So, you've RROD. You called Max, Max passed you over to the Philippines, you coffin'd, you cried, you got your system back. All is well, yes?

NO. IT IS NOT.

See, what's happend, is for whatever reason your Xbox broke and had to be replaced with a DIFFERENT unit.

What this means is that MS has broken all your DRM attached to your XBL games. All your games you bought will now only work when you are signed into Xbox Live. For most of us, this ain't a big deal. But if you are ever planning on going to Grandma's or over to a friend's house for whatever reason, you're going to run into issues the first time you load up Marathon and it tells you, "You have the trial version."

So, what you need to do, and it's only slightly dishonest, but considering MS has fucked you on your rights to your content, is there anything less dishonest than fucking over MS for your money back?

Now what I've done, twice now, is once you get your console back, go get yourself a new silver level gamertag. They do this to make sure you're not just pocketing the points (which is what you're basically doing anyway...)

Get your new serial number.
Get your new system ID number.
Get a list of all your games that do not work anymore. (Which will ONLY be Live Arcade games you paid for, not Yaris, and not that copy of Carcassone you swiped for free back in November.)

Call up Xbox. Tell Max "Xbox Live", then "360", then ask for "Customer Support". If you call after 5pm EST, you might luck out and get a US local.

Here's the problem. You want your games back, you fuckin' paid for 'em, they're yours, get 'em back. Get your points, dump them into a second silver account (if you want) and rebuy (or not) your games.

MS CANNOT tell if you are online or offline with your GamerTag based on their information, so despite what I say in the next paragraph, I am online all the time and I do play online. A lot.

Here's what you need to explain to them: "I have an Xbox that just got back from repair after it RROD on me and while I was playing all my games in the Arcade, I noticed that all of them registered as demos. I normally don't have my Xbox connected to Xbox Live, so I need to find out what I need to do to make these games work if I never connect to Xbox Live."

They'll want to walk you through this next step, but cut them off after you try it before you call.

Go to Account Management on the XBLM blade. Find your link for Marketplace Downloads. On everything you have listed in the game list that says "Full Game - ########", click on each of those and choose to "Download Again" If you have like 40 games, or whatever, just try it on 5-6 of them.

It'll go by quickly. I promise. Take 5-6 random games, redownload the games again, then try unplugging the Xbox. If those games work, if any of them work at all, offline, note those titles which do and don't. Do all your games if ANY of them work. If none work of the 5-6 you test, call up MS at this point.

After you tell them you've already tried this, you'll move closer to getting this escalated with MS support.

What they'll do is create a ticket to get your case escalated with MS support.

What happens at that point is that you're going to get a callback (approx 72 hours later) from MS where they'll want to discuss what you're going to want credit back on.

I'm waiting on that call this time, but back in May when this happened before, that call lasted 3 hours. We did a lot of back and forth with MS over what worked and didn't work and they had me try 2-3 other solutions to download the game. Just keep insisting that it doesn't work.

At that point, MS will request your new Silver GT. This is JUST a temporary tag. NOT permanent, you won't lose your games, your Gamerscore, or any thing like that.

They'll process your request, and approximately 6 weeks after you started this whole mess, you should get a phone call from MS and they'll give you redemption codes for your games.

What you do with them at this point is really up to you. You'll get several codes. Last time I got two 4000 point codes and one for 300 points.

Here's some interesting facts though.

If you have another RROD, you'll be allowed to get your points back, again, but they'll only refund you points up to whatever you redeemed ONLY on your main XBL account. So, if you actually go out and get another 1600 point card for whatever reason, you'll want to make sure you redeem it under the right account. Doing so will mean if you RROD again you'll get MORE points back.

Now that you've got your points, if you DO invest them in a Silver account, nothing will change. You'll go into the silver account and choose the games you want to have, or already have, "buy" them again, and switch back over to your main Gold account. They will work again. Offline and online. No lost achievements, no lost points, no lost game saves, rankings, or anything.