Red Rings on my Xbox 360..

[corruptrelic]

I was just playing fine last night, no problems at all.
And then today when I get home I went to load up Saints Row, and all the red lights came on in the circle.
Actually all lights are blinking red, except the top right one which is a very light red.. but it's still red.

I tried all the connections, pulled the power plug out and put it back in, everything is connected right.
And now it wont even let me open up the dvd drive!!

My 360 was manufactured in april of 06.. so it's only 5 months old. Damn I thought I'd get more play time out of it than this! And even worse I just got my HDTV yesterday, gamed on it for about 2 hours, went to work for the night, and came back to this..

Just when you think your 360 is indestructible, the evil red lights hit you too. 

[Arkon]

If your power supply is connected to a surge protector, disconnect it, let your powersupply sit disconnected from both the xbox and the outlet for a few minutes, then plug straight in to a wall outlet and try the 360 again.  My very first xbox did something similar and had all 4 lights blinking together and it ended up being the power supply.

[corruptrelic]

Thanks Arkon, tried that but to no avail unfortunately.
It looks like its 3 lights blinking red, all of them except the top right corner one. When I hit the power button my power brick stays yellow (though it blinks red when I turn it on) so it very well may be the power supply.

I was fortunate last time my 360 gave me problems - brought it back to target (within 30 days) and walked out with a new one.

Finally having my HDTV as of yesterday, I now know how the rest of you guys feel who've had to send your 360's in for repair..

Any other suggestions before I have to call MS?

[Misguided]

Yeah, that's frustrating...one second it works, one second it doesn't.

Maybe your FLGS has a power cord on a used one you could plug in and see if that's the problem?

[Destructor]

There was a site that allowed you to get a more definite answer as to why the 360 was Red Ringing, but I don't know where the link went offhand. But it would allow you to find out why the 360 stopped working (or at least why it thinks it stopped working).

*digs around for a second*

According to this site the 4 red rings of death means that your AV cable is bad and/or can't be detected.

If it's just 3 rings (NW, SW, and SE), then it's the general failure error (and the red light is just leaking to the NE corner, which is why you see it really light), and the link I gave you might give you a more specific reason as to why your console died. Give it a try and see what it says. Look for the section of the post called Secondary Error Codes.

[EngineNo9]

Man, what crappy timing!  Sorry to hear it, corrupt.  Hopefully something from that thread can help you out. 

[papasmurff]

I have a suggestion.  When I called in to microsoft with mine this week, the tech guy had me get a code.  The flashing lights will change and that is how you get the code.  Follow the steps below to make the lights change.

1.  Hold the connect button, lights might change here, I don't remember
2.  Hold the eject button
3.  Release the eject button, but continue holding the connect button
4.  Hold the eject button

Each time the lights change, write down the number of lights.  You should get a four digit code.  Then call and talk with tech and tell them that you did that and that was the code you got.  If you are doing this, and the lights don't change, it is that number again.  I.E. 2 flashing lights, you let go of eject and hold again and nothing happens after a few seconds, it is 2 again.  Originally, they thought that it was my Hard Drive, but after doing that they knew it was the video encoder.

Anyone try this.......hopefully you don't need it but I hope that it helps

Let me know if you have any questions, like I said, I went through this on Thursday!
Is it giving you an error code on screen?  It never hurts to google that code.

[The Rocketman]

Mine died as well this weekend. I had it since may...

My nintendo 8bit still works, but this piece of crap... 

I still have a warranty though, in Belgium almost all consumer products have a minimum 2 year warranty, so that's something I guess.

[SjN]

Ahhhhh....RRoD (Red Rings of Death)

Got good news and bad news....

The bad news? Your 360 is toast.
The good news? Microsoft will fully compensate you and repair it at no cost to you. Heck, they'll even ship you a box to mail it back to them all stamped and everything. Seems like Microsoft has egg on their faces...

Head on over to microsoft for more details:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/907534

IGN did a pretty good write up on the dreaded symptom as well:
http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/734/734126p1.html

Best of luck to ya.
--SjN

[Destructor]

Ahhhhh....RRoD (Red Rings of Death)

Got good news and bad news....

The bad news? Your 360 is toast.
The good news? Microsoft will fully compensate you and repair it at no cost to you. Heck, they'll even ship you a box to mail it back to them all stamped and everything. Seems like Microsoft has egg on their faces...

That's good news? The bad news of the good news is that Microsoft has gotten ass cheap when it comes to shipping - it used to be 2 days, now it's a week (at best). Expect a 3 week turnaround when you go the Microsoft route.

[SjN]

Ahhhhh....RRoD (Red Rings of Death)

Got good news and bad news....

The bad news? Your 360 is toast.
The good news? Microsoft will fully compensate you and repair it at no cost to you. Heck, they'll even ship you a box to mail it back to them all stamped and everything. Seems like Microsoft has egg on their faces...

That's good news? The bad news of the good news is that Microsoft has gotten ass cheap when it comes to shipping - it used to be 2 days, now it's a week (at best). Expect a 3 week turnaround when you go the Microsoft route.

Well, I guess "not-so-bad news" is a better word for it!! Either way, at least MS is correcting their screw up at no cost to you (other than time). Guys that I know are renting 360s from places like block buster, throwing their HDDs on them and gaming away. Others are catching up on the latest PS2, PSP & DS titles.

While it sucks big time, there are ways to survive the dreaded RRoD.

--SjN

[Kevin Grey]

No, the really bad news is that it seems like your chance of 360 failure goes up after you've done an MS exchange.  Arkon's isn't the only tale of woe I've seen with people with multiple 360 failures. 

[papasmurff]

ya, I know of several people who have had systems come back from MS and they are DOA or are paper weights by the end of a week.  Jarrodhk is on his 3rd system from MS.

