Annual vacation Xbox crash

One year ago, as my family began our spring break vacation, my son and I were looking forward to a week of relaxation and video gaming. Then, on the first day, I got the Three Rings of Death.

Knowing that our vacation would pass with no Xbox, my beautiful and thoughtful wife surprised us by buying us a new Xbox. We sent the Red Ring box off to be fixed, and when it was returned, I gave it to my brother jRySix for his birthday. Everyone was happy.

Now, one year later, on the first day of this year's spring break, our black Xbox 360 Elite has gone belly-up, too! Is Microsoft determined to sabotage my spring vacation? To say I am outraged is a thunderous understatement.

We turned the 360 off for a while to watch a movie yesterday, and when we turned it back on a few hours later, the red light in the 5 o'clock quadrant was flashing, and we got this error message: E 73. After some Googling, I found that this indicates a hardware problem with the Ethernet port. WTF? I thought the expensive Elite model was supposed to be built like a truck and immune to this nonsense.

I called the support line, and guess what I got? A robot phone tree with a dead-end, and NO option for talking to a human being. It told me to go to xbox.com, and basically kiss off. Thanks Mr. Gates! Congratulations for your recent return to the top of the Forbes list of the richest men in the universe. I guess you saved up a few billion by firing the human beings who answered the phones.

Despite my preference to speak to a person, I ordered the repair box on xbox.com. The registration on my Elite said I had only two more days on the one-year warranty! The red light happened on March 14, I reported it March 15, and it says the warranty expires March 17. Can you believe it? Talk about "planned obsolescence."

So now here we are again, on the horns of a dilemma in our love-hate relationship with the Xbox 360. Do we use some vacation money to buy another one, as a backup? We could network it and use it for system-link games after the Elite is repaired. Or, my son and I can play at the same time online, if my recently-upgraded Charter cable connection has enough bandwidth.

As much as it irks me, there are advantages to having an extra machine, so I'm leaning toward that option. My son and I are already going crazy without our Xbox Live, and we're only two days into our vacation. Nevertheless, it blows my mind that the top-of-the-line Xbox crapped out at the START of vacation after 1 year, only three days short of running out the 1-year warranty.


I know some of my online friends have gone through several machines. Does anyone have a repair story to commiserate with me and help ease my anguish?

Three Rings for the Xbox kings ...

I've seen this before.

Back in August, this infernal winking afflicted my first Xbox 360. I sent it off and got it back Sept. 12. In fact, the lull was when I started this blog, while I was bored while my 360 was in limbo.

Now, six months later, my Microsoft-repaired machine has the Three Rings of Death again. They tell you to check the power supply light and make sure it's green, so my little slide show reveals the holy green light shining in the shadows.

The Three Rings struck on March 16. Now I have to go through the whole hassle all over again.

It's just a good thing Microsoft doesn't build spaceships.

Xbox returned!

This week I cuddled up with this curvaceous beauty, caressed her pale white skin, and plugged her in ... to play Medal of Honor Airborne.

Our Xbox 360 is back!

It arrived Wednesday, arisen from the three rings of death. It took the minions of Microsoft only about 22 days (Aug. 21 to Sept. 12) from the time I shipped it to the day it returned. Actually, they sent us a replacement unit, so I suspect that as soon as they got mine, they sent out one they had already fixed. They might be fixing my original box right now, to send to somebody else down the line. If that's how it works, I salute them, because it means I got my machine back in plenty of time for Halo 3!

I just picked up Two Worlds at Top Games in Gardendale, so I'm about to try that out, too.

Anyone for some online sword fighting?

They're fixing it

I was delighted to get this e-mail today:

Dear Xbox Customer,

We have received your Xbox console at our Service Center ...

You will receive e-mail notification when your repair has been completed. We appreciate your patience in this matter.

Thank you for your business.

What a relief to know that the minions of Microsoft are on the job!

In Xbox Exile

Halo 3 is almost upon us, and in the meantime, I'm waiting for Microsoft to send back my Xbox 360 after they fix my "three rings of death."

Actually, this "three rings of death" term isn't really accurate, because it's more like three arcs, or three quadrants. They're talking about those little lights around the power button that show which controllers are connected.

HZG was afflicted with the tell-tale red lights, and his was repaired and back in his living room after three weeks. But last weekend, a friend at the local game shop said he knew of a guy whose repairs took 10 weeks! So now, I'm pretty worried. Are they getting a backlog of repairs, as people race against the Halo release? To make my anxiety worse, Microsoft has just posted an intensely cool live-action video of Halo combat. Take a look: http://halo3.msn.com/videos.aspx

I got to play a little bit of Bioshock on my cousin's machine, but other than that, I'm back to slogging around with the old original Xbox, playing through Jedi Outcast. It's just not the same anymore, after getting used to the 360.

If you endured the Ordeal of the Three Rings of Death, how long did it take? Did you play an old system while you waited, or did you go cold turkey? Since I haven't been gaming much, I seem to be filling the time by starting blogs ...