XBOX 360 REPAIR 101: THE RED RING OF DEATH FIX

Say goodbye to dirty towels, soldering irons, expensive paid repair and say hello to this easy red ring of death fix guide!

Just to be sure that we are on the same page, the red ring of death are the red curved lights that form a quarter of a circle on your Xbox power button. It indicates general hardware failure that is usually caused by excessive heat. Excessive heat strains the solder joints on the CPU and GPU ad eventually causes them to disconnect.

Now, minus the soldering irons and save for some washer and screws, be your own Xbox ‘hero with these easy red ring of death fix steps:

STEP 1: CHECKPOINT
Before you actually begin, check and remember if you still have working warranty. If you do then you might no longer need this red ring of death fix guide. It is always better to go to Microsoft and have them test it. You might also want to make good use of the 3 year warranty (just think of it as part of your purchase price). Now, if you’re warranty is already voided, then please do read on. I do not want you to even try doing the towel trick because that will only cause further damage to your unit.

STEP 2: THE DESTROYER
Let us do a bit of analysis here. The main cause of the red of ring death is excessive heat that ruins the solder joints. If that’s the case, you might be wondering, "What are the heat sinks doing then?" Good question! The heat sinks actually want to do well for your GPU or CPU however; the X-shaped metal plates that hold them do not give them enough room. Because of this, heat dissipation is prohibited and causes the processors to be disengaged.

STEP 3: THE WEAPON
Time to engage! For the ultimate red ring of death fix, of course we will need tools. Do not worry; I am keeping my promise - no soldering irons. Just have the following handy:
4 5x20MM Panhead Machine Screw (for locking the CPU heatsink)
4 5x15MM Panhead Machine Screw (for the GPU)
44 #10 Washers (for securing the mother board)
Drill (for widening of screw holes in the metal case)
Torx 9 and 6 screwdriver (for removing screws from the xbox’s case)
1/4 inch Wrench or Socket (for removing the X-Clamp posts)
Phillips-head screwdriver
Small flathead screwdriver (for poking off the X-Clamps)


STEP 4: REMOVE

Open the metal case and remove everything that could hinder you from taking the heat sinks off. Remove the X-metal clamps and poke them out with your small flathead screwdriver after. The heat sinks will come after.
Once the heat sinks are off from the motherboard, remove the x-clamp posts using your ¼ inch wrench or socket. Once they are off, you can start removing the glop from your GPU and CPU. Remember to do this carefully.

STEP5: BIGGER HOLES
A key to the red ring of death fix is to drill bigger holes to replace your X-clamp posts with 5MM screws. This will give your heat sinks the room it needs. Put washers to secure your screws. Once done, you can start putting your mother board back. Place thermal paste before putting back your GPU and CPU then put back everything you have disengaged.


Really, the principle behind the red ring of death fix is creating more room and preventing excessive heat from ruining your GPU and CPU again.


Easy as 1,2,3? Hope this red ring of death fix guide helped you with your Xbox 360 repair.