We’ve almost all experienced it. I had mine go shortly after our own Nicholas experienced his failure. Hopefully you never will, but the odds are not in your favor. At least some good has come out of it, as you can now proudly display your very own Red Ring of Death t-shirt. Available for $15.99 to $17.99 from ThinkGeek.

[via Gearfuse]

OK, Microsoft didn’t explicitly say that the RROD is a thing of the past, but Aaron Greenberg wants you to think so. In an interview with Edge, Greenberg says that Microsoft is doing everything in its power to alleviate the situation many gamers have faced in the last few years with proper repairs. Many argue that such repairs have not dwindled the number of RROD cases, but Greenberg says MS is making improvements to the repair process everyday, so you won’t be sending your unit back every few months. Luckily for me, I haven’t had any issues with either of my Xbox 360s. *knock on wood*

“We’ve improved that [repair] process,” he says, declining to get into specifics. “It’s very quick, and they may upgrade your system with the latest technology. So that works really well.

“…What we do in general, the way that it works, is that they will fix it with the latest [hardware] improvements that we’ve applied [to current Xbox 360s]. Obviously we’re continuously improving the technology inside the box, not to get too technical. So they’ll apply that when they make the increments to your system.”

“We’re seeing great performance of the current systems, so we’re really happy with the way they’ve been performing. … From friends that have had [repairs] done as of late, I can tell you from our own internal staff that we’re seeing very strong performance from a quality standpoint.

“What it comes down to is isolating and figuring out the issue, fixing the issue, and the more that we can fix the issue, and know it’s fixed, then we’re good going forward. We’ve put the worst behind us on this, but we know there are a few lagging systems, and so we want to take those and make it right.”

What a day. First Barnes & Noble is a jerk to me, then I get the red ring of death. Oh, and Sirius XM may be going under. Isn’t everything just peachy?

It’s like this: I was watching a DVD last night in my Xbox 360, and all of a sudden—these things are always “all of a sudden”—the screen turned all fuzzy, then it froze all fuzzy. Then we got the telltale three red rings. (Sorry, I didn’t think to grab my camera.) Jesus H. Christ, no!

Then today I figure, “let’s see just how broken this thing really is,” and put in GTA IV. The game loads up fine, then two or so minutes later, bam! Fuzzy frozen screen all over again. No RROD this time, but I know I’m just playing with fire at this point.

The writing’s on the wall: I’m going to have to buy a new Xbox 360, preferably in time for Street Fighter IV next week. Then again, give how I play games nowadays—pop it in, play for half an hour or so, then never play again—I’m wondering if I should instead just save the $200. Maybe I’ll luck out and I can grab an Xbox 360 Arcade from Circuit City on the cheap. See, silver lining!

You know the upcoming New Xbox Experience that has so many people excited for some reason? Turns out that Microsoft call centers are bracing themselves for NXE-induced red rings of death. So while you’re gaining a [fancy?] new user interface you may also be losing an Xbox 360. Fun!

It’s like this: Microsoft is afraid that its Frankenstein of a machine may have trouble “taking,” in a sense, the NXE update. The result of such a rejection could be (emphasis on the “could” as none of this is guaranteed to happen) mass RRODs. And when the system breaks down…

It gets better. You remember the extended warranty that Microsoft offered early last year in order to remedy the original RROD situation? It’s set to expire a few days before the NXE launches—meaning that if the NXE causes a RROD you’re SOL.

Please keep in mind that that is all speculation—there’s no reason to suspect that the NXE will cause mass RRODs. If it does, however, then we’re all in for a treat in the next few weeks.

If I get another RROD—I’ve already had one, last year—then that’s it for me, I’ll quit gaming.

via GameCenterOnline

Some of you may recall the expose VentureBeat did on the whole RROD fiasco and VB is once again reporting that Microsoft went ahead and fired the guy you see pictured. Robert Delaware was let go last week and the 29-year-old Seattle resident plans to fight civil charges that are expected from Microsoft and former employer VMC.

“I don’t regret it,” he said in a phone call on Thursday. “I’ll fight it. If they want to come after me, bring it on.”

Keep on, keepin’ on.

My first impressions of this thing are that it’s huge. Way bigger than an Xbox. Maybe that helps to keep it cool. Anyway, we’ll find out for sure when John gives it a full review in the next week.

