XBox 360 - 3 red light failure & possible fix....

Osem · 10-07-2009, 21:28

My lad's gutted as his 04/2006 XBox 360 has just expired with the 3 red lights of doom, death or whatever it is... His console has a hard drive which appears to be working properly so could he simply plug this into another unit if he bought a cheap new one without a HD?

I've been looking on the net and found some interesting videos suggesting how to fix this problem which is apparently caused by overheating and vibration due to poorly designed heatsinks. I'm no techhie but would it be worth having a try to fix it following these instructions or would I be wasting my time?

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/yt-4wa..._death_part_1/

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/yt-Acz..._death_part_2/

Cheers!

v0id · 10-07-2009, 22:16

have you tried ringiing Xbox supoort to see if they'll fix it for nowt?

CHiLL · 10-07-2009, 22:56

If the console is under warranty, Microsoft will fix it for free. They even provide the box to send it off in if you want. If not, pay £60 and they'll repair it, and give you another year of warranty for free.

v0id · 10-07-2009, 23:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by CHiLL

If the console is under warranty, Microsoft will fix it for free. They even provide the box to send it off in if you want. If not, pay £60 and they'll repair it, and give you another year of warranty for free.

No, they don't. You have to provide your own generic brown box. UPS guy shows up only with labels if you haven't printed them off yourself.

Just had to send my RROD Elite back

Aragorn · 11-07-2009, 08:00

04/06 will be outside the three year RROD warranty.
When my box failed for the third time (not RROD) I sold it as faulty (£35 on ebay) and bought a new Pro (wanted the larger disk). There are numerous buyers looking to pick up faulty 360's to repair and sell on.
If a new one is too expensive, you can buy repair kits - hard work though - or if you google 'xbox 360 repair' you can probably get it fixed for about £40/50.

Osem · 11-07-2009, 09:27

Thanks for the replies guys

My understanding was that it's out of warranty and the fact that it was a 'previously owned' unit bought from Gamestation doesn't help our case does it? It may even have been in for the same repair before he bought it and I don't think junior even has the receipt.....

Anyway, can the HDD be used on anther, new, console with no issues, however, and are the new 360's free from this serious design flaw?

The fix described in the clip seems straightforward, if a little time consuming so I might just give it a try unless someone offers us some £££ for it as it is....

I suppose we could put it on ebay as a unique example of a "limited edition Xbox 360 with 3 fully functioning red lights..." and hope to attract interest from some of those idiots whoe were duped into bidding ££££'s for ordinary 20p coins thinking they were in some way special.....

Cheers.

**Graham M** · 11-07-2009, 09:57

One reason I'll never buy second hand tech

Osem · 11-07-2009, 10:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by Graham M

One reason I'll never buy second hand tech

Me too! I think he's learned a lesson and it was a gift from Nanna so I had no say in the matter at the time.

Slyder · 11-07-2009, 12:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by Osem

Anyway, can the HDD be used on anther, new, console with no issues, however, and are the new 360's free from this serious design flaw?

Ill try to answer as best I can

The hard drive will work in any 360, with your save games and profiles in tact.

I would suggest a brand new 360 arcade model as I believe these are the cheapest and come supplied with a memory unit instead of a hard drive which would be perfect for your situation.

I would suggest a retailer like Game in your area so in the event of a hardware problem you can take it straight back to them. I took out there own 3yr protection plan so they exchange it there and then, none of this mucking around sending it off.

The newer units are Jasper based and are more reliable now then what they were when yours was manufactured.

*sloman* · 11-07-2009, 12:35

its £60 repair from ms but for £97 @asda get brand new Arcade (Jasper MB)

Osem · 11-07-2009, 13:25

Cheers Slyder.

Quote:

Originally Posted by *sloman*

its £60 repair from ms but for £97 @asda get brand new Arcade (Jasper MB)

Quite, I wouldn't waste money on a repair. I'd rather try to fix it myself and if all else fails just buy him a cheap new one as suggested above.

Anyone got any views on the 'fix' links I posted BTW?

Slyder · 11-07-2009, 13:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by Osem

Anyone got any views on the 'fix' links I posted BTW?

Thanks for the rep

This is a longshot, but if you go on YouTube there are several different ways to "fix" the 3 red ring of death problem, the main one being putting a towel around the unit and leaving it turned on for about an hour.

The idea being the solder melts and reconnects tracks broken between the cpu and gpu.

Try this at your own risk thought.. and keep an eye it dosnt start smoking.

rogerdraig · 11-07-2009, 14:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by Osem

Thanks for the replies guys

My understanding was that it's out of warranty and the fact that it was a 'previously owned' unit bought from Gamestation doesn't help our case does it? It may even have been in for the same repair before he bought it and I don't think junior even has the receipt.....

Anyway, can the HDD be used on anther, new, console with no issues, however, and are the new 360's free from this serious design flaw?

The fix described in the clip seems straightforward, if a little time consuming so I might just give it a try unless someone offers us some £££ for it as it is....

I suppose we could put it on ebay as a unique example of a "limited edition Xbox 360 with 3 fully functioning red lights..." and hope to attract interest from some of those idiots whoe were duped into bidding ££££'s for ordinary 20p coins thinking they were in some way special.....

Cheers.

they were quite happy to fix the one we bought from ebay and the refurbished one we bought from blockbusters so i wouldnt worry about where you got it from they didnt want receipts either just the code of the back of the 360

just box it up slap on the lables and watch its progress on the tracking site

( think my son 7 liked that bit the best lol )

superbiatch · 11-07-2009, 15:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by Slyder

This is a longshot, but if you go on YouTube there are several different ways to "fix" the 3 red ring of death problem, the main one being putting a towel around the unit and leaving it turned on for about an hour.

This worked and got us a few extra weeks out of ours, but inevitably it will need fixing or replacement sounds like the best bet for you.

The laser has just gone on ours for a second time, it was replaced about 4 months ago so luckily there is a guy who frequents computer fairs in Manchester who's quite handy with them