The Red Ring of Death

[CemeteryGates]

So I finally got it.

What can I do now?
I believe I read a couple years ago that Microsoft would replace consoles that got it for free. Was that ever true? And if it was, is it still in effect? I would guess so. They already replaced one for free (for free, too) when the tray wouldn't close.


Who else has got it?

[Jason]

I've never had it, but I stopped using my Xbox some time ago due to problems with the disc drive. I believe if your Xbox is less than three years old they'll replace it free of charge if it gets the RRoD, although I may be wrong.

[Jason]

The Xbox 360 Plug In-and-Out Trick

A quick and easy trick that seems to have worked for a lot of Xbox 360 users is the Plug In-and-Out trick, where you simply unplug every cord and device out of the console, including the AV cables, USB, harddrive, etc. After this, the console is turned back on. If it turns on, then it's turned off again and everything is plugged back in. With any luck, the console is now working! We do recommend this trick, as it does not seem to cause any damage to the system (it's meant to have things plugged in and out!) and does not seem to void any part of the warranty.

Has to be worth a try at least.

[Landy]

Keep in mind that you might have to wait 2-3 months before you get your console back. That's what happen to my little brother.

[vlbarto10]

I have had it once on my first xbox 360 they did replace it.

[ScarePriest]

Rest in Peace Mr. Xbox

[Lance]

Strangely enough, I got the RRoD a couple of weeks ago while playing Ashes. I just rebooted the game and went on playing as normal and it hasn't happened since - freak luck I suppose that it wasn't more serious.

[Jason]

Ah, good old Ashes... man, I'd kill for a truly decent cricket game. :(

[Lance]

Ashes '09 isn't too bad actually - except for the fact that once you start hitting 6's of every ball, all the AI does is toss yorkers at you. Aside from the AI though, the controls are good, and the graphics aren't half bad either.

[Jason]

Yeah, I guess I was always more of an EA man. The awful Brian Lara games of the last generation (think they were endorsed by Punter over your side of the Pacific) really put me off Codemasters' cricket games.

[Landy]

What's this game i hear you speak of? Cricket? I thought that was some sort of bug :p

[Rob]

I believe if your Xbox is less than three years old they'll replace it free of charge if it gets the RRoD, although I may be wrong.
You are right. My friend recently had his xbox go RRoD on him and it took about three weeks to get sent back to him. He hasn't had a problem in the six months since then.
E74 official support page (http://support.xbox.com/support/en/us/nxe/kb.aspx?ID=969905&lcid=1033&category=hardware)

CG - We are talking about the E74 error right? If not then what code is showing up on the console?

[Kills In Heels]

This has happened to me twice. I bought my first one and the first time we powered it up, it completely shut down. Took it back to the store and got an exchange, but a few weeks later that one crashed too. I sent it to Microsoft and they sent it back in 2 weeks.

[CemeteryGates]

Insane!
I had to wait for working days, so I sent it in for repair on the 8th, and got it back repaired by the 11th! They even gave me a free month of Xbox Live Gold (I'll have to get a 20-meter ethernet cable, though) and a formal apology. :p
And the three year thing expired in February 15th (which, coincidentally, is also my ex's birthday), so that was just in time.

They have an excellent service, at least down here in Mexico.


Jason, you should consider giving them a call about your disc drive.
I had already gotten mine replaced because of a disc drive error (the tray wouldn't close) back in late 2007 or so. They replaced it for free as well. :)

[Jason]

Yeah, I did - it was outside warranty, and the guy I spoke to on the phone couldn't have been less interested in helping me unless I got my debit card out, so I'm not in too much of a rush to pay and get it sorted. However, if they keep churning out exclusives like Fable III and Mass Effect 2, I might not have a choice. :-/

[MyNameDidntFit]

I presume by "exclusive" you mean "not on PS3"?

[Lance]

I presume by "exclusive" you mean "not on PS3"?


Anything not on PS3 is a good thing :p

[Konrad]

Get a solid PC you jerk.

[Jason]

:lol: - unfortunately they're even more expensive than the consoles. However, if you wish to purchase me one, I'm more than happy to own one.

[Wayne]

ahhhh, the red ring of death..nobody knows it like I do. It's happened to me twice, forget all the fixes you've read about on the internet, even if some of the more technical ones work, it's too much stress, trial and error bullshit. Just send it back like I did. But most important, when buying an XBox 360, get an Arcade machine. I have yet to hear about any of them dying. And I have a friend who actually has an arcade, and he's lost many 360s, but the arcade machines are basically microsoft's way of saying "we finally grew a brain".
Wouldn't surprise me to hear someone's arcade machine brokedown though, but I have faith in them, since they have been thoroughly tested by someone I know, plus I have one. You can imagine the stress one would have to go through in an arcade, the ultimate stress test.

