HELP! RED RING OF DEATH!!!

Mexicola · Post by **Mexicola** » Wed Nov 16, 2011 7:27 pm

ARRRGGGHHHH!!!!

So, after around 5 years of hassle-free gaming, and totally without warning, I finally experienced the dreaded 'Red Ring of Death' tonight. 3 red lights, General Hardware failure. My life is buggered.

Seriously though, I've tried the bog standard 'unplug everything and try again' routine, including removing the hard drive. No joy.

As I'm well and truly out of warranty now (to be honest, I'm mega-impressed it's taken this long for it to go pop, judging by the experiences of many other people), does anyone out there have any clue how to fix this? I really don't fancy sending to Bill Gates and his little helpers to sit on it for 2 months before shipping me a refurbed one at silly-money.

PLEASE HELP!!! FIFA and MW3 are calling!!!!

Lens Larque · Post by **Lens Larque** » Wed Nov 16, 2011 9:00 pm

try wrapping it in a towel and stick it in your oven at 160 degs (F)

possible crystals on the solder. 20-30 min

Mexicola · Post by **Mexicola** » Wed Nov 16, 2011 9:04 pm

Thanks. Been reading about the infamous 'towel method', as well as xclamps, heat sinks...etc etc etc.

Come to a conclusion - I know a shop doing recons for £60

Lens Larque · Post by **Lens Larque** » Wed Nov 16, 2011 9:06 pm

fair enough. i guess that is 65 C. thanks wolframalpha!

Waterbagel · Post by **Waterbagel** » Wed Nov 16, 2011 10:00 pm

Lens Larque wrote:wolframalpha!

just another one of its wonders

like when i'm doing calculus homework and i can't be bothered to see if a series absolutely converges over 20 times

Ender · Post by **Ender** » Thu Nov 17, 2011 3:50 am

A while ago my friend got a red ring of death. I figured at that time it was just his xbox overheating and I took a can of air to it and blew clean the fans and such, and he hasn't had another red ring since. It may not necessarily fix it, but it's worth a shot at least.

IanRedpoint · Post by **IanRedpoint** » Thu Nov 17, 2011 8:41 am

Mexicola wrote:Come to a conclusion - I know a shop doing recons for £60

That's not a bad price. My first one went after about 3 years. I got a replacement under warranty but it rocked my confidence in the 360, and I switched most of my gaming to ps3 after that. I still half-expect my 360 to red-ring every time I turn it on now.

Mine expired in November too - the worst time of year!

Kiwibaws · Post by **Kiwibaws** » Thu Nov 17, 2011 11:05 am

READ!>>>Fixes don't work. About 2 years ago microsoft agreed to fix any console shown to have the red ring even if it's out of warranty. Before you splash out or wrap it in a fucking towel(only works for a day or so) I highly recommend contacting them about it anyway.

polar sky · Post by **polar sky** » Thu Nov 17, 2011 3:12 pm

Kiwibaws wrote:READ!>>>Fixes don't work. About 2 years ago microsoft agreed to fix any console shown to have the red ring even if it's out of warranty. Before you splash out or wrap it in a fucking towel(only works for a day or so) I highly recommend contacting them about it anyway.

Nope, not anymore:

Microsoft no longer gives a 3 year warranty for "general failure" errors, because the Xbox 360 slim "constitutes a whole new design". Microsoft now only offers the obligatory one year warranty on New Systems only. So that means anything out of it's 1 Year Warranty will no longer be excepted for Free Repairs including ANY Red Ring Systems. So anyone with an older 360 that has a Red Ring is screwed.

Mexicola, looks like you'll have to buy a new one.

BrandNewRetro · Post by **BrandNewRetro** » Thu Nov 17, 2011 3:31 pm

The X-Clamp fix definitely works if it's the first time it's RROD'd. I've done it a few times with a few consoles and you can a get 3-6 months extra use out of the console but when it goes again it's unlikely that another fix will work. You can also airflow them which apparently makes them last even longer but that's out of my knowledge range!

Also as I work at Blockbuster who sell refurb consoles, bare in mind (unless it was a replacement disc drive or something like that) that they only get the same fix treatment, I'd say at least 50% of the consoles get returned with a couple of months. I'd imagine you got something like a 6 month warranty on it though with the store? If so, keep hold of the receipt and take it back before the 6 months is up even if it's working so you can get a fresh refurb and renewed warranty, because if your console has been lucky enough to last 6 months, it will definitely go not too long after that (they always do!)

