XBox 360 3 Red Lights Fix

Chances are that if you've been an XBox 360 gamer for any length of time, you heard about or experienced the XBox 360 3 red lights problem. The bad news is that the chances of your X360 fixing itself are about 0%. The good news is that there is a fix available and it is easy to do yourself.

The cause of the problem is overheating inside the main XBox 360 game unit. All of that processing power generates a lot of heat. That heat has to go somewhere. The original XBox 360 design didn't allow for sufficient cooling and XBoxes began failing shortly after the product was launched. Microsoft has since this problem and newer XBoxes don't have the 3 red lights issue any more. But there are several hundred thousand units out there that are susceptible to coming down with the XBox 360 "Red Ring of Death" at any time.

The X360 uses heat sinks, vented openings, and fans to aid in dissipation of the heat that is generated. The flow through these vents can become obstructed for a variety of reasons. This then causes reduced system performance and hardware failure. The 3 red lights is the code that indicates a hardware failure due to excessive heat. If you see this, you can try placing the xbox 360 console in an open area, free any debris that might be blocking the vents.

A second problem, also heat related, is the CPU (Central Processing Unit) becoming overheated. When this happens it can cause the motherboard to flex causing the soldering to become loose. Modern solder is lead-free and is more brittle than older solder which had tine and lead in it making it more flexible.

Initially, Microsoft repaired consoles under the 90 day warranty at no charge. Out-of-warranty units were repaired for a $140 charge, pretty steep. In July 2007, Microsoft extended extended the warranty of all Xbox 360 consoles suffering general hardware failures to one year.

If you've had the Xbox 360 3 red lights problem, you can ship it to a repair center and wait. Not a very attractive option. Fortunately, there is a better and cheaper alternative, There are several XBox 360 3 red lights self repair guides available that will get you up and running in about an hour using regular household tools. I've reviewed the top four XBox 360 3 red lights repair guides and found what I feel is the best one. Whatever your situation, good luck in getting your XBox fixed as soon as possible.

Xbox 360 3 Red Light Repair - Do it Yourself!

Well, Christmas is over. And if your Christmas budget was like mine, you probably didn't get a brand spanking new XBox 360 Halo Special Edition. If your XBox 360 is still running great, good for you and keep your fingers crossed. If you've had the infamous XBox 360 3 Red Lights problem, then you're probably interested in a fast, low-cost 3 Red Lights solution. Good news. It's available, and it works. I've tested it.

I've reviewed the top 4 products on the market for the XBox 360 3 Red Lights Repair. They all have some good points, but there is one that I feel stands out from the crowd. I repaired 2 units a few days ago using the exact techniques outlined in the simple 3 Red Lights Repair DIY manual. If you're comfortable with simple household tools, you should be able to breeze through this repair in about an hour. Just follow the steps exactly as outlined in the repair manual and you'll be back up and running in an hour or so.

Just a brief re-cap, the XBox 360 3 Red Lights problem (aka X360 "Red Ring of Death") is caused by excess heat buildup inside the XBox unit. The X360 is, among other things, a very powerful computer. It is designed to do one thing very well. That is to make millions of calculations that result in the spectacular graphics that a lot of us probably have started taking for granted. Those graphics take loads of processing power. And all those calculations mean the chips inside your XBox 360 are running pretty much full tilt all the time. That produces a tremendous amount of heat. To give you an idea of just how much heat a "balls to the wall" computer can produce, consider the supercomputers of the world. These are the massively powerful number crunchers used by the military, NASA, the CIA, and large corporations. These computer come with powerful cooling units, like air conditioners, to keep the chip's temperatures in a safe operating range.

The XBox's heat generation isn't the real problem though, It's the lack of sufficient cooling that is the problem. And that's what the do-it-yourself guides deal with. The fix they take you through is permanent and works just about all the time. Statistics show that only about 6% of XBox's can't be fixed at home, so your chances are very good that you'll get it fixed.

Check out my XBox 360 3 Red Lights repair guide reviews and see if this route is for you. All of the guides have refund policies, so you're not risking anything.

Good Luck!

XBox 360 3 Red Lights - Now What Do I Do? Read On...

I've talked to I don't know how many XBox 360 owners who've experienced the 3 red lights problem on their XBox 360 units. Their reactions range from sad to mad to confused to "HELP!". When an X360 flashes 3 red lights, there's really no need to panic, or even to get bent out of shape at all. You've got lots of company. Several hundred people visit this blog every week. And the only reason they're here is that they are having the exact same problem you are.

It's true that having the so called XBox "Red Ring of Death" is a major bummer. When my son's, X360 had this problem (about 2 week after he got it for Christmas) he was heartbroken. I would have moved heaven and earth to get it fixed for him. As it happened my best course of action was to send the unit back to Microsoft for the fix. It took about 2 weeks and there was no charge because the unit was still under warranty. If your XBox 360 is still under warranty, you should do the same. Don't void the warranty by popping it open and trying to fix it yourself. It just isn't worth it.

If, however, you are out of warranty, you should choose one of the following courses of action:

1. If you are not comfortable popping open the Xbox yourself and doing some simple repairs, then contact a 3rd party repair service for a quote (it'll be around $50-$75 and your XBox360 will be gone about a week, depending on the company's current workload.). Google it. You should find some repair places in your general area.

2. If you're like me and are a compulsive "do-it-yourself'er", you should seriously consider buying one of the XBox 360 3 Red Light Repair Guides that are available. The fix is an easy one, requires simple tools you probably already have, or that you can pick up at your local hardware store, and takes about an hour. And best of all, it sure beats being without your games for a couple of weeks, or more.

I've been through the top 4 guides and used each one to fix a different broken XBox 360 (I bought each of the 4 units on eBay and each had the 3 red lights problem). I managed to get all 4 of them back up and running within an hour by following the instructions in the respective guide book. Then I put them back up on eBay and made a nice little profit for myself. But that's another story.

Here's my no-nonsense reviews of the 4 XBox 360 3 Red Light Fix-it guides. Very brief summary... all of the guides will get the job done, but one of them is clearly superior to the others, in my opinion.

Good luck!