this.

its a USA console though so date would be month/day/year on the console 

Unless you know the person who took it out of the box and modded it, it sounds like it was used.

You can get consoles that are DOA, but doesn't sound like it was new.   And really not sure it matters.  You didn't set a record, because people have had a dead 360 (and PS3 and Wii) without ever playing a game

3 red lights doesn't always mean it's an RRoD. If I remember right, 3 red lights also means that all the wires aren't hooked up to the system properly.

Is there some sort of "code" for this? Like which 3 quarters of circles are lit? If it is just cables, then god bless the Elite. Like I said I can play, but I don`t know how much longer. My fear is fucking up the insides of the consoles so bad that I will need a new unit.

Lol i has haad 3 360's over the past few years and none of them have RROD. My launch console 10/23/05 has never RROD yet. :)

Fixed, well at least you have a receipt to trade it in for. I doubted you however the fact still remains that your console was opened, and flashed, what I'm trying to say is your resellers are pretty shady, and who knows what may have occurred to the innards of your console. Yes it could be a RROD but there's also a chance whoever modded it messed up (would have to be a pretty stupid person to mess up flashing a disc drive) or did a bait n switch, since the warranty is already voided have you opened the sucker up yet? Did you buy your Wii in the same situation? Personally I wouldn't buy a console ever from your country, I'd probably grow up into a PC gamer.

Also I googled some stuff on 3 Rings and what it could mean. Below I've copy pasted the info and what to check for.

Decipher what your Xbox360 is trying to tell you when you get the three rings of light. There is a code that will flash if you hold down the "Synch" button (White button near the memory slot) and press the DVD Eject button. You will notice the quadrant of lights illuminate and each time you press the eject button you will get a different code.

It breaks down to this:

All four lights illuminate = 0
One Light = 1
Two Lights = 2
Three Lights = 3

Example:

Turn on your "dead" xbox. Wait for the 3 red lights. Once you get them hold the "Synch" button and the eject button down simultaniously. All four lights flash. (0) Press the eject button again and only one light (1) press again and all four light up (0) press again and two lights (2). Error code is 0102. compare this code to the table below to find out what is wrong with your X360. Is it overheating? Power Cord? Hardware?

The Code I got is 0102 which means the computer does not know the problem as it is not hardware or heating or anything like that. Could be dust, loose solder or static! I use a can of compressed air and my X360 IS BACK!!!!!! I do not know for how long but I played last night for several hours and had not one Hiccup. This after a whole week of the dreaded RINGS OF DEATH!!

Here is the list ( Thank You to KILLTACULAR for posting this!!)

0001 power supply problem
0002 power supply problem
0003 (not yet known)
...
0010 over heating
0011 over heating
0012 over heating
0013 over heating
...
0020 (Not yet known, possibly overheating)
0021 (not yet known)
0022 GPU Error / GPU Overheating
...
0101 (not yet known)
0102 unknown error - literally means the console does not know what is wrong. Possibly a short or cold solder joint somewhere (2 reports of people repairing this, one was removing moisture build up inside the console, the other used a hot-air rework to reflow the BGA Ram chips)
...
0110 Memory Error / Memory Overheating
...
1003 Hard Drive Error... It could be a problem with the Hard Drive itself or a problem with the internal connection to the hard drive, Try removing the hard drive and playing without it
...
1010 Hard Drive Error, Can be caused buy a currupt or missing Eprom.
...
1013 (not yet known)
...
1020 (not yet known)
...
1022 AV cable error... There is a problem with the AV cable, try using a different AV cable. (could also be a problem with the encoder chip)
...
1030 (not yet known)

@ goddog / PK9394 )

Uhm.. isn't the manufacture date listed as yyyy-mm-dd on 360 consoles (asian way - normal for a product manufactured in china I guess) ?

Did it never occur to you the op might just have posted the date like _he_ is used to write dates?

ooo colors

 havent you read??? its a freaking U.S console.  U.S console will always read MM-DD-YYYY, and I its specified by the OP.