Red Lights on Your XBox?

What does it mean when your XBox has Three Flashing Red Lights instead of the normal Green Ones?

Three flashing red lights appear when an Xbox experiences a general hardware failure.These Red Lights are known as the Red Ring of Death to most gamers.

Before this occurs you may have warning signs, like the screen freezing up with strange graphics, or the sound being replaced by a static noise.The console may also say that the disk is unreadable.These signs become more and more frequent, until the hardware failure occurs.

What are Four Red Lights?

Four Red lights are a much more welcome sight, as they appear when the console doesn't detect the AV cable as being plugged in. Simply make sure it is plugged in correctly.

Why did my XBox get the Red Ring of Death?

The XBox was originally designed to be slim. Because of this, there is not enough space for the components to get enough air flow and keep cool. The XBox problem occurs therefore due to overheating.

Can I Prevent this from happening to me?

You may not be able to prevent it from happening, but keeping your XBox cool may help. Make sure it has enough air flow around it when playing, and don't put it on a carpet. If you start seeing any of the warning signs, try not to play for extended periods.

What has Microsoft done about it?

Microsoft claimed in July 2007, to have resolved many issues with the design.Xbox 360 consoles based on the "Falcon" motherboard feature a different CPU which reduces heat and is more reliable than previous models. Failure rates of the "Falcon" motherboard are supposed to be about 10%.

What do I do once my XBox has the Red Ring of Death?

You can either send it in to Microsoft for free (if you are in the 3 year warranty period), or you can fix it yourself. Sending it to Microsoft will take between 3 weeks to 6 weeks including postage time, and you may not get your own console back, but possibly another reconditioned, or repaired console. It also could happen again, which would mean repeating the whole process again.

Should you wish to, you can use the option of repairing it yourself. Have a look at a Repair Guide. Should you repair it yourself, you will probably void your warranty, but at least if it happens again, you will be able to fix it yourself and not have to send it away again.

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