XBox 360 - 3 Red Lights

Hey all. I've gotten permission from a mod to post this here. For those of you that aren't willing to wait around for 3 weeks for your console to be repaired by Microsoft or for those of you who are outside the 3 year RROD warrenty period I can offer a repair service for €50.

I can repair anything from faulty disc drives to the rrod to overheating to the infamous sound but no video issue.

If anyone's interested fire me off a PM, cheers. I can have it fixed and back to you in under two days if dropped off. It can be mailed too at buyer's expense.

So I just rang Gamestop and the guy said Microsoft are dealing with all hardware failures and I have to send it to them.

Is he lying?

Kento wrote: »

So I just rang Gamestop and the guy said Microsoft are dealing with all hardware failures and I have to send it to them.

Is he lying?

Yes and no. Microsoft do insist that the customer deal directly with them for xbox repairs outside the 1 year standard warranty period. If the shop insists you deal with Microsoft and want nothing to do with you then you may have to go legal on them with a small claims court claim. Could be worth researching what I said earlier about goods expecting to last a decent amount of time, I'm sure there's a legal terminology for it. To be honest, if the shop isn't playing ball then what's the harm in sending the console back to save hassle? The outcome is essentially the same, a working xbox.

The fix can last for the lifetime of the xbox, and in repeat RROD cases on the same xbox MS can replace the console entirely. If the repair doesn't last and you're out of warranty you can just DIY fix it, I've posted up here how to fix it yourself

AndyKiely wrote: »

Got three Red Rings today, right before Christmas when most of My Presents will be Xbox games, Out of Warrenty at this stage, any ideas if someone in Waterford Fixes Red Rings?

Call Microsoft first and make sure you're out of warranty

niallith wrote: »

so my xbox has started freezing up whenever i try to play a game, am i able to bring it back to the shop for a new one or can u only do that with the RROD ???(ive returned 2 before bcause of rrod)

It usually starts to freeze about a week or so before it finally gives up the ghost and gives a rrod. If it's outside warranty I can fix it for you if you're interested.

Came in tonight, turned on the xbox and BAM!
3 red rings, top left bottom right and bottom left
And when i switch to the AV channel, theres nothing on the screen, and the xbox is kinda revving.
Anyone any ideas on whats wrong?

Wucking Fanker wrote: »

I can see from my Xbox account that my Xbox has arrived at MS to be repaired. \o/

I got it collected from work as it was handiest to do so, but my home address is the one that was on the mailing slips i printed out. Obviously if I'm in work I'd prefer to receive it there, but I'm not sure will they deliver it before, during or after the holidays! (obviously if it's during, I'll be at home!). What I'm wondering now is do UPS ring you before delivering to make sure you're there and can you just tell them the address you want it delivered to?

Any tips would be welcome!

It's been posted before on this thread that UPS should ring you before delivery of your repaired xbox. The cut-off point for UPS pickups for faulty consoles was December 11th if you want it back for Christmas - so if you got your xbox picked up on the 10th or 11th you're cutting it fine but should be ok for gaming over Christmas.

Damo 2k9 wrote: »

Came in tonight, turned on the xbox and BAM!
3 red rings, top left bottom right and bottom left
And when i switch to the AV channel, theres nothing on the screen, and the xbox is kinda revving.
Anyone any ideas on whats wrong?

Yes, you've got the RROD. Call Microsoft, arrange to get it fixed under warranty if it still applies. If you call and they say it's out of warranty then come back and take it from there, either to a repairer or give the DIY route a go before calling in the pros

Damo 2k9 wrote: »

Yeh I know I've got the RROD :P
I take it it won't be back before crimbo judgind by the post above
Will ring MS later on and see what the story is

Nope, you won't have it back in time for Christmas. You could maybe do the towel trick on it and you could get another few days out of it, or it could last an hour - it all depends.

