How to avoid the dreaded "Red Ring of Death"

[Anubis]

Yesterday my Xbox 360 after little over of two years of fine service is now WIA, it's on its way over to Microsoft for triage.

I'm here sitting in front of my computer looking at the vacant spot by my TV where my console used to sit. I felt like I need to help others avoid this problem. So decided to write an article on to help other gamers avoid this agony. I looked around and found some good points.

The main cause of hardware failure is overheating. What happens the GPU and/or the CPU gets too hot and it will actually warp away from the board. Thus the console can't work, thus you get the "Red Ring of Death." (three lights are red, the one upper right hand side is off)

1) Place your console and power supply in a cool area with plenty of ventilation.
The number one cause of hardware failure in the Xbox360 is over heating. Place your Xbox in a open area with PLENTY ventilation, and off a carpeted floor. There has to be room around it so heat can escape. Same goes for the power supply (you know the brick thing). Also keep it away from heaters, and other electronics that produce a lot of heat. (like your TV).

2)lay the system down on its side rather standing it up.
If you look on the bottom part of your xbox with your xbox's hard drive as the top. You'll see a good amount ventilation, ventilation that is blocked when it's facing down. It may not make much of a difference as far as over heating goes, but laying the console down may also reduce the chance of a scratched disk.

3)Avoid marathon play sessions
Longer you play more heat will build up in your Xbox. Like sessions going up to six hours isn't good for your system. Every 3-4 hours turn off your console, take a 15-20 minute break to let your Xbox cool down before continue playing. This is what killed my system, I played Fallout3 in sessions that went up to 10 hours straight (that game is addicting).

4)Buy an external cooling device
These will obviously help remove heat from the console and lessen the chance of hardware failure. Also will keep it cool during long play sessions. I suggest you get a device that is powered by either via USB from the console or by wall outlet.

WARNING-AVOID ones that piggy back on the power supply. The power supply is designed to power only the console, and it's not good for the console or the power supply. They do more harm than good, also they have a tendency to make your console Red Ring from their power consumption (this usually reminded by removing the device).

5)The power supply needs love to.
The red rings can also be contributed to the failure from NOT only from the console it self but the power supply as well. Like the console it needs plenty of space around it to get rid of heat. Also its better for it to be plugged in DIRECTLY to a wall, rather from an extension cable an power strips. I don't know why but its kinda picky about power, and it prefers it right from the wall.

Note: To see if the rings is the result of the of the power supply. Check the color if the light that's on the power brick. if it's green then your console is dead, red/orange it's the power supply.

If your Xbox already died and you rather replace it rather than send it in to Mircosoft or you want to get an Xbox360 but worried about hardware failure. Then I have something you should know, or rather what to look for when buying a new Xbox360. Recently Microsoft released a new motherboard for the console dubbed "Jasper". Jasper has been designed to combat overheating to prevent hardware failure.

So what's changed? Comparing with the defective Xenon Board with the new Jasper. (the following info came from the March 09' Issue of The Official Xbox Magazine Pg. 86-89)


GPU
Xenon
The GPU in the Xbox 360 is trapped from under the DVD Drive which both traps heat also makes the heat sink smaller than it needs to be.

Jasper
The GPU is still under the DVD drive but that doesn't mean that improvements weren't made. The GPU is considerably smaller, and to compensate for the small heat sink, a heat pipe directs heat from away the GPU into a secondary heat sink away from the GPU entirely.

CPU
Xenon
The heat sink isn't big enough,

Jasper
The heat sink is considerably larger, also like the GPU the three core CPU has also shrunk.

Other tidbits about Jasper
New DVD drive produces less heat, and consumes less power.
HDMI is standard in all models
It's green(er) it uses considerably less power.

After all this improvements the console is about an average 10 - 20 degrees cooler after running half an hour both idle and while playing. It looks like Microsoft is really trying to put this thing to bed, and this maybe the reliable console we have been waiting for.

How to check if the console your getting or already have. has the Jasper Motherboard installed.

Date produced
If you bought your console November of 08 or later you may have a jasper. That's when Microsoft really started to produce them, but it's possible to get one from September maybe even October. To check this look through that little card board window in the box and you should see the date it was produced. Right now most consoles in store shelves are probably Jaspers, but there are other ways to know, and I suggest you look for these as well.

