Red Ring of Death

**cfmonkey45** · June 03, 2011, 03:24 PM

So, my warranty expired on my xBox back in November of 2008, according to Microsoft, and I have the RRoD. How do I fix it (I didn't do the towel thing yet, so I'll have to try that). I've been looking online, and there are a bunch of scams to fix it, plus a few do-it-yourself ones, but I'm not sure if it might work.

Does anyone have any advice/experience?

**Pantsalot** · June 03, 2011, 04:40 PM

My friend once fixed mine with a few bangs at it & more recently I got it again & it turned out just to be the
power plug slightly out.

Unfortunately I've not heard much other success stories, another time it was a while after I took out my third
party 360 cooler because of the noise it made - couldn't fix that one, I recommend getting a more official Xbox
360 fan next time, they actually do well for cooling, you just have to put up with the added noise.

**ROFL Copter** · June 03, 2011, 06:17 PM

Buy a PS3.

**cfmonkey45** · June 03, 2011, 06:49 PM

Originally Posted by ROFL Copter

Buy a PS3.

No money.

Originally Posted by Pantsalot

My friend once fixed mine with a few bangs at it & more recently I got it again & it turned out just to be the
power plug slightly out.

Unfortunately I've not heard much other success stories, another time it was a while after I took out my third
party 360 cooler because of the noise it made - couldn't fix that one, I recommend getting a more official Xbox
360 fan next time, they actually do well for cooling, you just have to put up with the added noise.

Well, I wrapped it in a towel for 5 minutes, and that seemed to do the trick, but it started acting up again. My theory is that there is like dust and lint inside that isn't properly being cleaned out (from Xbox 360 tutorials on the subject) and I may need to take it apart and have a look-see. Also, supposedly Microsoft used inferior sodering material to soder the Xbox.

**E.K** · June 04, 2011, 04:41 AM

I had the red rings of death but after I left it for a few hours it seemed to work again.

**Freddie** · June 04, 2011, 06:21 AM

I've never looked into this properly by from what I've read the 'red ring of death' can be fixed by heating up the internal components which suggests the one or more parts (this could be the GPU, CPU or a memory module but I suspect it's the GPU as it's the hottest running and most used part) has unstable connection to the motherboard.

The chips have come lose because around about 2005 chipset and board manufacturers started using lead free solder, lots of PC gamers have had problems with video cards that have stopped working and then fixed it by putting the faulty video card (minus all the plastic parts and cooler) in the oven. This can temporally fix a faulty part by making the solder soft so all the chips reseat back onto the board, the same logic is applied to the towel trick on the 360 (and this has been used to fix PS3's that have suffered from the same problem).

Realistically these are only temporary fixes and after a while the fault will come back, the only way to fix this in the long run is to buy a newer Xbox which has it's components made on a smaller manufacturing process (the smaller the process the less power it uses and as result produces less heat). The only other thing I can think of is asking around and see if anyone sells custom coolers for the 360 (its a safe bet that the stock cooler in the 360 where by the lowest bidder).

**Pantsalot** · June 04, 2011, 07:05 AM

My friend's dad once fixed his PS3 by putting it between two heaters at max temps so it
was reaching the hundreds of degrees, after apparently ten minutes he turned them off, let
it cool & the PS3 was working again. I think the hundreds of degrees part might have likely been
exaggerated by my friend though.

Originally Posted by ROFL Copter

Buy a PS3.

I've had just as many PS3s fail on me as I have Xbox 360s (3!)

**beckyolt** · June 04, 2011, 03:21 PM

Which model are you using?

As to how fixing it, i have no idea. But if you manage to fix it, you should place it in a better spot, with lots of space for the vents.

**Kamos** · June 04, 2011, 10:43 PM

Well if his 3 year(only for RRoD situations 1 year for others if I recall right) warranty expired in November 2008 then he has an original issue I imagine.

**King Nud** · June 05, 2011, 09:36 AM

What error message do you get on the screen?

Several of them were subject to an extended warranty (free repair) and i'm sure different types of RRoD were covered. My xbox had an e74 error, which is similar to the RRoD and qualified for a free repair despite my warranty having expired 6 months earlier.