This is an update to this blog entry.

Apparently, Toshiba is not renowned for their customer service. After the phone call I just made to them, they proved themselves on this. The company who handles the calls takes the cake.

The television is still broken, but I waited to call, in the off-chance it might be a temporary issue. I unplugged everything, let it reset, and did the usual measures. It did nothing.

I called and was directed to a representative. His coy attitude was obvious, to the point he lied and said they had never heard of lines appearing on their televisions or any such issue. Dozens, if not hundreds, of these cases exist.

Despite this, he redirected me to a manager who also had the same seminar in being coy and fibbing. Nope, no recalls. Nope, your warranty period is over and we won't do anything. Nope, never heard of this before.
They offered to let me pay for my own repair estimate, which was exceedingly kind....

Two years ago, my CRT television finally kicked the bucket. I needed a new television and ended up with a 52 inch LCD Toshiba Regza. It was quite nice and reasonable for the time, $1200 shipped. Fast forward to tonight: I'm channel surfing and notice the picture is non-existent on the right side, nothing but black. I observed a variety of channels and the TV is now proudly displaying less than two-thirds of the image, with the third right portion being nothing but black.

Apparently, the price was too good to be true as the components are cheap and highly liable to break. This is a recurring theme in today's market. All signs point to Toshiba refusing any type of help. Here is a link to the actual TV's reviews, which are as recent as 2011, with many reporting similar breakage. Do not buy Toshiba televisions, they are designed to break! Their laptops are bad as well, with malware basically embedded into the software. Please know, you will get what you pay for. It is something...

This is an update entry to this blog.

The refurbished unit has finally shown why it was sent back. Just before beating Fallout: New Vegas, I turned on the console to find it it could not read the clean disc, which it had read for fifty hours previously, without an issue, or ever leaving the console. That's a failing disc drive for those who are unaware.

I put in Sonic All Star racing and it did the same. Great job, Microsoft. I'm getting ready to contact Major Nelson and upper level support.

Please read the previous blogs for more info.

Short version of events from previous blogs:

1. A pristine, bricked 360, because of a beta data update from Microsoft.
2. An inferior refurbished model sent to me in its place.
3. Now, a soon to be broken refurbished unit for all my troubles.

This is a followup to this blog entry.

Well, as I suspected, Microsoft sent a refurbished unit to replace the bricked unit. There are a few problems with the situation.

One: The console is not an Elite unit. It is an Arcade, which has distinguishable differences in its cosmetic appearance. It appears to be from the last wave, with a larger on-board memory unit. The console looked okay, but had a palpable sensation of grease upon touching it, with a scratched infrared sensor. I note the infrared sensor, because, as I packed my last one to ship off, the protective plastic was still over mine.

Two: I lost about two weeks worth of Gold Membership time. I told customer service, but they refused to do anything about this.

Three: The forum in which the bricking issues were addressed on the Xbox website did not do anything for me. The users who had higher user levels and were to guide the efforts to fix the problems for people, did NOTHING....

No joking, it caused my 360 to Red Ring. During one of the many system updates it forced upon me, it happened. I turned it off, which eliminated the Red Ring after the initial incident, an E79 error, but brought a message which is all that happens when it is turned on now.

The message tells me the system update failed, and to reattach the storage device. The hard drive did not fail to my knowledge, attached or not, it still gives the message. I tried a few tricks, holding the sync button, putting a thumb drive in containing an official system update, etc. The console is new and well-kept. It is a Final Fantasy XIII bundle 250 GB model, with its use only starting in August of this year. I would eat my hat if it was on over fifty hours.

Overall, the main culprit is the Kinect Dashboard Beta, which I signed up for, and it constantly demanded updates. The Red Ring occurred in the midst of one. The message I mentioned seemed to be an issue for others during the last...