[Ralph-Wiggum]

Someone should start a website that tracks 360 serial numbers. Whenever someone sends their 360 in for a replacement, they can enter in their serial number. Eventually you might be able to see if the 360s you recieve back were someone else's broken console.

[papasmurff]

Not a bad Idea!  I have heard that this is mainly an issue with launch systems.  It seems like most of our lauch systems have already crashed and burned, so it would be harder to get those numbers on there unless there is another issue with them in the future.  I definitely like that thought.   

[USMC Kato]

I am now a proud member of the Red Rings XBOX support group. 

I reported it to microsoft last Monday and I shipped it off to them this morning in their pre-paid UPS box. 

I've only had the 360 for only 42 days.  How can you find out when the xbox 360 was manufactured?

[coopasonic]

Manufacture date is on the sticker on the back with the serial number.

[Destructor]

ya, I know of several people who have had systems come back from MS and they are DOA or are paper weights by the end of a week.  Jarrodhk is on his 3rd system from MS.

*raises hand*

I got another DOA console the first time mine went dead, so I'm on my 3rd system technically as well.

[Arkon]

Let me just say I am " " this close to tossing this one and buying one from costco.

[corruptrelic]

That's close to what I did, just sent my 360 back to MS yesterday and now I'm playing the waiting game. Not having that much patience I went to Kobra's favorite store (gamestop) and bought a new 360 along with their 2 year warranty, so now I'm going to have two 360s.
Only reason I went there and not walmart was because I had about 30 old ps2 games I didn't care for and traded them in with their extra $10 credits, so it didn't hit the wallet too bad.

MS also said on the phone that if something happens to my 2nd 360 (the one they're sending back to me) that they would send a new one the second time, although looking at some other posts I'm not sure if that's true or not.

Costco seems like a good idea though think someone mentioned they had a lifetime warranty? You cant go wrong there if you can just walk in any day with your dead 360 and walk out with a brand new one.

Looks like now I'm going to have two 360s.. though I'll probably put the one MS sends back to me on Ebay and buy a couple games and maybe the network adapter with the money I get.

[jament]

I wish I had the cash to do that.  I just sent mine back to MS yesterday, so we'll see how long the wait is and if I actually get a working unit back.  You'd think that MS would be stomping all over that shitty repair center in Texas for doing such a terrible job fixing the units.  It seems pretty clear that the incidence of people getting DOA units on the 2nd or 3rd attempt is pretty high.

Ugh.

[papasmurff]

MS also said on the phone that if something happens to my 2nd 360 (the one they're sending back to me) that they would send a new one the second time, although looking at some other posts I'm not sure if that's true or not.

What anyone should do before they hanging up with MS if they say that is make them put it in writing in your account and have them email you that comment as well as the reference number to that conversation.

[Misguided]

ya, I know of several people who have had systems come back from MS and they are DOA or are paper weights by the end of a week.  Jarrodhk is on his 3rd system from MS.

*raises hand*

I got another DOA console the first time mine went dead, so I'm on my 3rd system technically as well.

Ditto...though my first replacement lasted a week. Second one has been great, but then, so was my initial system for 5 months.

[Kobra]

I was just playing fine last night, no problems at all.
And then today when I get home I went to load up Saints Row, and all the red lights came on in the circle.
Actually all lights are blinking red, except the top right one which is a very light red.. but it's still red.

I tried all the connections, pulled the power plug out and put it back in, everything is connected right.
And now it wont even let me open up the dvd drive!!

My 360 was manufactured in april of 06.. so it's only 5 months old. Damn I thought I'd get more play time out of it than this! And even worse I just got my HDTV yesterday, gamed on it for about 2 hours, went to work for the night, and came back to this..

Just when you think your 360 is indestructible, the evil red lights hit you too. 

Its dead Jim.

Just return it to Costco!   

[happydog]

Just when you think your 360 is indestructible, the evil red lights hit you too. 

Son of a BITCH! 

Day one purchase that never gave me any problems. Been playing off and on the last couple weeks, and heavily (Dead Rising) the few weeks before that. Go pick up Saints Row tonight, 3 RRoD!

[papasmurff]

Yup.  ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST  .  Sucks ass as several of us have learned.

RRoD strike yet again.

[happydog]

So what is the deal with the hard drive when you send in your box? Do I have to send 'everything', or just the console itself? If I do have to send the HD is it best to assume I won't get the same one back, or a blank one?

[Destructor]

So what is the deal with the hard drive when you send in your box? Do I have to send 'everything', or just the console itself? If I do have to send the HD is it best to assume I won't get the same one back, or a blank one?

Do not send back the HD unless Microsoft absolutely demands it (which they won't). You won't get the same one back. Odds are it's just the console that's fubar anyway.

[coopasonic]

So what is the deal with the hard drive when you send in your box? Do I have to send 'everything', or just the console itself? If I do have to send the HD is it best to assume I won't get the same one back, or a blank one?

Do not send back the HD unless Microsoft absolutely demands it (which they won't). You won't get the same one back. Odds are it's just the console that's fubar anyway.

I even kept my faceplate... now I have a spare in case uhh.. well... I have a spare!

[corruptrelic]

Do not send back the HD unless Microsoft absolutely demands it (which they won't). You won't get the same one back. Odds are it's just the console that's fubar anyway.

Shit I didn't even give that a second thought when I sent it.
Guess it's no big deal though as I only had a PDZ game save on there, started it over with my new 360 anyway.

[Jancelot]

* sigh *

When I used up my BB warranty back in August, the BB monkey told me erroneously that I could go back and get an extended warranty at  later time.  I have no warranty whatsoever at this point.  Great.  I'm going to try the troubleshooting tips, but I'll be getting a Costco membership if this thing is borked.  I need to check the manufacture date, too.