ImaGonnaGetYou
Well-Known Member
I'm seeing waaay too many RRoD (Red Ring of Death) threads, so I'm going to clear it up right here.
First of all, NEVER open up your Xbox's case. EVER. It voids the warranty by breaking a seal (the seal prevents people from opening up their Xbox, then claiming to have a valid warranty), and will end up costing you more than $100.
Next, NEVER use the towel trick/penny trick/whatever. Some of these are extremely temporary fixes, and usually do more harm than help. Not only that, but these void your warranty, since it is obvious to customer support if you open the casing or use the towel trick (because they leave marks).
Now, then, why does the Red Rings happen?
When Microsoft was manufacturing the Xbox 360's launch consoles, they had a demand well into the millions of consoles. to meet the demand and still be able to keep the price below $450, they were forced to manufacture internal chips (especially the motherboard) with cheaper materials. Because of these cheaper materials, the Xbox Pro Console was able to keep at an average price tag of $400. Of course, to keep ahead of any release-month problems, Microsoft gave a 3-month factory warranty.
Only a few months later, hundreds of gamers had gotten the RRoD, and had sent their Xbox's into Microsoft. The number of Xbox's sent to Microsoft went up at a dramatic rate, and, to prevent a lawsuit, Microsoft extended the factory warranty to 1 year.
Microsoft then began testing Xbox 360's to find out the cause of the RRoD. Finally, it was concluded that the cheaper materials that had been used to create the internal hardware was not heat-shielded, and was literally breaking itself apart because of the heat generated by the console.
In a desperate act to save the console's sales, Microsoft again extended the warranty of all Xbox 360's, including the release consoles, to 3 years, and put aside over $1 billion to repair Xbox 360's that were sent to them.
When you send an Xbox 360 to customer support, Microsoft now literally replaces all of the internals in the console with new, heat-protected hardware, drastically reducing the chance of RRoD from a 33% failure rate to around 7%.
So, how do you prevent the RRoD if you have a release console?
First, don't play the console for more than 3 hours at a time. Let the 360 cool down for atleast 45 minutes before playing again.
Second, NEVER use an intercooler. It voids your warranty, and only speeds up the process of the RRoD, since it doesn't spin the fans fast enough to keep up with the 360.
Finally, NEVER keep the Xbox on idle for more than 10 minutes. Not only does this devour energy, it also keeps the console at a steady temperature which will wear the internals down.
If you've got any questions, I'd be glad to answer.
****Alright, I just realized I forgot to add something. Elite consoles, the new 60GB Pro console, and most 2007 Pro 20 GB consoles have heat protected hardware, although I'm not sure on the Pro 20GB, that's just an estimate. If I could get confirmation on that it'd be great.
EDIT: If you'd like to use anything I posted above, I'd appreciate if you asked permission.
EDIT EDIT: For reading purposes I have removed my orange text, k?
EDIT EDIT EDIT: Yes, the above is all confirmed.
EDIT EDIT EDIT EDIT: Added clarification regarding newer consoles.
-----------------------------------------------
Here, I'll add information added by others:
First of all, NEVER open up your Xbox's case. EVER. It voids the warranty by breaking a seal (the seal prevents people from opening up their Xbox, then claiming to have a valid warranty), and will end up costing you more than $100.
Next, NEVER use the towel trick/penny trick/whatever. Some of these are extremely temporary fixes, and usually do more harm than help. Not only that, but these void your warranty, since it is obvious to customer support if you open the casing or use the towel trick (because they leave marks).
Now, then, why does the Red Rings happen?
When Microsoft was manufacturing the Xbox 360's launch consoles, they had a demand well into the millions of consoles. to meet the demand and still be able to keep the price below $450, they were forced to manufacture internal chips (especially the motherboard) with cheaper materials. Because of these cheaper materials, the Xbox Pro Console was able to keep at an average price tag of $400. Of course, to keep ahead of any release-month problems, Microsoft gave a 3-month factory warranty.
Only a few months later, hundreds of gamers had gotten the RRoD, and had sent their Xbox's into Microsoft. The number of Xbox's sent to Microsoft went up at a dramatic rate, and, to prevent a lawsuit, Microsoft extended the factory warranty to 1 year.
Microsoft then began testing Xbox 360's to find out the cause of the RRoD. Finally, it was concluded that the cheaper materials that had been used to create the internal hardware was not heat-shielded, and was literally breaking itself apart because of the heat generated by the console.
In a desperate act to save the console's sales, Microsoft again extended the warranty of all Xbox 360's, including the release consoles, to 3 years, and put aside over $1 billion to repair Xbox 360's that were sent to them.
When you send an Xbox 360 to customer support, Microsoft now literally replaces all of the internals in the console with new, heat-protected hardware, drastically reducing the chance of RRoD from a 33% failure rate to around 7%.
So, how do you prevent the RRoD if you have a release console?
First, don't play the console for more than 3 hours at a time. Let the 360 cool down for atleast 45 minutes before playing again.
Second, NEVER use an intercooler. It voids your warranty, and only speeds up the process of the RRoD, since it doesn't spin the fans fast enough to keep up with the 360.
Finally, NEVER keep the Xbox on idle for more than 10 minutes. Not only does this devour energy, it also keeps the console at a steady temperature which will wear the internals down.
If you've got any questions, I'd be glad to answer.
****Alright, I just realized I forgot to add something. Elite consoles, the new 60GB Pro console, and most 2007 Pro 20 GB consoles have heat protected hardware, although I'm not sure on the Pro 20GB, that's just an estimate. If I could get confirmation on that it'd be great.
EDIT: If you'd like to use anything I posted above, I'd appreciate if you asked permission.
EDIT EDIT: For reading purposes I have removed my orange text, k?
EDIT EDIT EDIT: Yes, the above is all confirmed.
EDIT EDIT EDIT EDIT: Added clarification regarding newer consoles.
-----------------------------------------------
Here, I'll add information added by others:
Sean Bradley:
I'd add that putting your console in vertical orientation speeds up the RROD. It's a heat issue, as the mother board warps away from the processor with excessive heat. Standing it straight up will cause the heat to dissipate slower than if it's kept in horizontal position, especially if you have a hard drive installed.
I maintain 17 360 consoles at my job. When we first set them up we had them all vertical, and experienced many many console failures, sometimes 3 or 4 a week. After we put them in horizontal orientation the consoles failures measurably decreased... now we only see 1 or 2 every few months.
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