I’m writing this article because so many people have asked me technical questions about the problems with the Xbox 360. If you don’t care too much about this stuff, and just want to know how to get your Xbox fixed, then you might want to Google me and look for some of my other articles. However, you could also just scroll down near the bottom, because I will be discussing a bit about the solutions to all of this.

I guess the first point to be made is that, if you open up your console, you do void any warranty you might have on your Xbox 360. I will outline five reasons why the red ring of death might have happened to you.

1. Your unit has overheated. There are lots of high powered components in a small space that put out a lot of heat. The fans and vents installed do not dissipate the heat efficiently enough.

2. There is lead free solder being used, which is more brittle than regular. When you combine this with the high heat, hairline cracks occur and obstruct the flow of electrical current. This then allows for a weak solder joint that easily breaks.

3. There is a flawed heat sink clamp design. The x clamp that they use causes things to be uneven. There is a plastic spacer in the center of it, which concentrates excessive pressure on the motherboard in that one spot. Pressure intensifies when the CPU (Central Processing Unit), and the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit), get really hot.The motherboard then flexes too much and the solder joints get overly stressed. With a lot of game playing over time, the end result will be cracks and breaks in the solder joints.

4. There was a defective manufacturing process in regards to the solder. When lead free solder is under heated, the solder joint is full of voids and other defects. These weak joints won’t hold up for long, especially considering the massive amount of time some people use their unit.

5. The graphics chip puts out too much heat. They have since fixed this for the newer units being made because Microsoft now uses a better designed chip.

Now, what to do with this information. Well, most people didn’t want to know any of this anyway. They just know there unit is broken, and they want there to be no more Xbox 360 red flashing lights. There are a bunch of external cooling devices that you can buy on eBay, and I’m sure other places, that will help keep your unit from overheating. There’s also the towel trick, and the freezer trick, but I won’t go into detail about them, because my experience is, those methods only work in the very short term. You could make sure your unit has the dust blown out of it the best you can. This will help keep your unit from overheating. You can also make sure to use the Xbox in an open, very well ventilated area. However, if you already have the three ring, red ring of death, or the E-74 error, there’s not much you can do but get your machine fixed.

This is the final area to be discussed. If you plan on sending your unit to an Xbox 360 repair center, you should know a few things. First of all, just last month, Microsoft extended the warranty for the E-74 error to three years, which matches their coverage for the red ring of death. You should call Microsoft to verify all of this, and you should also know that it will take about six to eight weeks before you get your unit back.

However, if your unit is not covered under warranty, Microsoft will charge you about one hundred and fifty dollars to fix your machine. And considering how many units are breaking down, you have to consider if this is worth taking the chance. If you don’t go through Microsoft in these cases, you can find a third party repair person, or you can buy a repair guide on the internet. I didn’t think I would ever do this, but when a friend convinced me that I could follow along with the instruction very easily, I decided to give it a try. And was I glad. Now I know how to fix an Xbox 360, and if I had more time, I would buy some broken ones on eBay, fix them, and resell them for a couple dollars.