Your XBox 360 Has The Red Ring Of Death And You Want It Fixed Fast!

Photo by Justin Taylor

I am sure that the reason you are reading this is because your XBox 360 has the red ring of death and you need to find out how to fix it fast. You are probably wondering why this happened, especially right in the middle of a good game.

The flashing 3 red lights on your XBox usually mean that you have a general hardware failure. While this failure can be caused by many different things, one of the main causes is a bad clamp design on the heat sink. The XBox has an "X-clamp" design which makes the clamp press down with an uneven pressure. As the heat rises inside the console, this uneven pressure gets worse causing the motherboard to bend and flex. When combined with brittle solder joints caused by using lead free solder, this bending can cause the solder joints to snap.

Your XBox may still be under warranty. Microsoft has said that they are extending the warranty to fix the red ring of death for three years. If you still have warranty left and crack the case on your console, you will void your warranty.

The best option if your XBox is still under warranty is to send it in to Microft to have it fixed. The fix is usually free, although it usually isn't a fast fix. It can take from six to eight weeks to get your console fixed this way.
One other option is to take it to a local repair shop that does XBox repairs. While faster, this is also a much more expensive option.

You may also want to take things into your own hands and fix it yourself. Just remember the warning above. If you decide to take this option, you will definitely want information on how to do it right. One gamer had the same idea and you will want to see what he did to have a permanent, fast fix for his red ring of death.