So it’s been two-and-a-half years and the Xbox 360 decided to red ring. On Microsoft’s website they explain that you should make sure that it is the Xbox and not something else such as the power brick that is bad. I looked at the power brick when I turned the system on, it’s green, looks like it’s working to me.

The next thing I did was to search google for how to get it fixed. Of course there are DIY methods including wrapping a towel around it and leaving it on for 5 hours. Apparently this melts any bad connections and when it cools everything is back to normal. Not wanting to void my warrany I looked for the way that I could just send it back to Microsoft.

I found a link that sent me a Microsoft site. I clicked a button that said ‘Repair my Xbox‘. First I had to register my Xbox. After entering my name, email address and serial number I found that my Xbox was no longer covered by the warrany.

I decided to go on with repair anyway, this Xbox doesn’t do me any good if it’s broken. At first it looked like it was going to cost me $100, but then I saw the dropdown that asked if you had ‘three blinking red lights’ and a note that basically said that if you have the Red Ring of Death that repair is free within the first 3 years.

It doesn’t look like anybody is out of that three-year period yet, nobody will be until November. Anyway, we got ours for that first easter, so we still have a half-a-year.

After going through the process of signing up for repair they tell you to print the reciept and that they will ship you an empty box with strict shipping instructions and to follow the instructions exactly. Don’t ship any accessories with the xbox, make sure you take any disks out of the system, and take off the harddrive if you have one.

Now we’re just waiting for them to send the box. Then we have to wait another 2-3 weeks for them to repair the Xbox and send it back. The whole process is free, including shipping. It also looks like they give you a free month of Xbox live for all the time that it takes them to repair it, hopefully I can extend my subscription with that free month and it’s not just one of those free first month cards that ship with some of the games. It would be pointless for me to start another Xbox Live account for one month, maybe they should send marketplace points.