XBox 360 3 Red Lights Repairs

Chances are that if you've been an XBox 360 gamer for any length of time, you heard about or experienced the XBox 360 3 red lights problem. The bad news is that the chances of your X360 fixing itself are about 0%. The good news is that there is a fix available and it is easy to do yourself.

The cause of the problem is overheating inside the main XBox 360 game unit. All of that processing power generates a lot of heat. That heat has to go somewhere. The original XBox 360 design didn't allow for sufficient cooling and XBoxes began failing shortly after the product was launched. Microsoft has since this problem and newer XBoxes don't have the 3 red lights issue any more. But there are several hundred thousand units out there that are susceptible to coming down with the XBox 360 "Red Ring of Death" at any time.

The X360 uses heat sinks, vented openings, and fans to aid in dissipation of the heat that is generated. The flow through these vents can become obstructed for a variety of reasons. This then causes reduced system performance and hardware failure. The 3 red lights is the code that indicates a hardware failure due to excessive heat. If you see this, you can try placing the xbox 360 console in an open area, free any debris that might be blocking the vents.

A second problem, also heat related, is the CPU (Central Processing Unit) becoming overheated. When this happens it can cause the motherboard to flex causing the soldering to become loose. Modern solder is lead-free and is more brittle than older solder which had tine and lead in it making it more flexible.

Initially, Microsoft repaired consoles under the 90 day warranty at no charge. Out-of-warranty units were repaired for a $140 charge, pretty steep. In July 2007, Microsoft extended extended the warranty of all Xbox 360 consoles suffering general hardware failures to one year.

If you've had the Xbox 360 3 red lights problem, you can ship it to a repair center and wait. Not a very attractive option. Fortunately, there is a better and cheaper alternative, There are several XBox 360 3 red lights self repair guides available that will get you up and running in about an hour using regular household tools. I've reviewed the top four XBox 360 3 red lights repair guides and found what I feel is the best one. Whatever your situation, good luck in getting your XBox fixed as soon as possible.