Xbox 360 Repair – “Red Ring o’ Death”

Can video game consoles get jealous? Ironically enough, shortly after my review of video game consoles (which revealed that, at least in our house, the Playstation 2 is still the champ), our Xbox 360 suffered the RED RING OF DEATH:

No, it’s not pretty. Instead of hearing happy Microsoft sounds when you turn on the system, you hear fan noise and see the flickering lights as shown in the YouTube video above.

I’m normally the guy that salesmen really love, because I almost always buy the extended warranty. Four year warranty on our TV?  Yep. Extended warranty on my cars? Check. The few times that I haven’t bought warranties, my product has died days outside of the warranty period, and I’ve kicked myself (however, I tend to draw the line at the extended warranty if the cost is greater than 20% of the value of the item).

In keeping with this practice, shortly after purchasing the Xbox 360 I diligently called up Microsoft and asked about buying an extended warranty. I was told that the warranty starts the day you purchase it, so I’d be better off to wait until my built-in 1 year warranty was close to expiration. Okay, I could handle that. I set a reminder on my calendar for 11.5 months out, and forgot about it.

11.5 months later, the reminder popped up, and I thought to myself, “Hey, the Xbox 360 doesn’t get played a whole lot, and it’s doing fine, so I’ll just skip the warranty this time”.  THREE WEEKS LATER (one week after the warranty expired), my son Ian said, “Daddy, what’s wrong with the game?”  I looked at the unit and, lo!,  beheld the blinking lights of Xbox doom.  Ugh!

I’d heard about the Red Ring of Death before, but foolishly assumed it was something that I could/would avoid.  Internet scanning of “how to keep your Xbox 360 healthy and happy” had taught me that its biggest enemy was heat, so I kept it in a well-ventilated area and even purchased a notebook cooler for it to sit on top of (Antec USB-Powered Notebook Cooler). Couple those precautions with the intermittent play it received, and I STILL had a failure.

I have to give it to Microsoft, though. I called them up to have my unit repaired, fully expecting to have to pay the $140 or so for the repair (this is the price bitterly quoted by various folks on the internet who’d previously been in my shoes). They had me perform some rudimentary troubleshooting–disconnect all cables, reseat them, oh yeah, it’s dead! Then they said that they’ve extended the warranty for all Xbox 360 systems for three years for this particular error, and that my system would be repaired for free! Awesome! They said they’d send me an airbill, and all I had to do was pack it up in my own box, put the label on, and send it in. Downside:  4-6 weeks to repair, but hey, it’s free!

I noticed that the repair center was located in Mesquite, TX, and was pleasantly surprised when, two days after I’d shipped it, I received three notices in email, one right after the other:  1. Shipment received, 2. Unit repaired, 3. Unit processed for shipment back to customer.  That’s right, one day turnaround! Total downtime was only about a week, so Kudos to Microsoft! The unit just came in tonight. I checked it out, and all is fine. It can now return to its second or third place position in the video game hierarchy at our household.

If you have an Xbox 360, a couple of things make me want to give you fair warning.  One, the consensus online seems to be that you WILL experience this failure–it’s just a matter of time. I’m astounded at the sheer number of complaints, hate sites, videos, and other hubbub that exists on the internet about the Red Ring of Death. Google pulls up 1.6 million hits for the phrase! There are Red Ring of Death T-shirts, original songs such as this metal one, this R&B(NSFW lyrics), another metal one, a 99 Luftballoons parody, and this hilarious (although slightly NSFW and yes, slightly tasteless) parody of Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire”:

There are over 4000 videos on YouTube about Red Ring of Death!

Number two reason for fair warning was the UPS delivery experience. When my wife opened the door, the delivery guy said, “Let the games begin!” My wife laughed and signed for the box, but as she looked at the totally non-descript white box it came in, she said to him, “How’d you know it was an Xbox?”  He replied, “Yeah, we deliver a ton of these every day, I recognize the box– it’s the overheating issue, right”?

Hey, that’s the voice of experience speaking right there.

Video Game Consoles

I know, this is a hotly debated topic that is guaranteed to incite fervent commentary from every direction. People LOOOOVE their console of choice, and those who demean it should beware! However, my goal in this post is not to anger anyone, but instead to record some observations I’ve made on the usage of the various video game consoles in our house.

First, I guess I should warn you that I’m a flat-out computer geek and video game nut. I was corrupted early on…ah, the fond memories I have of the video games I played as a youth while accompanying my parents to various stores. In those dark and ancient days (mid- to late-70’s), arcade games were just beginning to appear, and it was with great excitement that I walked through the doors on each of our trips. Who knew what new and exciting game might be there this time! The first games I can remember playing were Pong, Asteroids, Gorf, and Space Invaders. Gorf was especially fun because it was the first game that I can recall that actually spoke…it would taunt the player with awesome laughs and insults ala “Ha ha ha, space cadet, long live Gorf”. Here’s a sample of Gorf gameplay (the taunting is towards the end of the clip):

I know, super-exciting, right?  Nowadays it’s hopelessly crude, but at the time it was the height of technology. These arcade games were my gateway drug to the insidious Atari 2600, with its hideous pixellated graphics that, on the surface, made you think, “ugh!”, but which concealed terribly addicting games that wrung every last bit out of their players. Atari 2600 games were easy to learn, but hard to master, and the replay value of each game was fantastic. Well, almost every game. You shouldn’t count such polished turds as the E.T. Atari 2600 title, which was so incredibly awful that Atari wound up burying MILLIONS of them in a landfill.  It’s true, I Snopesed it!

The Atari 2600 led me to the computer world of the Commodore Vic 20, which led to the Commodore 64, 128 and Amiga, and eventually to the PC. All of this computer knowledge set the stage for my current career in the computer industry, which I suppose was inevitable. One important lesson I learned early on is that one must remain hydrated and nourished in order to continue electronic activities. I failed to adhere to this simple rule and, in my 8th grade summer, spent a week in the hospital suffering from severe dehydration (I was found passed out over my computer, a Commodore Vic 20). When I awoke in the hospital, the computer was the first thing I asked for.

As the years passed, I played and/or owned just about every video game system that came out: Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, Nintendo 64, Jaguar, Dreamcast, Playstation One, Playstation 2, Xbox, Gamecube, Nintendo Gameboy, Nintendo DS and recently, Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. I still love and play video games constantly, but now that I have three sons that are carrying on my video game playing tradition, I’ve watched with some interest the games that they find interesting vs the ones that they play once and never touch again.

Right now, the game system that gets the greatest kid workout in our house is our Playstation 2. My 4 year old, Ian, LOVES the games on this console. He constantly plays over and over again the various Ratchet and Clank titles, the Jak and Daxter games, and the Sphinx platforming title. He literally cannot get enough of those games. When we bought the PS3 (with its new HD version of Ratchet and Clank) I was sure that he would be wowed by the awesome graphics and insist on only playing the PS3 from then on, but he very quickly reverted to the PS2. The newer Ratchet and Clank looks nice, but is much more sophisticated and whiz-bang. The older Ratchet and Clank games are like those early Atari 2600 games: easy to learn, hard to master, but reliable and good and fun to play. The PS3 hardly gets turned on, now, since it has such an incredible dearth of good games. It’s a shame because it’s such a powerful console, but the truth is that good games (and solid gameplay) are what its all about.

The Xbox 360 is in a similar boat, although they have recently started releasing more kid-friendly titles. One game that has recently earned the Ian stamp of approval is The Maw. It’s a very cute game which requires the player to escort a humorous, ravenous blob of gelatin around an alien planet while solving various puzzles. This was a downloadable, fairly inexpensive game in the Xbox online store, and I highly recommend it.

You’d think the Wii would be turned on nonstop, but it actually sees comparatively little use. At least at this point in our gaming experience, the Wii seems a bit more gimmicky, or oriented more towards groups of people than to individual gameplayers. The exception to this is Wario Ware: Smooth Moves. This game is fast paced, challenging, and keeps the interest level up. It’s good for groups or for individuals. The only downside is that group play is not enabled until you beat the whole game in single player mode…somewhat of a bummer for the casual player.

So, out of all these high-priced consoles, the “cheap” $99 PS2 gets the most love. I firmly believe that it’s because of the games. The Playstation 2 has been around for 9 years, and they are still making games for it. Some of the design houses have the game-making formula down and can keep churning out good games, while others have been wowed by glitz/flash/HD scenery, and have forgotten that it all boils down to how addictive a game is to play. Hopefully they will wisen up and we’ll soon see a slew of beautiful, HD-rendered games that stimulate both the eyes AND the brain.

