Red Ring Of Death (RROD) is a very common technical problem that can be identified by a series of flashing red lights on the power button of your XBOX 360. In an official Microsoft announcement in July 2007, Microsoft admitted that close to 800.000 gamers are dealing with red ring of death problem and that 40% of all consoles sold are failing and the rest have a chance of failure.

Three Flashing Red Lights

When your XBOX 360 starts showing three flashing red lights (known as the "Red Ring of Death" or the "Three Red Lights of Death") on the power button in lieu of the four green lights indicating normal operation, then there is no doubt that your console is experiencing a "general hardware" failure.

The Cause Of Red Ring Of Death

You may have heard Red Ring Of Death is an overheating problem however that’s not the full picture. Yes the problem does start with an Xbox that is over heated but the next stage of the problem is more serious. With over 50% failure rates which should not be happening in general use , we need to go into the production process to get to the heart of the problem.

After some research, It has been discovered by experts in the electronics and video game repair industry that red ring of death is in fact an engineering flaw in the construction of the XBOX 360. At the core of the Xbox 360 problem are two computer chips, a Central Processing Unit (CPU) graphics processing unit (GPU).

When Microsoft designed the XBOX 360, they downsized the heat sinks (which keeps the system cool) in order to accommodate the DVD drive and they chose a slightly unusual way of mounting to link them  to the processors. When the console is running, there is a tremendous amount of heat build up inside the case. As the motherboard heats up it begins to vibrate and flex against the X-Clamp support plastic which in turn can cause the soldered joints on the processors to come away from the motherboard itself. Once the GPU comes loose enough, your game freezes and your green lights will turn into 3 flashing red lights (Red Ring Of Death or RROD problem).

How To Fix Xbox 360 Red Ring Of Death

A few bloggers and forums recommend what they like to call "The Towel Fix" (Not recommend it can destroy your XBOX). And basically what this is, is wrapping your console up in a towel, turning it on for 20 minutes or so, and letting it overheat. Yes it sounds crazy? You’re more likely to set your Xbox 360 on fire by doing this than fixing it. This repair method heats up other electrical connections all throughout your console and will eventually permanently destroy your XBOX. You can see now, that any "fix" involving heat will only make the problem worse.

Is There A More Safe Permanent Fix For Red Ring Of Death Problem?

The whole issue is stopping the GPU from coming loose. This is not a complicated process so you don't need advanced technical skills or special tools to perform this simple Xbox 360 repair yourself at home. But, unless you are very technical, you will need the help of a professional Xbox 360 repair guide. For best results, you will want to get a guide that has video instruction; then it's just a simple matter of following along.
You should be able to fix your Xbox 360 3 red lights in about an hour and then you can get back to care free gaming. Once you fix your console correctly, you will no longer experience the red ring of death. You will be free of that nagging fear of constantly dropping from your online game, or freezing in the middle of your level.

Home repairs are safe, easy and fairly cheap plus they save you over $100 from sending it into Microsoft.