Remove your hard drive

But what if that is the broken bit?

I got a follow-up e-mail from the Microsofties today. The packaging to service my Xbox has been shipped (which is a little funny when you think about it). They are sending me a box to box and send the 360 back to them. Ed commented on the way Nintendo is handling their hardware failures and I totally agree with him; they are doing it the right way.

Microsoft should send me a loaner console so I can continue gaming while they fix mine. I’m even losing money on the deal because I can’t use my Xbox Live subscription without a console. I read some posts in a message board that some people are being credited an extra month for longer repairs, but it wouldn’t be an issue if I had a loaner, right?

Now, here’s the kicker: “Once we have received your Xbox console at our Service Center. Your Xbox console will be serviced and you should receive it within 4-6 weeks.” Never mind the poor grammar there (or my own), it says six weeks!

I figured on four, but if it takes them the full six weeks to fix it, then I might not have it back in time to play Halo 3! That ain’t gonna happen though. If I don’t have it, I’ll buy another on the spot. I’m playing me some Halo 3 on 9/25.

It was announced this week that there have already been one million pre-orders placed. Seems a little low considering there are ten times that (at least) of installed 360 consoles and you’d think every one of them — besides Mookie — would want to buy it. Now I have to decide if I need to break down and pre-order the damn thing too. I was hoping to avoid that since I don’t like handing over cash to the scumbag gaming stores for pre-orders.

Another problem is I’ll now have to wait on playing BioShock as well. I was hoping that would be a good warm-up for H3 and it is on Ed’s Top 5 360 games (six if you count Army of Two) coming out the rest of this year. As long as reviews are good, I’m down with all six, although AoT probably won’t be much fun without Ed on board.

Anyway, here is some more of what they sent me:

  • Before sending your Xbox console in for repair/exchange, it is your responsibility to keep a separate backup copy of any data stored on your Xbox console. You will be responsible for reinstalling all data that was on the Xbox console. Data recovery is not included in the service and Microsoft is not responsible for data that may be lost or damaged during transit or repair.
  • It is very important that you send only your Xbox console; any additional items included in the shipping box that you send to us will not be returned.
    • Remove any disk in the tray
    • Remove any custom face plate
    • Remove your Hard Drive
    • Don’t not include any controllers, power cords, and or AV Cables unless instructed by the Xbox Customer Support agent over the phone

So, what if the hard drive was someone’s issue? I don’t think it is mine as I took it off and I get the same failures. Oh, and why do I need to back up any data if I am not sending in the hard drive? The console can only store your gamer profile, not any game saves or downloadable Marketplace content.

It would seem that this e-mail has yet to be updated to include the ability to submit your service request via the web… or, maybe it has. If you remember from my previous post, they can’t seem to get console registration via web and phone straight.

They still need to tighten this process up for more people to be happy about it.