My Xbox 360 - It Is Died

In the face of the demise of my Xbox 360 just an hour ago -- courtesy of the dreaded Red Ring of Death -- I still consider myself lucky.

First of all, this is the first time this happened to my machine, and at so late a time in its life cycle. All my Xbox Friends have reported red rings for the past couple of years. Maybe I just don't play often enough to make it overheat.

My Xbox 360 is the entry-level "Core System" sold almost 3 years ago. It came with no hard drive and no wireless controller. At the time, supply was very low and this Xbox was one of two on the shelf at Circuit City. I remember running to the store just to get it since that week was the release of "Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter". I was the last in my group to get an Xbox 360 and I would have been left out of intense gaming if I didn't get it. I bought the also-rare-at-the-time hard drive on Amazon.com a few days later.

Needless to say, the system has been intact for almost 3 years. In fact, the past 2 years and 11 months. Up to three months ago, when I bought the Rock Band 2 drum set -- I still had my wired controller. It was kind of embarrassing while trying to fit my headset into the drum set, I found out that they don't sell the headset I was using anymore and Xbox has moved to a new standard. I now use a wireless controller with spare batteries.

The Red Ring of Death problem is "under warranty" for 3 years, so I am happy that my machine is still covered. I guess the extra hour of Rock Band playing the other day helped push it over the edge just in time.

So I am sending it out to repair, but I am now considering getting a new Xbox 360. I think the Xbox 360 Arcade version at $199 is a good deal for me considering I already have all the accessories I need. When my old machine comes back, I will use it as a spare for any future red rings.