red-ring-of-death At the beginning of January it finally happened - my Xbox 360 decided it was time to kick the bucket.  It was a launch 360, I got it in December after preordering it in August (the 360 launched in November '05) and despite all of the buzz about the problems everyone else was having with their 360's getting the red ring of death, I started to think mine was immune.  Then, after placing my 360 side-by-side with my Playstation 3, within a week the 360's graphics processor went shot.  I first noticed problems playing Call of Duty 4 with immense amounts of artifacts on the screen, and then the next day I saw the red ring and the 360 threw up a nice little critical hardware failure message.

I'm assuming that the restricted heat flow caused by the 360 being side-by-side with the PS3 plus the heat that the PS3 put off (despite me never running them both at the same time) caused the failure.  If that's the true cause or not it's hard to tell, but the point is I soon found myself on the phone with 1-800-4MYXBOX, and they quickly directed me to service.xbox.com so I could file my request for repair digitally.  I went ahead and did so and they sent me a box.  I got the box about a week and a half later, sent in my 360, and just got it back on Monday (1/28).  It took them roughly a month to send me a box, fix my 360, and send it back to me.  Pretty rough considering that when my Macbook had to be repaired I had it back within a week, including box shipping times.  I understand that Microsoft is swamped with these repairs, but still that's a pretty long turnaround time.

Anyways, I'm happy to have it back.  I fired it up and tried out the demo for Devil May Cry 4.  Pretty good game, I think I'll have to pick it up.  I've since separated my consoles, leaving the PS3 on a separate stand near the entertainment center, so hopefully I won't have to worry about repairs anymore.  I tell you what though, between December's Xbox Live difficulties and now this repair situation I've become a little frustrated at Microsoft.  The best part about the whole deal is that Microsoft offered up a free Xbox Live Arcade game as compensation for the Xbox Live downtime last month, but the offer ended on Sunday.  The day before I got my 360 back.  Despite the game in question (Undertow) not exactly garnering critical acclaim, I still would have liked to play it.  So it goes.  Now I get a chance to invest some more time into Assassin's Creed, plus give Mass Effect a shot.  I'm pumped for CoD4's multiplayer too.  =)

Now Playing:
MC Chris - Omc
World of Warcraft, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune