Xbox 360 RROD - What Causes RROD on Your Xbox?

A problem that comes with Xbox 360 is quite common and it got even its own name from the gamers in the community.

The name given was the red ring of death. The name of this error comes from the red lights, which change from the regular green ones. These lights are located at the front of the Xbox console. The ring of death is the error that appears in most cases and it’s usually caused by the heat which builds up inside the console.

It’s only normal that the console gives heat as it works, but the problem is with its heat sinks, which should dissipate it, but don’t seem to be able to do their job. The solder used in the console is lead free, so heat can affect it in time, causing it to become brittle and get hairline cracks. This can make the console unusable because of breaks of the circuits.

A red light that is flashing might indicate that a failure of the hardware has occurred, which can be caused by the processing unit overheating. You should put the console on a box, with plenty of free space around, so cool air can get to it easily. This way the chances of issues with hardware failure are greatly reduced. You shouldn’t put it in a TV cabinet or a cupboard, since the cool air wouldn’t be sufficiently available to the console and its cooling vents.

Sometimes, people confuse the red ring of death with another similar problem, which has four red lights that are flashing. This error is caused by the AV cable, which isn’t plugged into the console. As soon as you put back the cable in the console, your problem should be fixed.

If your main problem is the dreaded red ring of death, you might be lucky. Microsoft has an extended warranty these days, increased to three years, for the consoles that have this issue, as long as you haven’t opened the console and you’re the one that bought it. The repair time is quite big though, but at least it will be fixed by the manufacturer.

The other thing you can do is doing the repair by yourself, while using a repair guide. There are great guides available, with video instructions on how to do repairs step by step, with some basic tools that you have in your house. The advantage is that you can repair a console in a few hours, instead of waiting a few weeks to come back from repairs.

Xbox 360 RROD
Xbox 360 RROD