Xbox Red Ring of Death
 

I've been enjoying some console gaming whilst waiting for the CoD patch but last night my Xbox appears to have died.

Mid game, the screen went yellow with vertical pinstripes and now I get 3 flashing red lights on the start button and a blank screen - Xbox powers up but I get a totally blank screen.

A quick Google search reveals this is a common and serious problem. There appear to be ways to fix this if you know what you are doing. One shop has quoted me £60 (about US$100) to fix it. One shop said just throw it away and buy a new one as any fix will likely last just 6 months.

So, my question is, what would you do? I don't have a lot of spare cash (who does?) so need to decide carefully. Looks like I could pick up a new Xbox 360 4GB Arcade Console for £130.

Thanks for your thoughts ...

PPP

Same thing happened to our 360 as well. There are plenty of quick fixes on the net, but my advice would be to not try them, especially if it's still under warranty.

Ours was under warranty and we managed to get it shipped out to wherever it is they deal with these things, had it back in a few weeks (including postage time. I can't remember where it went, but it was definately abroad and we were in the UK), they paid for postage etc as well. All in all a good experience, but it shouldn't have happened in the first place.

Just a question though, is yours the old white Xbox or the new glossy one? Since ours was an old one and I sort of hoped they'd fixed the error with the new ones, if not then that's a bit of a bummer.

I hope yours is under warranty though, since this is easy then. If not, then the only advice I can give is that six months seems ridiculous when ours took two weeks.

Yeah, as Kupsised said they have a three year warranty on RROD, if your manufacture date is in that time then it's a free repair.

Sadly it's way out of warranty. It's one of the earlier cream models, I think an Xbox 360 Pro from about 2006/7. Probably the end of the road for this one I think ... and all my saved game data for Red Dead Redemption :(.

maybe throw the the mobo into the oven, wasnt it bad soldering?

You could always take the HDD off? If you get a new Xbox you can buy a transfer kit to transfer your old data to the new one (obviously they didn't make the HDD's cross compatible with the new ones so they can squeeze the extra money out of their loyal customers, but at the end of the day they have to make a profit I suppose).

Anyway, I realised your post said last six months, not take six months. Ours has lasted three years since it was repaired, although in an unrelated matter the transformer makes a horrible rattling noise all the time. Maybe it might be time to invest in a new one? Or not, since the next gen will probably be out in a few years meaning either you can get one of those or buy the 360 on the cheap when the price plummits.

Get a real console PS3!!!

If you don't have the confidence or desire to try and repair it then my advice is to either get it repaired by a professional or sell it 'as is' on Ebay and get a refurbished one or new with guarantee.

I would in any case call xbox support and see if they can't do anything for you.

Repair...nah, selfrepair....nah.

4gb xbox360 slim.....maybe.

A new xbox slim would be the best choice, if there wasn't the money issue, believe me I know, but a 4gb model is just barely enough to hold some saved game data.
No easy answer in this case. E-bay is not really a great option either, the last time I looked ( in all xbox cathegories btw. ) no real deals were to be had,
meaning something I'd trust and would be willing to spend my hardearned money on.
I would seriously save some money for a while, trade the current xbox in, even if they won't give you a lot, keep the HDD and get a data transfer kit and an xbox360 slim with a HDD, the 4gb on the arcade model are only internal memory.
It does seem to be more reliable, plus you can't even hear the thing after you turn it on.

Getting a PS3 is a so-so thing, since I am sure you build a library of games, achievements and gamerpoints, so switching consoles is not as attractive as it might seem.

Have repaired a couple of RROD'd xboxes using nothing more than the xclamp mod (basically a set of screw, washers, thermal paste and alcohol swabs) which is available for pennies on ebay, no baking, reflowing or anything, just strip the thing down, remove the cause of the issue; the xclamps that hold the heatsinks in place, remove old thermal paste, apply new stuff, re-attach heatsinks using washers and screws supplied, put back together; job done.

The hardest part is getting the thing to bits and keeping all the heatsink screws in place when re-building.