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Discolor Online

Weblog of the sweetest person you never want to piss off.

 

Anti-Technology Aura and the Xbox 360

Kate is having a friend over tonight. This is a new friend this year and Kate's fairly excited about the sleepover. I took her to Hollywood video so she could rent some movies and Xbox games in anticipation of the event. She picked up Sonic the Hedgehog for the Xbox 360 and gave it a try (and a fairly enthusiastic thumbs up) last night. She also asked Ray if she could borrow his Guitar Hero guitars so they could play Guitar Hero together.

Everything seemed to be in place... except the Xbox is now not working. At all. It was working fine last night but this afternoon it's cold and dead: no power, no "red ring of death", no error messages. Just dead. What perfect timing, Microsoft, thanks! Do you enjoy making girls cry?

After an excruciating 34 minutes on the phone with a customer service agent, I felt despondent. First the woman couldn't understand my serial number. "0-1-5-6..." she'd say, and I would say slowly "NO, 0-1-5-FIVE-6..." only to have her tell me it was not a valid number, it was only eleven numbers when it should be twelve, and we'd start all over again. Finally got past the serial number and then she told me that my phone number was "not correct" (except that the third time I repeated it to her it miraculously WAS correct!) and then that my ZIP code was not correct and did I want her to change it? I had absolutely no confidence that authorizing her to make that change would have been actually correcting a problem and not causing one... but she insisted that my ZIP code was listed as "78XXX" which is somewhere in Texas so I authorized the change. Fingers crossed that she didn't blow up my account for me in the process.

It's bad enough that this will be the second time we've had to send this machine in for repair in less than 12 months. It's pretty ridiculous considering how relatively little we play with the stupid thing, which can go for weeks on end not even being turned on because we're just not hardcore console gamers in this house... But the timing! Does the timing have to stink so bad every time? Here's hoping we have it back in working order before Christmas. Hell, at this rate, I'm wondering if I shouldn't just give up and get a frickin' Wii instead... I don't hear about people having to send those back for repairs on a regular basis!

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Blogger Evan Says:

Last night you pulled the xBox out of the cabinet to show me the wireless adapter. Could it be the power cord loosened up on either the xBox or power strip end?

 
 
Blogger Evan Says:

As I mentioned the first time I tried to comment (and then forgot the second time that worked), no power to the xBox would explain the no circle of anything. Does the power brick have a glowing light on it?

 
 
Blogger Nikchick Says:

Yeah, I went in and unplugged/replugged the cords to the wall and to the Xbox. I checked online and followed the automated "So, your power supply light is red" help line before calling for help.

It's because I touched it. Damn anti-technology aura.

At least I was able to get the rented Sonic the Hedgehog disc out of the tray... I was worried about that one.

 

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