XBOX 360 Ring of Death - Halo 3

[robPOD]

So I get my brand new copy of Halo 3 today, and as I turn on my 360 to play it for the first time I get the 3 red lights, the ring of death. I turn of my 360 and reboot it and again get the ring of death. At this point Im starting to panic so I try to reboot again and It starts up normally, Should I be worried about this?

p.s halo 3 is friggin sweeet:D

[Piarco]

I thought the 3 red lights was a no-way-back thing... if its still working for you after a couple of restarts that's good news... although I'd be worried. My 360 started acting weird after I started playing MOH:A, and despite all seeming well recently, lockups and frozen screens resulted in a the RROD yesterday - my 360 is going in for the second time... just as Halo3 will be arriving on my doorstep in the morning :mad:
Ah well, I'll upgrade to an Elite sooner than I was planning and sell on the Premium as soon as it returns.

:EDIT: Just noticed that this thread is in the wrong section of the gaming forum - best get a Mod to move it to console games.

[TBi]

I'd return it. The Red Ring of Death is a sign that something is failing intermittently, soon it will fail fully. Get it replaced before it goes fully down the crapper.

[Scott982]

My 360 just died also and to top it off I bought the Collectors Edition of Halo 3 which has scratched discs.

[MacRumorUser]

I'd return it. The Red Ring of Death is a sign that something is failing intermittently, soon it will fail fully. Get it replaced before it goes fully down the crapper.

Yes and no.

Could simply be a loose AV connection or the HDD come a little ajar. Either of those would cause the three rings, and a simple nudge of the box puts them back in place and the machine works fine then on, therefore there is nothing 'internaly' majorly wrong with it.

I'd wait and see. :)

[TBi]

Yes and no.

Could simply be a loose AV connection or the HDD come a little ajar. Either of those would cause the three rings, and a simple nudge of the box puts them back in place and the machine works fine then on, therefore there is nothing 'internaly' majorly wrong with it.

I'd wait and see. :)

Ya well i wouldn't! I'd smother it and give it a real RROD! MU HA HA!

:D

[MacRumorUser]

Ya well i wouldn't! I'd smother it and give it a real RROD! MU HA HA!

:D

Ye evil Cork man. Your just steaming from the whooping we gave ye in the All Ireland :p :D

[TBi]

Ye evil Cork man. Your just steaming from the whooping we gave ye in the All Ireland :p :D

That was low... very low...

Watch out i might come smother your precious Elite!

[MacRumorUser]

That was low... very low...

Watch out i might come smother your precious Elite!

Culchices 1 - Corkonians Nil :p

No one touches 'my precious' ; not even those bloody hobbits :D

[robPOD]

Ya well i wouldn't! I'd smother it and give it a real RROD! MU HA HA!

:D
Lol, Yeah I geuss I will wait and see, did micosoft extentend the warrenty for 360s from 1 year to 3 ?

Yes and no.

Could simply be a loose AV connection or the HDD come a little ajar. Either of those would cause the three rings, and a simple nudge of the box puts them back in place and the machine works fine then on, therefore there is nothing 'internaly' majorly wrong with it.

I'd wait and see. :)


that could be true as i had just moved it to my other tv and plugged every thing in again.

[Schtumple]

The ending of Halo 3 is stupidly cliche, completed it yesterday, the graphics on 2 player aren't too good but 1 player is amazing.

My girlfriend got 3 rings because the 360 got dusty, tried taking a hoover to the back exhaust? could suck up any dust thats causing the CPU to overheat.

[Dagless]

Gutted :(

If I was so excited over a game and with worrying stats of console breaking, I would have tried my best to break the system a month before launch. That way you get a nice new one.

[sikkinixx]

knowing my luck I fully expect my launch day 360 to crap out the second I put Halo 3 into it :p

[takao]

knowing my luck I fully expect my launch day 360 to crap out the second I put Halo 3 into it :p

no.. it will crap out halfway through the last level making you miss out the end ;)

[Schnebar]

its ok.

My 360 broke a few months ago and we shipped it off.

Just got it back a week ago and it worked the first day so i pre ordered halo 3.

Then day 2 it broke and it still wont work.

So I have halo 3 and a broken 360.

They are sending us a box to ship it back in.

Hopefully it wont be another month.