Kiwibaws · Post by **Kiwibaws** » Thu Nov 17, 2011 4:01 pm

polar sky wrote:
Kiwibaws wrote:READ!>>>Fixes don't work. About 2 years ago microsoft agreed to fix any console shown to have the red ring even if it's out of warranty. Before you splash out or wrap it in a fucking towel(only works for a day or so) I highly recommend contacting them about it anyway.
Nope, not anymore:

Microsoft no longer gives a 3 year warranty for "general failure" errors, because the Xbox 360 slim "constitutes a whole new design". Microsoft now only offers the obligatory one year warranty on New Systems only. So that means anything out of it's 1 Year Warranty will no longer be excepted for Free Repairs including ANY Red Ring Systems. So anyone with an older 360 that has a Red Ring is screwed.

Mexicola, looks like you'll have to buy a new one.

I'm sure that's not the case. My warranty had ran out for a year when the RRD happened. The only reason they wouldn't fix it is because i'd already opened it and glued some pennies inside it. Still, you might be right, they might have changed their position on this but I still think it's worth phoning about.

Mexicola · Post by **Mexicola** » Thu Nov 17, 2011 8:03 pm

Thanks everyone at what is a traumatic time for me and those close to me....

Seriously, I've already been told by a colleague that Microsoft are now charging around £80 to 'fix' the RROD, so I'm ruling that out.

I've done alot of research into the X-Clamp fix and I'm going to give it a shot. Works out around £15 for me to perform the open heart surgery and if it doesn't work I'll either go for a recon job (£60) or bite the bullet and get myself a PS3.

A word (begrudgingly) in Microsoft's defense here: I've had this thing for 5 years now and bar the odd freeze I've not had a sniff of a problem. I know others only got 3 years or less from their units, but I've been pretty pleased with mine. Having said that, £40 a year for Xbox live takes the piss, but I'm digressing now.

BrandNewRetro - I might ping you a question or two about the old X-Clamp fix via FB if that's ok? Got the procedure down in my head, but I've seen different methods for heating it once you've applied the new silver paste to the GPU/CPU. Saw one guy heat his whole board using a heatgun...

polar sky · Post by **polar sky** » Thu Nov 17, 2011 8:24 pm

Kiwibaws wrote:
polar sky wrote:
Kiwibaws wrote:READ!>>>Fixes don't work. About 2 years ago microsoft agreed to fix any console shown to have the red ring even if it's out of warranty. Before you splash out or wrap it in a fucking towel(only works for a day or so) I highly recommend contacting them about it anyway.
Nope, not anymore:

Microsoft no longer gives a 3 year warranty for "general failure" errors, because the Xbox 360 slim "constitutes a whole new design". Microsoft now only offers the obligatory one year warranty on New Systems only. So that means anything out of it's 1 Year Warranty will no longer be excepted for Free Repairs including ANY Red Ring Systems. So anyone with an older 360 that has a Red Ring is screwed.

Mexicola, looks like you'll have to buy a new one.
I'm sure that's not the case. My warranty had ran out for a year when the RRD happened. The only reason they wouldn't fix it is because i'd already opened it and glued some pennies inside it. Still, you might be right, they might have changed their position on this but I still think it's worth phoning about.

They used to offer an extended 3 year warranty on all pre-slim consoles because of the RROD, but as of now that 3 year extended warranty is no longer active do to the fact that the slim is a "New Xbox 360". Older model Xbox 360s are no longer produced and since they are no longer produced, they don't have to honor that 3 year extended warranty anymore. They discontinued the RROD repairs on pre-slim consoles older than 1 year.

Mexicola · Post by **Mexicola** » Wed Nov 23, 2011 10:17 pm

Fixed it tonight. New heat conductive paste applied, X-clamps gone, red rings GONE! Net outlay £12 for parts and paste. I'm a happy man

Lens Larque · Post by **Lens Larque** » Wed Nov 23, 2011 10:32 pm

wrap it in a towel and put it in the oven

Mexicola · Post by **Mexicola** » Wed Nov 23, 2011 10:47 pm

Lens Larque wrote:wrap it in a towel and put it in the oven

No thanks.

dp · Post by dp » Thu Nov 24, 2011 12:31 am

Did you try yelling at it?