Red Rings of Death
At long last my venerable XBOX 360 succumbed to the seemingly inevitable red rings of death. When I bought it in the fall of 2006 I had heard about this problem, but since the unit wasn't a launch console (8-06 manufacture date) and would be properly ventilated I hoped I might avoid this issue. As the months and years passed, I felt even more confident that my console would survive. Unfortunately I am just like all of the other assholes who bought a 360 and hoped it wouldn't crap out.
The worst part of it is that my 360 red ringed at the strangest time imaginable. It is my understanding that the red rings are caused by the GPU unseating itself from its socket on the motherboard, a result of overheating due to the GPU's inadequately designed heatsink. In my case, however, I had just turned on the console to try out the Resident Evil 5 demo. After completing a couple of updates, I started the game and reached the menu screen before it froze while attempting to load the level. I restarted the console and was greeted by the infamous red rings. Luckily thanks to Microsoft's extended 3 year, billion dollar warranty extension I should get it repaired free of charge, but we'll see how this goes.
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