Are you wondering whether red lights on Xbox 360 consoles always indicate hardware failure?

Well let me set you straight.  The answer is no, the presence of red lights on your xbox 360 does not necessarily mean you have a hardware problem.

You see, the Xbox 360 uses flashing red lights to provide a range of status indicators, which include hardware failure, but also for other issues as I will explain below.

These flashing red lights are on the front of the Xbox360 console.  The gaming community has nicknamed these lights the “Red Rings of Death” of RROD.

The most common error is three flashing red lights, but at times two or four flashing lights can be observed.

Three flashing red lights represent a general hardware failure.  Symptoms may include the console freezing up, or weird graphic glitches on screen, sound becoming frozen, or becoming a weird static sound, and sometimes the console itself requiring a power off at the wall switch to be turned off and no response from controllers, etc.

It should be noted that the occasional freezing of the console is not necessarily a hardware problem, although it might be.  It could be a problem with the software in the xbox and just “one of those things”.

If there is a freeze up or the red red lights are flashing, try turning the console off and back on and see if the problem is corrected.

If the problem re-appears it’s likely there is a hardware failure, either internally or with the external power supply.  Make sure you check the power cable is fully plugged in.  Numerous hardware problems have turned out to be the power cable not being fully plugged in!

In some cases replacing the power supply can fix the problem.  You could test this by getting a friends power supply and seeing if that solves the problem.

If your Xbox 360 is showing four red lights this is NOT an indication of an error with the console itself.  It signifies the the xbox 360 has failed to detect an AV cable. This can also occur when a temporary power surge or power outage occurs.  Unplugging and re-plugging in the cable will often reset this problem.  You could also try to test a friends cable to eliminate the cable being faulty.

If the Xbox 360 is over heated, two red lights will appear.    If this happens, be sure to leave the console off for around 30 minutes to give it time to cool down, and check the area you have the xbox 360 located to ensure plenty of ventilation.

So you see red lights on Xbox 360 consoles are not necessarily a big problem!

In the case of hardware failure, the errors can be fixed by sending your console back to Microsoft (taking around 6 weeks and costing around $140).

Alternatively, there are now video guides available online showing how to fix the console yourself.    This is a relatively straight forward step by step process, and requires torx screw drivers, and other items.  Generally a maximum of $40 and a few hours is all that is required to fix it yourself (this includes purchasing the video guide itself and the relevant tools, and other items).

Many Xbox 360’s have never had a problem of this nature, and if you are one of the lucky ones with a XBox 360 working without problems, be happy  :)  

For those of use with a non functioning XBox 360 there is now a decent solution to get you back into game faster than ever.   Once an Xbox 360 has been fixed, it is extremely rare to have additional problems with the  console.

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