XBox 360 3 red lights of death - advice please

[Hassled]

The XBox is out of warranty, annoyingly. Internet research seems to be telling me I can return it to Microsoft and in a couple of months they will send me a refurbished XBox for $140, so £86-ish (but I was looking at a US site - may be more in the UK). Or I can buy something which will talk me through how to fix it myself - apparently this is possible "even if you've never hung a picture" . Has anyone fixed it themselves? If I send it off to Microsoft is it just going to die again in a few months? This is the second time already that it's died - except the first time it was in warranty.

On the back of this, DCs want a Wii for Christmas - I'm sort of thinking we just abandon the XBox, flog the many games we have on Ebay and put the proceeds towards a Wii. Any advice? Many thanks.

[mumofkyle]

You weren't playing Call of Duty 5 were you? My son's 360 had the ring of death within 2 days of playing this! We have brought a kit from Ebay for £5 and you replace some washers. They are finishing this tonight so I will let you know if it works.

You can get a new one for £129 in Argos at the moment if all else fails.

Good luck!

[YerMaw]

There was a three year warranty extension for rrod, if I remember rightly. They should still fix it. We've got one bought on the UK launch day that's just back from a warranty repair. You can book it online.

[HRHSaintMamazon]

if you don't feel competant to fix it. you can get a 2nd hand one from gameStation for about £100.

you get a 12 month warranty with it and if you get RROD again you take it in and they simply swap it straight over. no sending away to fix or anything.

[YerMaw]

Don't open it up if it's been three red lights. Microsoft won't touch it then. I just checked re: the extension - the warranty is one year from date of purchase for most faults but if you had three red lights the warranty was extended to three years. warranty extension

The 360 only launched in December 05 in the UK, it can't be out of warranty if it's a UK one.

[Hassled]

You are all stars - MumofKyle, it would be a real help if you could let me know if it works - thanks.

Not Call of Duty, just watching a Batman DVD!

[babygrosandgros]

Our Xbox 360 broke a few months ago, had three red lights and out of waranty. We sent it off to microsoft who repaired it for free and also sent us some vouchers for Xbox Live.

Dont try fixing it, just phone microsft and get them to repair it.

[Hassled]

I had no idea re warranty extension for RROD - that's great news.