Xbox 360 - 3 year warranty for Red Ring of Death

[LockedOut]

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/petermooreletter.htm

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=7945

I might feel comfortable purchasing one finally but I might hold off till they get the new die shrink happens.

[RyZ]

I have a launch unit that still works fine, although I bet I haven't turned it on 10 times since I got it. Can't wait till Bioshock, Mass Effect, Resident Evil 5 and Too Human come out. Till then, I won't have to worry about the ring of death.

[PowerPlayoffs06]

I've really been giving some thought to getting an X-Box but all these horror stories about how many problems the units have, and the customer service tales make me wonder if I shouldn't go for a PS3.

[RyZ]

If you are a fan of gaming I'd wait and aget a 360 when you feel comfortable. PS3's suprisingly slow sales has developers dropping games for it every week. Sony has to drop the price drasticaly or they are going to be in big trouble. If you are more into all the multi-media functionality then the PS3 might be up your alley.

[lambeburger]

We will also retroactively reimburse any of you who paid for repairs related to problems indicated by this error message in the past.

I bought an extended warranty at Best Buy when I got my Xbox 360, and sure enough the red ring of death came shorty after the one-year manufacturer's warranty, so I was forced to use it. Do you think Microsoft will end up paying me back for that?

[Human Torch]

Nice, I was actually hoping that my 360 would break before my warranty expired next month.

[ernie]

A little bit of damage control and they probably solved the problem. I still think the biggest problem has really been that the design didn't guard against improper use. Most people I know have it stuffed in a cabinet or sitting on carpet when it's in use so what fans it does have are rendered ineffective. The failure rate for the earlier 360s is unacceptable. This addresses it.

I still think that in another 12 months or so we'll really start to PS3 failures as well. Just like the PS2.

Consoles really are made to be almost disposable. I still wouldn't trade my 360 for a PS3 at this point in time.

[llama64]

The Xbox360 premium and Elite editions came with upgraded heat sinks that take care of most of the overheating issues.

Many issues seem to come from people playing games like Forza2 for hours upon hours in on sitting while having their system fully covered without ventillation. If you ensure the unit has enough cooling and airflow, you'll be fine. Just don't be stupid with the unit. It's basically a computer and needs to be treated as such.

I've been enjoying the media capabilities of the Xbox though. Encode your video in the right way and you can stream everything through your network. Works pretty good so far. I just wish they'd upgrade the system to play xvid/divx natively.