To DVD, or not to DVD?

I recently became the proud owner of a 2008 Toyota FJ Cruiser, and I’ve loved every minute of driving it. It’s agile and nimble on the streets, has plenty of horsepower, fits easily into just about any parking space, and gets surprisingly decent gas mileage (I’m getting 18 to 20 MPG so far).  The seats are waterproof, and the flooring is all-weather rubber mats, so I don’t have to worry about mud or stains, and can literally use a water hose to clean out the inside of the car (no joke!).

My daily commute is less than four miles one way, so I’m not really in it for that long each day, but on weekends I like using it to run around town with my three sons.  The novelty of being in the new car is sufficient to keep them absorbed for in-town jaunts; we can crank up the stereo, roll the windows down, and let the wind blow through our (well, the kids, at least) hair.  Funny thing about kids and car stereos…don’t they have a saying along the lines of “if it’s too loud, you’re too old”?  My kids are always telling ME to turn down the stereo, which I do, but I’m anxious for the day when they are the ones that push the volume envelope.

In the interim, I’m wondering what we’ll do when (if) we take the FJ on one of our Arkansas trips. Taking the FJ to Arkansas will allow us to go 4×4ing in the river bottoms—something we could never consider with our other car, a Honda Odyssey (although my wife took the Odyssey in places it probably shouldn’t have gone on one our trips…thankfully it made it back out again, and in one piece). However, the Odyssey undoubtedly has several advantages over the FJ for long road trips. One, it has a great deal more room. Three rows of seating allow the boys to be seated far enough apart so that we are at least moderately sane by the time we’ve arrived.  Another mitigating factor is the presence of the Honda Rear Entertainment System (i.e. DVD player). Honda’s system is great—it’s a 9” drop-down LCD screen hooked up to a DVD player in the front console.  You can choose to play DVD audio over the car’s speaker system, or kids can use the two sets of wireless headphones to listen to their movie while the parents listen to the radio.  On super long trips (such as the 12 hour trips we make to Arkansas) a DVD system is a life saver. The younger kids get a chance to take a break from the monotony of staring out the window, while the older kid gets to read his books or listen to MP3s or, should he choose, plug his headphones into the audio out jack in the back of the car and also watch/listen to the movie.

Toyota didn’t offer any factory DVD system, but the dealer had an aftermarket DVD headrest solution that they wanted $2000 for. That’s a hefty chunk of change for a couple of LCD screens and a DVD player, so I passed. I knew I could find something just as good for far less money. Since on long trips the kids will all be crammed into one backseat for an extended duration, I want something that can divert their attention from one another, and am thinking that getting my own aftermarket DVD player is the way to go.

My first consideration was whether to go with a ceiling-mounted drop-down screen, or a headrest solution. Drop down screens tend to be larger, install fairly easily, and are competitively priced ($500 and up). However, the drop-down screen can easily interfere with your rear view mirror, and given the rather limited rear-window space in the FJ Cruiser (one notable “meh” spot in the FJs otherwise sweet portfolio of characteristics), I decided I’d rather pursue the headrest option.

Headrest LCD Screens/DVD players come with a variety of options. Some just strap right onto the headrests, but the downside of this is that you have lots of visible wires running everywhere, and you have to decide whether you’re going to pack the screens up each time you stop or leave the very obvious configuration sitting in plain view for the world (and potential thieves) to see. Some car stereo places will take LCD screens and actually cut out slots in your existing headrests, custom-fitting the screens into place. This also usually involves them reupholstering your headrests, and after labor and materials you are once again into multiple thousands of dollars. Add to that the fact that, unless ventilated properly, these custom setups can overheat, and you have a scenario I’d rather avoid.

Precisely because of these dilemmas, manufacturers have started offering replacement headrests with screens already built into them.  These seem to be a really sweet solution—you simply take out your existing headrests (everyone’s done that at least once , haven’t they? Or I bet your kids have) by pushing the button and lifting them all the way up, drop in the new ones, and you’re ready to go!  Well, perhaps there’s a bit more to it than that…you have to thread wires down the post holes, out the bottom of your seat, and connect them into your vehicle power system. But really, it’s not that difficult (or so it seems, from what I’m reading).

I’ve narrowed my choices down to the following setups. In the next couple of weeks I’ll choose one of these and give a review on it, and will also detail the steps I had to take to install it into my car.  Here are the units I’m considering: