for the 360 for £35. As with Project Gotham I'll be testing that later on tonight, once I get chance to get onto the 360.

(Later)

It looks like my luck has held out - both Project Gotham 4 and the hard drive work perfectly. So, yay for that!

XBox 360 Controller on Ubuntu 8.10

Seeing as I've now got an XBox 360 which uses a USB controller, I thought I'd give it a shot on Linux (or on Ubuntu to be exact).

Most devices these days are plug-and-play in Linux, and this controller is no exception - but. . .

It detects it as a mouse! The left stick causes the mouse pointer to move, which is less than helpful for playing games.

However, help is at hand. To get the gamepad working, open a command window and enter the following:

xinput list

This should give you a list that contains the XBox controller details:

"Microsoft X-Box 360 pad" id=5 [XExtensionPointer]
Num_buttons is 32
Num_axes is 2
Mode is Absolute
Motion_buffer is 256
Axis 0 :
Min_value is -32768
Max_value is 32767
Resolution is 10000
Axis 1 :
Min_value is -32768
Max_value is 32767
Resolution is 10000

Type the following, replacing [device] with the device ID provided above (in our example 5):

sudo xinput set-int-prop [device] 'Device Enabled' 32 0

And that's it, at least until you reboot.

Update: For those of you on 9.04, good news! The controller works properly without any additional configuration. Nice one!

DanO vs XBox 360 and 3 Red Lights

I've just been given a "broken" XBox 360. Basically I've been told "if you can fix it, you can have it." As my future brother-in-law has already bought a replacement this was a nice challenge.

Update: Before we go any further with this there is something worth mentioning. Microsoft have extended the warranty on ALL XBox 360s to three years for this problem (and this problem only), so if your XBox 360 is less than three years old and you have the Red Ring of Death then call Microsoft for a replacement first. Read more about this in part 2.

Powering the console on gives 3 Red Lights, otherwise known as The Red Ring of Death (or to be more exact a general hardware failure).



There are a lot of rumours going around on the causes and fixes to the Red Ring of Death, so this looked like a good opportunity to maybe put the myths to bed.

Apparently the "R.R.O.D." can be caused by the soldered connections cracking on the GPU. This can be fixed by re-soldering the GPU (if you can get hold of a micro-solder kit), replacing the X-Clamp that holds the GPU in place with one that gives a tighter fit, or by "baking" the console.

Now, I've already sent off for a replacement X-Clamp (courtesy of EBay), but in the meantime I've been having a bit of a read-up on how the repair takes place.

According to popular rumour, the baking method goes something like this:

Step 1: Remove the hard drive, video cable, memory cards, in fact everything but the power supply from the XBox.

Step 2: Power on and wait for the three lights (making sure the XBox is lying flat).

Step 3: Taking three large DRY bath towels, wrap the XBox up completely, and leave for around 25 minutes.

Step 4: Unwrap the XBox which should still be showing three red lights and power it off.

Step 5: Wait for the XBox to cool completely (30-60 minutes) and power back on.

The theory goes that this causes the XBox to get so hot that the solder melts fixing any cracked joints.

Seeing as the XBox hasn't cost me anything, I'm going to try the "baking" method.

. . .

So after following the above instructions I powered the XBox back on and. . .

Still three red lights.

Just in case it hadn't been hot enough I re-wrapped it again, making sure it was nice and snug, and this time. . .

SUCCESS!!!

One working XBox! At least it was for around three minutes before it locked up. At this point I turned it off for another half-an-hour to make sure that it had cooled completely, and then tried playing a game - after half-an-hour of playing Dead or Alive 4 it was still working perfectly.

Nice one!

It is worth mentioning a couple of things at this point. One, if you choose to do this you do so at your own risk. Two, keep an eye on the XBox, as a house fire isn't fun for anyone concerned. Three, if you have a warranty on your XBox, then for Gods sake use that rather than messing around with alternative methods.

Also, this isn't necessarily a permanent fix. According to some people they have to do this every week or so.

And - just in case you do want to try this yourself. . .

The Towel Fix



NOTE: No, that isn't me in the video. Just so you know.

Another alternative fix - The Penny Fix



And, of course, the X-Clamp fix



Update 2 - Four days later. . .

So, the big question is "Is the XBox still working?"

All went swimmingly for a day or two, right up to the point that I tried to sign up for XBox Live. Half way through the sign-up process the XBox froze. Powering off and back on again brought me back to the three red lights.

Aaaaargh!

One more go with the towels (wrapped up for 30 minutes this time) and I had a working XBox 360 again. One the XBox had cooled I went back and signed up for XBox Live, downloaded a couple of demo games, watched some movie trailers, played a couple of DVDs, set up a UPnP server on my PC, watched a couple of episodes of Family Guy, and basically messed around for a couple of hours whilst waiting for the inevitable return of the red lights.

Not one lock-up.

On Monday I bought Blue Dragon (which I highly recommend to any Final Fantasy fans out there) which, in common with most RPGs shows the game play time on the saves. To date I've had over nine hours of game play with no lock-ups or other problems.

So does that mean that this time the fix is permanent? Who knows, although probably not. Since it turns out that this XBox is still covered by Microsoft's extended warranty for the Red Light problem it will be winging its way back to them should the issue re-occur.

Update 3: 1 week after the "towel fix"

Strange but true - the XBox 360 is still going. I did have one moment of "aaaargh" when the power cable got knocked partly out, followed by the familiar three red lights, but powering off and back on again with the cable securely in place did the trick.

The system has coped with what I'd call normal usage for a console (around three hours usage a night) without any problems.

In a fit of purest optimism I've bought another couple of games, and more importantly a 20 gig hard drive, so hopefully I'll be able to play some of my old XBox games on it too.

I'll be posting some more on my first impressions of the 360 in a different post, so stay tuned.

Update - Around three weeks since the last "towel fix"

The RROD has come back, so this time I'll be sending it back under warranty rather than messing around. Want to know how this went?

Read on in Part 2