Jason
04-22-2010, 08:21 PM
So... I've had an interesting day.
Some of you may know I've been toying with the idea of purchasing an Xbox 360 Elite recently. Well, in a final effort to save myself some money, I dug out my old 360 Arcade and checked whether the old faults were still occurring (Optical Drive eating discs and occasionally refusing to eject, and concerns over a couple of temporary instances of RRoD some time back) - the drive was still entirely broken, stubbornly refusing to budge when I pressed the button. After a couple of hours running in a room of moderate to warm temperature, no sign of the RRoD.
Anyway, I rang Microsoft and explained to them the situation - the warranty expired just under two years ago, which I pretty much knew anyway, but it was still just within the three-year timescale for a free repair/replacement if it RRoD-ed on me. Despite my protestations (and overwhelming evidence on the internet) to the contrary, the lady on the phone insisted there was no known issue with disc drives either damaging discs or refusing to open unless the console was moved with a running disc inside it. She almost seemed offended when I pointed out that due to my not being an idiot, I hadn't done this.
Anyway, eager to get this sorted as soon as possible, I enquired with the very polite and helpful but almost incomprehensible Indian lady about the cost of renewing the warranty and having Microsoft repair the console - the price? A mere £95 including VAT. That's right, £95.
Just in case you're not familiar with the relative strength of the Sterling Pound at the moment, I could go online and purchase a brand new Xbox 360 Arcade right now for just £120. I'd even get an HDMI port with it for that, which I don't currently have on my existing console. I politely thanked the lady for her time and help and informed her that Satan will be ice skating to work before I pay that kind of money for what basically amounts to a new warranty.
So, I had one option left - generally with RRoDs on the older model consoles, it's often cheaper and easier to simply replace the whole unit rather than swapping the motherboard. If I could somehow get a RRoD before the three year extended warranty expires, I'd likely be getting a replacement console and saving myself a lot of headaches down the line.
Hence I spent my afternoon looking at potential ways I can overheat an Xbox 360 without being able to run anything on it. Not easy, to be honest. The most likely option was looking like wrapping it in a towel and leaving it running for a while, when thanks to a mis-click on google's autocomplete list, I stumbled across a console repair shop about five minutes' drive from my house - I rang the guy just to ask some advice as much as anything and he said he'd replace the drive and also take a look at the motherboard for me while he was at it. The cost? £38. To make things even better, he's a certified Microsoft partner and as such, his opening of the box wouldn't invalidate any warranties I had left, and he may even be able to get Microsoft to take the console back and replace the motherboard proactively.
The moral of the story?
Microsoft are greedy bastards, and don't assume that just because it's a small console repair place that it's run by some fly-by-night cowboy who's handy with a screwdriver but has no real knowledge.
Of course, I'll keep you informed as to how it all goes...
Some of you may know I've been toying with the idea of purchasing an Xbox 360 Elite recently. Well, in a final effort to save myself some money, I dug out my old 360 Arcade and checked whether the old faults were still occurring (Optical Drive eating discs and occasionally refusing to eject, and concerns over a couple of temporary instances of RRoD some time back) - the drive was still entirely broken, stubbornly refusing to budge when I pressed the button. After a couple of hours running in a room of moderate to warm temperature, no sign of the RRoD.
Anyway, I rang Microsoft and explained to them the situation - the warranty expired just under two years ago, which I pretty much knew anyway, but it was still just within the three-year timescale for a free repair/replacement if it RRoD-ed on me. Despite my protestations (and overwhelming evidence on the internet) to the contrary, the lady on the phone insisted there was no known issue with disc drives either damaging discs or refusing to open unless the console was moved with a running disc inside it. She almost seemed offended when I pointed out that due to my not being an idiot, I hadn't done this.
Anyway, eager to get this sorted as soon as possible, I enquired with the very polite and helpful but almost incomprehensible Indian lady about the cost of renewing the warranty and having Microsoft repair the console - the price? A mere £95 including VAT. That's right, £95.
Just in case you're not familiar with the relative strength of the Sterling Pound at the moment, I could go online and purchase a brand new Xbox 360 Arcade right now for just £120. I'd even get an HDMI port with it for that, which I don't currently have on my existing console. I politely thanked the lady for her time and help and informed her that Satan will be ice skating to work before I pay that kind of money for what basically amounts to a new warranty.
So, I had one option left - generally with RRoDs on the older model consoles, it's often cheaper and easier to simply replace the whole unit rather than swapping the motherboard. If I could somehow get a RRoD before the three year extended warranty expires, I'd likely be getting a replacement console and saving myself a lot of headaches down the line.
Hence I spent my afternoon looking at potential ways I can overheat an Xbox 360 without being able to run anything on it. Not easy, to be honest. The most likely option was looking like wrapping it in a towel and leaving it running for a while, when thanks to a mis-click on google's autocomplete list, I stumbled across a console repair shop about five minutes' drive from my house - I rang the guy just to ask some advice as much as anything and he said he'd replace the drive and also take a look at the motherboard for me while he was at it. The cost? £38. To make things even better, he's a certified Microsoft partner and as such, his opening of the box wouldn't invalidate any warranties I had left, and he may even be able to get Microsoft to take the console back and replace the motherboard proactively.
The moral of the story?
Microsoft are greedy bastards, and don't assume that just because it's a small console repair place that it's run by some fly-by-night cowboy who's handy with a screwdriver but has no real knowledge.
Of course, I'll keep you informed as to how it all goes...