Update: It’s been roughly 15 months since I used the 1 hr Xbox 360 Repair Guide to fix my sons Xbox 360 and to date he’s had no issues with his console.
Now he wants me to buy him an Xbox 360 Elite, I don’t see the point while his current Xbox 360 is fully working?
Xbox 360 Red Ring of Death Repair Guide Review
Late last month my youngest son was playing on his Xbox 360 when it stopped working for no apparent reason, had 3 red lights on and had no video or audio etc… so it was definitely broken.
With it being outside the manufacturers warranty I contacted a local computer repair shop, described the 3 red lights problem with the Xbox and was quickly given a diagnosis of the Red Ring of Death (RROD) (what a cool name for a console fault), was also given an estimated repair cost of between £40 and £80 to fix the fault depending on the cause with no guarantees of a fix!
Considering how much Xbox 360′s cost now the £80 repair tag with no guarantees of a fix was a little on the high side, so I set my youngest son (he plays the thing, not me :)) to research the Red Ring of Death fault with an aim to finding a DIY Xbox 360 repair guide online.
Xbox 360 Red Ring of Death Repair Guide Website
My son also told me the Xbox had been playing up for a few weeks, with 2 red lights sometimes flashing, video freezing, a e74 system error and occasional disc read errors as well (since restarts got it working he didn’t tell me of the Xbox problems: KIDS!!!).
His first DIY repair find was a bit of a crazy fix!
Apparently if you wrap your Xbox 360 in a towel and turn it on for 20 mins it over heats melting solder points which can fix some Xbox 360 faults including the Red Ring of Death problem!!
I can understand the theory of this crazy Xbox repair technique using a towel, but I could see it at best being a temporary fix (probably doesn’t solve the cause of the problem) and at best might completely ruin the game console: I could imagine it exploding or melting in a puddle of hot plastic!!
So quickly rejected this DIY repair option, who the heck came up with this crazy idea anyway!
Next he found a Xbox 360 repair guide (with instruction videos) you can buy for $30 (less than £15) at 1 hr Xbox 360 Repair Guide: supposed to be able to fix an Xbox 360 in under 1 hour or your money back.
I did a few Google searches myself, (hate to spend money when there’s a free option) but couldn’t find a free repair guide that made sense, so decided to buy the 1 hour guide. If it didn’t work I’d get a refund anyway.
Paid for and downloaded the console repair guide and set to work on fixing his Xbox only to realise I lacked an electrical screwdriver (to be precise one of my other kids had lost it!). Went out the next day, bought a new electrical screwdriver (the type for testing live circuits: I always use this type of screwdriver in case of shock, testing capacitors etc…) and set about repairing the Xbox 360.
Took about 20 minutes to find the problem and 10 more minutes to repair it, I then put it back together wrong (I forgot the order :)) and the top plastic thing wouldn’t close properly, after 10 more mins of fiddling with it I got it all back together (took about 1 hour 15 mins, but I wasted some of the time). Plugged it in and it worked first time, youngest son has been playing it a lot and no problems reported so far (one week on).
So the repair guide worked basically as described on the box. The video instructions was particularly helpful, when I get a new ‘toy’ I rarely read the instructions, so a instructional video repair guide works well for me.
You can buy the guide at 1 hr Xbox 360 Repair Guide. Post a comment if you buy the repair guide and it worked for you as well.
Shame I couldn’t find a similar repair guide for when our digital camera stopped working, again outside it’s warranty. Almost feels like they are designed this way, also have a digital video camera break the same way just out of warranty! Seams to be around 18 months use is all we get from expensive digital products!!
It’s a Fuji FinePix S9500 Digital Camera which cost over £200 new. I tried to find the fault and broke the damn thing, didn’t know which screws to undue etc… and broke a button and a dial thing. It’s now in pieces in an old 2l ice-cream tub, never did get it fully dismantled (waiting for a future repair miracle), had to buy my wife a new digital camera, so expensive mistake!
David Law
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23 responses to Xbox 360 Red Ring of Death Repair Guide Review
you should get the xbox 360 elite,its 120GB and it has a very good cooling system,or u could just get an intercooler for the xbox,i have a new xbox since my 10GB xbox got 1 red ring,i started using the xbox 360 intercooler since im afraid that my new xbox 360 elite will over heat an the intercooler and xbox 360 elite put together really work great from the red ring of death.
My son has been using his Xbox 360 on a regular basis since the repair and so far no problems reported. It’s well over a month since I repaired his console, so looks like it’s permanently fixed the red ring of death fault (I just love the name of the fault, red ring of death :)).
Couldn’t be happier, saved quite a bit of money on repair bills and also helped a neighbour fix their broken Xbox 360 last week.
His console stopped working over the summer, but he couldn’t afford to get it fixed (or buy a new one), so had been without a Xbox 360 for months (he’d put it in the attic already as a lost cause).
Turned out his console had exactly the same fault as my sons, so was very easy to find the fault and fix it: took me less than 40 mins from opening the first screw to turning the console back on to find it working normally again.
Xbox 360 Red Ring of Death Repair Guide Review
So the 360′s other than the Elite that are brand new 2008 models still have all the same problems? As in if I go buy an arcade to replace my busted 20 gig 360 I’ll probably get the same problem in 1-3 years???????????
Just a head’s up to those in the comment section:
Elite’s Die Too. I am sitting here waiting for mine to come back from microsoft. They get either a complete hardware failure (3 RROD but controller ports 1,3,4 are lite up) or the ever prominent 4 RROD which is a complete death of the circuits. If either of these happen your sending your xbox360 back if you want it work properly again.
for the red rings u get 3 years warranty
for normal damage u get 1 year
mayb enen ifu passed these years of warranty there still might be a way to negotiate with micrsoft gaming
my friend had two ds which were in bad a condition some slots never worked and he got brand new ones for 30 buks each
so mayb 360 makes u pay like 50 for a new one
CANADA ALL THE WAY BABY!!!
