XBox 360 Red ring of Death

[grant.d]

Is there any way atall to prevent this happening? except keep your fingers crossed?. Just out of interest does anyone know what actualy happens when you get the dreaded 3 lights of death? I get it if the scart lead isnt in properly.

Edited by grant.d on Tuesday 21st November 20:13

[GT2MAN-2]

Buy an Nyko intercooler ?

http://uk.gear.ign.com/articles/703/7

I used mine during the Summer

Edited by GT2MAN-2 on Tuesday 21st November 20:17

[grant.d]

GT2MAN-2 said:

intercooler

Ordered

Edited by grant.d on Tuesday 21st November 20:35

[Digby]

There have been a few threads on here regarding 360's, it may be worth having a search as some people reported a few of those coolers can cause problems.One of them was drawing too much voltage or something iirc.

Also if you hunt the net you can find out what the flashing circle
of death error codes are.It can give you some idea anyway as to what is wrong.

Due to mine being a second hand and cheaper unit (and because i was bored one night), i just opened mine up, replaced the original thermal paste under the heatsinks, cut a hole in it and added my own fan.See here:
www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=318937&f=108&h=0

It seems some people have fixed dead consoles by replacing thermal paste etc.
Others have used a heat gun on the motherboard and then let it cool naturally and found that has worked too!.
Another guy i read about changed over his surge protector and cured his problems.
Just go google, it's all out there.

Most of that is all quite extreme warranty voiding stuff though remember

The fact is you just have to hope your console keeps working because if it is going to fail, it probably will regardless of what you do.
Just try to keep it as cool as you can in terms of placement, that's about all you can realistically do, unless like me you enjoy taking things to bits : p
Imho people who have them hidden under TV's on top of hot digital amps etc could be asking for trouble... maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon...

[grant.d]

Thanks for that Digby, all noted. I take my hat off to your handy work by the way, it looks fantastic

[scorp]

I heard one of the problems is the factories are not removing plastic covers from some chips and as a result prevent heat being dissipated to the cooling fans.

[2something]

Sorry for the thread resurrection ...

Just happened to my xbox 1 year and 3 weeks after purshase !

Any updates on best way to get it fixed since the last post ?

[ThePassenger]

2something said:

Sorry for the thread resurrection ...

Just happened to my xbox 1 year and 3 weeks after purshase !

Any updates on best way to get it fixed since the last post ?

If it's out of warranty... try all of the methods above. However in all likelihood the only way you're going to be able to play your 360's games... is via credit card and a trip to Game.

[Mannginger]

Push the warranty issue, I understand they're extending them.

Don't give up on it either I eventually wrote the the MD of Microstf in order to get my sorry story resolved, it worked though!

Phil

[2something]

Thanks for the info. Will definitely try and push to get it done under warranty, doing some research it sounds more and more like this is a manufacturing defect with the number of boxes failing...

[jamieboy]

2something said:

Sorry for the thread resurrection ...

Just happened to my xbox 1 year and 3 weeks after purshase !

Any updates on best way to get it fixed since the last post ?

Mine just did it after sixteen months - I called MS and they confirmed that because it was an early build console the 12-month warranty had been extended by 2 months. Still no good for me, but might work for you. Saying that, mine only failed for one night and has been fine since.

Out of interest, did you get the lights just after applying the latest update?

[sorrento205]

GT2MAN-2 said:

Buy an Nyko intercooler ?

http://uk.gear.ign.com/articles/703/7

I used mine during the Summer

Edited by GT2MAN-2 on Tuesday 21st November 20:17

www.joystiq.com/2006/10/27/nykos-intercooler-may-burninate-the-xbox-360/

[ThePassenger]

sorrento205 said:

GT2MAN-2 said:

Buy an Nyko intercooler ?

http://uk.gear.ign.com/articles/703/7

I used mine during the Summer

Edited by GT2MAN-2 on Tuesday 21st November 20:17

www.joystiq.com/2006/10/27/nykos-intercooler-may-burninate-the-xbox-360/

If it's stealing power... how are there scorch marks? The thing would be running under spec not over. So would actually be prone to crashing due to that but overheating to that degree due to running under voltage???

