How to Fix Red Ring of Death in Under 60 Minutes

By Allen Williams


The red ring of death is a common problem affecting Xbox 360s worldwide. In fact, you can find thousands, if not millions of articles written about the topic all over the internet. In order to know how to fix red ring of death issue, one has to know its root cause.

The main culprit that causes the red ring of death is hardware design flaws. A gaming console is a fundamentally a high performance PC that has been customized and designed specifically for gaming. The components have been packed into a confined space with very little ventilation. As we most us of know, high performance components can generate lots of heat. The lack of ventilation and small heat sinks is a recipe for disaster.

Since the Xbox 360's CPU and GPU generate a lot of heat, this could lead to permanent damage and make the console irreparable. In fact, prolonged overheating can cause the solder on the motherboard to brittle and develop cracks. The red ring of death is a hardware issue that can be easily fixed. Even if you have no experience repairing electronics, you will be able to know how to fix red ring of death in less than an hour.

The red ring of death is three flashing red lights. This light code means there is general hardware failure or error. If you get an error like this, the first troubleshooting step is to check your power brick or power supply. Make sure that status light on power supply is green. If it is yellow or red, this means you have a faulty power supply and there is no need to open up the Xbox 360 console.

If the power supply looks fine, unplug power cable and try it on another wall outlet. If it does not work, check if all cables are securely in place and make sure the power supply is properly ventilated. If it changed to two red rings, this means that your console is overheating. You need to give it a few minutes to cool down before trying it out again.

Once the console cools down and you're still getting the same error code, the next thing to do is disassemble Xbox 360 console itself and check its internal components. Note that dismantling the unit can void the warranty. It is best to send the device back if it is still covered by the warranty,

Taking off Xbox 360 case is extremely easy to do. You can release the locks using screw driver or any pointy tool and carefully take off the bezel. After removing the bezel, you can remove DVD drive by pulling the latch. Once the DVD drive removed, you can start unscrewing the metal base on the bottom and slowly remove the motherboard from the back panel.

Once the motherboard has been removed, it is time to screw off the two clamps for the heat sinks. Then, wipe off the thermal paste and apply a new one. Thermal compounds used by computers are highly recommended and you can get one from any PC store. Once you have applied the new thermal paste, just screw everything back on and that is how to fix red ring of death.

You can easily repair your Xbox 360 with the help of instructional videos and guides. This simple repair can be done in minutes. Knowing how to fix red ring of death errors ensures that your Xbox 360 is well maintained and will work flawlessly.




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