Yeah that's an Unreal Tournament 3 faceplate. Recognize. |
It was March of 2006 when I first got her. It was really a momentous occasion. Xbox 360 Pro Model. I had already purchased a few games, got a wired controller off eBay. For a time I was happy.
Then over Thanksgiving in 2007 I started getting disc read errors playing Mass Effect. I had a brown out and suffered through my first dreaded Red Ring of Death. Though the console still kind of worked, you had to turn it off, wait a bit, turn it back on and pray. Eventually it got to a point where this became to tedious a nightly ritual so I decided to have it sent off for repairs.
I had heard horror stories of trying to talk to someone over the phone to request repair so I went exclusively through Xbox.com. I found that process to be relatively simple; all I had to do was register the console, request a repair, and done; a white box (coined "the coffin") was at my doorstep within a few days.
Funny story with that- the box you are sent is a plain white box with a shipping label, not very ubiquitous. When I went to my local UPS store to drop it off, the clerk without hesitation asked me if I was sending back a broken Xbox 360. Curious, I said I was and asked him how many of those boxes he sees. "Four or five A DAY". I was kind of taken back. This was just some simple UPS store in suburban Kansas City and a dude sees anywhere from 25-35 of these things coming back A WEEK? I was a little skeptical of his numbers but he would be validated about a year or so later.
After a fairly quick turnaround time in getting repaired, I was back up and running only this time when the disc drive spun a disc, it sounded like a jet engine. I tried to do all I could to ensure the machine was in an open area, well ventilated, and well protected from overheating. Other than the noise of the drive, I encountered no problems for the next few months...
...then another holiday happened. This time it was Fourth of July holiday in 2008 and I was in the middle of some Call of Duty 4. This time when the Red Ring occurred there was no mistaking. I got the freeze up in the middle of the game along with a checkered screen. Knew it the moment I saw it happen. Did the deed again with going through Xbox.com to request a coffin. Fast, simple, no problems; turnaround time was excellent. I go to pick my parcel up this time from the UPS distribution store and I had to wait a bit for them to find it. They had to sort through probably tens of white boxes to find mine. OFF ONE TRUCK. I then asked the guy there how many he sees go out, and without hesitation, he says "hundreds. Per day".
Well, for two and a half years I got no problems out of this run. I give a lot of credit for that to the fact that I run games off the hard drive almost exclusively. Doing that, at least in my mind, keeps the internal temperature of the console down a bit, thus no overheat and I am a happy camper. Every now and then a game will freeze and my heart will skip just a beat as I turn the console off and wait a few seconds and turn it back on. No problems.
Then it happened. About an hour ago tonight. I was in the middle of Call of Duty Black Ops (Activision conspiracy?) and just when we got started I froze. Very curious but ok, I turned off the unit, waited a few seconds then turned it back on. No problem there, got the opening Xbox 360 graphic, and there it stayed.
And stayed.
And stayed.
Frozen.
I started to get concerned here and turned off the console once again. Closed my eyes, turned it back on....and no screen. There it was. Three. Flashing. Red. Lights.
Self portrait. |
Now the real dilemma is... how do I sneak this one past the wife?
TL;DR- Good night, Sweet Prince (2006-2011)
You've already snuck two past the wife, so to speak, so just consider a new Xbox your third kid.
ReplyDeleteLOL.. time to give up the console and get some hard core Blood Bowl practice in!
ReplyDelete@ Bling.. now if he could stick his dick in the XBOX and impregnate it and have a baby slim XBOX in 9 months I'm sure he'd do that. Probably has tried already ... and may just be the cause of his current Red Ring.
Ha! Red Ring = The Clap
ReplyDelete