XBOX 360 . . .knackered finally
Well, well what a surprise . . .my 360 got the old 3 red lights plague yesterday and looks dead. I first saw them last week but it came back on and so I figured it must be a faulty connection or something. Pisser is, I've only had it 9 months but i lost the receipt from Gamestation . . .so i have to send the bastard thing away for nearly 3 weeks instead of getting a replacement direct from the shop. These consoles really must be a pile of crap because mine certainly hasn't been overworked. I've only played Ridge Racer for any length of time and I reckon it's only had about a hour a day's use, on average, if that . . . :x Then again, if they repair mine . . .how long before it packs in again ?? They send me a new one . . .same problem. It's an absolute shambles for sure and Microsoft, quite apart from not admitting there's an endemic fault, don't seem to know how to cure it. Ho hum . . . :roll:

Mine is currently away for the second time, one of my nephews has had his repaired twice, another nephew only had one repair. My last nephew's hasn't broken down yet; but it will. At least they are supposed to be fitting decent heatsinks to the GPU now.

That's what has put me off buying one...

Its the Halo 3 bug...RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!

BTW, gundarN . . . . . .how long does the repair take and do you get the same machine back. The support place said to use a cardbox box and attach a label I got via email . . .is that it ???

Up to 25 friggin' working days and you do get the same opne back now (I don't think you did in the early days). I can't believe I had to borrow a 360 to play Halo 3 tonight. Once you have a label, you need to phone the courier for a pickup (the number should be on there), and they can come and pick it up the same day (at least they did for mine). Make sure you get a receipt for the pickup, unfortunately the bastards were in such a hurry when picking mine up, I didn't get the chance to ask for one.

Okay thanks . . .so you don't need to stick your name and address inside the package then ?? Will any old cardboard box do the job ???

Well, I got my 360 back today after only a week and a half. My nephews machine was away for four weeks just a couple of months agao, so that's a pretty good turnaround. Regarding sending the 360 away, you need to put your returns reference number inside the box, nothing else but the bare machine (no HDD etc.). You can pack it in anything other than the original packaging and you want to make it secure in there with bubblewrap, lest it get fucked up worse in transit when the gorillas picking it up destroy it completely.

Yeah . . .I did all that but i stuck my label on the outside. Sat in all pm yesterday - nobody came. Finally got it picked up at 12 today and the driver took one look at it and said "We get lots of these sent back . . .400-500 per DAY :!: " Eff me . . . how do they cope with that volume at the repair place ?? It's time Microsoft just owned up and offered repair or refund . . .cos I'd buy a PS3 instead in a heartbeat :evil: BTW . . .how do you know when it's on the way back ??????? Tracking No . . .??

The dud just turned up at the door, said he was sick of delivering them, then ran away. I bought a Halo Edition 360 today so I can use HDMI. Looks pretty.

Well . . .when I rang the breakdown number the guy on the other end said the turnaround time was 20 days. So, whether that's Mon-Fri days or actual days I dunno. But if that pick-up guy wasn't bullshitting me about the 400-500 a day . . .then i reckon I'll be getting mine back as a slightly early Christmas present . . . :P

Well . . .I got mine back yesterday, which was a 10 day turnaround from the day the repair centre received it. Not too bad. . . motherboard repair. But when i stuck on my beloved Ridge Racer 6 for a field -*test*-('") i found the Pacman demo at the front was speeded up and my joypad seems to react too quickly when I try to make a jet start in races . . .WTF ???? Otherwise, seems okay . . . :o