Repair Xbox 360 – 3 Red Lights
James at joystiq fixed his own 360 that was flashing three red lights, which indicates an internal error.
If you have this problem try this simple fix:
1) Remove your hard drive and/or memory units.
2) Run "Initial Setup" under the system blade.
3) Decline inserting HDD or memory unit when prompted.
4) Sync your controller and pop in a game.
*** UPDATE *** Microsoft has a new free warranty of 3 years for the 3 red light error. If you have this problem, you can send your console in for free repair. Or, if you don't want to pay shipping and have to wait 2-3 weeks, you can attempt to fix it yourself.
More details here:
NEW! Instructional videos to repair your 360 yourself in less than an hour, guaranteed: Xbox 360 Three Red Light Repair
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March 5th, 2007 at 8:49 pm
edit I was using a heat gun if your wondering I got from amazon for $22 well worth it The error I was getting was 0102 with 3 red lights.
March 8th, 2007 at 8:27 am
hey guys…
got my 360 2 months ago…3 red lights after 2 weeks from purchasing….tried the towel thing and it worked for 10 minutes then …its back again…was i wrong for changing from sony to microsoft???..i heard the ps3 had some problems with the beeping sound…and it killls it…its all because of hd and blue ray….we were just fine with the dvd….at least there are no crashings…any way i got someone whos willing to buy my xbox360 for 65% of the price i bought it with….share ur openions with me brothers..should i sell it…ill miss all the nice games…should i bye ps3…i am confused…SAVVVVVVVVVVEEE MEEEEEEEE
March 8th, 2007 at 9:07 pm
HEY ALL!, If you have an older model chances are your eligible for a FREE Xbox 360 repair.. Just call the Microsoft Support Line and give us your information and console serial number.. You will be asked to register your Xbox 360 if you have not already. They Will send you via UPS a box to put your non-working console in and with no charge a sticker to mail it back to us. All REPAIRS AND SHIPPING ARE FREE… Consoles made in 2005 were very buggy!! **Some even have a 2004 release date also supported** Without getting into technical issues and specifics if your experiencing 3 RED FLASHING LIGHTS you should send in your console… ** All Consoles MUST HAVE BEEN PURCHASED WITHIN A YEAR OF THIS ISSUE OCCURRING ** Keep in mind a lot of stores have consoles from 2004 and 2005 sitting in their inventory, so even if you bought one last week it could still be an older “buggy” unit… We have phased out most of the bugs and your new console should work great… The REPAIR CENTER IS LOCATED IN TEXAS…. from call to finish it should take about one 6-DAY week to complete the process (EXCLUDING SUNDAY). Unless you live outside the US or Hawaii Or Alaska…
RICH YOUR’E a IDIOT!!!!! DO YOU FREAKING WORK FOR M$ OR SOMETHING!?!?!?! YOU IDIOTS SHOULD HAVE MADE BETTER FREAKING CONSOLES TO BEGIN WITH!!!!!!!! WE ALLREADY KNOW THAT IF YOU SEND IN YOURE SCREWD UP CONSOLE YOU GET IT REPAIRED IN LIKE 8 WEEKS. ITS BEEN 3 MONTHS FOR ME AND I STILL HAVENT GOTTEN MY FRIGGIN BOX YOU LYING *&%^!@#$!!!!! EVEN IF I HAD GOTTEN IT YOU STUPID !@#$ HEADS WOULD HAVE SENT ME BACK SUM #%$@y REFURBISHED ONE!!!!!! I PAID 400 FOR A NEW CONSOLE NOT A REFURB THAT PROBABLY HAS THE 3 RED LIGHTS IN ITS PAST AND WILL PROBABLY GET IT AGAIN. O AND ANOTHER THING SCREW UR !@#$#IN VISTA TO IT FREAKIN CRASSHED MY FRIGGIN COMPUTER THE FIRST DAY INSTALLED IT !!!!!! (*&%^ YOU M$ YOU GREEDY @#$%*&%S!!!!!!!!!!
