Since the Xbox 360's introduction in November, 2005, a significant quantity of Microsoft's game consoles have experienced a field malfunction that is indicated by three flashing red lights on the front of the console. It's The Xbox 360' Red Ring Of Death or E74 error.
The "Red Ring of Death" is a very common problem. In July 2008, Microsoft admitted that over 800,000 people are dealing with it and 30% of all consoles sold are failing and the rest have a chance of failure. With an Xbox which suffer from the red ring of death, you will not be able to play games with peace of mind or any enjoyment and you can't use Xbox live membership without constantly dropping from online games, and losing level progress.
Soldering Accessories
Owning a broken 0 game system is annoying. If you don't fix the red ring of death, your system will only get worse with time, and your Xbox may stop working altogether (which will cost you in the hundreds of dollars to fix).The sooner you fix red ring of death the better, but first you should know what is wrong with your Xbox 360?
The main cause of the 3 flashing red lights is overheating. In fact, it is an electrical connection failure between the CPU,GPU and the motherboard.due to an engineering flaw in the construction of the Xbox 360. When Microsoft designed it, they downsized the heat sinks ( which keep the system cool ) to accommodate the DVD drive, and they chose a slightly unusual way of mounting to link them to the processors. So when you play on your Xbox for too long, the temperature reaches beyond 120 degree, the motherboard heats up and begins to vibrate and flex against the X-Clamp plastic support . These vibrations loosen the soldering holding the graphics processing unit in place. This causes an electrical failure and the Xbox red ring of death error will happen.
** How do we fix this ? **
There is a myth going around that to fix the red ring of death errors by wrapping your Xbox 360 in a towel, turning it on for 20 minutes or so, and letting it overheat . BE CAREFUL !!! If you use this bogus repair method, you will risk turning a temporary problem into a permanent damage. This crazy method works for a few hours because when you wrap your console and turn it on, there is no ventilation for the heat to escape. It's like putting vegetable oil in your cars gas tank, sure it may run for a block but you have just ruined you car for a 2 minute trip! Your Xbox 360 is a piece of high tech equipment not a toaster, avoid completely the "towel fix" and any "fix" involving heat.
** Is there a secure permanent fix for this ? **
Of course, believe it or not fixing the Xbox red ring of death is not a difficult process and you don't need advanced technical skills or special tools to perform the "fix" yourself, I suggest you see a professional Xbox 360 repair guide with detailed clear video instuctions and pictures. These guides are developed by technicians with good knowledge and many years of experiences in the electronics and video game repair industry. They will show you step by step how to take your Xbox 360 apart safely, how to remove the X-clamp and heat sink, how to apply the washers and artic thermal compound, and put it all back together. There is also written instructions with the videos and the 24/7 tech support can assist you to save time and money and get your Xbox 360 up and running within 2 hours
Those Xbox red ring of death errors will be a distant memory and now you can enjoy gaming again without fear of freezing.
Be careful there are some repair guides in the market which are a total scam .