I called microsoft tech support to get my serial number so I could track the repair status online of my 360 and they said their computer shows it "repaired and shipped as of today".  I shipped it out on 7/27 which means the earliest they would have gotten it was this morning.  I'm in Texas and generally everything in-state is 1-day.  If that's the case, it was a same-day turnaround.  Surely this is a mistake in their system and it has not yet been "repaired and shipped".  I realize they are going to send me a refurb but I'm wondering if they were busy stockpiling repaired refurbs so they could clear out the inevitable rush of systems they were going to get with a 3 year announcement.   If so, it's the first smart thing MS has done is this whole debacle and will certainly turn the tide of discontent over hardware failures.

I'm hoping microsoft is busy making/refurbing units that have both the DVD and motherboard issues resolved and they are simply shipping a completely refurbed unit that is highly unlikely to fail again rather than fix the single issue and wait until the next thing breaks.  If they were to fully refurb every unit before it shipped out, they would eventually get em all and be done with it.  Maybe that's the billion dollar charge.... to do exactly that...

 If they did, in fact, turn it around same day, I'll have it tomorrow or the next day at the latest.... I'll post when it shows up.

If you know how to check for the second heatsink, let us know if it has that, too.

I saw a link somewhere... If you will point me to the right place to help identify, I'd be happy to check for it. My suspicion is that *most* xboxs go in for RROD and hend *most* refurbs are going to be a fixed RROD box. Mine was a DVD so it is possible they just replaced the DVD drive but I highly doubt it... We'll see soon. :)

I think this might help:

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=16731083

Check for the 2nd heatsink and DVD.

I had around the same turnaround time for my X360 - believe me, they know how to turn em around quick. This is despite some people's bad luck. I have all praise for MS in how they handled my RROD'ed X360 - quick, nice, and free!

when you guys send the system back does MS send out a special box to ship it back in and if so how long does that take? Because my PS system had problems and i'm still waiting on a box, it will be 5 work days as of tomorrow :(

When your system dies, the process is:

You call MS up and tell them the problem. They go over "solutions" to try to fix the problem, as well as troubleshooting and indentifying the problem.

Once they determine your unit is fubar'ed, they tell you they're sending the shipment box out.

For me (I live in Ohio), it took 3 days. They sent my box within a few hours with a tracking number delivered via Email.

The box had all the packing materials for my X360 (the unit itself) to send it back.

They then got it, Emailed me a tracking # for their repair status, and updated me once it was sent out from their repair HQ in Texas. I got it back in 3 days via UPS 3-day select.

3 days to ship the box to me
3 days for me to wait to send my X360 back to them, because I forgot I had the box
2 days for them to get the X360
2 days to notifty me of recieving it, and them shipping it out
2 days to reach my house in Ohio from Texas.

Total time was 10 business and non-business days, with 7 being actual days that were under MS responsibility. So if it's taken you 5 days thus far....Sucks for you.

Yes, they send a box with two foam thingys for each end of the box, an anti-static plastic sleeve, a picture instruction pamphlet, an adhesive return label, and a strip of tape to close the box up.  I packed it and dropped at the ups place.  No problem...

Trouble in paradise.... I called today to try to get a tracking number and they said they had mine in the system but it would be 7-10 days before it gets repaired. Two days, two different stories. I thought it was too good to be true. :(

Eh. It can change tommorow. Hound them. You'll get more free stuff.