I have a 360 Elite. I was quite perturbed to turn my Console on, only to Find the 3 Quadrants light up red, As i`m a little Too familiar with the BSOD(BlueScreenOfDeath) on PCs I thought if it is a hardware failure, I started by taking the first bit of hardware off which was the HDD. I turned the Console back on and it worked fine. Ran a new system setup and turned it off, Replaced the HDD and it`s worked ever since. It`s just finding which bit of hardware is Causing the the problem. So if anyone has the 3 quadrants light up, 2 Bottom and upper left quadrant, Providing it is lying down, Then try the above solution.
Xbox 360 Red Ring of Death Repair Guide Review
The RROD is caused by an overheating GPU, not the hard drive. The thermal grease tham was used by ATI on their card was a low quality type, that when mass-applied by machine on the production line, does not spread properly. Consequently, over time, as the GPU gets up near 200*F, the thermal grease hardens and cracks, removing the heat barrier between the GPU and heatsink. This causes the GPU to reach the temperature threshold at which point it shuts down and shows 3RR. The solution described in the guide is to take it apart, remove the bad grease, apply some Arctic Silver (the type used in PCs) and re-assemble. Will fix problem.
Xbox 360 Red Ring of Death Repair Guide Review
RRoD (Red Ring of Death) is usually caused by frequent temperature changes. Basically, after a while the solder begins to crack, and eventually gives way.
This isn’t the case though if you 360 has been manufactured from May 2008 onwards, where iI think it has been manufactured in a different way. So if your Manufacture Date is before May ’08, it’s likely you’ll recieve RRoD at some point.
all of the 360s have bin rubish dont buy 1 get a ps3 they are perfect
Except that they’re not. The game library is not nearly so extensive, and it lacks a strong enough collection of exclusives to be considered “perfect.” It’s better to struggle with console errors and a few meltdowns than to spend $400 on a glorified DVD player.
I nice read. To to tell the truth, I was hoping to find an author with no morals offering a free fix guide. Oh well :(
My Xbox is out of warranty by 3 months, MS won’t fix it. Typical MS bull. Can’t they do anything right?
I got this 4 years ago and have been playing it practically every day since, usually I don’t get Microsoft, (Apple all the way), but this was amazing! it has everything, a dvd player, the best online gamer I’ve ever seen, play music, and more. It also comes with an arcade which is very fun and I use frequently it also has very good cooperative play, pretty much anything you could ever want from a gaming console in one.
Xbox 360 Red Ring of Death Repair Guide Review
well I did the Xclamp mod on my xbox fist on the cpu, no go, work for a toltal week. then it did it on the gpu too, and heated back up, with by the fan off and leting go to 3 light to 2 then un-pluged the power, worked 3days. this is the same method as always. Then after researching the way that fix it shops are fixing it is taking the GPU heat sync off and using a hair dryer “i did”. Or a heat gun and heating up the CPU to remelt the solider back on the broad 4 to 5 min. adding artic sliver thermal paste on the cpu and gpu. been working for like 75hr so fare. The key is to keep the screws tite on gpu to hold the chip in place. so ( screw it really tie on the GPU) the CPU need to be just like hand tie or you will see 3 lights.
Xbox 360 Red Ring of Death Repair Guide Review
My Xbox 360 just got the RRoD last week. This is the second time it has happend. The first time my Xbox was still under the warranty so I sent it to Microsoft to have it fix. They sent me a new one, but now this one died as well. I was hoping if anyone could help me find a way to fix it myself for free. If so, please email me at email removed
i got told by microsoft when i bought my xbox 360 elite that it wont and cant get the red rings of death
360 Elite does get it. Just got the 3 red quadrants this morning after over 2 years of no problems…luckily I get to send it in for free otherwise I would be irate….
2-3 weeks without playing is going to suck though :/
I just got the rrod last night on my elite. The 3yr warranty expires on 03/22/10 so im screwed(coincidence?). I just requested a repair online and havent yet received my service request number yet either.I would think microsoft would have automatic emails, not done completely by humans. They are probably going take their sweet time emailing me the shipping labels. Hopefully there will be a record of the requested date.Even the website didnt work properly, kept getting errors when requesting.Finally worked when i was about to talk to customer service on the phone.Im really leaning towards a ps3.
Xbox 360 Red Ring of Death Repair Guide Review
just got my rings of death to day and no way in hell ima pay 1 penny to get it repaired not goin to buy the guide either im just goin to keep lookin for a free 1 :]
RROD SUCKS
Thanks for your information,
just got the rrod last night on my elite. The 3yr warranty expires on 03/22/10 so im screwed(coincidence?). I just requested a repair online and havent yet received my service request number yet either.I would think microsoft would have automatic emails, not done completely by humans.
have a nice day.
So xbox arcades don’t get RROD?
Over the past few months, more and reports are coming in for people who are looking to fix Xbox 360 red ring of death error. Finding one simple solution can be really tricky, as there can be so many reasons as to why these 3 red lights occur. You can find thousands of websites out there claiming they have the right solution for you, with the next best ever guide to help you. But obviously you want to know how much it will cost, can you follow the steps within the guide easily and most of all, will your Xbox 360 be free from the 3 red lights for good.
There is always professional help out there, for almost any problems you may have, be it your console or any other electronic gadget you can think of. But it does not deem necessary to always have to go to these lengths, especially when there are some simple safety routines you can implement to ensure prevention of the dreaded Xbox ring of death. Also you will learn how to keep your console running in good condition and be able to fix your red rings if required.
Xbox 360 Red Ring of Death Repair Guide Review
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