There you are deep in the middle of a heavy online match of Call Of Duty 4 when it happens! The 3 red rings of death light up on your Xobx 360 and your game freezes up. And you were in the lead! Now you can’t even talk to your buddies online and let them know what happened. How bad is that?

It may be worse than you think, because now you have to consider how you are going to fix your Xbox 360. Should you send it back to Microsoft, wait for the shipping box, pack your console up and wait some more for your unit to get shipped back? Or should you try to fix it yourself? Are you even under warranty any more?

Before you do any of the above you should first try a few possible quick fixes. There is a slim chance that one of these may work and get you back up and running. First, try to determine if where your Xbox 360 console is located may be causing heat issues that led to the three red rings issue. Is it underneath other consumer appliances in your entertainment center. How hot is it around the unit. What kind of airflow and ventilation does your 360 have access to?

The second thing to try is to power your console down. Remove all the cables from your 360 and let it rest for awhile and cool down a bit. After it has cooled for a bit, try plugging all the cords back in and see if the console fires back up. If so, you are back in business but remember that it quite likely that you are still looking at a unit that is on its way out the door.

If it still has the three red lights, you need to look around online and see if there are any other guides that may get you back up and running before you head through the painful procedure of shipping your Xbox 360 back for repair. You want to get back to playing your games faster, right?