Today I turned my XBox 360 on for the first time in three weeks and was greeted by the telltale sign that your 360 has bit the dust: The dreaded Red Ring Of Death!

I got the refurbished unit back in 10 days.  details in the full article

I keep my 360 in an enclosed entertainment center, but I keep the entertainment center door open while using it – otherwise it would overheat after 5-20 minutes of playing. This has been unfortunate as the thing gets LOUD when it heats up during operation. The noise is actually my biggest complaint (well it used to be until the RROD). I received the unit around Christmas 2006; I’m not sure what generation that makes it.

The RROD is covered under XBOX’s recently extended three year warranty. My dealings with 360 customer support (800-4-MY-XBOX have been good so far. Today is the first time I’ve had to call them. I think their support center is in China, but the lady I talked to today was mostly understandable. I am supposed to receive an email in the next 24 hours with instructions on how to package and ship my unit to the repair center. I expect it back in 2-3 weeks, but I will update this post when I get it back in working order.

Looking at the business side of this, I’ve read that this RROD general hardware failure” issue has affected somewhere between 16-30% of the first generation units “wikipedia. As My unit is about 2.5 years old, I have to wonder how much that number is going up as time passes. I believe that manufacturing operations account for 3-5% failure rates, so if its true that 30% of original consoles are having to be repaired, Microsoft must be losing their shirts on this operation.

Update I received shipping instructions and what appears to be a prepaid return label from Microsoft about 2 hours after placing the customer service call

Update 2 8/18/2008 I got a refurbished unit back today. Without any warning, Microsoft sent the unit back via UPS with signature confirmation. It was one of those deals where they won’t leave the package unless someone over 21 is there to sign for it. They’ll attempt delivery 3 times, then wait 5 days, then send the package back to the sender. They also give you the option of having it delivered somewhere else or picking it up from the shipping facility. In all fairness the first delivery attempt was on 8/14 so it was only 10 days from the time I shipped the dead xbox to the time they got a refurbished one back to me – not bad!

As expected I got a same generation XBox – no HDMI. In the few minutes I played with it seemed like it might be a little quieter but will still put out some mega heat.

Do you think I’m spot on or full of poopie? Shout out in the comments!

The Wii seems to be a great compliment to my Xbox 360. My general impression is – lower price, worse graphics, better multiplayer experience.

I am going to start keeping a list of what I love about each console and post it up here.

I personally am still excited about the year-old XBox 360.

It will be interesting to see how these consoles sell during the holidays. The rumor is that if PS3 is not a huge success, Sony is in serious trouble.

UPDATE
At least one reviewer (NY Times) is calling PS3 the loser this year. This is not entirely surprising considering PS3’s high cost and short list of games thus far.