My second XBOX 360 is dying
Wow. It's hard to be an XBOX 360 fan right now. My current 360, which is a replacement for the first one I bought, seems to be dying.

I've tried to play it a few times over the weekend and each time the unit would lock up (screen freezes with checkboard pattern on it and audio gives a quick burst of static before going silent). This occurs browsing the dashboard, in offline play of a demo and online play of a game disc.

Of course, after the last one died, I picked up the extended MSFT warranty; however, since this unit was manufactured in 2005, they are repairing it for free.

The only thing that makes this whole thing worse is the recent policy change that requires the customer to pay for return shipping. My last one was shipped both ways free via DHL overnight. Not this time. So I am looking at probably $10-$15 due to the weight of the console.

I am going to the miss the 360 most as a Media Center Extender (since Gears of War isn't out yet). There are a ton of pretty good network shows this season that I am recording in HD on one of my Media Center PCs. I usually stream those to the 360 in the evenings.

BTW, as I've been writing this post, the 360 has crashed twice while I've been downloading Tony Hawk's Project 8 demo.