I have said before in this blog that I buy all of my equipment and this week that played out on Tuesday when my 57 week old Xbox Slim 250 gb died suddenly. That's right I said Slim. I got what can only be described as the "Yellow Blinking Light of Death". My Xbox went from a vibrant shiny council to to a non portable PSPGo! that can only play games from the hard drive. I love Castle Crashers and Limbo but (to quote Chris Carter from ESPN) "come on man".
Let me start from the beginning to set the stage. I have been playing Castle Crashers on and off for what feels like 2 years but I know its not. I finally get to the end and going through the 4 portals and "slim" turns itself off with a slight "pop". I'm upset but it turns right back on. I thought maybe I blew a fuse (little did I know I was about blow a fuse). So "slim" turns right back on with a nice strobe light effect for the power button. I see the yellow light blinking and think I better check with forum gods to find out what the hell this means. I turn to the Internet and come to the conclusion: contact the good folks at Xbox support. I call the number and we start to troubleshoot. Power Brick - checks out ok. Unplug and reset - still blinking light. Take out HD and turn on - still strobing. Finally he says "open the disc and try a game" and then nothing happens. Diagnosis - "bad disc drive". Here was the kick in the head. Dante (maybe from Devil May Cry) says in his most evil boss battle boss "I'm sorry your warranty expired July 28th it will cost you $100 to send it in to fix it". Have you ever played (insert your favorite game) on line and been winning then the other person leaves with no warning... that is how it felt. I was 5 weeks out of warranty. I was crushed. I felt I had been finally defeated when they told me that the repair comes with a 90 day warranty on that repair. It was like so far on a board having to start the entire level over again (I'm looking at you Demon Souls). I hung my head and the phone up. I looked at my games on the shelf, the Kinect seemed to look away from me as if betrayed by it's own family.
I had the Xbox 120gb Elite and found someone to buy it. I liked the fact that "slim" had a bigger hard drive and WiFi built in. I liked the look of the new system. The way it shined in the stores. Now I have to decide new system or get it fixed. Gamestop claims they will give me about $90 in store credit for the paper weight. So I want to warn you readers if that white or non shiny Xbox is working please let it stay on the shelf until he/she gives up the ghost. I wonder if that guy who bought my Xbox elite is treating her right... she deserved better anyway.
As for Microsoft you may want to start to look into this problem because all the slims are coming are going out of warranty and with Gears 3 right around the corner it would be terrible if this starts happening all over again. You have admitted fault before it may be time to raise your hand one more time. The Halo ad campaign said "Remember Reach" my new slogan when I look at my Xbox games is "Remember the 57th week".
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