The Red Ring of Death is characterised by 3 red lights glowing on the power button.

Microsoft’s XBox 360 Red Ring of Death problem comes about as a result of the console overheating. When they decided to make the XBox 360 small and modern, they clearly had no idea that this small size coupled with the powerful processing power and lack of enough fans and heat sinks, would cause this many problems.

It was originally estimated that about 30% of all consoles will get the red ring of death. This estimate has dropped to 6% in the newer models. Some people who have had the ring of death repaired, have been known to get it again. Up to three times!

Try to prevent the Ring of Death:

1. Keep ventilation holes open.
2. Don’t put your Xbox on any soft surface which could block the ventilation holes.
3. Only put your Xbox in an area that is well-ventilated.
4. Don’t put your Xbox near any heat sources (such as heaters or other electronic equipment which heats up).
5. Never put your Xbox somewhere cold if you think it has overheated, as this will cause condensation which would make the problem worse.

If your XBox has the Red Ring of Death:

1. Turn the console off and unplug all the cables from the wall and console then reconnect them all again and turn it on.
2. If this didn’t help, turn the console off and take out the hard drive, then turn on the console again. If that took away the red lights, turn it off again and put the hard drive back in.
3. Also make sure that the power supply light is green even when the console has the flashing red lights.

If none of this has helped then it needs to be repaired. You can do this by sending it to Microsoft which takes between 10 days and 4 weeks, or fixing it yourself. If you do fix it yourself, make sure to use a safe and reputable guide. Never try the “towel trick” which instructs you to overheat your XBox by wrapping it in a towel (which apparently can cause the disconnected soldered bits to remelt). There are also many other guides online which instruct you to solder your XBox. This is not necessary.

By: Shaun Olivier