Red Ring Of Death – How To Take Care Of Your Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is a fantastic thing to behold when it works. With a performance superior to other machines and with addictive games, it pulls you into this fantasy world and then…three red lights. Just when things couldn’t get any better you’re looking at the red ring of death.
Unfortunately this is a common and very serious problem that happens to more than 500,000 people worldwide. Once you get the 3 red light error, the problem will always come back. If the red ring of death hasn’t happened to you yet, there are steps that can be taken which may prevent it from happening to your machine.
The Xbox was badly designed and manufactured. This makes it very prone to overheating. The red ring of death is ultimately caused by heat and the Xbox’s inability to tolerate it.
To reduce the odds of the ring of death happening to your Xbox, you’ll have make sure that it stays cool. This does not mean placing your Xbox out in the snow or in your freezer. Believe it or not, people do this and it isn’t recommended because the Xbox’s components are supposed to operate around room temperature.
To prevent overheating, you must always ensure that it is well ventilated. That means not using it in confined spaces such as a crowded entertainment center or storage cabinet. Wherever you use it, make sure there’s a lot of free, open, and well ventilated space around it.
Keep it off shaggy carpeting because it will interfere with the fans in the back of the unit. Elevate it off the carpet with props, put it on a table, or use it on an uncarpeted and solid surface. The fans can also get obstructed if cords or cables are bunched up in the vicinity.
Take every precaution to keep the fans clean and free of dirt and debris. Depending on your particular set of circumstances, cat or dog hair, grit, dust, lint, and dirt can rapidly clog up the fan area. This happens because there’s so much air passing through the fans which act like vacuum cleaners. Cleaning the fans out with compressed air will help tremendously.
Don’t run your machine for lengthy time periods. The components inside will heat up and continue to heat up over time. If your Xbox is not being used, give it a rest and turn it off.
Most users with failed Xboxes typically had their machines on for more than four hours at a time. If you live in a very warm climate without air conditioning, your Xbox will tend to heat up even faster. In this case, you will have to scale down your playing time further.
Microsoft has unleashed upon the world, a very undependable and ‘high maintenance’ product. Diligence at keeping your Xbox cool is still not a guarantee of freedom from the red ring of death. However, it will happen if you habitually allow your machine to get too hot.
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