Song of The Day: What’d I Say - Artist: Ray Charles

On Christmas Day I was pretty excited by my wife’s “family gift” of an Xbox 360. I had visions of awesome graphics and loud Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound. So I whipped the box open, connected all the gear, booted up the system, and I received the following “black screen” of death and error message: System Error. Contact Xbox Customer Support. E67

I almost couldn’t believe it. My child-like notions dashed!

I decided after a couple of retries to look up the error code online. So what was the problem? Well, it was a failed hard drive accessory. The remedy entailed detaching the hard drive; however, this also introduced the side-effect of not being able to save profiles or game checkpoints. At least I was able to play some cool games that day until I could get to a store for a replacement HD or for a portable memory unit.

Where am I going with all this? Well, after checking with Toys-R-Us and not wanting to bring the entire Xbox package back to get a new HD accessory a day later, I decided to contact Microsoft directly about the accessory. Microsoft was very accommodating and they are in the process of sending me a replacement part.

However, I was surprised to hear from Customer Support that they wanted me to throw the old Xbox HD away. I said, “Don’t you want me to send the broken HD back to you.” The representative responded, “No, if they are broken within the first week or two, we just have you throw them away.”

Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised by this because recycling programs are just taking off and certain components may not do much good in the recycle “bin.” I guess I just thought that the part could have been recycled to save costs somehow and to rid folks of any “Xbox waste.” Perhaps, this will be a service, or part of the service, at some point in the future.

Regardless, the Xbox is a great gaming machine and I personally like it over the PS3 :). At least the HD-DVD drive is “optional” for ~$200. I guess the flames may start now. A Mac user who is a fan of the Microsoft Xbox 360 and not necessarily swooning over the PS3 and Bluray! However, let it be known that I was a fan enough of the first PS that I bought a PS1 and Net Yaroze. I guess the sticker price of ~$600 for the PS3 got us as consumers.

BTW after playing those three games I have to admit that I have enjoyed the Viva Pinata game the most! My daughter and I have created quite a garden :). Too bad that a couple of the Rare founders are leaving after 20 years.

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