I’m on my second. My first one got the Red Ring Of Death after 2 1/2 years. Microsoft sent me a new one to which I added an intercooller.
I store it vertically with three inches of clearance around it.
I think I’ve got you all beat. I’m on #11 or #12 – I honestly can’t remember as I’ve lost count. I’ve always stored them horizontally, in a well-ventilated area, and treat them like a princess. I’m not even a particularly heavy user. Nevertheless, at least 10 have failed on me. I’m not sure if the current one is a “Jasper” or what, but it’s lasted for a year so far.
Oh, and the joy of transferring all your XBL purchases so you don’t have to be online to play them. And of course you can only do it once every 12 months, because it’s inconceivable that your XBox would break twice in that period.
It has gotten to the point where the local Costco, despite their famous liberal return policy, has requested that I not exchange any more Xboxen there, like it’s my fault.
Don’t your XBL purchases stay on your harddrive? Why are you sending that in? I wonder if you’re getting power surges or something funky like that. Because that’s outrageous.
Why are you exchanging them instead of using the warranty program?
Also, to tell if you have the newest model, check HERE for instructions.
Your Xbox Live purchases are stored via licenses. Thanks, DRM. When you get a new box, in order to use your downladable content, you have to transfer the licenses. It’s really easy to do, though. www.xbox.com/drm, follow the steps, and you’re done. Takes maybe 5 minutes.
Easy to do, yes, but as I pointed out, they only let you do this once a year. So if you go through more than two consoles in a year, you’re SOL and have to spend time on the phone with someone in India, begging them to let you play your games offline.
Thanks…I will check what I have. I’m almost afraid to even touch the thing at this point to look at the model info! 
As to why I’m not using the exchange program…if you do it through the retailer (e.g.) Costco, you get a new box the same day. If you go through the Microsoft exchange program, not only do you have the 1-800 fun (“please try rebooting / unplugging power supply several times” etc.) but you have the shipping turn-around time, which in my experience (I have tried this a couple of times) can be two weeks. That’s a long time to be without your box. Not only that, but for a while Microsoft was just shuffling the broken boxes around – you’d send in one with (e.g.) a broken CD tray, then get back one with a working CD tray, but the games would freeze. Or some other problem. They just couldn’t handle the volume of returns. They may have ceased this practice now.
Of course, if you exchange through the MSFT program, they do transfer your XBL purchases automatically, which is one advantage.
I agree…but if you check out the XBox forums, being in the double-digits for broken units isn’t that unusual. I’ve always used a decent surge protector, and our local electrical supply is pretty “clean” as far as I can tell. Also, this has happened in two different places I’ve lived, 400 miles apart!
Jasper hasn’t been around that long, so that’s not a Jasper.
My first one lasted almost 3 years.
On August 25 at 5:35 PM, Justin Bailey’s Xbox 360 showed no signs of life. Only three flashing red lights that doctors described as “the Red Rings of Death”. Resuscitative measures were taken but have so far proven to be unsuccessful. The patient is three years and six months old and thus is too old to qualify for life insurance.
Therefore, it is the recommendation of this death panel that it be traded in for a younger, less hot model.
Finals respects may be paid to this thread or Justin Bailey’s PM box and the family wishes that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the “Buy Justin Bailey a New Xbox 360” fund.
Just saw a deal for an Arcade for $180 yesterday on Gizmodo’s Deals of the Day.
Sorry - the actual link to the deal is firewalled from me.
Dude! Thanks for the tip, I owe you one. The UPS man should be bringing my new 360 early next week.
No problem. Gizmodo puts out their deals of the day every day at 3:00pm EST. There’s usually an Xbox deal every week or so.
(There was an 80gb PS3 for $240 the other day, for balanced coverage.)
My Xbox lasted several years (can’t remember exactly how many) before it suffered the red ring of death, it was fixed by MS and still sits in my lounge.
A couple of days ago I bought a new one to use at my second home and it had the ring of death straight out of the box. I talked to MS support which was a pain in the arse because they’re in the US and couldn’t understand my Australian accent, and they diagnosed a shagged power supply and have sent a new one. In the meantime I decided that I shouldn’t have to wait several weeks for a new PSU and took the broken Xbox back to the store for a new one. It is working fine so far.
I don’t understand the problems with downloadable content. When I migrated my user profile to the new Xbox any downloadable content I had paid for was available to be downloaded again to the new xbox, I didn’t have to do anything.
I’m on my second. The first one started acting up within a few months. I’d get occasional disc read errors but they were few and far between for over a year. It finally got to the point where the errors were happening more often than not. Then it finally quit reading discs altogether. I wound up just buying another because repairing that one and upgrading the HD was getting damned close in price to the cost of a new one.
I’ve had the new one six months now and so far so good. I tend to install most games to the HD now in the hopes that it will both save wear on the drive and perhaps help it run a little cooler. We’ll see.
I’m on my third, although the second one is still running, but it can’t read discs anymore, so it’s used only as a Netflix device or to play arcade games.