Red ring of death problems CANNOT be fixed with a towel! Learn How To REALLY Fix Xbox Red Lights!
Fighting with the red ring of death is beyond frustrating. But you should know that more than half a million people are dealing with the red ring of death. The good news is that Xbox 360 red lights aren’t as big a problem as you might think and can be easily (and safely) fixed in under an hour. In fact, over 94% of Xbox 360s that have red light errors only need a little tweaking to get up and running (only 6% require new parts).
One thing to know about the red ring of death: it will not go away on its own, you will need to repair your system.
Before you do ANYTHING, read this first!
Some people say that you can fix the red ring of death by wrapping it in a towel and overheating it, or by heating it with a hair dryer, or by simply whacking it into your system. DO NOT DO ANY OF THESE! While they may work for a while (like 10 minutes), it will cause permanent damage to your system.
As you’ll see in a moment, the red ring of death is caused by heat, so further heating your system is the last thing you want to do. Hitting your system won’t do anything useful.
If you try any of these “Xbox 360 crack pot repair tricks”, it will only make the red ring of death problem worse. Unless you want to turn a simple repair into an expensive one that needs replacement parts, stay away from these fake Xbox 360 repair tricks.
Discover the real cause of the red ring of death.
As you may have already guessed, heat is the main problem, but here’s what happens on the technical side. As the system heats up (and can reach temperatures of up to 100°C!), the motherboard begins to flex. This flexing action begins to loosen the GPU (graphics processing unit). Once the GPU goes loose, your system freezes and you get that annoying red ring of death.
But did you know that the whole red lights and system freeze problem is a problem that Microsoft admitted as their fault? When making the first model (that is, before the elite model came out) they had a space problem. They were running out of space and needed to put in the DVD drive. So they decided to shrink the LSI heatsink (the cooling unit) to make room. As a result, the motherboard doesn’t stay as cool as it should and many people now have red ring of death issues.
OK, I won’t try anything silly with my system, how can I fix it?
The problem is heat, and what you need to do is take your system apart, clean the GPU and motherboard, and put a spacer (like a washer) between the heatsink and motherboard. This will allow it to “breathe” and keep the motherboard cooler.
If that scares you (and you’re not very technically proficient), don’t worry. There is a step by step video repair guide you get (available at the end of the article). The entire repair can take less than an hour, you can use common household tools, and you’ll get rid of the red ring of death once and for all.
Now you know…
Now you know that the annoying red ring of death issue that ruins game progress and online multiplayer is caused by heat. This heat causes the GPU to go limp, and fake repair tricks will only make this problem worse (and possibly permanent).
The problem is not going to go away on its own, but the basic problem is to give the motherboard a break, and you can fix it permanently, at home with no previous technical experience and you can use common household tools. There is a step-by-step Xbox 360 repair video guide available at the end of this article if you are interested in getting help with the process.
Best of luck repairing the Xbox 360 Red Ring of Death!