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Arrgghghghhh.....Red Rings!

Mike Teezie

Mike Teezie

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Nov 20, 2002
2,205
1
Well it finally happened. Almost a year to the day, I got the dreaded Red Rings of Doom on my 360.

What's bizarre, is that the Xbox will halfway work. Sometimes it will red-ring immediately when I turn it on, and then sometimes it will play for an hour or so before freezing completely. Sometimes it will work for 30 seconds.

Sucks! Tonight is game night with the boys too.

I thought I was going to escape warranty hell, but I assumed incorrectly.
 
Sorry to hear dude but that is the life of a 360 gamer.....call it up and wait like a good little gamer;)

I know how you feel....when you call them make sure you ask for a system from 2006-2007



Bless
 
Mike Teezie said:
What's bizarre, is that the Xbox will halfway work. Sometimes it will red-ring immediately when I turn it on, and then sometimes it will play for an hour or so before freezing completely. Sometimes it will work for 30 seconds.
Click to expand...


Wait and try the following.

Unplug the 360. Unplug all connectors at the back AV cable / Power. Take off the HDD completely.
Now replace them all making sure all are firmly seated.

Any of those components not fully seated can cause the symptoms you are describing with the exact same error.


Usually RROD is final (terminal), and not intermittent, so it could be something simple. Do those first and see how you get on.
 
I watched some guy on YouTube wrap his 360 in a heavy towel and let it run for about 40 minutes and this apparently fixed it. But one of the other videos I watched had only temporary results.

<]=)
 
Wouldn't the towel just be a nice heat blanket to help cook the processor though? :confused:
 
Sorry man, as a fellow RoD survivor I feel your pain. ;)
Hopefully they repair + get yours back to you quickly; mine took a week total but that was earlier this year which was great turnaround IMO.
 
They ended up sending me a brand new Xbox 360 when I had the red rings and 1 month free Xbox live gold membership so it is not all bad. My Xbox actually works better now (and is quieter) than when I first bought it.
 
I got the red ring about 2 years back, the first year after I got mine. I pretty much panicked, and then un-plugged the xbox straight from the wall, and that fixed it, it still works to this day :p

But it's on it's last leg, time to go get an elite :cool:
 
I feel your pain -- I've gone through 2 boxes myself and my cousins have gone through a total of 4-5

Microsoft did the right thing by extending the warranty but did the wrong thing by not fixing the apparent hardware flaw
 
Well, I talked to an "agent" at Microsoft today. My box is fried, and they are sending shipping materials to send it in. I'm taping a "please replace with a 65nm Xbox please!" message onto the 360.

The guy said two weeks, but I'm thinking there's no way it will make it back to me that fast.
 
Mike Teezie said:
Well, I talked to an "agent" at Microsoft today. My box is fried, and they are sending shipping materials to send it in. I'm taping a "please replace with a 65nm Xbox please!" message onto the 360.

The guy said two weeks, but I'm thinking there's no way it will make it back to me that fast.
Click to expand...

I've had 6 360s and trust me those agents don't know what they're talking about. Also that note you're going to put on it is useless. They just send you a refurbished one anyway. They don't actually repair your console.
 
^ I know someone who sent back an original launch premium and got back one with HDMI only this november! so it is possible. It also only took him 5 days from ringing microsoft, ups collection (here's a tip, when UPS deliver the box, tell the courier to wait and put your 360 in the box and affix the label and give it back to the courier, otherwise you have to wait for another courier and waste a day or two) to receiving his new HDMI 360 back.
 
I know your pain :( Those 'agents' don't really have a clue, they must have a script to read off because they all regurgitated the same message to me! Anyway it took me about 2 weeks to get my xbox back and I sold it immediately. I am much happier with my Wii :D
 
Of course, the problem with a refurb is that the DRM on XBLA downloads will catch you out.

Because it's a different machine, you'll only be able to play your purchased Arcade games and other downloaded content when you're online (so your gamertag can be verified). You'll lose the ability to use these when not online.

My 360 red-ringed on me back in July. Because I'm a nosy git who likes taking things apart, I'd already voided my warranty (so couldn't get MS to replace it for free). A 3rd party, totalconsolerepair.co.uk fixed it for me for 50 quid with a 3-day turnaround. All was good for a few weeks, but then it RRoD'd again. TCR repaired it under their warranty 2 more times. When it went wrong for the 4th time, I decided to fix it myself.

I got the 'X-Clamp Fix' from here. It's basically just a set of washers and bolts. I stripped my 360 apart, then replaced the heatsink clamp with the bolts. It's been working great now for 3 months!

Personally, I think it's a damn cheek that MS's replacement strategy effectively causes you to lose functionality.
 
displaced said:
Of course, the problem with a refurb is that the DRM on XBLA downloads will catch you out.

