Signs Your XBOX360 is Getting the Red Ring of Death and Some Solutions
Sunday, November 4, 2007
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Microsoft calls it “Three red lights flash on the Ring of Light”. You and I call it the Red Ring of Death or The Ring of Fire, or even “Son of a…”
But how do you know your XBOX 360 is going to die?
Symptoms
These are the symptoms I saw right before my XBOX360 got the Red Ring of Death.
First off, it happened really quickly, for me, over a matter of a couple of days. I made the symptoms bold to make them easier to pick out.
1) I got my first freeze-up playing Bioshock. I was in the middle of a gun fight, when all of a sudden the screen froze with no sound. At the same time, the light on my controller was going crazy. By this I mean the light was racing around the circle really fast, as if the controller was on but not connected. I had to turn everything off by pressing the button on the console, as the controller was non-responsive.
2) I played for about 20 more minutes that night, with occasional freeze-ups.
3) Freeze-ups increased rapidly. Soon I was getting them after only a few minutes of play, then after a few seconds of turning on my XBOX360. Each time I had to turn off the 360 by holding down the button on the console.
4) One time I got the Red Ring of Death. By this time, I was getting freeze-ups every time I turned on the console. Microsoft describes this as: “You see three lights on the Ring of Light (RoL) flash red on the front of your Xbox 360 console. The upper-right quadrant light is the only light that does not flash red.”
5) I also got an Error 71. This means a general hardware failure. The TV had white dots all over the screen.
Oh No! I’ve got Issues! Now What?
First, read this: Use this information at your own risk! I am not an expert in these matters, just a moron who can type. You are responsible for your own actions in this matter.
Before you do anything else, look at the power button, and the four quadrants that surround the button (the ring of light). Microsoft has published some solutions that may fix the issue. Below, I have linked the symptom to the Microsoft article online.
The power supply light is orange
The power supply light is not illuminated
If those solutions don’t work, call Microsoft at 1-800-4-MY-XBOX (in the US and Canada).
In the next couple of days, I will post other solutions I’ve found online.
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51 Responses to “Signs Your XBOX360 is Getting the Red Ring of Death and Some Solutions”
Comments
Got somthing to say?
Avery says:
November 5th, 2007 at 3:32 pm
Kevin, did you finish Bioshock? I finished it last night. Great game!
Kevin says:
November 5th, 2007 at 7:30 pm
No! I really want to, but I’m nervous… since it crashed my first xbox 360. It was so good though! Well, I’m glad you finished it, anyway, hopefully without issues.
BlackRoseImmortal says:
January 6th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
I was playing Oblivion and I counted over a three week period it froze twice, I usually play oblivion for an average of 6 hours every night. But Ive been getting very worried lately because gameplay has slowed increasingly, could it be a heat issue? Would an outside fan blowing on the xbox help it cool down? Please comment back. My 360 is dear to me… :unhappy:
Kevin says:
January 6th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
It could be! I would give Microsoft a call. They were really helpful in my case. Have those freezes been after a long period of play?
I would make sure that your xbox is in an open space with nothing blocking the vents. It should have a lot of open air around it.
Kevin says:
January 6th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
Black Rose,
Here is an article I just found. It’s a little old but offers a solution:
http://gaming.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=5124
BlackRoseImmortal says:
January 6th, 2008 at 6:59 pm
Yeah, I usually play for extensive periods of time…Its been getting more frequent lately, And Im afraid to play it now…
BlackRoseImmortal says:
January 6th, 2008 at 6:59 pm
Thank you so much for your help, I will try it immediately :happy: :happy: :happy:
Kevin says:
January 6th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
Alright, well, please let me know how it goes! And thanks for the comments.
BlackRoseImmortal says:
January 9th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
It went well, the lag stopped along with the freezes , thanks!
Kevin says:
January 9th, 2008 at 8:59 pm
Great! That is so good to hear. Hopefully you won’t have any other issues.
Kyme says:
October 26th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
im on stage 5 i have freeze ups rapidy and almost every time i turn on my 360 elite. in the past ten minutes i have had white dots and bright colours all over my screen. but no red rings yet do you think i should get a repair now or wait till i get red rings??? please advice!!!
Kevin says:
October 26th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Hi Kyme.
I just emailed you. How old is your XBOX?
