Did your XBox 360 recently die from the red ring of death? I feel your bread! Seeing those dreaded red rings of death would be like a nightmare come true! You do not agree? In troubleshooting your XBox, these are the options available to you.
1. Send it back to support
If your XBox is still under warranty then we appreciate you simply sending yours back to support and they will send you back a refurbished unit absolutely free! You’ve probably heard that Microsoft extended the warranty to three years in case you get hit with the red ring of death within that time frame.
However, if your warranty has expired, it is still recommended that you send it back to support so they can return a refurbished drive. The cost is $140 and the waiting time is approximately one month.
2. Free Towel Method
This is a method that has been doing the rounds on the internet and you can find videos on how to do it. Basically what you do is take a towel and wrap it around your XBox 360 and let it run until extremely hot. What is expected is that the graphics processing unit will reconnect to the main board and thus resolve the red ring of death issue.
I DO NOT recommend this method because you are dealing with electronics and one of the fundamental rules for working with electronics is not to let it get hot, and if it does get hot, keep it away from things that can catch fire. As you can see, the towel method just violated this very important rule! Not too smart!
3. The X-Clamp solution
Yet another method you can try is the x-clamp fix where you open up your console and remove the x-clamps so you can get to the graphics unit so you can reapply some heat glue. This works for some if a loose GPU is really the problem. There could be other issues causing the red ring of death. You can also find free videos of this method on the Internet. And I’ve also seen some people selling kits for this.
4. Xbox Repair Guide
Yet another method you can try is to purchase a repair guide that will show you step by step instructions and videos on how to repair your 360 in about 2 hours. These guides show you how you can do this with common household tools and provide support if you have questions. Other than sending it back to support, I recommend this route. The cost of this is around $40 and you can be back to playing within 2 hours. Not bad, I say.
