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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Comments (768)
Even tho I fixed my 360 (which is way better than a 140$ repair fee) I’m going to complain to the BBB (Better Business Bereu if you didn’t know). This is very ridiculous for us to pay 400$ for a NEXT GENERATION cosole just to have it break down like the piece of it is and pay 140$. It’s not like MS isn’t rich enough already, they have BILLIONS of dollars I think they could at least repair 360s for free not half the cost of the console.
I’ve been playing video games for a long time now, ever since Atari. I’ve had to admit there’s been a lot of changes in the game industry but one thing that remained constant, was that the systems hardly failed. Well the Xbox 360 has changed all that, and have also managed to completely destroy my desire to play video games. There you have it, after turning on my 360 and getting ready to have some fun, I came accross those 3 flashing red lights and my life has changed ever since. I no longer have the desire to play video games. Microsoft killed my gaming hunger. Although, I don’t know if that’s necessarily a bad thing. But it’s a shame! they are allowed to charge so much money + subscription fee, for a system that is so unreliable.
My 360 crapped out on me today. Go figure it had to happen the day before the Halo 3 Beta release. Called Microsoft, and it’s out of warranty,by 2 months, gotta pay $140. I even got the year warranty through the store I bought it from…again, 2 months out of warranty, they say I need to send it to microsoft. With the new xbox elite, why bother paying $140 for a refurbished piece of garbage…I’m trading up at EB Games/Gamestop, and pay the difference on an elite model. At least then it’ll be new and under warranty. I like how Microsoft just keeps making, and later fixing bad units…just to repeat the process over again. At this rate, the cost of a 360 unit is $600 after the initial purchase, tax, repair, and shipping…
This is such bull i bought my 360 for 900 bux on ebay and when i got it a year and a half ago the first day it had the 3 red light bug so i sent it in to microsoft and they sent me a new one
now a year later the new one the sent me just got the 3 red light bug this is such bull we should all complain i want my 360 money back we should all get our 400 dollars back if it gets the 3 red light bug !!!!
hey guys….i wanna ask jim the guy who said that he fixed his 360 with he rubber eraser trick…is it really working as a total solution….i meant is it gonna ever appear again….or is it just a temp solution???..i wanna know for sure b4 doing it….thanx
I had my x box 360 for 4 months and then it started freezing and the ni turned it off and back on then the red lights came on so i sent it in to get fixed a few days ago and we’ll see how that goes
i got the same ring of death and some of my friends did to!!! what a joke!!!!!!gota pay out £80 to get it fixed. will it be fixed or once the new warranty runs out it will break again so i’ll prob have to pay again! what a joke!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have had my 360 for just over a year and it has had the stupid three read lights thing. I dont want to psy £80 so is there any way to fix it my self
how long does it take to fix my xbox 360 if i send it away to microsoft
When i turn on my 360 it makes a clack sound and 3 red lights on the front start to flash. HELP ME!!!!!!
The problem is GPU Memory related. To solve it, first open your Xbox. There is a soft, “rubbery” material on the memory chips.
Remove it
Take a rubber eraser (made of real rubber!) and cut it to four squares of 4 millimeters height. They should be a bit bigger than the memory chips (about 1 millimeter on each side). Get double face tape the memory modules, and then tape the rubber eraser on them
Close your Xbox and turn it on.
If it still doesn’t work properly, wait 20 minutes with the console still turned on. After 20 minutes, turn off the console, wait 2 minutes for it to cool down and then turn it on again. It should work. This solution was tested on the error 0102 also known as the three lights of death…