My japanese 360 is RED OF Death! Advice needed!

PsikyoPshumpPshooterP · Mon Jan 22, 2007 3:51 am

my japanese 360 freezes everytime i wanna play a 360 game. XBOX Live works fine, and XBLA is ok and it doesnt freeze until i play a 360. Does Microsoft cover japanese 360's? how do you suppose i go about, fixing my 360? I have the Rings of Death and i have no idea what to do..plz help

Edit:Now it doesnt even start up anymore..just circles of red

EOJ · Post by **EOJ** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 3:56 am

If you have a Japanese X360 in the USA and it dies, you're screwed. Microsoft won't help you. You need to buy a new one. Get one that's been manufactured recently, they're (supposedly) more reliable. Mine was manufactured in Oct 2006 and it's worked perfect for the month I've had it (I haven't played it much though).

PsikyoPshumpPshooterP · Mon Jan 22, 2007 4:06 am

twe wrote:If you have a Japanese X360 in the USA and it dies, you're screwed. Microsoft won't help you. You need to buy a new one. Get one that's been manufactured recently, they're (supposedly) more reliable. Mine was manufactured in Oct 2006 and it's worked perfect for the month I've had it (I haven't played it much though).

would it be worth getting fixed? my local mom and pop game shop said they can fix it for about 100 bucks..

EOJ · Post by **EOJ** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 4:08 am

If you have a local shop that can fix it, go for it. $100 for a fix is better than $300-$400 for a new unit.

Strider77 · Post by **Strider77** » Mon Jan 22, 2007 6:17 am

Microsoft WILL fix the system if they can, but if they can't they will replace it with a US model.... pointless. This is what they told me over the phone several times anyway.

I had this problem... well not to your degree. Mine would freeze everyonce in awhile with lost planet. I read up on it and it was due to the crappy thermal paste on the processor or GPU. I opened mine and redid the thermal paste and also improved the air ducts.

I have had ZERO problems since then, but I didn't have alot before. I suppose i could do the job for a small fee or tell you how to do it.

It cost me about 8.00 to fix up. Let me know if you have questions.

GateofThunderforceIII · Mon Jan 22, 2007 7:08 pm

This is absolute garbage. I just made an appointment to have my US 360 picked up by UPS because it's fried. And I KNOW this won't be the last time this damn thing will croak. I like the 360 and its game line up, but with Microsoft keeping on making garbage products that don't last, I may have to root for Sony and the PS3...unless the PS3 ends up being the same way.

I'm sorry to hear your JP 360 bit it.

PsikyoPshumpPshooterP · Sat Jan 27, 2007 2:04 am

i have 3 rings of red..what does that mean? sorry for the noob question..right now..my 360 is sitting..till i have 100 dollar cash to pay for the fixing..until then, im having much more fun with my US 360..lol..FUCK

Endymion · Post by **Endymion** » Sun Jan 28, 2007 6:45 am

Three red lights on the power button means that there is a hardware failure. The most common hardware failure is a cold solder joint to the GPU. This has been happening a lot lately as enough time has passed that simple use (not overheating) has caused the cold solder joints to break. That is what happened to my unit (bought on launch day) and it sounds very much like this is what happened to yours as well, first I got red-rings that a restart would solve. Then from time to time it would freeze in the games, then it would freeze at the dashboard, then it would freeze just trying to start with the XBox 360 logo. This kind of gradual deterioration has usually turned out to be caused by that manufacturing defect.

I do not have a Japanese 360, however I followed a thread from a person who spoke with Microsoft in the USA, who after a lot of talking (he wanted a replacement/repaired Japanese unit, not an American one, just like you do) got them to give instructions on where to send it in to Japan. It took more than a month, but I'm pretty sure he got his unit back. If you go and search ars technica's game forum you should find it there. It will probably answer a lot of questions.