Fre…Fre…Freezing

And I don’t mean the weather.

Oh no, my dear sweet Xbox 360 started freezing on me. At first it would occasionally freeze after playing a graphically intense game. Then it started happening more and more often to the point where I couldn’t play of my current favorite games: Aces Combat 6. The game would always freeze when selecting a plane in the hanger prior to any mission. Then it started freezing when Kari and I would play Star Wars Lego: The Complete Series. For that game, it always froze when we tried to purchase additional characters. Ironically it never really froze when I played Halo 3 or Guitar Hero and only a few times when playing Gears of War, and maybe once on Beautiful Katamari.

And just for the record, the 360 was in an wide open environment and I even had the power brick elevated. Also, I never received the dreaded red rings of death…thankfully.

After I followed every step (and then some) in this Microsoft Knowledge Base article, I decided it was time to give old Bill a call. I’d have my 360 for just about a year and the warranty was going to expire at the beginning of January. So here’s a little time line Just to give you an idea as to how long it takes:

December 1: I didn’t feel like talking to a tech, so I placed a service request on their website. After I submitted the request, my case was pending review.

December 4: The status on the website changed to ‘Waiting for device at service center’. I’m guessing that meant Microsoft was sending me box.

December 5: I called their hot line to see what was the deal. After I finally got around Max, their automated phone tech, to speak to a human, she said a box had been shipped out via UPS and she gave me a tracking number.

December 7: Box arrived at my house around 6 PM.

December 8: Dropped box off at UPS Store. It was kinda funny because I walked in a nondescript white box and the guy behind the counter knew it was a 360 going back to Microsoft. Also note that UPS 3-Day Ground doesn’t ship boxes on weekends, just Air.

December 10: Pickup for the box was rescheduled for December 11.

December 11: Box was shipped to repair center in Texas.

December 13: Box arrived at repair center. The status on the website was changed to ‘Device received at service center’.

December 18: Status updated to ‘Device shipped to customer’ via FedEx.

Yay! Looks like I’m getting my Xbox 360 back in time for Christmas. It also appears (according to their website) that I’m getting a different 360. The serial number has been updated and the warranty extended to mid March of 2008. In addition, according to this website and the new serial number, it appears that I’m getting a new 360 and not a refurb:

7 – 2007

48 – Week of November 25th

05 – China

Bonus!

I’ll update this post when I get it in with more details.

Creative Giving (and Getting).

Monsters’ Den.

The longest headline you’ll see this week.

2007 Guide to Free Software and Webapps. (I can honestly say that I use a majority of these packages).

Einstein’s Logic Puzzle.

Archaeologists dug in a Nashville yard for four hours looking for the body of a man President Andrew Jackson killed in a duel. They didn’t find the body but did unearth two empty cans of Skoal, a tire, some Budweiser cans and a boot.