Xbox 360 owners all know and fear the xbox 360 red ring of death. Its appearance spells almost certain doom for a well-loved system and a forced hiatus from gaming. The 360 is a great console, but the red ring of death is common enough to be a tremendous hassle.

The red ring of death, as it is most commonly known, is when a 360 will not operate and three ubiquitous red lights form a three quarter circle around the system’s power button. The console is effectively dead due to what is called a general hardware failure.

There’s been a lot of investigation and speculation as to what causes the general hardware failures. Extra heat from poorly designed graphics cards and heatsinks is generally pointed to as the culprit, combined with a weak solder that cracks under the extra heat.

Sometimes the 3 lights will display out of the blue one day as the 360 turns on. Other times, the systems have been known to cease processing video and sound correctly in the middle of a gaming session. The next time the owner goes to turn the XBOX on, a red ring of death displays.

The towel-trick is a commonly mentioned method of getting rid of a red ring, but it can also cause lasting damage to the rest of the hardware, even if it works. There are a great deal of other guides out on the internet on how to fix these game systems, but almost all of them would void the system’s company warranty.

The best recommendation anyone can make for dealing with a xbox 360 red ring of death is to simply contact the manufacturer, Microsoft, and have them fix your console. This will require removing the hard drive (which is quite simple) and having the company pay to have the 360 shipped to a repair center, where it will either be fixed or, if not, you will be sent a refurbished system instead.

Get help to cure your Xbox 360′s red ring of death and find out how to repair your Xbox.

categories: computers,games,gaming,video games