The Wheel of Cheese

This past weekend, I read a video game magazine that talked about the XBox 360 and how people have been having troubles with their consoles failing on them. Its something that has become more and more evident as of late as the number of reported cases by 360 owners have increased.

The failing 360 console is signified by three flashing lights on the power button, which have been referred to by experts as the "three rings of death". This name is given because when this happens, for the most part, you are SOL as your XBox 360 does not work after this happens. Whats even more weird is that there are no signs of this failure coming, and out of the blue, you get the three flashing red lights and you are stuck with an inoperable XBox 360.

Upon buying my XBox 360 about nine months ago, I never envisioned this problem happening to me. I figured if I took good care of my hardware, and treated it well, I would be out of the blue. About two months after I bought it, I had my first case of the three rings of death. However, upon turning my console on a second time, the lights went away and the problem never did return...well until about six months later that is.

Today, after playing a game of NBA2k7, I turned off my XBox and ate my lunch. Later in the afternoon, I booted up my XBox to play a game of hockey, and bam...the three red lights appeared. My initial reaction was to just reboot my 360 and the problem would go away, but it didn't. After turning off my XBox about 10 times however, I finally realized the problem wasn't going away. My XBox was toast.

There is some good news to come of this story. For starters, Microsoft said my XBox 360 is still under warranty, and that I will get a free replacement one at no cost. In addition to this, they will also pay for all of the shipping costs incurred by this transaction (I guess Bill Gates does have some pretty deep pockets).

Until I receive my new 360, it looks like I am "without sticks" for two weeks, as I will have no video games to play. I'll probably use this time to intensify my job search for a full-time job, devote more time to this blog that hasn't been updated lately, as well as many other types of constructive time-management activities.