CNBC reporter Jane Wells had been repeatedly told by her son that his console was suffering from "red rings of doom," which signal his Xbox was "fried." Jane was too busy thinking whether she could get away with making Shake 'n' Bake pork chops AGAIN this week. That was until she found out that 3 people on her block had the same problem in the span of the month. She asked in forums to see how wide spread the problem and received some very nasty responses and was even accused of being a "Sony Fanboy" posing as a journalist!

Even so, every single person I interviewed for this story said they had no intention of trading in his Xbox 360 for a PlayStation 3. Even the Boettcher brothers from Minneapolis who told me they're on their EIGHTH CONSOLE because of various problems.

Two weeks ago, the "red rings of doom" invaded my house. My son then went through a series of "home remedies" to get it working again. Such solutions are all over YouTube, including the famous"towel trick":

Alas, it was only a temporary solution. So my son called Microsoft, and after about an hour on the phone with tech support, they determined that, in fact, his console was dead. They sent us a box to ship it free via UPS, and last I heard it's been fixed and is on its way back. Two weeks with no Xbox. I think he actually picked up a book during that time, wondering, "What is this? Printed words on a page? How unique!" Yeah, I know, I'm a terrible parent, blah blah blah.