[sikkinixx]

no.. it will crap out halfway through the last level making you miss out the end ;)

apparently the ending sucks anyway so I won't miss much ;)

[bleufire]

HAHAH! This is funny, i just hoped on this site to bitch about how a few days ago (like 2 days) i was playing Halo 2 to grease me up for Halo 3.

After waiting 4 hours last night and getting home planning on wasting my night on it, I open the tray and instead of being greeted with Green lights, FLASHING RED!!! OMG! Talk about luck.

Im pissed. I called xbox repair support team elite to the max up and told them about it and told the guy on phone if he ever saw a grown man cry over a video game dilema before.

*sigh* 6-8 weeks..:(

[bluebomberman]

I suppose this thread was inevitable...not even Master Chief can defeat the dreaded Red Halos of Death, it seems. :p

[robPOD]

I fear, that my 360's death is impending, it has frozen about 6 times today with multiple random controllers disconnects, hopefully it will die after I have finished halo 3.

[displaced]

Ah well, I'll upgrade to an Elite sooner than I was planning and sell on the Premium as soon as it returns.

Sadly, the Elite doesn't correct the cause of the RRoD. MS bunged another heatsink on some chips, but they're still failing. The problem is that heatsinks only help if you've got enough cool air flowing into the machine to push the hot air away from the heatsinks. The 360 just doesn't draw enough cool air in to let the heatsinks do their job. There's stories around the web (and a mate of mine who works in GAME confirms) about Elites ('Zephyr' systems) failing in exactly the same way as the Premiums.

D'oh!

The 'real' fix will be when the 'Falcon' revision of the 360 gets released. These use cheaper, cooler, smaller processors (65nm instead of 90nm). Apparently, these should appear towards the end of the year. We'll also start seeing Zephyr-based Premiums over here soon -- basically identical to the Elites (HDMI and all), but white and with the regular small HD.

My 360's been repaired twice ... going to try to keep the thing chugging along until those Falcons get released.

[bluebomberman]

Sadly, the Elite doesn't correct the cause of the RRoD. MS bunged another heatsink on some chips, but they're still failing. The problem is that heatsinks only help if you've got enough cool air flowing into the machine to push the hot air away from the heatsinks. The 360 just doesn't draw enough cool air in to let the heatsinks do their job. There's stories around the web (and a mate of mine who works in GAME confirms) about Elites ('Zephyr' systems) failing in exactly the same way as the Premiums.

D'oh!

The 'real' fix will be when the 'Falcon' revision of the 360 gets released. These use cheaper, cooler, smaller processors (65nm instead of 90nm). Apparently, these should appear towards the end of the year. We'll also start seeing Zephyr-based Premiums over here soon -- basically identical to the Elites (HDMI and all), but white and with the regular small HD.

My 360's been repaired twice ... going to try to keep the thing chugging along until those Falcons get released.

Is there any way to run the Xbox 360 with an open case? I used to have an overheating PC tower that required the services of a 12-inch fan blowing directly at the motherboard & CPU.

[displaced]

Is there any way to run the Xbox 360 with an open case? I used to have an overheating PC tower that required the services of a 12-inch fan blowing directly at the motherboard & CPU.

The front faceplate is user-removable. The rest of the case is deliberately designed to be an absolute pain in the arse to remove. There's lots of 'poking-things-in-notches' to do. This step also breaks the MS warranty seal. After that, the console itself is pretty much entirely enclosed in a metal inner case.

However, you might get away with just removing the faceplate. It's behind there that the two under-sized intake fans are located. Pushing some frost air through there should help.

I thought about doing this, but decided that it was daft to try to work around this sort of thing for a games console. Besides, the damn thing's loud enough :)

[bluebomberman]

...decided that it was daft to try to work around this sort of thing for a games console. Besides, the damn thing's loud enough :)

Normally, I'd agree, but considering that the console probably runs much hotter than even my iMac G5 (which has peaked at 69 degrees Celsius)...

What's going to happen when the 3-year warranties run out? People will have to just another Xbox 360? And *shudder* what if the 65nm chipset doesn't solve the problem?

The reliability issue bugs the heck out of me because it's one of the only things that's keeping me from buying an Xbox 360 to play Mass Effect...

[p0intblank]

All this talk about Halo 3 killing 360s is beginning to scare me... I got my 360 for Christmas last year. Do you think I am safe?

