Well, it finally happened.

Knowing that my Xbox 360 was purchased about five or six months after Chief Oddball’s, I’ve been counting the days since his 360 died last year, awaiting my own console’s failure. It took slightly longer than I anticipated, but this morning while playing my rented copy of Lost Odyssey my console locked up, the screen displaying red criss-crossing lines. I tried booting the game up a few times after that (always with the same result) before getting the dreaded flashing red lights.

Of course, it only happened that one time. I can still power the thing up, but every game will inevitably lock up with the screen displaying a red checkerboard pattern, not unlike what Chief Oddball himself experienced. Resigning myself to fate, I called Xbox support. After verifying that neither the power supply nor hard drive were the problems (and registering my console, since I’d never bothered), the gentleman on the other line set me up for a free repair job (saying they’d call me if the problem was something than overheating hardware, which is very unlikely). So I’ll be getting my UPS box in 3-5 days, and then I probably won’t see my 360 again for months.

Good thing there aren’t too many 360 games out there right now that I’ve “gotta have.” Also, good thing I have three other gaming consoles to keep me busy if I need a gaming fix.

Still, it would have been nice if my well-ventilated 360 didn’t take a crap on itself. Oh well.

(Maybe this is someone’s poor idea of an early birthday present.)

Edit, 9:30PM: Okay, it’s completely dead now. Red ring all the way, baby.