My Xbox is back

Better, stronger, louder. With a different serial number.

Microsoft must be sending already-refurbished consoles to replace newly broken units in rather than waiting to complete the actual repair. In any case, I'm glad to have a functional console back so quickly -- three weeks from the time the old one broke until the refurbished unit was on my doorstep. Just in time for the Thanksgiving weekend.

I can feel the heat coming out the back of the new unit, so it looks like the fix involved much better heat transfer out of the system.

The only downside is that -- because Xbox Live purchases are tied to the hardware as well as your user name -- I now have to be connected to the Internet to play my purchased arcade games, even though they're saved to my hard drive. I hope Microsoft is working on a way to transfer the licenses permanently to the new box.