Ok, so people say that the reason why PC gaming went underground for a while was because of the fact that it costs a bit extra for a PC to run the newest games. Plus sometimes your PC will not run the game correctly even when it should and the problems that can occur with a PC that require troubleshooting. Then people also suggest getting a console because all you need to do is pop in the disk and it works.........
Well, I'm primarily a PC gamer but I also have a Xbox 360 that I enjoy from time to time and recently I was enjoying Guitar Hero 2. Last night while I was playing with my friend and I noticed something odd occur, my disk drive made a grinding sound. It quickly went away and I said to myself that it just might be a hiccup. Then my friend wanted to play Gears of War, so I popped out the Guitar Hero 2 disk and inserted the gears of war disk. No surprise but the grinding sound came again but it didn't go away. So I popped out the disk and inspected it for any issues with the disk and nothing. So I then decided to do my troubleshooting steps as I do with any computer and popped in my Guitar Hero 2 disk. The grinding started again and I watched the messages on the Xbox dashboard. All of a sudden the grinding stopped and I hurt three odd jerks in the system and a wierd buzzing sound. I turned it off and turned it back on and the same thing occurred. Now knowing of the red ring of death issue I became concerned but my xbox remained functional. I then placed the system vertical to try that as well and it still continued to do the same thing.
I then sucked up the fact that in fact my 360 DVD drive just kicked out on me. So like anyone who has xbox problems and can't return it to the store I had to call Microsoft support.....joy. First things first I get an automated message where I have to say the words to get to the next step. After 5 minutes of having to clearly say the exact words I was sent to a representative. To my SURPRISE, it was someone who didn't speak English overly well. So I told her my problem and the first words out of her mouth was "Did you notice a red ring?" and I told her that I never. She then asked me if I ever registered it and again told her no. So I then went on the daunting task of trying to understand her questions to get me registered. Then after the whole having her repeat her questions multiple times, I was done and she goes on the basic troubleshooting of the system. Questions that I would have thought would have been given such as, "Are you sure the game is backwards compatible?", "Can you insert another game and get it working", "Disconnect everything from the Xbox and then connect only the essentials". After this she asked me again what the problem exactly was and she said she couldn't find anything in the database of a problem similar to it. After mucking around, she finally decided to tell me that they can repair it but to my joy I have to ship the bloody thing off to Microsoft and give up the system for at least 4 weeks. To make it even better, I have to go to Purolator (25 minute drive from where I am and I don't have a car) and pay them the shipping costs.
Then after I hung up the phone it came to my mind that I see all of these console fanboys slamming the PC because of compatibility issues and the knowledge required to know your system requirements unlike the "Pop it in and it plays". Well, at least I never got the red ring of death.....or I wish I did because it would have meant no need to troubleshoot or going through the painful experience of Microsoft support.....
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