I love my Xbox

[toprob]

Anyone who knows me knows that FS is not the only Microsoft product I love. However I've recently suffered from the dreaded Red Ring of Death, which signifies an Xbox 360 hardware failure, and I paid my $220 for out-of-warranty repairs.
Microsoft have taken the extraordinary step today of admitting to a hardware problem with the Xbox 360, and have decided to not only extend the warranty for RROD problems to 3 years, and will refund those of us who suffered.
I might buy a couple of 360 games with my refund, and MS are definitely back in my good books.

[Zöltuger]

Well that's good news about the refund.
I've never really been a console gaming fan, though I used to have a Sega Master System.

[brownbox]

though I used to have a Sega Master System.

Ahhh yes, the good old days.......

Please, can someone tell me what this Red Ring of Death is? I dont know cause I dont actually own an xbox of any kind, but still, it sounds interesting

[Alex]

Around the power button on the front of the Xbox, is a ring that LED's can light up, it can be green, orange I think, and ... red;



Alex

[brownbox]

ahh i read about it on google.... sounds like the xbox needs to take a hike and all games put onto pc

[toprob]

There are four lights circling the on-button, they normally light up green to show up to four controllers connected. However a particular hardware failure is shown by 3 of these lights flashing red.
The RROD is so common that folk have believed that this is a design flaw, and now that MS have made this announcement they've obviously seen it as such.
A few folk dismantled their Xboxes before and after repairs for RROD, and discovered extra heat sinks installed afterwards. I suspect that this is a heat issue -- Xboxes just cook over time until they fail.

[toprob]

ahh i read about it on google.... sounds like the xbox needs to take a hike and all games put onto pc

Most people love their Xboxes because they are not a PC:)
I use mine as a media player, mainly, although the kids play a lot of games when they are with me (weekends only, unfortunately). I do enjoy the games myself, at the moment I'm playing Ghost Recon II, and I love the old arcade games from when I were young -- in particular Gyruss, Centipede and Rally X.
But mainly I stream music from the PC while I work, and I can stream video as well. I've just discovered the ability to start up the Xbox music player, press 'y' on the controller, and it plays randomly through my entire music collection from the PC. The Xbox outputs to a surround sound system.
The Xbox also acts as a separate monitor when I'm designing, letting me scroll through (streamed) airport photos on the TV while designing on the PC.
The best thing at the moment is the new HD DVD player. You really need a biggish HD TV for this, but since mine is connected to a normal TV I switch it to the PC monitor (22") to play HD.