A houseguest reports the red ring of death has happened.

I haven't been home yet to confirm that it's not just a loose AV cable, but I trust his technical savvy, and if he says three blinking lights, I believe him.

The wikipedia article doesn't mention how the exchange program handles saved games and the sizeable amount of downloadable content I've purchased. I'm afraid to search Microsoft's site on that topic.

Ideally, I'd send the Xbox back sans-hard-drive, and then plug it back in when I get the replacement, thus keeping all my saved games and downloadable content. Someone please tell me that's how it actually works.

You also need this:
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/systemuse/xbox360/licensemigration/

That will move the DRM licenses around to the new box. MS finally released that a month ago. The previous solution was that MS would refund enough MS points to a separate XBox Live account to then allow the user to redownload everything, only after lots of phone calls.

I'm sure everybody's seen this.

okay I see the license transfer tool. I also see that it says it's gonna get done automatically as part of the repair. But it's unclear still whether I have to send or keep my hard disk. It's also unclear what happens to my save games. One of the sublinks from that page says "attach your hard drive" implying that maybe I got to keep the drive. I'm any case the question remains unanswered.


I'm worried.

So maybe you should clone it before shipping?

I have sent mine in twice. Once I was getting no color in the video and on the second unit, I got the ring of death. But yes, you keep the hard drive. You defintely get a different (not necessarily new) unit back. The first time I got a newer one back. The second time much older.

Hope this helps,
Stu

Thanks, Stu!

I just got off the phone with them, it seems that their system is down tonight so I never got as far as getting a repair order placed so I couldn't get an answer from the man with the impossible-to-place accent about the hard drive.

Stu, when you got the repaired unit back, and you plugged in your old hard drive, did you have to do anything to get access to your downloaded content, WEP key, and saved games, or did it "Just Work"?

No problem Tony!

All my downloaded content was movie rentals that had expired and game demos. At that point I had not purchased anything to keep so I can't really ccomment on those. I can tell you my settings were all lost including the WEP keys. You'll probably need that DRM transfer tool to make your purchases work.

Good luck and hopefully this is the only time you need to send away for a replacement.

Hope this helps,
Stu

My roommate had to return two 360s, one was his original unit and the other was one that his ex-girlfriend used until she broke it. His was a red ring, hers just didn't display video. They had him keep the hard drives each time he sent them in for repair.

Tim and Stu:

Were your saved games still intact after you plugged your hard disk back into your new console?

My saved games were still there on my HD when I had my 360 replaced twice.

Thanks very much!

I'm much relieved now.

My roommate said he removed his saved games before returning them. I don't know what he meant by that, mem card or something I guess?

Yep. Those were still there both times. You should be safe.

Stu

...when I can get them to repair the thing anyway.

It's day three, I've made my third call to the repair center (one call per day), and I still don't have an RMA.

Day one: Spend half an hour on the phone with strange-accent-man, he goes through diagnostic steps with me, takes all my info, and at the very last step: "Our system is down and we cannot process your repair order. You must call back tomorrow."

Day two: "We have processed your order. Here is your reference number. You will receive a shipping label in your email shortly." (No shipping label ever arrives. Web site still says that there is no repair order for this console.)

Day three: "Yes, that reference number is correct, but your account doesn't show any repair orders processed. Let's try submitting it again. ... ... ... Hm, it seems the system is still down and we can't process your repair order. Give us your phone number and we will call you when the system is back up again..."

My roommates Xbox 360 failed so we tried removing the harddrive and placed it into my Xbox 360. Since this worked he when to Wal-Mart and bought the cheapest Xbox 360 and just put the old drive in the new unit.

i also had tried the ring of death plus a total dead box

in both cases i got a complete new unit

after that i bhought myself an UPS that all sensitive electronics in the house is connected to

these days electronics gets more and more sensitive...

The issues with the 360 aren't anything to do with power surges/brownout.

I hope not every piece of electronics in the entire house is connected to the same UPS.

But I agree with Trevor: The dead Xbox isn't necessarily because of a power surge. Those things just die.