360 Flashing Red Lights

[UKMuFFiN]

My 360 is bust typically now that GOW has just arrived and my HD telly is gonna be delivered today too!

The console froze on me the other day when playing a demo so I switched it off and didn't go back on it until last night but when you switch it on you get 3 read flashing lights on the ring.

I googled and got this http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=484726
Sections 1, 3, and 4 are flashing red
- General Hardware Failure
/ \
\ /

So followed the steps to work out the error code by hold the sync button and pressing the eject button for each number of the code and got 0102 which they say means:

0102 unknown error - though it's most likely GPU related literally means the console does not know what is wrong. possibly a short or cold solder joint somewhere. So far there is 1 major theory for what causes most of these errors is that the Ram, CPU, or GPU are not soldered properly to the mother board due either to poor manufacturing or excessive heat up and cool down cycles that stress, weaken and eventually break the soldered connection. This can be solved by re-Heating the chips DO NOT attempt this if your console is still under warranty. If your console is still under warranty return it to the store where it was purchased or call MS to have it replaced. I have also heard of limited success by simply switching the AV cable from "HDTV" mode to "TV" mode.

So I left it unplugged over night and plugged it back in this morning and it got to about 5 seconds into the boot up spinning thing X thing then crashed again.

So has anyone else had this problem? It should still be in warranty so I'll ring MS now, how long does it take to get back? I presume they pick it up and send it back for free?

Cheers.

[Lee`]

When mine broke, I took it back to game and they gave me a new one, so I would recomend you take it back to the store you bought it from first, as when I called MS I was on hold for about 30 minutes and still never got to speak to anyone.

[DeMote]

From what I understand most people have had about a 5-7 day turnaround. I would recommend not sending the Hard drive back though.

[kidzer]

Erm, thats the error my friend got also.

His seemed to have sorted itself out, but having googled it, it seems to be a terminal failure that might well go away for a bit and return with vengance.

I've reccomended sending it to MS to him, although he's getting a HDTV tomorrow, so he hasn't yet - I guess i'd have to say the same to you.

Edit: OOh, triple snappage

[Re-Invented]

Take it back and get a new one, if its a first gen one they just give you a new one without arguing cus thats what mine did, (Game store that was and they usually just swap hard drives over so you keep all your stuff)

Lee

[UKMuFFiN]

Its a month and 5 days out!

Rang dixons, they said they couldn't do anything because I didn't have extended cover and to ring Microsoft.

Rang MS, because its out of warranty they said I gotta pay 123 Euros - £83 to get it fixed!!

[Michael]

Do what I did for a friend, if you have any friends that have just bought, or are just about to buy a 360 from Currys, Dixons or the like...

I bought mine (Premium model, silver tray), and a day later my mate got the same error as you (On a core), we stuck his console in my box, took it back and they just swapped it out... simple.

[UKMuFFiN]

Genius! Anyone offering from the south wales area?

[Michael]

You're probably the only person in any region of wales that owns a 360

[UKMuFFiN]

ouch!

[ikonia]

also thats fraud,

you had the option to take out an extended warrenty - but you didn't. Not got much to gripe about on that one.

[Michael]

Sue me :-/

[Papa Lazarou]

Court action might also work. Action in the small claims court is not that difficult to pursue I believe. IMO the console is not of satisfactory quality under the Sale of Goods Act, regardless of it being out of warranty. I think it is reasonable for a £280 console to last longer than 1 year of normal use. Its not an isolated incident, officially MS place their failure rate as around 3-5%. Most unofficial polls seem to come out closer to 20% although they will never be that accurate. Eg I read that most of the ones IGN had in their office failed with the three red lights error.

[UKMuFFiN]

Yeh, what gets to me is the fact I have to pay for a fault through bad manufacture that was too common in the first load of 360's when I'm only out by 35 days.

Thats life though eh. No wonder they're so loaded!

Gonna ring them now, I wanna play on my nice new HDTV and they say it can take upto 15 days for them to send it back!

EDIT: Okay, thats done now, I tried asking the nice lady what sort of warranty I get with the repaired one but couldn't undersand her too well, any one know?

[Papa Lazarou]

Theres also the heatgun fix for this problem. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5nfmJTQJr8

[UKMuFFiN]

Lol, Ah yes, the failproof method of completely farting things up.

I've heard that only cures it for a few weeks at most then the problem comes back.

I also heard somthing small rattling around in side so just gonna get it fixed proper.