[Rob]

Wayne you are right about the xbox360 arcade units. It's because they included a newer chipset named Jasper and lower power consumption. I specifically bought an arcade unit and then a HDD and wireless controller pack separately to ensure I got a Jasper chipset over the older Falcon chipset that was in the mid range 360 setup at the time. That was at least a year ago so I am sure by now any new consoles have the most current chipset and are not as prone to failure as previous gen 360s. Anything refurbished or used should be avoided if you can. AnandTech did a review and tear down of the Jasper arcade unit back in late 2008 if you want to know more. Link (http://www.anandtech.com/gadgets/showdoc.aspx?i=3472&p=1)

[Wayne]

Yeah Rob, I've been through hell with 360s. I've learnt everything about this whole heat sync crap, been through many wanna be technicians and many tubes of thermal paste, arctic silver I believe was the one mostly recommended. I have three units, only one is an arcade box, but I only use the other two for LAN games or in my car and that's not too often, one is refurbished by Microsoft(if that's what they do)I hope they hold up. I don't ever want to see those red lights again.

When I think back I can do nothing else but laugh, some of the crap people tell you are solutions, like that hot air gun garbage or wrapping the box in a towel for 15 mins LOfuckingL!!!!

Personally, to this day I can't believe Microsoft did that to consumers, this is Microsoft, not a backyard operation(although Mac users would disagree), how can a company that huge fuck up like that?!!!

[Rob]

My brother in law is a computer technician (isn't that every broinlaw?) and for awhile he started to fix consoles. I told him it was a horrible idea. The consoles would break again and he ended up with more upset customers. None of the "fixes" are anything but a temporary solution as you well know.

I'd be frustrated with Microsoft as well if it wasn't for the 3year coverage. That's owning up to the situation the right way. They can build the next xbox out of pixie sticks and napkins if they include a good warranty.

[Wayne]

lol, i get ya. by the way If you see a friends request on PSN from The Lab Game TV that's me

[Rob]

I have been buried in Borderlands and Battlefield BC2 but sometime this week I will hop onto the PS3 for Uncharted2 and accept your invite. Do you have Uncharted2 or Modern Warfare 2? That's all I have right now except LittleBigPlanet which is at my friends.

[Wayne]

I only have MWF2 on the 360, I'll send you a request on XBL later today. No Uncharted 2 yet, that and Heavy Rain will be my next purchases, oh yeah, and RE5, long overdue.....

[Steph]

I had it once over 6 months ago ... I freaked out but I unplugged it, replugged it and it started up again no problem.
So I'm hoping it was just random ...
I always wonder why it happens. Why haven't they fixed it yet etc.

[Wayne]

They did, it's called an Arcade model. Should have gotten it right the first time though :angry:

[Steph]

Arcade model?
I'mma have to google that haha.

[Jason]

I think over here it's the Xbox 360 Arcade as opposed to the Elite - Apparently, there's been a much lower failure rate in the Arcades than the Elites historically - as Rob's excellent post pointed out, it's due to a different chipset used inside.

[Steph]

Feeling pretty sheepish about asking this, but how do you tell you've bought the Arcade version?

[Wayne]

Don't feel bad, it says so on the box. Some say Elite, core & then there are the arcade models

[Lance]

There's a few differences between Arcade and Elite - here's the breakdown. (http://www.xbox.com/en-US/hardware/default.htm)

[Wayne]

That's right Brett, but don't know how accurate I am when saying this, but I believe the elite was around before the arcade, at least I heard about it first, so anything around before the arcade versions is shit in my book. Unless of course they upgraded the Elite systems to be basically an Elite arcade model, an Arcade model with extra bells and whistles like a larger hard drive and games, if not then those extras don't mean squat if the GPU is going to over heat and rise up off the board in a few months. Just be very careful that's what I'm saying, the whole RROD shit really pissed me off, went through a lot of crap and don't want anybody else to go through it.

[Lance]

My first xbox died because of the RRoD, so I ended up getting the Halo Limited Edition Box (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a8/Xbox_360_Halo_3_Special_Edition.jpg/220px-Xbox_360_Halo_3_Special_Edition.jpg)- since then I had 1 RRoD a few weeks back (after 2 years), but I restarted it and it's been fine since.

[Wayne]

hmmm, well good luck with that, but I've gone through three so far, and from my experiences that shit never goes away, it pops up when you least expect it and gets worse, like I said in earlier posts, the Arcade version is the only one I haven't heard complaints about, and my friend operates an arcade, so it's the ultimate tried and proven stress test for any console or gaming rig.

But like I said, not being cynical either, good luck with that Halo box.

[CemeteryGates]

ahhhh, the red ring of death..nobody knows it like I do. It's happened to me twice, forget all the fixes you've read about on the internet, even if some of the more technical ones work, it's too much stress, trial and error bullshit. Just send it back like I did. But most important, when buying an XBox 360, get an Arcade machine. I have yet to hear about any of them dying. And I have a friend who actually has an arcade, and he's lost many 360s, but the arcade machines are basically microsoft's way of saying "we finally grew a brain".
Wouldn't surprise me to hear someone's arcade machine brokedown though, but I have faith in them, since they have been thoroughly tested by someone I know, plus I have one. You can imagine the stress one would have to go through in an arcade, the ultimate stress test.


