The Xbox 360 has a power ring which is nothing but the power button and the lights surrounding the power button. The lights are programmed to blink according the operating conditions of the console. The lights are arranged in a quadratic circle manner as a thin ring around the power button. The lights blink either in green or red depending upon the condition. Also the console is designed to display error messages on the screen when any problems occur within the console. Basically the codes are displayed in an alphanumeric fashion. The light blinks in green color when your console runs without any problem. But, in case any problem occurs it turns to red in color. Apart from this the number of lights glowing during an error also changes. There may be one, two, three or four lights glowing according to the situation.

DESIGN ASPECTS

Basically the hardware runs on two processors that are the CPU and the GPU. These processors are provided with heat sinks to absorb heat radiated from them. The problem now is many Xbox user have complained about hardware failure and also overheating problem of the console. The overheating is because there is no enough air circulation for natural cooling of the processor. Though the motherboard consists of an intercooler, the console is still facing the overheating problem. All these problems aroused because of poor design, insufficient testing and poor ventilation inside the console. This overheating has caused an error in the console. The error E 74 occurs on the screen when the console gets overheated. Also you can observe three red lights will be glowing in the power ring area. This problem is widely known as the ‘Red Ring of Death’ or RRoD.

REPAIRING

The console can be repaired in two ways. One is by giving the console to the Microsoft service centre or else repairing it by your own. Free service is provided by Microsoft for those consoles which are under warranty period. But, for others repairing is charged. One more draw back here is that you need to wait for up to 3 months to get your console back and hence you can’t even see your Xbox for the next three months. Few suggest a method called towel wrapping. This is done to ensure that the weak solder joints in the motherboard gets melted and gets fixed properly when you wrap a towel around the console and made it to run for an hour. But hardware experts say that by performing this kind of technique will damage the components in the mere future.

EASY WAY TO REPAIR:

The simple and the easiest method to solve this problem is by repairing the console by your own. For this you need to watch some videos from the internet which gives you a step by step instruction to repair the console. The main objective is that you need to remove the X clamp from the motherboard that supports the heat sinks. After which the heat sinks are fixed back in their appropriate positions with the help of a screw and blot. This ensures that your processor gets enough air and gets cooled naturally. The main advantage in this method is that you can do the repairing work within one or two hours so that it gets ready on the same day and you can start playing your favorite game.

Red light errors are nothing but the pre-programmed error messages that are setup in the memory of the Xbox 360 console and are made to pop up whenever there is a problem in the working of the console. These messages will help the users to know where the error has occurred. The error messages are in the form of alphanumeric codes. Each and every kind of red light error has its own code so that the users can also understand and solve the problem.

Red Rings of Death

There are many red light errors like the single red light, two red lights, three red lights and four red lights error. Out of these four types, the “Three Red Light Error” is the most dangerous one because only in this type there is possibility of the console’s hardware being damaged to the maximum level if left unnoticed. The Three Red Light error is otherwise known as the “Red Ring of Death” or simply as RRoD. The name is because they signify its hardware death.

Reason

Main reason for the three red light error to occur is the cooling problem. The heat sinks function is to cool the surrounding air when the air passes by its grills. The temperature inside the console due to its compact packing and hence the cooling was not sufficient. As a result the processors below the heat sink are getting affected. Out of the two important processors the graphical processing unit is the most affected area because of this problem. So whenever the problem arises, immediately there might be problem with the display. This clearly shows that there is a fault in the cooling system of the Xbox 360 console.

Solution

The three red light error can be solved by slightly repairing the hardware. The main objective is to provide adequate cooling to the motherboard. The possibilities of providing cooling to the system are by adding an additional inter cooler to the system and by removing the X clamps.

The repairing can be also done by giving the console to the Microsoft service center. But you need to wait for 4 to 12 weeks depending upon the number of incoming consoles. Microsoft won’t repair modded consoles at any cost. For this you need to get a repairing guide from the internet. These guides will help us to solve the red light errors. These guides are video tutorials so that they will explain the steps to be taken while repairing the console.

Instead, you can repair your console in your home with the help of repair videos which are available in the internet. The advantage in repairing the console on your own is that the cost of repairing is less and the time taken will be just an hour or two.