John says:
October 26th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
You probably want to get that looked at before Fallout 3 comes out.
nick says:
December 25th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
what if there is a ring on the game like I got gow 2 for christmas when I went to play it for a second time it said it was dirty so I took it out cleaned and there was a ring on my copy of gears of war ?
nick says:
December 25th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
kay so what if theres a ring on your games then what ?
ctoke420 says:
January 26th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
nick its probably a heat ring it happens when u move ur 360 while its on or its standing up
i had a disk get one while i put my saints 2 copy on my dtv reciver take it 2 gamecrazy and have them buff it out
keep blazin
lateer
Oddball808 says:
February 17th, 2009 at 7:08 pm
Brah my xbox keeps freezing and everytime i go on xbox live to jam some halo3,it freezes and then a single red ring illuminates.
do i have to send it in or i goota buy me a new one?
Andrew says:
April 10th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
So 3 nights ago I was playing NHL 09 and my 360 kept freezing up. Now when I try to play NHL 09, the game freezes and I get disconnected from X-box live. Does that mean I am getting the Red Ring Of Death?
Kevin says:
April 10th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
Andrew: Does your xbox play other games ok?
Martin says:
July 4th, 2009 at 8:56 am
k so whenever i play fallout 3 and halo 3 ( online) my 360 freezes and the screen goes black n my controller sometimes vibrates for no reason while flashing like crazy
also i have got error E67 and also i have got a blank screen right after booting up my 360 then the bottom right quadrent gores and flashes red
any help?
Jason says:
August 4th, 2009 at 9:39 am
My xbox makes a proppa bad buzzin noise n i drt no wetha i am gonna get the red ring of death. it happens when i play COD4 and WAW n i aint ma disks coz they r clean.
i have had the ring once but i just turned it of and tapped the side and it went.
can you dget the red ring from the xbox overheating?
Mike says:
September 8th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
I was playing gta4 and my screen randomly became tinted green, as a played on blue lines and blocks started appearing. it does this everytime i use it now. sometimes the colours are normal but only for about 5 seconds. does anyone know the cause of this?
Kmac_69 says:
October 1st, 2009 at 3:05 pm
I have been scared to play for more than a few hours a day because i have have gotten red ring on 2 diff xbox360s and well lately im getting signs again while playing fallout3 lagg freezing and i have seen the ring once already on this xbox but it hasnt apeared since
rudy says:
October 4th, 2009 at 6:23 pm
how long is the usual life span of xbox 360
Kevin says:
October 4th, 2009 at 6:47 pm
It seems to last a lot longer if you don’t play it as much. However, I have had issues both times when I played it a lot and then took a break to play my PS3. Both times when I started playing again after a couple weeks break it went RROD on me.
Albert Brown says:
October 5th, 2009 at 4:09 am
Hey, my Xbox keeps freezing up alot lately. And the screen will go blue and some times it will go grainy and then it will go black. It also freezes up normally too. And it all started when I bought a 360 media remote. How long will it take to get red ring if I have it.
Clowno55 says:
October 7th, 2009 at 12:32 am
I just bought a FRESH NEW COPY of fallout 3 and my Xbox wont read it. It gives me sad face..Any idea how I can fix it?
jackson says:
December 14th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
I just got L4D (the 1st one) yesterday and it’s freezing up almost every time i’m playing. just got the game so i know it’s not that..gonna try switching it tomorrow but if it still doesn’t work i’m gonna call microsoft, heh?
Luis says:
December 26th, 2009 at 9:35 pm
I got the red ring of death once, and my remotes are acting weird, as I play Halo 3 and try to melee someone (B) button. It get automaticaly disconnected, and with new batteries!!! This might be a side effect but I don’t know, what do you think?
Hendriks says:
January 13th, 2010 at 12:35 am
For all of those that keep getting the red ring of death it is due to over heating of the GPU and CPU. The thermal compound that microsoft puts on the processors has all worn away and dried up making your processors temperature rise fast. When this happens your processors can begin to flex which really begins to mess them up. You can send it back to microsoft to fix but if your warranty is up you can easily fix it yourself with minimal to no background in electronics. You can find videos on youtube and guides on how to open up your xbox, remove the DVD drive and heat sinks to get at your processor and clean the old compound off. Then you have to apply new thermal compound and assemble it back together and presto, your xbox should work again for about another 1.5 to 3 years depending on the compound you used and how much you play. Hope that helps. PS They use a very unusual method of mounting the heat sinks to the mother board. Go here http://www.movieshare.org/e-books/xbox-360-repair-guide/346706/ if you wish to get a full guide on how to mount the heat sinks better. Good Luck and see you out there on xbox live. MW 2!
joshuasonicfan says:
January 19th, 2010 at 4:37 pm
i got thr rrod i think 4 times but it was because of the outlet.
but now i keep on getting it for no reason!!!!i only play it for like an hour.
