The ring of death was a common problem with the first batch of machines and a friend of mine had it happen to his, but microsoft just sent him a new one free of charge in that instance. Interesting read though, and i have heard of these complaints before. Ive always been more than happy with the Microsoft customer service people
Hope i never have the ring of death error though, that would suck royally

but id rather pay £80 than buy a new one as ive had mine quite a while now.
They called Ghost Recon (I think it was) Gears Of War