Has the 3 red light Ring of Death Brought Your Gaming Time to a grinding Halt?
3 times in 2 years the Xbox 360 has given me the 3 flashing red light wink of doom. Once was a little over 2 months after the Console was purchased.
But it was somewhat of a relief because the very nice people at the Game store Replaced the console without the need to send it back. Due to the fact that it was covered by the warranty.
But if the Warranty is up, you have limited and Expensive options.
Microsoft Charge over $100 for the repair. and you will be without your beloved Xbox 360 for 2 weeks or so.
Worse still is that I have heard a few reports that when the Xbox 360 consoles came back from Microsoft, the notorious 3 red lights of doom came back shortly afterwards.
So what causes the Hardware failure on the Xbox 360?
The core cause of the console's Hardware failure lies in the Heat sink design, Primarily in the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit).
The GPU heat sink is just below the CD drive of the Xbox 360, and as such the heat sink is too small for the heat generated, Its only 10mm (3/8) High, Whereas the CPU (Central Processing Unit), is about 50mm (2) High and comes with a Liquid cooler!
The Elite model of the Xbox 360 has a slightly altered heat sink design of its predecessor. In the Elite model, the liquid cooling is on both CPU and GPU chips. So the Heat is uniform throughout and thus eliminates 'hot spots'.
So the bottom line is that constant exposure to high temperatures cause the motherboard to warp slightly which causes cracking of some of the solder joints on the board. That then triggers Hardware failure and the 3 red lights show up on your Xbox 360.
The only free solution was the towel trick, but that can be even more problematic as it makes the warping even worse, and creates irreparable damage to the already weakened solder joints. I unfortunately, experienced this first hand.
As such, the nature of the internet being driven by money, if you wanted good reliable information, your going to have to pay for it. But at least I didn't have to give any money to Microsoft, Again!
The guides available were countless, I didn't think there would be so many. Having the fix done to your console takes Half an hour - say some guides. And some say two hours.
While most of the guides good offer explanations and step by step instructions, there are some guides that give you summarized information of the top guides out there.
When I got to do the fix for the first time, it took about two hours. And thats with a degree in electronics! So is a half an hour fix feasible for someone thats not technically minded? So I created a page that gives a proper honest opinion on what guide to use. Narrowed down to a choice of Three.
Visit the link below to reveal the top three available on the Web.
3 times in 2 years the Xbox 360 has given me the 3 flashing red light wink of doom. Once was a little over 2 months after the Console was purchased.
But it was somewhat of a relief because the very nice people at the Game store Replaced the console without the need to send it back. Due to the fact that it was covered by the warranty.
But if the Warranty is up, you have limited and Expensive options.
Microsoft Charge over $100 for the repair. and you will be without your beloved Xbox 360 for 2 weeks or so.
Worse still is that I have heard a few reports that when the Xbox 360 consoles came back from Microsoft, the notorious 3 red lights of doom came back shortly afterwards.
So what causes the Hardware failure on the Xbox 360?
The core cause of the console's Hardware failure lies in the Heat sink design, Primarily in the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit).
The GPU heat sink is just below the CD drive of the Xbox 360, and as such the heat sink is too small for the heat generated, Its only 10mm (3/8) High, Whereas the CPU (Central Processing Unit), is about 50mm (2) High and comes with a Liquid cooler!
The Elite model of the Xbox 360 has a slightly altered heat sink design of its predecessor. In the Elite model, the liquid cooling is on both CPU and GPU chips. So the Heat is uniform throughout and thus eliminates 'hot spots'.
So the bottom line is that constant exposure to high temperatures cause the motherboard to warp slightly which causes cracking of some of the solder joints on the board. That then triggers Hardware failure and the 3 red lights show up on your Xbox 360.
The only free solution was the towel trick, but that can be even more problematic as it makes the warping even worse, and creates irreparable damage to the already weakened solder joints. I unfortunately, experienced this first hand.
As such, the nature of the internet being driven by money, if you wanted good reliable information, your going to have to pay for it. But at least I didn't have to give any money to Microsoft, Again!
The guides available were countless, I didn't think there would be so many. Having the fix done to your console takes Half an hour - say some guides. And some say two hours.
While most of the guides good offer explanations and step by step instructions, there are some guides that give you summarized information of the top guides out there.
When I got to do the fix for the first time, it took about two hours. And thats with a degree in electronics! So is a half an hour fix feasible for someone thats not technically minded? So I created a page that gives a proper honest opinion on what guide to use. Narrowed down to a choice of Three.
Visit the link below to reveal the top three available on the Web.
About the Author:
John Devine has an Electronic Engineering Degree and is Passionate about Xbox 360 Gaming. Full Details of his Top 3 are located here: The Xbox 360 Ring of death Fix
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