Check out the rest of the gallery after the jump.

We now know what causes the red ring of death. It seems Microsoft, rather than having someone like ATi design the Xbox 360’s GPU, went the cheap route, going straight to a Taiwanese manufacturer with its own designs.

In other words, Microsoft’s lackluster GPU design causes the console to overheat, leading to the red ring of death. In wanting to save a few dollars, Microsoft ended up costing itself $1 billion.

The moral of the story is, don’t half-ass your work.

I keep waiting for the day when my Xbox 360 throws me the Red Ring of Death, cringing at the thought of having to call Microsoft, wait on hold, box up my console, and wait forever for it to get returned. Even though the above video tutorial likely voids your warranty, I’d much rather fix my Xbox 360 myself and then grunt like Tim Taylor when all is said and done. Or grunt like the girl in the video would. Either way.

Anyway, the fix comes to us from i-Hacked.com and, according to SlashGear, “they tested out their way of fixing the 360 on ten different ones that had gotten the RRoD and were successful with all ten.” Good enough for me.

The Consumerist is reporting that Microsoft is making good on re-licensing downloadable content for Xbox 360 owners who got replacement machines. Finally.

At issue is the fact that the Xbox Marketplace’s content is tied to each Xbox’s serial number. When you make a purchase the Marketplace checks your serial number and generates a license. That license basically says that Xbox 123 has access to content ABC. If you get a new Xbox, say you get the Red Ring of Death and you get a warranty replacement, that serial number is different, and thus the license doesn’t work.

As it stands now, it’s a long process, but they are honoring re-licenses, so if you’re patient, you’re in luck.

Here’s a Microsoft-owned Xbox 360 at the San Francisco Game Developers Conference that’s supposed to be demonstrating Microsoft’s XNA development tools but is instead demonstrating the insidious “Red Ring of Death” that’s plagued lo a-many gamer’s console over the years. The video was captured by an alert BBC reporter. Enjoy.

MS showcases Red Ring of Death Xbox 360 at expo [Reg Hardware]

Here’s a mix of good and bad news for Microsoft. The Xbox 360 sold so well during the holiday season – 1.3 million sold in December – that you can’t find it on store shelves now. Apparently, MS didn’t anticipate the console being a hot commodity and retailers are not too happy with their misjudgment. The shortage is expected to last through the quarter and MS is hoping to meet demand again in the spring. That’s an awful long time if you ask me.

So that might not have been good news per se, but this really isn’t good news. The 360 has problems and we’re all aware of that. The RROD has reared its ugly head on more than one CG staffer’s 360. I haven’t had any problems with my Elite, yet. Hopefully it stays that way, but I won’t be surprised when and if it does. My brother has had his 360 for two years and hasn’t had any problems. Now MS estimated that failure rate for the console was at 3 percent, but retailers have pegged it as high as 1/3 of all systems. That’s a pretty wide gap, but recent reports from SquareTrade have revealed that it’s actually at about 16.4 percent. Sony’s PS3 and Nintendo’s Wii are significantly lower at around 3 percent. What’s more surprising is that the CEO of SquareTrade, Steve Abernethy, seems to think that the number will rise in the future. He didn’t say by how much, but 360 owners play for long periods of time and MS hasn’t really been able to fix the overheating problems so we might see more tweaking to the warranty. That sucks. Maybe I’ll keep my Elite in a temperature controlled chamber. Yeah. That’s a good idea.

Report Claims Xbox 360 Failure Rates at 16% [1up]

Microsoft seeing Xbox shortages in U.S. [Reuters]

For a brief moment, though, I thought that I had joined the legions of Xbox 360 owners that have turned on their systems to the real-deal blinking red ring. Now 8bitjoystick.com has an interview with an unnamed source inside Microsoft with some more details about the sometimes-problematic console.

The source confirms the 30% console failure rate and says that many of the problems have to do with the console being rushed to market to beat Sony’s PS3, understaffing, motherboard timing problems, bad parts, poor heat dissipation, defective or insufficient heat sinks, humidity, and more. Pretty much what people have been saying all along, now apparently corroborated by someone on the inside.

Inside Source Reveal the Truth About Xbox 360 “Red Ring of Death” Failures [8bitjoystick.com]