You just got home from the local game store where you picked up your new game you’ve been waiting forever for (literally, with the production date changes and many delays). Excited, you plop down on the couch, throw the disc into your 360 and press the button to start it up. Unfortunately, it takes a little longer to boot up, and then freezes. Upon reboot it happens (cue the dreaded horror music), three flashing red lights stab out at you from the Xbox ring of light: those three red lights that mean hardware failure, which also means over a week away from some of your favorite games.
What does the three red light signal mean?
Inside the Xbox the GPU (graphics card) and CPU (processing unit), especially inside the older Xbox versions, are cold-soldered to the motherboard. The actual mass of the cards trap heat when the Xbox is in use and in many cases it heats up the soldering. This constant heat-up and cool-down causes cracking and gaps in the actual solder until eventually the Xbox does not operate correctly anymore. Hence the three flashing red lights.
There are other problem signals: one flashing red light indicates a major hardware failure, which means the Xbox needs to be replaced; two flashing red lights mean the console is overheated and needs to be cooled down; and 4 red lights simply mean there is no signal being passed through the console’s AV cable (often because it is not plugged in correctly). The most common, however, is the dreaded 3 light “RROD”, or “Red Ring of Death”.
So, in the event this does happen, what can you do?
Microsoft sent out press releases over a year ago that they were extending console warranties for the RROD problems for up to three years. This means even if your console’s warranty runs out, the red-light warranty still remains active for up to 2 years after. You can file online, provided your Xbox is registered, and Microsoft will send you all shipping materials to ship the console to a repair location for free. Once shipped the Xbox about a maximum of two weeks to get to the repair center and then get shipped back after being fixed. For the most part Microsoft is speedy at getting the console back to its owner. However, the fix isn’t permanent, as most repaired consoles eventually see the same problem again.