Gunslinger says:
January 26th, 2010 at 7:22 pm
so my xbox just got the rrod and was just sudden. there were no symtomes at all. It happened really fast i was playing cod and i was playing for about an hour or so then suddenly during one of the matches right when i shot it this weird pattern came onto the screen and the controller just vibrated like crazy. Then when ever i turned it on it suddenly got the rrod. So i have had it for about two months and it wasent new was from like ebay or whatever my mom used but i’m pretty sure there is no warrenty. so what now?
Kevin says:
January 26th, 2010 at 8:05 pm
Gunslinger. You may be out of luck, but maybe not. I would suggest you call up XBOX. The worst they can say is no. They will look at the serial number to see when it was purchased. You might still be good.
danny says:
February 1st, 2010 at 1:44 am
hi guys, i just went to turn on my 360 and out of nowhere 3 red lines? i have not even had 1 before and now just to turn it on and get 3, any ideas how, and by the way i only use maybe 3 hours, 3 days a week!
evan says:
February 21st, 2010 at 5:46 pm
that sucks
evan says:
February 21st, 2010 at 5:47 pm
I think i may get the rrod cuz my xbox kepps freezing
evan says:
February 21st, 2010 at 5:48 pm
ya have any tipz
jesse says:
December 18th, 2010 at 2:17 pm
i get an error saying insert disc into xbox 360 console and it is freezing after any demo or playing online after about 10 mins.. i think its about to get red ring’d.. fuc* it im buyin a ps3 xbox sucks too many problems for me and dont have the money for microsoft
JImmy says:
January 22nd, 2011 at 9:16 pm
yeah so no symptoms but when i play fallout new vegas it freezes but not on anyother game… is it just the game or am i getting RROD and also how long do u have to get it replaced
Kevin says:
January 23rd, 2011 at 12:07 pm
I wouldn’t worry about it, Jimmy. Fallout New Vegas is a buggy game. Mine has frozen several times while playing it. My guess is that you’re ok.
Michael says:
March 2nd, 2011 at 2:14 pm
While I was playing an online Combat Training match on Black Ops it froze on me. I don’t think the lights were going crazy on the controller though it was still at the same spot when its on. Am I getting the RROD? Or is it common for Black Ops to freeze on a Combat Training game? Please reply.
Perses Guide says:
November 19th, 2011 at 10:58 am
Perses Guide…
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Maca says:
January 14th, 2012 at 2:03 am
Maca…
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Matt says:
January 28th, 2012 at 5:56 am
Wen I got my red rings in march 2011. There was nothing wrong with it for about a month or 2. Then. The disk tray started having problems reading disks. So it would take 10 mins to get it back to playing games. But. Now the time in witch it takes to repair has increased to 6 -7 HOURS. If anyone knows what Is going on can u please tell me!
bullseye1937 says:
April 4th, 2012 at 5:24 pm
my xbox just shut off while i was in the middle of playing mw3 and i looked at my xbox and i saw the TOP LEFT and BOTTOM LEFT of the light thing RED but the BOTTOM RIGHT was GREEN and the TOP RIGHT was just blank and i ran up and turned it off. so is there a reason for the colors to be like that.when i whent to shut it off it wouldnt work i pushed it and held the button and it wasnt turning off so i got scared and turned it off by pulling out the main power line.the controler was still on after i turned the 360 off and it wouldnt turn off it looked like it was trying to find a system that it can connect to so i yanked out the battery pack.if theres any info u can give me please respond.
-bullseye1937
joe says:
April 22nd, 2012 at 4:46 am
my xbox takes ages to load the dashboard and when it does it either doesnt read the disk or thinks its a dvd, i hadnt played xbox for a few weeks before i turned it on and it began to get slow, i havent had any red rings yet, any advice? mine sounds similar to matts latest comment apart from it only takes 5-10 mins to load the dashboard and i havent got any red rings of death.. any advice?
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joelehinkle21 says:
May 31st, 2012 at 10:46 pm
Been playing ac revelations and it freezes after about five minutes of play. No rrod yet but ive been thru two xboxes already. Please help me!
joelehinkle21 says:
June 1st, 2012 at 1:30 am
Ive noticed it only happens on one of my profiles. Any other ones are fine. Ive got two saved games on one profile. One works fine. The other keeps freezing on me. Any ideas?
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