Fixing the Xbox 360 Red Ring of Death
The primary reason for the xbox 360 3 red lights error is overheating inside of the X360’s GPU (general processing unit). The cooling design of the original Xbox was woefully inadequate since it relied on the holes drilled in the Xbox and heat rising out at a sufficient rate. The X360 is really just a very powerful computer that can do one thing, but do it very well – produce the great graphics that you see while you’re playing your favorite game. In fact, in terms of raw processing power the 360 is probably the most powerful computer you have in the house. It’s just that it can only really do one thing well – exciting, high quality game play.
All of that heat the Xbox 360 produces has to go somewhere. Heat’s natural tendency to rise was what the designers decided to use this cooling system Xbox 360. In hindsight, this clearly was a mistake. A different design to the cooling issue clearly should have been taken since 30% or more of the early Xboxes suffered from the 3 red lights problem. What you want to know at this point is what are your repair options are if you have the 3 red lights problem? You basically have three options to choose from:
Microsoft’s own actions produced a lot of animosity within the gaming community because they refused to admit a problem with the Xbox for a long time before putting in place the 2-year warranty. If you see 3 red lights problem within the first two years of purchasing your Xbox, send it back to Microsoft for repair to maintain your warranty intact. Don’t open up your Xbox if you’re still covered under the extended two year warranty for the 3 red lights problem as you will immediately void that warranty. Sending your xbox back to Microsoft for repair is your best option in this situation. It may take a week or two to get your xbox back, but it will be worth it in the long run.
The second option on the list is to use a third party repair service to fix your Xbox that will cost between $40 and $50 and take about a week turnaround. These services will charge between $40 – $50 and have a turnaround time of about a week. This option is best for someone who isn’t comfortable fixing the problem themselves by opening up their Xbox. this is a good option if you don’t want to open up the Xbox yourself and don’t mind waiting a week or so to get it fixed. Many of these repair services advertise themselves on eBay.
Third, you can fix the xbox 360 yourself in an hour or two using one of the many xbox 360 3 red light repair guides that have become available as this problem became so widespread and so widely known. For just $25-$30 and can be taken through the entire repair process including video tutorials that make the repair pretty much idiot proof. The actual repair is pretty straightforward and the videos that come along with the guides make it that much easier. So if you’re comfortable opening up your xBox and taking it apart, this is a good option. You should have it fixed in about an hour maybe two if everything goes smoothly.