So, my Xbox died last night. I really thought that we had moved past the red ring of death issue as I had had this console for at least 3-4 years with no problems. Unfortunately, the red ring of death came back and at this point I’m not sure if I’m still under warranty or not. I will, of course, check that option, but in the mean time, I’ve been looking at the 4GB w/Kinect bundle that is being offered on Amazon for $299. I think that my kids (8 and 7) would enjoy Kinect and I’d like to try it, so that option is looking pretty good. HOWEVER, I have a removable hard drive on my old console that I don’t want to give up. Does anyone know if these new consoles accept the old hard drives?
And by the way, I think that I was on this board not too long ago shooting my mouth off about how I thought the RR of D issue had been resolved. Yum yum this crow is tasting mighty good right about now. :mad:
The RRoD has been largely resolved. Why would you think you 4 year old machine however was somehow magically fixed? Check the back of your machine, it has the build date printed on it. RRoD is 100% a heat issue and it’s entirely dependent on how you run and store the box. Mine likely failed because I moved it into a closed console. The new slimline I bought seems to much cooler and safe.
If your box is less than 3 years old MS will fix it for free.
ETA:
Officially they don’t at all. You need to either buy a 250 GB model or buy a $130 250 GB HD after the fact. Unofficially you can hack that old drive into the new box, but it voids your warranty (though there’s no reason they’d ever know). It’s pretty easy but you need to break the old HD case to do it. The data will however transfer easily to a new HD from your old XBox.
It was resolved, but I don’t think by the time you got yours.
By most accounts, the problem was fixed with the introduction of the 65nm “Jasper” chipset which began trickling into the channel in late 2008. I’ve never heard of anyone with a Jasper 360 getting an RRoD. The way you can tell if you have it is to look at the power ratings on the back of the console. The Jaspers show an amperage on the 12V rail of 12.1A.
Ahhh good thread. Probably should’ve looked for that first.
I didn’t think it had “magically” been fixed. I thought, after blowing through 3-4 consoles in as many years, and then this one lasting as long as it did, that I had gotten lucky and that it “magically” wouldn’t be a problem. I was running this one in an otherwise empty cabinet, door open, on a glass shelf with nothing below it, and nothing within 6 inches on any side. It had been in this position for about 17 months, and the incident in question happened as I was powering down after less than an hour of play.
Anyway, I’m thinking that the 4GB will probably be a good enough solution for me. I’m intrigued by Kinect.
I think we can allow this thread to fade into bolivion now.
I bought the 4GB model too, got it on Amazon with free shipping and saved the sales tax. There’s a cable you can buy to transfer your data from the old drive to the new one. I figured that if I eventually needed a 250GB HD or a Kinect I’d buy them separate later, they might be cheaper then too. No point in buying them on spec. Not sure if you hack your old HD into the new design if the data remains or if it reformats the drive, but I suspect you’d be able to just pop it in there and go as if it were another old design Xbox.
Also, to repeat my earlier comment. MS extended their warranty service for RRoDs to 3 years. If your current machine falls inside that window go to their website and initiate a service request. It’ll probably be free and if I were a betting man I’d wager you’ll get a Jasper core machine in return.