The Official Microsoft Support Page

Today I thought I'd take a pause and let you read Microsoft's official explanation of the XBox 360's 3 Red Lights problem. Nothing like getting your information straight from the horse's mouth. A search of the Microsoft XBox 360 support area of their website brought me to what you see below.

Now understand that depending on your situation, this information may or may not be helpful. Basically what Microsoft is saying is that you should first check your warranty status. If you're covered, great. Ship it back and they will, at their option, repair or replace the X360 unit. It's important to note that even though you'll be without your XBox 360 for the better part of two weeks, it's still worth it to go this route because if you open up the XBox 360 main unit, you automatically void the warranty. If you're out of warranty anyway, however, things aren't quite so simple. Microsoft will still fix it for you, but you pay their repair charge which is currently around $140.

The other two options, which I've discussed here in some depth, are to use a 3rd party repair service (figure around $50-$70 and 7-10 days), or get one of the Fix-it-Yourself repair guides. I went through the top 4 Xbox 360 3 red lights repair guides and posted my reviews.

Here's Microsoft's official position taken from their website (I've removed irrelevant navigation links for easier reading):

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Xbox 360: Three red lights flash on the Ring of Light

Article ID : 907534
Last Review : September 15, 2007
Revision : 5.4

SYMPTOMS
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.

CAUSE
The three flashing red lights may indicate that your Xbox 360 console has experienced a hardware failure. Please read the letter that discusses warranty changes for three flashing red light hardware failures. To read this letter, please visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.xbox.com/support/petermooreletter.htm

MORE INFORMATION

If you suspect that you are experiencing this issue, you can submit a console-repair request online. However, before you submit your request, we ask that you first try the following two steps to verify that you are indeed experiencing this issue:

1. When you turn on the console, examine the light on the power supply. The power supply light should illuminate green even if the three lights on the Ring of Light flash red. If the power supply light is not green, please follow the steps that are listed in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base articles:

906101 Xbox 360: The power supply light is red
906102 Xbox 360: The power supply light is orange
906103 Xbox 360: The power supply light is not illuminated

2. Turn off the console. Wait 10 seconds, and then turn on the console again to see whether the symptom occurs again. If your console continues to display the three flashing red lights, your console may have to be repaired. For information about how to start the repair process online, please visit http://www.xbox.com/support, and then click Console Repair in the upper-right section of the Web page.

Note: The online console repair service is currently not available in all countries or regions.

If you would rather contact Xbox Customer Support directly, please visit http://www.xbox.com/support/contact for information about how to do this.

APPLIES TO

• Microsoft XBox 360 Video Game System
• Microsoft Xbox 360 Hard Drive (20 GB)
• Microsoft Xbox

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So there you have it. Whatever your current situation, I hope this helps to clarify your best course of action to get your XBox 360 repaired. And again, if you're out of warranty and are a do-it-yourself'er, you can get this problem fixed cheap and fast by following these guides.

Good Luck!

Xbox 360 Red Lights - What is Microsoft Doing About It

So in the "real" world, if you put out a lousy product, the market tells you that by not buying it. So why is it that there are still so many XBox 360 red lights issues out there?

Well, my thinking goes something like this... the xBox 360 is not a lousy product. It is great product with a design flaw. To use an analogy with people, what's the first thing people do when they are accused of having a flaw, large or small? They deny it of course. Well, companies have "personalities just like people do. In Microsoft's case, their personality at the time the xBox 360 was being designed and built could best be described as arrogant. Too much success too soon does that to you.

So you can imagine what was going through everyone's heads during the design an launch of the xBox 360. Probably something like "We're Microsoft. We don't make mistakes. We make great products and we make a lot of money."

The xBox 3 Red Lights problem brought them back down to earth. It took a while, but the red Ring of Death became an undeniable reality for Microsoft and they've been forced, by their own customers, to take it seriously. It's not caused by misuse, abuse or neglect, It is caused by a design flaw, pure and simple.

In the case of the xBox three red lights problem, the design flaw is insufficient cooling. The xBox 360 is actually a very powerful computing platform. Most video game consoles have more computing power than their desktop PC cousins. Graphics is the reason, Those great graphics take incredible amounts of raw calculations. And anything that is working hard generates heat.

What Microsoft is doing with new xBox 360's is designing in a more efficient cooling system to dissipate that heat. The cooler the xBox 360 runs, the better it feels.

However, the vast majority of xBoxes out there still have the potential to suffer from the 3 red lights problem because they don't have the new design. That's why a small industry has sprung up around fixing the xBox 360 three red light problem. The Red Ring of Death do it yourself fix it guides. There's services that will fix it for you. And then of course there's Microsoft's $140 fix it plan (if you're out of warranty).

Personally, I like doing things myself. Popping open a computer and working on it is not something that scares me, as long as I have some sort of guide to tell me exactly what to do. There's a website out there that reviews the top 4 xBox 360 Three Red Light fix-it-yourself guides. Check it out. The guides are around $25-$30 dollars and the fix takes about an hour.