Ring of fire

My Xbox 360 has joined the very large group of machines with the red ring of death; the three red lights signify a hardware failure.

Joy. I suppose it serves me right for posting on a forum and saying mine was ok.

First sign was the Shadowrun demo locking up with some graphical corruption, then doing it on the dashboard, then during booting up (see pic) then not booting at all and flicking me the three lights.

A call to Microsoft confirmed its premature departure and a UPS mailing label appeared in my inbox. So, yes, they will fix it and send it back for free (unless I lied about the three red lights, in which case they'll phone for authorisation to fix it for 75 Euros) but word on the 'net is it takes over 5 weeks for them to do it.

Now, seeing as I need only send the base unit away (not the faceplate, HDD, cables etc) I'm thinking maybe I'll buy a core system in the meantime, and ebay one of them once I get my repaired one back. Or, keep both and have a ready-to-go system link setup in the 'Den'.

My good lady wife thinks I should get a PS3 and not bother with Microsoft anymore. Whilst I can see where she's coming from, the reason I don't already have a PS3 is the distinct lack of exclusive games, and the fact they're £425.

Still... there is a good F1 game for it....