March 9th, 2007 at 7:50 pm
the xbox 360 have a over heating problem right under the cd rom there is a heatsink under it which cover the video chip if u remove the heat sink u will notice little cracks on tne board they will have to be re solder i found that out when mine had reds lights so i took it a part and found out there was little cracks so i solderd the craks and it worked dont know for how long cause the is no fan on the heat sink so i get mighty hot fast
March 10th, 2007 at 6:44 am
HELLO TO ALL I DISAGREE WITH anthony (SEE ABOVE) I TOO GOT THE 3 RED LIGHTS I CALLED MS AND THE SENT A UPS ROUND PACKED UP WAS MY X BOX 360 I GOT IT BACK 6 DAYS LATER BRAND NEW CONSOLE HAS 07 DATE ON IT NEVER PAID FOR NOTHING …
March 10th, 2007 at 2:38 pm
kerry uk. I have to to dissagree with U!!! I just stated MY indivadule experience with M$. If you want to list ur personal experiance thats O.K. but PLEASE TONT TELL ME THAT YOU DISSAGREE WITH MINE BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT HAPPEND TO ME. U WERNT THERE YOU CANT SAY THAT MY BOX INDEED ARIVVED WHICH IT DIDDN’T.
March 10th, 2007 at 6:57 pm
Well about a month ago my box did the square screen weird noise and then Death Became Her……
So reading all the stuff about the solder issues and boxes crapping out due to granulated solder beads hot air process instead of wave system MS cheap Bastards, I tored the heat gun and silver based heat sink compound and badda bing back after 2 min slow heat warm up (one min per side of board) , Then a 2 minute cyclic session on the front of the board let her sit for 30 mins and she jumped back to life i have decided against fixing the case monuting screws only fixing the heatsink ones to reduce stress on the mainboard components — as the archetecture of the heatsink clamp also adds to the labour intensive solder joints stretching or breaking loose.
This box i have since may last year and installed xtreme within 5 mins of purchase have kept it up to date in terms of bios vers for drive so any noobs browsing this rest assured that the mod aint to blame its MS ripping us off im just glad i didnt fork out for all the Games i feel vindicated. :-)
March 11th, 2007 at 1:09 am
last night i got the 3 lights(which at the time i thought was 4) and i unplugged everything and turned it back on and it worked for 2 hours then i got off.This afternoon i played for about 2 hours and got nothing. About 3 hours later i went to play and the lights kept coming up and i still thought it was 4 lights cuz my faceplate made it look like they were all blinking.About an hour after trying to fix it it started to work again randomly. I played for about 2-3 hours and my xbox froze.When i went to turn it back on i got the lights.After a min. of tryin to get it back on it started to work again.Then i was about to have a clan match in GRAW 2 and since the voice glitch was happenin i need to restart my xbox and of course it couldnt turn on…That was about 6 hours ago and the thing still doesnt work.After hearin ur guys stories im actually pretty lucky cause i got my xbox 1-31-06 and my xbox has lasted about 14 months with no problems and i can get my repairs free due to the warranty i think.
March 11th, 2007 at 8:46 am
hey im from uk had xbox for bout 3 months and its a hunk of scrap m/s are con artists and am in a big debate about a refund basically i would have thought for a ” next gen console” it could at least load in a game without freezing no red lights yet but plenty of crashes it runs like my pc i hate microsoft and going back to ps3 im so sorry i sraryed sony will you have me back!!!!!
March 11th, 2007 at 8:52 am
and another thing i forgot why should i do without it 2 weeks for repair when the ps2 was released yeah it had faults but least it was a n exchange sony rules m/s sucks i hate the sight of my box now i want to play it but will it let me some days can go an hour or 6 others wont even load just checked serial date and it semms i have a newer model and its still a load of JUNKKKKKKKKK