Microsoft developed the Xbox 360 against its competitor Sony. Both the corporate have had a tough time fighting for the videogame industry. To beat Sony’s play station 2 Microsoft introduced the Xbox 360 which had better features compared to the play station 2. The most fascinating feature is that the Microsoft had itself designed the hardware of the Xbox 360. Microsoft amazed everybody by its entry in the hardware industry since all know that they are well versed only in the software. The Microsoft Corporation has some experience developing pc games but hardware development was very new and made others turn there heads towards them.
DRAWBACKS IN DESIGN
Microsoft Corporation is new to the field of hardware design it has some severe problems because of the poor knowledge of the design. The recent Xbox 360 has been reported by hardware failures all over the world. The console in the Xbox gets overheated and this causes the red light error. The Xbox 360 has a power ring which glows in green or red color indicating the current status of the console. If any error occurs in the hardware of the console then the red light glows and stops the further operation of the console. This problem disturbs the game as overheating can occur at any time. The reason behind it is that the heat sinks fail to absorb the heat from the processor and the X clamps holding the heat sinks to the motherboard are very tightly attached causing over heat in them. These design oriented problem have caused the hardware to fail and the red light problem is widely known as the “Red Ring of Death” or RRoD.
WAYS TO SOLVE
There are different ways to solve the problem of red light error. One method is by sending the console to the manufacturers service center where repairing is done free of cost if the warranty period is valid and if the warranty period is expired repairing is cost around $100 along with which you will have to pay for the shipping charges too. Apart from all these you will have to wait for a period of three months to get back your console.
Another method is called towel wrapping in which you will wrap a towel around your console to develop heat inside it so that weak solder joints will get heated up and gets well connected to the circuit. But hardware professionals recommend that this kind of techniques will damage the motherboard in future.
The simplest and the best method to get rid of this problem is to repair the console on your own. It’s very easy to repair and even a complete beginner can do it. In order to repair the console you just need to watch some video tutorials over the net and which will give complete explanation in a step by step procedure. The main advantage of this method is that it is very cheap and its time saving as you can repair your console within few hours instead of waiting fro months and start playing today itself.
The Xbox 360 was developed by the Microsoft Corporation in the year 2005. The Xbox 360 is the advanced version of the previous version Xbox. The Xbox 360 consists of three different kinds of motherboards such as Xenon, Zypher and Falcon. The Xenon is the type of motherboard being used in the latest gaming consoles and these consoles have been reported to have failed in the hardware part. The xenon type motherboard has been affected by frequent overheating of the console causing the failure of the GPU and disturbing the work of the console.
RRoD
The term RRoD refers to “Red Ring of Death”. RRoD is a condition where the console stops working and displays an error message E74 on the screen with the red lights glowing near the power buttons. The Xbox 360 has been loaded with some set of error codes for providing the user with the warning messages about the obstacles faced by the console. One type of error is known as the E74. This error means that the console has failed due to long working hours leading to the overheating of the console or failure in the components of the motherboards due to weak solder joints. Apart from the three red light errors there are one, two ad four red light errors but the three red light error is considered very dangerous because it can cause permanent damage to the motherboard.
CAUSES FOR RRoD TO OCCUR
The major reason for the RRoD to occur is the overheating of the console, which is caused by the over power consumption by the inbuilt intercooler. As the power supply to this intercooler is taken from the main supply of the motherboard it flows through all the components leading to the overheating of the console. Another possible way is the weak solder joints resulting for the failure of the motherboard to work normally. But one of the major causes from all these problems is that the heat sinks provided in the motherboard is unable to provide enough cooling to the processors as the developed heat is more than expected. The X clamp holding the motherboard is very tightly fixed to the motherboard causing less flow of air.
SOLUTION
The only way to solve all these problems is to provide better provision for cooling of the console. The X clamp which is tightly fixed is removed from the motherboard and re fixed with a screw and a bolt to the motherboard. This can be done free of cost by giving it to the Microsoft service center if you have a valid warranty period else you will have to pay $100 to the service center excluding the shipping charges and wait for a three months to get them back.
There is one more way to get rid of red lights in the Xbox 360. You can repair it on your own and the cost of repairing is very low all you have to do is to watch some video tutorials provided in the internet these videos will explain step by step procedure to remove the X clamps from the motherboard. Other advantage is that it can be performed within a few hours and you can relish playing the favorite games immediately.