[2nyRiggz]

knowing my luck I fully expect my launch day 360 to crap out the second I put Halo 3 into it :p

Dude, I put the halo3 disc in my 360 and it freezes before I get past the title screen....Three times!!

I'm fearing the three rings here.....I don't want to go through this again....I'm still messing around with bioshock man!!


Bless

[stagecustom]

Dude, I put the halo3 disc in my 360 and it freezes before I get past the title screen....Three times!!

I'm fearing the three rings here.....I don't want to go through this again....I'm still messing around with bioshock man!!


Bless

this seems to happen with new "high quality games" which have better graphics and somehow need more power/processing. Then it triggers a bunch of freezing and then the red lights. It's weird...
good luck

[SamIchi]

Damn this sucks, I was goin' to make the same thread. I saw the red ring for the first time when I put in Halo 3. What sucks is I bought this on eBay, it was new but I don't have a receipt. I hope it doens't die on me. I don't think I could wait a month for MS to repair it. Do you have to pay money for the repair? And since I don't have a receipt does MS know if the warranty on my item has ended?

[displaced]

Damn this sucks, I was goin' to make the same thread. I saw the red ring for the first time when I put in Halo 3. What sucks is I bought this on eBay, it was new but I don't have a receipt. I hope it doens't die on me. I don't think I could wait a month for MS to repair it. Do you have to pay money for the repair? And since I don't have a receipt does MS know if the warranty on my item has ended?

MS should be able to tell the age of the system by the serial number/product ID on the back of the system. It might be worth taking the faceplate off and checking to make sure the silver Microsoft warranty seal is still in place if you don't know the history of the machine.

The repair process can take anything from a week or two to a month-and-a-half. I got my 360 repaired by a private repair company (www.totalconsolerepair.co.uk). Cost me £50, but it only took about 5 days and they guarantee their repair for 90 days.

[SamIchi]

MS should be able to tell the age of the system by the serial number/product ID on the back of the system. It might be worth taking the faceplate off and checking to make sure the silver Microsoft warranty seal is still in place if you don't know the history of the machine.

The repair process can take anything from a week or two to a month-and-a-half. I got my 360 repaired by a private repair company (www.totalconsolerepair.co.uk). Cost me £50, but it only took about 5 days and they guarantee their repair for 90 days.

I just took a look under the faceplate. Is the seal just a silver sticker that says microsoft and nothing else? I didn't see anything else except a sticker with numbers on it next to the USB.

Thanks for the link but I'm in the US. I was thinkin of just buying a new one from walmart (that's where the guy bought it from, I know cause it was a WalMart bundle) and return this one. Then I don't have to go through the hassle of mailing in my system. Anyone know if the serial # is recorded on Wal-Marts checkout system?

[2nyRiggz]

So my 360 is screwed up now....It won't even get past the 360 logo before freezing. I can't take this 360 crap anymore...I'm going to give MS a call ONCE AGAIN to get it exchange..within 4 months I get another RROD....this machine is the most unreliable console I've ever touched.

Got the game and can't play it.



Bless

[displaced]

I just took a look under the faceplate. Is the seal just a silver sticker that says microsoft and nothing else? I didn't see anything else except a sticker with numbers on it next to the USB.

Thanks for the link but I'm in the US. I was thinkin of just buying a new one from walmart (that's where the guy bought it from, I know cause it was a WalMart bundle) and return this one. Then I don't have to go through the hassle of mailing in my system. Anyone know if the serial # is recorded on Wal-Marts checkout system?

On mine, it was a silver holographic rectangular sticker with simply 'Microsoft' written on it. I suppose it's possible that different machines were sealed in different ways...

Good luck with the Wal-Mart plan!

So my 360 is screwed up now....It won't even get past the 360 logo before freezing. I can't take this 360 crap anymore...I'm going to give MS a call ONCE AGAIN to get it exchange..within 4 months I get another RROD....this machine is the most unreliable console I've ever touched.

Got the game and can't play it.


Unreliable console? It's the most unreliable piece of electrical equipment I've owned, full-stop!

Such a shame... Nice idea, piss-poor execution :o

[sikkinixx]

MS can't seem to do decent quality control, how many Halo 3 collectors edition discs are FUBAR I wonder? How many RROD is Halo gonna trigger? It's pretty weak since two of my friends can't play Halo w/ me since their 360's packed it in in the past few days...