Red Ring of Death MS Repaired Refirb Units - Do they last?

Well two months before my extended warranty was up my on my 360 it RROD, I guess I am lucky. Is the replacement going to last me at this late stage in the game, do they have the bugs fixed with these refirbs?

I had a newer 360 with just one of the chips, I believe CPU, made on the newer cooler process from 3 years ago. But the GPU was still on the older die process. I have the 360 on a flat open air desk with my 360 on top with the power supply. It is in the preferred vertical position. I don't ever leave it on unless I am playing a game. I did not buy when it came out because of all the issues users were having and was hoping the upgrades they made would take care of the issues.

From user experience with these newer refirbs do they last. Would they actually send me a even worse unit with both older chips. Do you think they are now sending out refirbs with both the GPU and CPU on the upgraded newer, cooler process?

I got it back it isn't my unit, and it is scratched up. Mine looked like brand new I am a little upset. My electronics do not usually break on me, I am extremely careful with everything I own. I have all my old systems in working order back to the NES. My PS2 is still going strong and it was a used one.

Should I be looking for a Gamestop trade in deal ? This sucks. I don't want to end up having to plunk down another $300 or whatever for the same thing I already own.

MS has a terrible track record with their refurbs, just based on what I've read. My own refurb had a bad disc drive. I never actually used the thing since I had already bought a new Jasper. Plugged it in one day before selling it to a co-worker and the dvd drive starts going nuts (opening and closing on its own, continually trying to read a disc that wasn't there).

Like you, it wasn't my console. I love the way they essentially send you someone elses problem.

Joystic and a lot of the game sites have reported about this in the past.

As far as will the refurb hold up, YMMV. I know people who say it has been fine, some have had a second failure.

As far as not getting your own xbox back, the issue is speed to get your return and cost on Microsoft's side. If they can batch up returns and fixes it makes it less expensive to do so and purchase parts in batches in a inventory on demand model. As far as the consumer, while you will not get a prestine case the idea is that you are getting a working unit vs a cosmetically clean model.

Many companies that sell Laptop are the same way. My company goes the refurb route with Dell and HP and if something breaks what you get back may be a little worse for wear than what you gave them.

In my opinion, right now would be a good time to get a reduced price Elite or a new slim vs a refurb. I have read a lot less problems with the Elite especially the CoD editions and the slims seem to be doing better.

In late 2007, my 360 RROD'd. The replacement unit died within 10 minutes, so I sent it back out again. The third unit has lasted me so far, so who knows? These are literally the opposite sides of the spectrum here...

My first 360 was a launch unit I bought used from my friend. It rrod'd soon after. I sent it in and bought myself a new 360. When it got back, I sold it to my friend who has used it ever since with no issues.

My Falcon RRoD after 2.5 years. The replacement was DOA. The replacement to the replacement was traded in immediately.

When my Launch unit died last January I sent it in and the replacement I got back is still going strong. I haven't had a single problem with it.

The refurbs in this stage of the console cycle should last much better than they used to. I'm on my 6th (or 7th, honestly I forget by now) 360. The first 5/6 was one console that was swapped out for a refurb each time and ended up dying. Finally I bought a Resident Evil special edition in March of '09 and I haven't had a problem since. I think they have things better sorted out now, including refurbs.

I'm on my third refurb. My first lasted 18 hours, second lasted about 3 days, current one has been going strong since October 2007 with no problems.

I got a free refurbished Jasper from a promotion here on CAG a few months ago and it had issues keeping a connection to wireless controllers, so I had to send it in within a week of receiving it.

[quote name='Allnatural']MS has a terrible track record with their refurbs, just based on what I've read. My own refurb had a bad disc drive. I never actually used the thing since I had already bought a new Jasper. Plugged it in one day before selling it to a co-worker and the dvd drive starts going nuts (opening and closing on its own, continually trying to read a disc that wasn't there).

Like you, it wasn't my console. I love the way they essentially send you someone elses problem. [/QUOTE]

My roommate's 360 started giving disc read errors on all games after about 30 minutes of playtime, right after the warranty expired. Luckily it red ringed (on its own) a few weeks later and Microsoft replaced it under the extended RROD warranty. I'm guessing that the optical drive was never tested before it was sent back out to some poor person. Oh, and the refurb that my roommate received red ringed again. Both his original and replacement console were sitting on a wire rack with air circulation on all sides in a room that rarely got warmer than the low 70s. There probably aren't a lot of 360s in better real world conditions to prevent overheating.

In my experience, MS has a bad track record with optical drives. I have an original Xbox with a bad drive, my roommate's 360 drive crapped out, and several other people I know have had issues with theirs. The drives are only covered by a 1 year warranty and the RROD by a 3 year. I wouldn't be surprised if people who were somewhere in the middle had drives go bad and threw some towels on their 360 to overheat it and get RROD on purpose. Then, Microsoft fixes the RROD and doesn't bother with the drive because they don't know about it.

It's all a game really. And it depends. I've had a refurb working well for more than 6 months now. The case was dirty on the outside, when it arrived, but it was better than those reporting DOA on their returns.
If I ever had to pay for the repair, I wouldn't even consider sending it in to MS. I would simply trade it in for whatever I can get, and getting a new Arcade.

I remember hearing the game had been ready for months before they released and apparently they were going to release several DLC episodes, but instead decided to roll the content into a full-blown sequel and do not want to wait too long:

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6274256.html?tag=latestheadlines;title;3

My refurbed unit ended up dying a week or two later. Luckily I had already bought a Jasper Arcade unit.

More than likely, the refurb will crap out, too.

The ones you get back from ms is usually crap. One they sent me back started making a weird grinding noise and died within a month. The last one I got back from them the drive had issues. It kept getting disc errors like crazy. I ended up just buying a new core model and it was fine.