Check The lot number
It should be right about the UPC bar code on the box. if it's 0844 or above then you might have a Jasper.

The GUARANTEED way
In the same cardboard window as I mentioned above. when the lettering inside is right side up look to the left and (you may have to make the hole a little umm.. bigger to see) above the words "Made in China". You should see a line of text that reads "12V - XX,XA;5V - 1A" If the "XX,XA" portion reads "12,1A" then you are guaranteed a Jasper. If you see "14,2A" you have a falcon board, if you see "16,5A" you have a Xenon and stay away from it.

I hoped this helped.

[WolfeGuardian]

wow that's a lot of info but I'm really really glad you posted this since I just bought my 360 Pro, I was worried I would get the demonic red ring of death because I'm a huge gamer (addicted to Call of duty series and assassins creed) I wonder though I recently bought Cod 4 for it and I've been letting it stand up on it's side while playing but there's always a level where my game stops saying the game is scratched and wont continue thing is it's very clean any advice?

[Scott Gardener]

Or, they could engineer something that's a little less fragile, that doesn't need an external cooling unit, limited play time, and gentle tenderness towards its power supply!

I'm trying not to be yet another "Microsoft is evil" guy, but at work, I have to use Internet Explorer, because I can't install any other browsers without administrative privileges, and the freezing and crashes are just too ridiculous. Although XP and Vista (yes, Vista) have been stable, I do remember Windows 98 crashing with the same regularity. The thought of the same blatant disregard for durability and reliability in a gaming console frightens me, because you can't just complain a few minutes every two hours while you reboot. And now, Microsoft is working with Ford on cars.

[Morkulv]

I actually played quite a few marathons on my XBox 360 and I never had the RROD...

[Vagrant]

I had the RROD three times, once even on the Jasper model. I've since given up on it these days, as the Xbox 360 is really the new Dreamcast in terms of system stability.

My PC and my PS3 are rock solid, by comparison, and they serve me well enough for gaming. As Scott said, a company shouldn't manufacture something so fragile that the slightest gust of wind would blow it over, metaphorically speaking.

I think, in the console market at the very least, the old axiom "You get what you pay for." is tantamount to truth.

[outwarddoodles]

Unless CD-Drive malfunction is precipitated by over heating, I can honestly say I've pretty much abused all of the "Do not do" testaments and have still avoided the RRoD.

O'cource, the doesn't change the fact that I'm currently enjoying my second Xbox in a year. > : (

[Vagrant]

Yeah, the shorts are never immediate though, sometimes a lucky XBox 360 can go for over a year before showing signs of trouble. That's why I was extra careful with my Jasper model, and I followed a guide very similar to the one Anubis posted, but in the end it was all for naught.

There's not much one can do about it, because it seems that really the 360 has a form of built-in obsolescence, it's less that doing or not doing certain things will trigger it, but more that eventually something will go *pop* sooner or later and that's that.

If I were a conspiracy theorist, I'd say that it was designed that way so that Microsoft could bring in more console sales, which is where most of their console arm's money comes from. I only say this though because I've been really unlucky, and I hope anyone who hasn't had an RROD yet never does.

At the end of the day though, it reminds me of a certain kind of old AMD processor, you could put it next to an open window, you could put fans on it, you could hook it up to water-cooling, and every now and then it would still overheat, and this was purely because of a flaw within the processor's overall design that left it prone to overheating regardless of the environment. It could probably find a way to overheat out in the middle of the frozen tundra.

It was only in one of their processors though, as generally AMD are pretty good, and I used to swear by them until I started using laptops almost exclusively. But I digress.

[Lewis]

2 of my Friends hade this happen to them but all I could do was laugh there’s and Xbox 360 in my house but I just don’t use it my brother dose im more pc gamer

[Wingman]

I find it amusing that my bluetooth headset, a Sony Playstation 3 one, has a Red Ring to indicate that it's fully charged and ready to go.

Never owned an Xbox myself, though I have logged a few hours on my brother's over the years, but nothing since the release of Halo 2.