You’re going to learn:

o How to fix red rings of death in just 1 hour

o What voids your warranty

o The danger of using the towel trick

o What each of the red lights means

o Some scary facts about the Xbox 360

o How you can benefit from the red rings of death

What will void my Xbox 360 warranty?

Any internal or software modifications will instantly void the warranty.

If you use the towel trick (see below), you’ll also void your warranty (and damage your system).

Also, if you use the Nyko intercooler, you will void your warranty. The intercooler is actually quite damaging as it will severely drain power and burn out your system. DO NOT USE IT!

What is the towel trick? Repair the red rings of death?

The towel trick is to wrap your Xbox 360 in a towel and overheat it by leaving it on. This seriously damages your console. It might work a bit, but you’ll ruin it permanently. You have been warned. Plus, there are much safer ways to fix red light errors, as you’ll discover below.

What do the red lights mean?

o 1 red light means your console has had a general hardware failure. If you don’t know how to fix it yourself, it could cost $140 to ship. Not to mention a long wait of 4-6 weeks. The good news is that 94% of Xbox 360s with general hardware failures DO NOT NEED NEW PARTS! I mean, with a little adjustment you can get them going!

o 2 red lights mean your system is overheating. To avoid damaging the console, turn it off immediately.

o 3 red lights also means general hardware failure. These are the infamous “red rings of death”

o 4 red lights means there is something wrong with your AV cable. The connection may be loose. If not, you may need to get a new cable.

Did you know these horrible facts about the Xbox 360?

The system did not receive a tilt safety device. That means it scratches the discs when you move it if it’s on! This is not covered by the warranty. DO NOT MOVE YOUR SYSTEM WHEN IT IS ON!

Microsoft reduced the size of the LSI heat sink to make room for the DVD drive. The problem is that the heat sink keeps the motherboard cool and a small heat sink means the motherboard doesn’t heat up well. As a result, if you leave your system on, the motherboard overheats, starts to vibrate, and loosens the processor connection. This then causes the red rings of death.

Microsoft said the failure rate (ie red light errors) was only 5%. However, retailers have reported failure rates of up to 30%! While Microsoft never changed this figure, it did say that the first 11.6 million consoles sold had a “defect” that could cause them to fail. I think it’s pretty obvious that this “flaw” was the downsized LSI heatsink.

The Fall 2006 update caused some Xbox 360s to boot to the death screen only.

All bad things aside, how can I benefit from the red rings of death?

If you learn how to fix Xbox 360 red light error (see below), you can buy them cheap on eBay. You can find some consoles that sell for $60 because people don’t know how to fix them so they just want to sell them. You can buy it, fix it, and then resell it for $200. You could also keep it for yourself.