Here we go again...

As swag mentioned earlier, I had some slight technical difficulties last night.

Only about 10-15 minutes into a round of BF43, swag cuts out mid-sentence. Not that unusual for the Vanier-Barrhaven via Toronto link, but my screen also froze at the same time, and the controls became unresponsive.

A quick reboot gave me a cool design on the screen, but a really creepy repeating sound pattern through my headset similar to the one Jodie Foster heard in Contact.

An even quicker reboot just gave me the Red Ring of Death. And then again. And again.

At this point I was relieved to confirm that I was not about to be visited by aliens, but the reality was worse. This was my Halo Edition Xbox 360! And not the backup one from last November, either. This was my original Halo Edition, with no chance of ever finding the receipt.

Thankfully, the date of manufacture on the label indicates it's less than 3 years ago, so I should be covered by Microsoft's extended 360 warranty, right? Well the Xbox website seems to think that my warranty is expired (glad I bothered registering it), and there is no way of updating it there. The US site actually has a "Dispute Warranty" button, but not the Canadian one. This will require a phone call.

To make matters worse, a Console Repair outside of warranty is now assessed at $99 when initiated through the website. But the price jumps to $119 if you have to call it in and involve a trained mammal. Will it cost me an extra $20 just to have an MS Phone Monkey read to me what I already know from the website? Will logic prevail, and my less-than-3-years-old console will get repaired under warranty? Will Mrs. Coxxorz finally see the logic in owning three two consoles?

Tune in tomorrow for the next exciting episode.