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I've heard the stories about the Xbox 360 and the Red Ring of Death. I thought: "Well, as long as I keep this thing properly ventilated, nothing should happen, right?" Sadly enough, I got the Red Ring of Death.

I've owned this console since December 23, and signed up for Xbox Live somewhere around December 25. The manufactured date was September 20th, 2006, well away from the units that had most problems (AKA: Mine had a different revision.) I have never kept the unit in enclosed areas, making sure that the 360 had proper ventilation to avoid overheats.

Fast forward to 09/20/07.

This was the year where [my] console hit one year old. Everything was still running smoothly. I thought to myself: "Sweet, nothing happened to it at all, I guess I'm safe."

Fast forward to 11/17/07, 12:00 PM.

It all started when I was playing Call of Duty 4. I already beat the game on Normal, so I thought I should go and try the game on Hardened on the second time around, and play Veteran later. Right when I had to defend War Pig (the stranded Abrams Tank,) I noticed that when I took any form of damage (indicated by the screen having a red border,) lines would flicker on to the screen, and the textures would appear watery and blurry. I passed this off as an engine glitch, as the HUD was fine. Crue the Cool (or Crue,) invited me to a game, which I joined. I then learned that the lines and the blurry textures were now staying on the screen under any circumstances. Being (mostly) mature on Xbox Live, I finished the match, then restarted my 360. It powered on, but nothing was being displayed when the A/V cable selector was set to HDTV. I tried again with TV, which it worked, but the same graphics glitches appeared on the Xbox Dashboard. The "Oh Shit" feeling appeared in my mind, because I knew that my 360 was going to give me the Red Ring of Death. Paranoia taking control, I called Xbox Customer Support, where I was put on hold for a good 20 or 30 minutes. The customer support technician ran me through troubleshooting, but I could not get a chance to clear the Hard Drive cache, because the 360 was refusing to send any A/V signal. He got a repair order for my 360, which should be completed in 4 TO 6 WEEKS. I was then told about Microsoft Repair Center guidelines, which are very strict. If any signs of tampering is found on the console (not on my console,) the warranty is immediately voided, and I will then have to pay the massive shipping and repair costs. After the call was finished, I powered up my Xbox 360 again, to find out that it gave me the Red Ring of Death. I already knew how to find the "hidden" error code generated by the Red Ring of Death, which the error code is 0020, so now I am stuck with a non-functioning Xbox 360, for about 4 to 6 weeks.

[EDIT] The box has been shipped out. Now I am just going to have to wait out the 4-6 weeks.

In the meantime, I have been playing Perfect Cherry Blossom while I try to kill time without the Xbox 360. Screenshot below.

[EDIT] NEW LINK! Download the game here.