actually do your research before you get an xbox. type in eb games and get a reconditioned one online you can take the receipt into an eb games or gamestop and buy the warranty for 20.oo they are around 159-169 for the next one up from the arcade. dont get the arcade you cant play regular xbox games on it. please read the following when making your informed decision!
The Xbox 360 video game console is subject to a number of technical problems that can render it unusable. Many of the issues can be identified by a series of red lights flashing on the face of the console; the three flashing red lights ("Red Ring of Death") being the most infamous. There are other issues that arise with the console, such as discs becoming scratched in the drive and "bricking" of consoles due to dashboard updates. Since its release on November 22, 2005, many articles have appeared in the media portraying the Xbox 360's relatively high failure rates.[1][2][3] Recently, there has been legal action taken attempting to hold Microsoft responsible for the failure rate among the Xbox 360 and provide reasonable compensation for those affected.[4]
When a Microsoft Xbox 360 console experiences a "general hardware" failure or "core digital" failure, three flashing red lights appear (known as the "Red Ring of Death") around the power button, in lieu of the four green lights indicating normal operation. Warning signs may include freeze-ups, in which the screen has strange, spontaneous graphical problems in the middle of gameplay, such as checkerboard or pinstripe patterns on the screen, the sound is frozen and changed to a strange, static-like sound, and the console only responds to pressing the power button to turn it off. These events may happen once or several times until the general hardware failure occurs, when the user attempts to turn the console on, and the three red lights are seen and the console will not function.
Some have confused General Hardware Failure with a similar looking error warning where four red lights appear, in which case the console does not detect an AV cable is plugged in.[5] The four lights can sometimes also be seen when power surges or very brief power outages occur while the console is running, in which the console needs to be unplugged and plugged back in again to reset the error.
[edit] General hardware failure
Another general hardware failure is shown by one flashing red light, and error codes E 74, E 79, or E 71 displayed on-screen. This can occasionally be fixed by ensuring that all A/V connections are securely attached. However, this error is often a result of a hardware failure that is not consumer-serviceable. These hardware failures are not covered by Microsoft's extended 3 year warranty. The problems have spun off a series of settlements with game designers for a little more than $2,000,000.[citation needed]
[edit] Response to rate of failure
In the early months after the console's launch, Microsoft stated that the Xbox 360's failure rate was within the consumer electronics industry's typical 3% to 5%.[6][7][8][9] Nevertheless, Microsoft has not released their official statistics on the failure rate of the various versions of the console; the company's press relations policy is to focus on the prompt resolution of any technical problems.[10]
On July 5, 2007, the Vice-President of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business division published an open letter recognizing the console's problems, as well as announcing a three-year warranty extension for every Xbox 360 console that experiences the "general hardware failure" indicated by three flashing red LEDs on the console.[11]
A source that has been identified as a team leader and key architect in the creation of the Xbox and Xbox 360 and a founding member of the Xbox team[12][13] provided insight as to the high rate of failures. The interviews suggest that Xbox 360 units that fail early in their life do so because of problems in the system design, parts supply, material reliability, and manufacturing issues as well as a system not tolerant to faults. These issues were alleged to be the end results of the decisions of management in Microsoft's Xbox team and inadequate testing resources prior to the console's release. A second source cited that, at one time, there was just a 32% yield of one of the test production runs. 68 of every 100 test units were found to be defective.[14][15]
In February 2008, during the Game Developers Conference 2008, Microsoft announced that the "Failure rate has officially dropped", but without mentioning any specifics[16]. The same month an examination of 1040 Xbox 360s by SquareTrade found a 16.4% failure rate; 171 were returned under warranty as "disabled", 60% of which with general hardware failure.[17][18]. However SquareTrade also admits that their estimates are likely much lower than reality due to the time span of sample (six to ten months) and the eventual failure of many consoles tha