Xbox Red Ring of Death

[Oldschool61]

Originally Posted by PeterPanPan

I've been enjoying some console gaming whilst waiting for the CoD patch but last night my Xbox appears to have died.

Mid game, the screen went yellow with vertical pinstripes and now I get 3 flashing red lights on the start button and a blank screen - Xbox powers up but I get a totally blank screen.

A quick Google search reveals this is a common and serious problem. There appear to be ways to fix this if you know what you are doing. One shop has quoted me £60 (about US$100) to fix it. One shop said just throw it away and buy a new one as any fix will likely last just 6 months.

So, my question is, what would you do? I don't have a lot of spare cash (who does?) so need to decide carefully. Looks like I could pick up a new Xbox 360 4GB Arcade Console for £130.

Thanks for your thoughts ...

PPP

Get a real console PS3!!!

[SEE]

If you don't have the confidence or desire to try and repair it then my advice is to either get it repaired by a professional or sell it 'as is' on Ebay and get a refurbished one or new with guarantee.

[NedLynch]

I would in any case call xbox support and see if they can't do anything for you.

Repair...nah, selfrepair....nah.

4gb xbox360 slim.....maybe.

A new xbox slim would be the best choice, if there wasn't the money issue, believe me I know, but a 4gb model is just barely enough to hold some saved game data.
No easy answer in this case. E-bay is not really a great option either, the last time I looked ( in all xbox cathegories btw. ) no real deals were to be had,
meaning something I'd trust and would be willing to spend my hardearned money on.
I would seriously save some money for a while, trade the current xbox in, even if they won't give you a lot, keep the HDD and get a data transfer kit and an xbox360 slim with a HDD, the 4gb on the arcade model are only internal memory.
It does seem to be more reliable, plus you can't even hear the thing after you turn it on.

Getting a PS3 is a so-so thing, since I am sure you build a library of games, achievements and gamerpoints, so switching consoles is not as attractive as it might seem.

[Dano]

Have repaired a couple of RROD'd xboxes using nothing more than the xclamp mod (basically a set of screw, washers, thermal paste and alcohol swabs) which is available for pennies on ebay, no baking, reflowing or anything, just strip the thing down, remove the cause of the issue; the xclamps that hold the heatsinks in place, remove old thermal paste, apply new stuff, re-attach heatsinks using washers and screws supplied, put back together; job done.

The hardest part is getting the thing to bits and keeping all the heatsink screws in place when re-building.

[WTE_Galway]

Originally Posted by Oldschool61

Get a real console PS3!!!

nah 3DS rulez

[PeterPanPan]

Thanks for the replies chaps - most helpful. The price difference between the 250GB and 4 GB model is only about £30, much less than buying the 250GB memory module, so probably makes sense to go for that I reckon.

PPP

[Oldschool61]

Originally Posted by PeterPanPan

Thanks for the replies chaps - most helpful. The price difference between the 250GB and 4 GB model is only about £30, much less than buying the 250GB memory module, so probably makes sense to go for that I reckon.

PPP

Get a PS 3 and you get a top of the line blueray player as well as a machine you can put any after market laptop drive in, want a 500gb drive...no problem if its available for laptops you almost certainly put it in a PS3. No proprietary hard drives here.
It also the best console/multimedia hub as well.

Did i mention no fee to play online unlike the other console.