Xbox 3 Ring of Death

[Steve Paxton]

Well it fianally happened! My Xbox ringed out on me. I am way out of warranty (it was manufactured in April 2006) so no MS love for me.

I am planning to crack it open and fix it myself, but I wondered if anyone had any advice before I jump in. I am pretty much doing all my reasearch on YouTube so I am kind of winging it. I have three rings. My plan is to remove, raise and then reseat the GPU. Suggestions or thoughts?

[JohnB]

I have advice, but you're not going to like it.... My advice is to get a PS3. The good thing about that is, you'd be able to play MW2 with me and Crysis 2 when it comes out. Also, COD: Black Ops when it's released.

[Chipe]

Ha ha, I second John!

[Steve Paxton]

Thanks for the advice! I wouldn't mind having a PS3 around - just for fun. I am way too invested in our X-Box to move along to something else, but it is very annoying that this issue exists.

I hadn't really asked around about it - but it's interesting when you check with folks. Pretty much everyone I know who has had an X-Box 360 has run into the three ring issue at one point or another. I have friends who have had it happen 3+ times! A different friend who didn't have an X-Box bought two broken ones on eBay in January for $50. He fixed one of them for less than $10. He hasn't bothered with the other one yet. I thought he bought it new (because he never mentioned otherwise!). Several people I know have two X-Boxes just so that they can keep playing when one goes down.

Anyway, I fixed mine this afternoon with some washers and machine screws from Home Depot. The hardest part was trying to find the exact washers and screws that will work. It took about three hours - with my trip to the hardware store. Now that I know what I am doing, I think I could do it in an hour.

[Taallyn]

I don't have an XBox, but I've certainly heard of the Red-Ring-of-Death on them. How can you fix an electronic problem with some washers? Is it something simple like a grounding fault?

[Steve Paxton]

Yeah...I was pretty skeptical too. You are actually using nylon washers and machine screws to keep the motherboard from warping. The board warps and flexes under the heat and causes the system to error out even though all the hardware is still functional. I don't quite understand why the issue has never been solved with a design re-modification, but it's an on going issue. You can buy a new X-Box today and have it ring out on you next week.

Interestingly enough, I found that I had to adjust the tightness of the machine screws to find a kind of sweet spot. Right after I did the mod, the system would sporadically shut down. After making some adjustments and fine tuning the tightness of the screws (and thereby changing the flex of the motherboard), the system is now rock solid. I had it on for about eight hours on Saturday and Sunday just to test it (running Netflix) - no problems! I've used it a bit tonight too - still no problems.

It's kind of dumb, but it seems to be working.

[jrome]

Interesting.. Makes me want to go out and try getting one..

[Taallyn]

That is just odd. It should be something that is handled by the system design if it is such an easy fix.

[JohnB]

Yeah.. If I can get a broken one and fix it that easily, I'd get one.

[jrome]

There's a guy here that just listed 7 xbox 360 mobos with case and 2 systems with RROD for $100. I wish one of them at least had the power brick and a hard drive.