Feeling down because your Xbox won’t stop freezing? Do you keep getting the ring of death failure. You are now a member of an expanding international group of frustrated Xbox owners.
Having a lot of company that share your problem doesn’t help you any, so this article will discuss your Xbox 360 repair options. In no particular order, they are:
1.) You can return your Xbox to Microsoft for a replacement. If your Xbox warranty is still valid, they’ll do this free of charge. Otherwise, they will charge you well over a hundred dollars.
Note that if you’ve opened your console, your warranty is void. Regardless of whether you were attempting to repair it yourself or had other legitimate reasons, you will lose your warranty.
Also note that this process can take a long time. Two weeks or so is about the average turn around time. There is also a specific procedure that Microsoft requires you to follow for returning your Xbox.
2.) You can try to wet-nurse your console back to health. If this is the first or second ring of death problem with your machine, then there probably hasn’t been any real heat damage. Further ring of death freeze-ups might be avoided by keeping your Xbox cool when it’s in use.
Overheating is the root cause for the red ring of death. Keep the cooling vents open and free of obstructions. Use your Xbox in an open and cool environment. Limit your playing times to no more than three or four hours.
If you’ve already had lots of ring of death shutdowns, then your machine has suffered a lot of damage. You may not be able to avoid the red ring of death by running your Xbox cool. If your machine has had extensive heat damage, expect the ring of death to happen more frequently with time.
3.) Repair the console yourself. Don’t forget that if you open up your console, the warranty is void. On the other hand, if you don’t have a warranty, then there’s nothing holding you back.
Doing your own repair can be intimidating or may sound complicated. But with the right information and some common household tools, it’s very doable. There’s a lot of information on the Internet about this both free and paid.
The downside of free info is the amount of research that you will have to do. There’s too much bad advice out there and it takes time to sort this all out.
There are a number of paid instructional guides available that will show you exactly how to fix your Xbox yourself. Make sure that there’s a guarantee of some kind. Unlike the free information out there, the guarantee introduces some accountability and thus improves your chances of getting information that actually works without damaging your Xbox. It also helps if the guide provides instruction in both video and text formats.
With a little luck, one of these three options should make sense for your situation and get you back to enjoying your Xbox.
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