TouchingVirus wrote: »

Nope, you won't have it back in time for Christmas. You could maybe do the towel trick on it and you could get another few days out of it, or it could last an hour - it all depends.

Thinking of doing that, but i think thats what the problem is, it overheated. So will the towel trick still do it or is it only for the e74?
Thanks.

Damo 2k9 wrote: »

Thinking of doing that, but i think thats what the problem is, it overheated. So will the towel trick still do it or is it only for the e74?
Thanks.

The way the towel trick works is that the 3RROD is a "permanent" error, an error that needs to be looked at. So that fault is remembered after powering off, and every time you turn on your console it'll RROD. This isn't the RROD happening again (the conditions that resulted in your RROD still only happened just the once) - it's just the console reminding you that your xbox needs a look at.

Actual proper overheating, the 2RROD, is a temporary error. If you get it, when you turn off the console and power up the xbox wipes the error slate clean and tries to operate normally again.

By using the towel trick you overheat the xbox, thus removing the "permanent" 3RROD error that isn't forgotten about after powering off and replacing with a "temporary" 2RROD error that is forgotten about once you power off.

It works for most RRODs but don't do it too often if your console is under warranty. It can damage things because you're forcibly overheating the entire console, whereas the RROD is a localised problem.

Snake Plisken wrote: »

look the 3rrod is caused by the GPU becoming so hot that the solder on that join it to the main PCB board becomes soft and malable some of the 100's points on will actually break contact from the GPU chip (due to lead free solder), not to mention the xclamp that puts pressure on the pcb board which will actually warp over time, the towel trick works in the same way as the other overheating fixes, in that by overheating the GPU the solder will sometimes rejoin at the points the problem is that this will work a few times but over time more and more of these gaps between the GPU and the PCB board solder points will occur until whatever overheating you do won't make a blind bit of difference, best solution for 3 Red rings if you haven't invalidate the warrenty is to send it back to Microsoft and they will replace the board with an upgraded version or provide you with a whole new console.
you can read more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_360_technical_problems

It's not just a GPU related problem

Snake Plisken wrote: »

Yes it is, the low profile heatsink on the gpu is badly designed no airflow passes over it to cool the fins, whereas the main processer has a decent heatsink and decent airflow over it I've seen a few in my time and by overheating the GPU and replacing the X-Clamp I've sorted the 3RROD's in them all, it's just a badly designed product by Microsoft. Actually Microsofts next revision of the Mainboard will have the GPU & CPU on the one die package, and seat it out where the CPU sits at the minute, the will use 45nm process technology to shrink the size of the die's thus reducing the amount of heat produced, expect to see these hit the market around Q3 next year

I've done an x-clamp replacement on a GPU only on my friends xbox, it RROD'd not two weeks later. I replaced the CPU x-clamp, it's going strong now for over a month. If it was only a GPU related issue then I wouldn't of had to replace the CPU x-clamp. I'm not saying most issues aren't caused by the GPU, it has a bad design and further revisions introduced a GPU heatsink with a heatpipe off it into the path of better airflow at the CPU, but to say it's only ever the GPU is incorrect.

TouchingVirus wrote: »

The way the towel trick works is that the 3RROD is a "permanent" error, an error that needs to be looked at. So that fault is remembered after powering off, and every time you turn on your console it'll RROD. This isn't the RROD happening again (the conditions that resulted in your RROD still only happened just the once) - it's just the console reminding you that your xbox needs a look at.

Actual proper overheating, the 2RROD, is a temporary error. If you get it, when you turn off the console and power up the xbox wipes the error slate clean and tries to operate normally again.

By using the towel trick you overheat the xbox, thus removing the "permanent" 3RROD error that isn't forgotten about after powering off and replacing with a "temporary" 2RROD error that is forgotten about once you power off.

It works for most RRODs but don't do it too often if your console is under warranty. It can damage things because you're forcibly overheating the entire console, whereas the RROD is a localised problem.

Thanks a million for clearing that up for me man