A friend has an Arcade that actually got the Ring a couple weeks ago.

Then again, he installed a chip so he could play pirated games...
Now a new 360's gonna cost him more than all those games. But no one ever listens to me until that sort of stuff happens. :p

[Wayne]

One of my 360s are modded, not for piracy, just so I can play system link without buying the game twice, although it wouldn't surprise me to hear in some twisted way that copying your own game for that purpose is still piracy, but yeah, I have three and one is modded for that reason. There is no way I'm even going to allow air to enter my arcade machine, much less a mod chip. Don't know if that's what reached your friends 360, but sorry to hear anyway, guess nothing is a 100% guarantee.

[Steph]

I just got the ring ...
I was noob-tubing people on MW2 'cause they were pissin' me off and BAM switched off and those three lights were flashing.
Noooo.
(I was enjoyinng noob-tubing - I'd never done it before - such easy kills)

Seems to be working again now though ...

I've had it before aswell ... like six months ago.

I take it it's starting to wear down?
=(

[Rob]

A few days ago I quit a game to get back to the dashboard and the screen got scrambled and I was forced to restart the xbox to fix the problem. It hasn't happend since, but now I'm worried. Has anyone else had that problem before experiencing a total system melt down? :(

[Steph]

A few days ago I quit a game to get back to the dashboard and the screen got scrambled and I was forced to restart the xbox to fix the problem. It hasn't happend since, but now I'm worried. Has anyone else had that problem before experiencing a total system melt down? :(

Yeah I have, my xbox freezes a lot so I have to switch it off and on again but I've never really thought much of it ...
It freezes randomly too, I could just be sending a message, in a game, loading a game, just browsing the dashboard.
There doesn't seem to be a pattern to it.
But I can't give any helpful advice about it sorry =(

[Jason]

Rob, your issue sounds like some kind of graphics card crash - I had something similar happen to the one in my old desktop PC shortly before it burned out. Not that I'm suggesting that's what's about to happen to yours, mind...

[Rob]

I have had a similar crash on an old PC of mine. Oh well, as long as the xbox completely red rings and dies then i'm covered under that generous warranty (http://www.mature-gamers.com/forums/showpost.php?p=6437&postcount=12). If for some reason the xbox dies outside of that 3 year extension then i'll just have to convince my wife to let me get one of the newly designed boxes that are coming out later this year. Rumors, rumors... (http://www.mature-gamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7789)

[Lance]

Well mine finally got the RRoD - played it a little last night (GTA: Vice City, just started and had only completed 1 mission and the Ambulance missions) then I turned it on this morning and poof - RRoD

Tried all the solutions (unplug and such) and no go so off to the repair we go.......

[Conor]

:lol: - unfortunately they're even more expensive than the consoles. However, if you wish to purchase me one, I'm more than happy to own one.

^ this.

i've got a pretty good pc, but i fucking hate the fact i have to upgrade my comp if my hardware can't handle a game i've paid a fair amount of money on.

then again, torrenting is my friend.

[Jason]

Well mine finally got the RRoD - played it a little last night (GTA: Vice City, just started and had only completed 1 mission and the Ambulance missions) then I turned it on this morning and poof - RRoD

Tried all the solutions (unplug and such) and no go so off to the repair we go.......

Ah dude... that's awful news.

Not to really rub it in, but I got mine back today. The guy got in touch with Microsoft and they agreed to completely replace the console, as well as throwing in a month's Xbox Live subscription. So once I get the wireless kit and component cable through the post from Amazon, I'm going to be hitting Mass Effect 2 hard.

[JustaBitOutside]

RrOD sucks man. I had it once and I was able to get it fixed fairly easily, but I was under the three year warranty. It was indeed an Arcade model, didn't make much of a difference for me.

A friend of mine who is very much a genius really went through a lot to get his fixed. He took the whole thing apart, fixed every nook and cranny of it, then it wouldn't work. That's when he realized it was his disk drive that had finally broken. :) He just went out and bought a new one.

sometimes you get red rings when it's a video error from the output cable. Sometimes if the switch isn't component or composite (whichever is appropriate) it'll blink. We had a scare like that not too long ago.

Mass Effect 2 is SO good. Oh man, I wish I could play it again for the first time! If any of you guys are on the Xbox Live friend me, my gamertag is Justabitoutside.

[Jason]

Yeah, I've got the 360 sitting here staring at me just begging me to play it. I even got Mass Effect 2 second hand (I went into the rental store to grab a rental just to check everything was working, and it was their 'deal of the week - ME2 second hand for £18).

I'm really trying hard to resist it, as the 360 Arcade is one of the early ones, therefore doesn't have an HDMI port, and as ME2 is one of those games that really has to be experienced in HD, I've got a component cable on order.
Also, once I get myself a length of Cat-5 to link the 360 to my lappy, I'll be hitting Live (or more accurately, I'll be hitting Live once I have some games to play on).

[Wayne]

@ Rob, yes, actually that's what happens sometimes right before I get the ring! Your post was months ago so I'm hoping all went well