TANKs BLOG #156 : hell of a weekend

72 hours of no 2old2play really sucks.  So i spent the time breaking my console over the weekend .    Not really but man what a favorable string of events.

So first i wake up Saturday morning and fire up some TMNT.  My controller doesn't work, it just blinks all 4 lights at the same time.  It won't sync to the console, try some new batteries, no help.  So i call Microsoft and they try and tell me i should use their rechargable battery pack.  I tell them to screw their head on right, i have Energizers in there which trump their battery pack or any type of rechargable battery.  So i get transfered to someone else, talk to them, then i get transfered to a 3rd person and they tell me to send the controller to them and they'll swap it out free and send it back to me free.  Cool. 

I fire up my 2nd wireless and get back on TMNT.  I play for another 4 hours and finish it.  I shut my console off to do some other stuff around the the house then fire it back up again to play some Dynasty Warriors.  I get a single red light and System Error E74 up on the screen.  No big deal i thought, i get that every once in a while and a reboot always clears it.  Reboot .... E74.  Ugh.  Reboot again ..... E74.  UGH!   So i take everything plugged into the console off except power and video, even the HDD is removed.  Reboot .... E74.   GRRRR.  So i put a fan on it and blow it chilly for an hour, it was 80 degrees in the house so i thought ok maybe it's just overhead.  An hour later... E74.

Now i'm wondering what to do.  Swap with microsoft and get my console back repaired.  It's a launch unit so it has a higher resale value because hackers love those launch systems.  But i'd be without my console for the Halo3 beta test, my gamescore is going to suffer (and i'm in a race with a few friends right now... have 3 people trying to pass me :) ).  Or i could go buy a core right now and be out of pocket 300 bucks until i get the fixed premium back then sell the premium off.  But the Elite's coming out on Sunday.  Then i remember i bought the product replacement plan at Gamestop.  Golden!  So i take my busted controller and busted console in to them in the original box at about 8:30pm on Saturday night.  They take a brand new console off the shelf, swap HDD's so i have no data loss and send me on my way.  They asked me if i wanted to buy another swap warranty on the new one since it's good for only 1 swap or 1 year which ever comes first .

So i get home and i find out my new system as a born on date of August 2006.  I was a little miffed, the system was almost a year old.  WTF is that, and of course no BenQ drive in it.  So i spent the night moving anything i wanted to keep off my HDD and onto the two mem carts i have.  I called Gamestop and found out they only were getting 5 Elites so i figured it was going to be an early morning.

So 7am rolls around Sunday morning and i'm outside GameStop... they don't open till 11.  No one was there.  SO i headed back to my truck and watched some TV on my laptop until 10am then went and camped the door.  By the time they opened they did have 6 people in line for Elites but I was the only one apparently swapping, the rest were buying outright.  The swap went pretty well, i delt with the same guy as on Saturday so i'm sure that helped.  250 for the Premium making the Elite cost 230 out of pocket.  One kick in the balls is that because the console is above 400 bucks, it's an extra 10 bucks for their swap out warranty, so 59 bucks instead of 49 for the premium or 39 for the core.  But knowing this is basically another 'launch' system, i got it.   What  the hell, beats dealing with microsoft and the long wait.

When i got it home, i saw it had a born on date of March 2007.  So i was much happier with that date than my previous swap premium unit.  Still no BenQ drive though, so that confirms what microsoft has said, they use whatever drive is in stock when putting them together, it's luck of the draw.  I have the hitachi drive.  Noise level wise though, it sounds exactly the same as both of the premiums i'd have in the past 24 hours.  Spent some time downloading demos, video's and arcade games i had to re-download.  Not a big deal.  The Elite doesn't come with that transfer cable, you hav eto print out a form from Microsoft, fill it in and snail mail it to them, really lame.  But i've done that, not that i need one but it's always cool to get something free :)

So that's the story of my weekend and how i got an Elite.  I was really on the fence about getting one and probably wouldn't have.  But my launch 360 couldn't have decided to die on me at a more perfect time.