Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Xbox 360 - Options For Coping With The Ring Of Death

By Marc Sandford

Feeling down on your luck because your Xbox won't stop freezing? Are you getting the ring of death error signal? Welcome to a huge international club of frustrated Xbox owners.

Misery may love company but this isn't going to help you any, so how you can repair your Xbox will be the topic of this article. In no special order, they are:

1.) You can send back your Xbox to Microsoft for a replacement. If your Xbox is still under warranty, they'll do this for free. Otherwise you will be charged more than $100.

If for whatever reason your console was opened, Microsoft won't honor the warranty. It doesn't matter whether you were attempting to repair it yourself or had other legitimate reasons, you'll lose your warranty.

Returning your Xbox will involve plenty of waiting. Two weeks or more is the average turn around time. There's a specific packing routine that Microsoft needs you to follow when you return your Xbox.

2.) You can try to nurse your Xbox 360 back to health. If your Xbox hasn't suffered many ring of death failures, then perhaps there hasn't been that much heat damage. Further ring of death freeze-ups may be averted by keeping your Xbox cool when it's in use.

Overheating is the main reason for the red ring of death malfunction. Make sure that the fan vents are clear of any blockage or obstruction. Run your Xbox 360 in an open and well ventilated environment. Keep your playing times limited to no more than three or four hours.

Note that if you're getting frequent ring of death shutdowns, then a good amount of damage has already been done. Avoiding the ring of death may not be achievable by keeping your Xbox cool. If your Xbox has had too much heat damage, expect the ring of death to occur more frequently with time.

3.) You can try to fix your Xbox yourself. Don't forget that if you open up your console, the warranty will become void. If your warranty is already expired or voided, then you're free to work on your Xbox since there's nothing to lose in doing this.

Doing your own repairs can seem intimidating or may sound complicated. But if you're using the right info and a few household tools, it's not that hard to do. The Internet has more than enough information about how to fix your Xbox both free and paid.

The only problem with free information is the amount of research that you have to do. There's so much bad advice out there and you'll have to sort this all out.

There are many paid instructional guides that will give you step by step info on Xbox repair. You should insist on a money back guarantee. Unlike the free information out there, the guarantee gives you some accountability and therefore improves your chances of getting information that actually works without further damaging your Xbox. The best guides will supply you with instruction in the form of both video and text downloads.

With luck, one of the options given here will help your situation so that you can get back to your gaming.

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