Xbox 360 Red Lights - What is Microsoft Doing About It

In the "real" world, if you put out a lousy product, the market lets you know loud and clear by not buying it. So why is it that there are still so many XBox 360's out there with the dreaded 3 red lights problem?

This is how I figure it... the xBox 360 is not a lousy product. It is great product with a design flaw. To use an analogy with people, what's the first thing people do when they are accused of having a flaw, large or small? They deny it of course. Well, companies have "personalities" just like people do. Microsoft has a reputation of being a know-it-all bully. Their personality at the time the xBox 360 was being designed and built can be described as, uummm, arrogant? Too much success too soon does that to you.

So you can imagine what was going through Microsoft's collection head during the design and launch of the xBox 360. I can hear it now:

"We're Microsoft. We don't make mistakes. We make great products and we make a lot of money."

The xBox 3 Red Lights issue brought them back down to earth. Even that took a while, but the red Ring of Death became an undeniable reality for Microsoft and they've been forced by their customer base, to take it seriously. The proble is not caused by misuse, abuse or neglect, It is caused by a design flaw, pure and simple.

In the case of the XBox360 three red lights problem, the design flaw is insufficient cooling. The xBox 360 is actually a very powerful computing platform. Most video game consoles have more computing power than their desktop PC cousins. Graphics is the reason, Those magnificent 3D worlds take incredible amounts of raw calculations to create. And anything that is working hard generates heat.

What Microsoft is doing with new XBox 360's is designing in a more efficient cooling system to dissipate that heat faster. The cooler the XBox 360 runs, the better it feels.

However, mmost of XBoxe 360's out there still have the potential to suffer from the 3 red lights problem because they don't have the new design. That's why a small industry has sprung up around fixing the xBox 360 three red light problem. There are the Red Ring of Death do-it-yourself fix-it guides. There are services that will fix it for you. And then of course there's Microsoft's $140 fix it plan (if you're out of warranty).

Personally, I like doing things myself. Popping open a computer and working on it is not something that scares me, as long as I have some sort of guide to tell me exactly what to do. I reviewed the top 4 Fix-it guides and found out some surprising things. Here's a hint. The news is good (and low-cost). Check it out. The guides are around $25-$30 dollars and the fix takes about an hour.