"A blessing in disguise," - PhillsPhan26's Blog

PhillsPhan26's Blog

"A blessing in disguise,"

Posted on February 27, 2009 at 01:23 PM.

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Over a year ago just after Christmas of '07 I purchased a Xbox 360 Elite with the mistake of buying it at Gamestop rather then, lets say BestBuy, where I could of gotten an instore warrenty but I was so excited to be getting the Elite that where I got it from really did not matter, I was just happy to get it.

So lets fast foward to about two weeks after Christmas of '08. Now between this time I have had a hell of a time with the 360 experience. Xbox Live is great and I was so addicted to NHL09 I was on all of the time. With that said, I was very weary of the console with dust, pet hair and cigarette smoke and things like that, that when everytime I was done playing I would unhook the console, put it back in the plastic and right back in the box until the next time I decided to play, every single time.

Now onto the few weeks after Christmas '08. I have downloaded the Skate 2 demo and was testing it out one night, and here I noticed these black sort of seperated dots on my screen and did not think nothing of it. So when I was done playing I exited out to Xbox dashboard and went about my routine with wrapping up the console and putting it away. Onto the next next day when I hooked it back up, switched the TV to HDMI1 and fired the console up I got the dreaded one red light (I beleive it was the lower lefthand side of the ring.), and an error message with the code of E74. My heart dropped and I knew I was screwed and the first thing that came to my mind was "why the hell did'nt I just go to BestBuy and get a warrenty when I decided to get this console."

After doing some research over the internet and checking the receipt for the date of purchase, I found out that the single red ring/ E74 error was not covered in the extended xbox warrenty, it was only covered in the one year warrenty, so now that the console was over that time that means I would have to pay to get it fixxed from Microsoft. This I refused to do since I dished out like $500 for the console itself, $50 for a year of Xbox Live, $40 for an extra controller, $30 for the keypad and $60 a pop for newly released games, I just refused to do it. What I did do however was to take matters into my own hands and tryed fixxing the problem myself. After viewing a few videos on youtube about hot to fix the problem I went along and tryed it, taking apart the 360, unclipping the clamps, cleaning the two chips to mirror shine and adding new thermal compound to no avail. It did come close to working again as a couple of times when I tryed starting the console up the Xbox "Jump In" start screen popped up but quickly went right back off.

I went a few weeks without playing any games and I must say it was the most depressing time I have had in a long time. So I decided that I would go about getting another 360 system but this time I would get the arcade for the low price of $199 (at BestBuy this time aswell) and just use my Elite HD for it and Bing, Bang, Boom all would be good. But then I started to think about this happening again soon enough, because I just had the Elite over a year. So what I decided to do was to purchase a PS3 (from BestBuy) since the online was free and NHL09 had gotten the same reviews as its 360 counterpart.

So thats what I went and did and I am really enjoying it, I mean I dig the themes for the PS3 and I am just starting to create my own. But the one big thing that makes me think that what happened to my Elite was "A blessing in disguise," is the fact that I am a hugh baseball fan and I reside in Philadelphia so you put the pieces together. But I must say that MLB09 "The Show" is going to be the best thing since sliced bread and I am just so glad I made the decision to go with the PS3.

I also wanna add that I am no "fanboy", I think its childish whenevr I see this topic. I mean I absolutely was in aww with the 360 and Xbox Live and I find myself in aww with the PS3 aswell.

So with that said, I look foward to playing some of you guys here at operationsports.com online with "The Show". My PSNID is XxChilliBeanxX, if you wanna add me to your friends list go right ahead. Thanks for your time and I hope all of you guys enjoyed my first ever Blog,
PhillsPhan26.

Comments

# 1 rspencer86 @ Feb 27

Your story is pretty much how I ended up being a PS3 owner. The 360 is a fantastic console... when it works. When mine crapped out and Microsoft sent me a replacement console that didn't work either, I made a decision to no longer support their product.

I love my PS3, and it has given me the opportunity to play a lot of great games (MLB The Show, Little Big Planet, Uncharted) that I wouldn't have ever played as a 360 owner.

# 2 Instant C1a55ic @ Jan 23

Oh yeah, i remember the time i got my first xbox. i was freaking out because the net blew up with reports of the original overheating. At one point i had a small desktop fan right behind my console blowing in cool air LOL.

But, after all the effort i got the 3 rings a few months later, and then again a few months after that. My third concole after a year started to have "disc reading" problems, AKA i have to sit in front of my console for about 10-15mins opening and closing the disc drive in order for it to read the game.

I got through the first 2 RROD's by going out and buying a PS3 and a Wii to keep me occupied. Now im on my 4th console and i just actually extended my warrenty for another year through M$ to make sure i am good till the next batch of consoles come out.

I also wanted to point out that the PS3 is no saint either. I shelled out $600 for the original fat boy machine that played ps1/2 games only to have it fall apart 2 and a half years later. I was so depressed i had to open a brand new credit card account JUST to buy a new PS3...now THATS dedication lol