Fishy smell detected...

[YellowLotus]

Kinda related, but just trying to gauge opinion. I guess it fair to say that launch consoles are more likely to fail than consoles produced later on, as MS changed production methods (hopefully improving them!)

My console is a November 2006 console - is it indeed less likely to fail than a launch console, or is it as likely for any others?

I realise it's possibly too soon to say - just after opinions/experiences/thoughts on the matter and how likely it is/not for later models?

For the OP, if their console is dead, would they be better off getting a new (and improved?) one rather than MS giving them a refurbed model, of any possible age?

Cheers!

[2something]

jamieboy said:

2something said:

Sorry for the thread resurrection ...

Just happened to my xbox 1 year and 3 weeks after purshase !

Any updates on best way to get it fixed since the last post ?

Mine just did it after sixteen months - I called MS and they confirmed that because it was an early build console the 12-month warranty had been extended by 2 months. Still no good for me, but might work for you. Saying that, mine only failed for one night and has been fine since.

Out of interest, did you get the lights just after applying the latest update?

Here is the countdown of events ...

11am - played new game (COD3) for an hour
2pm - played COD3 again, screen froze after maybe 30 minutes
- turned xbox off and on again -> which resulted in the ring of fire
3pm+ - cursed Microsoft

I assume the new games come with an OS update ?

[jamieboy]

2something said:

Here is the countdown of events ...

11am - played new game (COD3) for an hour
2pm - played COD3 again, screen froze after maybe 30 minutes
- turned xbox off and on again -> which resulted in the ring of fire
3pm+ - cursed Microsoft

I assume the new games come with an OS update ?

I don't think they do, but not sure.

The reason I asked is that mine was fine, then I downloaded the update for the new version of the dashboard. It restarted and while I was poking about the menus seeing what was new, it froze. Restarted it and got the three red segments. Restarted a few more times and sometimes got red lights, sometimes it froze after a few minutes. Someone else on here got pretty much the same thing so I wondered if yours was the same again, but it doesn't sound like it.

Mine only did it for one night and has been fine since, so fingers crossed.

[2something]

jamieboy said:

2something said:

Here is the countdown of events ...

11am - played new game (COD3) for an hour
2pm - played COD3 again, screen froze after maybe 30 minutes
- turned xbox off and on again -> which resulted in the ring of fire
3pm+ - cursed Microsoft

I assume the new games come with an OS update ?

I don't think they do, but not sure.

The reason I asked is that mine was fine, then I downloaded the update for the new version of the dashboard. It restarted and while I was poking about the menus seeing what was new, it froze. Restarted it and got the three red segments. Restarted a few more times and sometimes got red lights, sometimes it froze after a few minutes. Someone else on here got pretty much the same thing so I wondered if yours was the same again, but it doesn't sound like it.

Mine only did it for one night and has been fine since, so fingers crossed.

I have tried it since with no luck, HDD out and in as well. Will try again today, pulling out all the cables and putting them back in again and all the other stuff the helpdesk will try and get me to do.

[2something]

Just an update ...

MS Customer service were incredibly helpful (luckily I was sitting down at all times)

organised UPS label, I had to arrange pick up
fixed it (well not 100% sure yet, as i don't have it)
sent it back out via UPS (unfortunately with incomplete address)
UPS took 3 days to realise they couldn't deliver it
came back from holidays, tracked the UPS number, called UPS with complete address
UPS sends it back to MS instead of to me
called MS who were most upset and are going to send it out again ...

no mention of having to pay anything by MS, just a shame UPS let them down.

[kiwisr]

I have heard that all consoles made before Jan 2006 will be repaired for free now because they have a higher failure rate than normal.

[tybo]

I'm on my third one now.

All i did was take them back to the shop, and they replaced them.

None of this getting in touch with MS business