Because it's a different machine, you'll only be able to play your purchased Arcade games and other downloaded content when you're online (so your gamertag can be verified). You'll lose the ability to use these when not online.

My 360 red-ringed on me back in July. Because I'm a nosy git who likes taking things apart, I'd already voided my warranty (so couldn't get MS to replace it for free). A 3rd party, totalconsolerepair.co.uk fixed it for me for 50 quid with a 3-day turnaround. All was good for a few weeks, but then it RRoD'd again. TCR repaired it under their warranty 2 more times. When it went wrong for the 4th time, I decided to fix it myself.

I got the 'X-Clamp Fix' from here. It's basically just a set of washers and bolts. I stripped my 360 apart, then replaced the heatsink clamp with the bolts. It's been working great now for 3 months!

Personally, I think it's a damn cheek that MS's replacement strategy effectively causes you to lose functionality.
Click to expand...

When you say online, do you mean connected to the internet, or actually playing live matches? I've purchased a crapload of Arcade games, and I'm going to be pretty freaking pissed if there is limited functionality.
 
Anticipating this at some point, I actually bought an Elite when they came out and kept the original as a backup. It's never happened and the original was from the launch month. Life is strange that way.
 
Mike Teezie said:
When you say online, do you mean connected to the internet, or actually playing live matches? I've purchased a crapload of Arcade games, and I'm going to be pretty freaking pissed if there is limited functionality.
Click to expand...

To play XBLA games you originally bought on your first 360 on your new (refurb) Xbox, you have to have an active internet connection to play the full game at all. So even to play single-player, you still have to have a network connection so that the system can verify your identity (the system itself is no longer implicitly trusted for offline play of purchased items, since it's a different system than that on which the items were purchased).

Often, this won't cause a problem. But if your internet connection dies or you take it somewhere where you can't get online, you won't be able to play purchased items. Eeek :)
 
displaced said:
To play XBLA games you originally bought on your first 360 on your new (refurb) Xbox, you have to have an active internet connection to play the full game at all. So even to play single-player, you still have to have a network connection so that the system can verify your identity (the system itself is no longer implicitly trusted for offline play of purchased items, since it's a different system than that on which the items were purchased).

Often, this won't cause a problem. But if your internet connection dies or you take it somewhere where you can't get online, you won't be able to play purchased items. Eeek :)
Click to expand...

OK, thanks. I'm not 100% cool with that, but I can grudgingly accept it. My 360 is always connected, so I can still play Lumines! Love that one.

Now if my shipping materials would arrive....
 
my brother had to wait a month to get his xbox back and sent him a different one and now that one is making some noise. he is hoping that microsoft will fix it even though he had his from the original launch date. but you get a free month of xbox live like that supposed to make up for microsoft building such a cheap machine.
 
To fix red rings wrap the console in towels. Let it set there and not be able to breath. It will overheat and make the soderings come loose and move. For some reason this fix's the console. Take towels off and restart fixed. If you don't believe me there are videos on youtube/google.
 
adrake86 said:
To fix red rings wrap the console in towels. Let it set there and not be able to breath. It will overheat and make the soderings come loose and move. For some reason this fix's the console. Take towels off and restart fixed. If you don't believe me there are videos on youtube/google.
Click to expand...

I did this. The Xbox worked for about 40 minutes, then froze. I restarted, and it's red ringed every time since.

My shipping materials come in tomorrow, hopefully I'll be good again in a few weeks.
 
few weeks try a month and a half lol

what sucks is i have gone through 5-6 360s due to them freezing. some have scrtached my games to the point they cant be read either

MS will NOT reimburse you for time lost on live (since no unit) nor would they exchange my games that their faulty machine scratched

If i didnt have games for the 360, i would get a ps3 in a second

heck maybe ill sell my xbox games.

not to mention recovering all the stuff you buy in marketplace is a real pita to do since that stuff is not stored on hard drive apparently
 
In all honesty, my advice to anyone suffering from the RRoD would be:

- In the first instance, return to MS
- Start saving for a new 360, just in case.
- Play replacement for as long as possible.
- On the second RRoD, pay $7 for the 'X-Clamp Fix' I linked to above and either fit it yourself (requires complete disassembly of the 360), or buy a 'handy' mate a couple of pints of beer to fit it for you. Takes an hour or so, tops. If something goes horribly wrong, use that little nest-egg to pick up a new system.

After having my 360 repaired apparently professionally twice and still getting RRoD, I used the X-Clamp Fix and it's been great under pretty heavy use for the past 5 months.

(edit: also, I did the 'towel trick' the first time I got the RRoD. It also only ran for another hour or so before dying. This isn't a fix in many cases)
 
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