X Box 360 Red Ring of Death?

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Makuta

41 posts

Geek

#100259 6-Apr-2012 07:25

My son's X Box 360 is often awkward to load. Often takes a long time to do so. he says it has the Red Ring of Death??
Can someone tell me what he means by this and if it is fixable? he reckons he just has to put up with it?

toprob

126 posts

Master Geek

#606004 6-Apr-2012 09:49

It depends, I assume it's well out of warranty, but you should check. The 'Red Ring of Death' I think specifically refers to a hardware fault which gives 3 red quadrants on the power button, does it give an error or just perform slowly?

Whether its worth fixing depends on the age, I guess. MS did extend the warranty period on earlier consoles specifically for RROD problems, but this was a while ago now.

The Xbox website has a few tips, but I notice that their cutely named 'flashing lights wizard' doesn't work at the moment.

MS will fix it for $135 plus GST, plus the cost of getting it to them, you're getting close to $200 -- probably time to get a new one.

If it still works, albeit clunkily, you're lucky.

jtbthatsme

937 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#606062 6-Apr-2012 11:28

Quite simply that if around the power button there's red lights showing when it's turned on then he has the Red Ring. However if it's loading then it's not that as the full Red Ring (of Death as it it is known) is just that your console is basically broken and in need of replacement or repair. In honesty if it's quite old then repair would be a (more often than not) short term fix. A lot of people are capable of doing it you can find them all over the place (try Trademe). Or you can get repair kits quite cheap and do it yourself.

If the console is older I would just get a new one (if that's a option) if it's less than a couple of years old then Microsoft I believe will repair it for free you just need to send it away. What you have described with the temperatmental slow loading it's possibly just in need of changing the DVD Drive which again you'd find online.

urban

487 posts

Ultimate Geek

#607515 10-Apr-2012 17:34

4GB arcade for $249 @ bnb

http://www.bondandbond.co.nz/shop/gaming/xbox-360/consoles/xbox-360-xb3604gbs-4gb-s-console-matte-black/prod102336.html?ref=pricespy

mattwnz

20157 posts

Uber Geek

#607516 10-Apr-2012 17:37

Depends on age. If less than 3 years, I think you would be covered by the CGA anyway, even if out of warranty. It is a known problem with xboxes, which is why I think MS extended the warranty on the older ones. Not sure if the new slim ones also suffer from this problem.

urban

487 posts

Ultimate Geek

#607598 10-Apr-2012 21:47

Yep the slim still suffers but it is know as the red eye as opposed to red ring, go figure...

The failure rates have been rather low since they released the Jasper models.

I owned a Xenon, that lasted three years of constant gaming before the dreaded red eye.

Proper ventilation is a must!!

http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/06/18/xbox.360.teardown.details.new.chip.power.use/

mattwnz

20157 posts

Uber Geek

#607601 10-Apr-2012 21:52

urban: Yep the slim still suffers but it is know as the red eye as opposed to red ring, go figure...

The failure rates have been rather low since they released the Jasper models.

I owned a Xenon, that lasted three years of constant gaming before the dreaded red eye.

Proper ventilation is a must!!

http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/06/18/xbox.360.teardown.details.new.chip.power.use/

?

Is it better to have them setup horizontally or vertically? I noticed when they are vertical, the bottom vent is covered by the unit and it does get very hot under that, and that is on a slim. You would think that as technology has improved since they first came out, that they would no longer have this problem, or get anywhere near as hot.

urban

487 posts

Ultimate Geek

#607610 10-Apr-2012 22:10

I have my elite vertical. It runs way cooler than my PS3 slim.

I believe it is better for your slim version to be vertical. Better hot air rising than going sideways!