Xbox 360 3 Red Light Error

Xbox 360 3 Red Light Error

The Xbox 360 is one of the most exciting gaming systems you can get. It has great graphics, an exciting range of online play and many other options that you can get. The huge flaw with the Xbox 360's is the “Red Ring of Death”. This error can affect any Xbox 360 at anytime anywhere. The new Xbox 360's with the Falcon chips are less likely to receive the error but are still susceptible to it.

So exactly what causes the Red Ring of Death or 3 red light error? Will my Xbox 360 be affected? Is there anyway to tell ahead of time or to prevent it? What can I do if it happens?

The first most important thing is to understand what is going on with your Xbox 360. When the Xbox 360 was in production, Microsoft skipped over some critical aspects of research and discovery. The cause of these things not having enough time spent on them is the red ring of death errors that the Xbox 360 now experiences.

The two biggest causes of the 3 red light error is, one; the heat sinks are not large enough to properly cool the Xbox 360 down. The second is that the material the solder is made out of is not sufficient to withstand the heat that the Xbox puts out. So when the motherboard heats up and expands the solder's small cracks become large and the GPU soon disconnects from the motherboard. When this happens your machine will crash.

So now what do I do?

Your Xbox 360 has been affected by this problem and the 3 red rings show up on your console, Uh oh it's gonna blow! No really, relax its not quite that bad (close though). There are a few troubleshooting tips you should try prior to sending your console away or ripping it apart. The first is to simply reboot your console. If that works, great you can just continue you on. If it doesn’t' work check your power bar. The light on the power bar should be green. If it is red or orange this means there is not enough power to sufficiently power your Xbox 360 or that the power bar has a problem. If your power bar is fine, shut the Xbox 360 down, pull out all controllers and cords and plug them back in securely then reboot. If that doesn't work try, removing the hard drive and booting without it. If the error doesn't show up again then put back the hard drive and reboot.

How Do I Fix It

As mentioned previously if you have warranty remaining on your Xbox 360 it is highly recommended that you send your console back to Microsoft, as any work you do to it will void all warranty. If you have no warranty remaining on your Xbox 360 there are a couple options you have. You can send your console away for about $150.00, though you may not have a console for a few months. The other option is to fix the console your self. That will take you just a little over an hour and be much cheaper. If you decide to pursue the fix yourself, it is a great idea to have a manual and a step-by-step video with instructions. You can find all that information here.

What is the 1 red light error?

Microsoft as a “hardware failure” classifies the 1 red light error. It can very easily be related to the 3 red light error and the overheating problems. The 1 red light error is a bit harder to diagnose. The error presents with and EXX code and each code is specific.

The most common 1 red light error is E74. The E74 error seems to be caused by the loosening of the GPU chip. To figure out what part of the Xbox is truly affected you must find the secondary error code. An example of a secondary error code is a code of 0010 or 0011 indicates overheating, and a code of 0022 is a malfunction in the GPU chip.

To discover the secondary error follow the steps listed below.

- > Turn on the Xbox 360

- > Hold the sync button and the eject button simultaneously

- > The ring of light will flash the first number of the code

- > Repeat each step 3 times (total of 4 times)

Does the Xbox 360 Have Other Errors?

There are many other errors that the Xbox 360 can encounter. A few of the

Problems come from an incomplete download of software updates. If this occurs you can perform a full system reset. Another very frequent error is a disc read error. If you have a lot of disc read errors happening try cleaning out the DVD. If that doesn’t work and you are still receiving a lot of the errors you may need to purchase and replace the DVD drive.

Scratching of the discs is also a very large problem. While the discs may be being handled properly, it won't matter if you are moving the Xbox 360 with a disc in it. Chances are it will become scratched, as there is nothing holding the disc down once it is in the console. To maintain your game playing from your discs make sure your console is always empty before you move it.

It seems to be that the majority of the Xbox 360 problems can all be traced back to the overheating errors. Once you have fixed your Xbox 360 you should be able to enjoy it for many years to come.