How You Treat Your Xbox 360 Affects Your Chances of Getting the Red Ring of Death

Author: Marc Sandford
Source: ezinearticles.com

The Xbox 360 is a fantastic machine when it’s working. With superior performance and amazing games, it draws you into it’s own little world and then…nothing. Right in the middle of a game you get the red ring of death malfunction.

Sadly, this is a very common problem that over 500,000 people are dealing with. Once those three red lights turn on, the problem will always come back. If the red ring of death hasn’t happened to you yet, there’s steps that you can take to reduce the chances of it happening to your machine.

The Xbox 360 was poorly designed and manufactured. This makes it predisposed to overheating. Therefore, the ring of death is induced by heat and the Xbox’s inability to tolerate it.

To reduce the odds of the ring of death happening to your Xbox, you must keep it cool. Now, I’m not talking about putting your Xbox outside in the cold or in a refrigerator. This has been tried and you don’t want to do this because the Xbox’s chips are meant to operate near room temperature.

To prevent your Xbox from getting too hot you must always ensure that it is well ventilated. That means not using it in confined spaces such as an entertainment center full of clutter or a storage cabinet. Its home will need to have plenty of free, open, and well ventilated space around it.

Shag carpeting is out because it can block the fans in the back. Either prop it up off the carpet, place it on a table, or use it on an uncarpeted and solid surface. The fans can also get obstructed if you allow any cords or cables to get all bunched up there.

Take every precaution to keep the fans clear of all debris and dirt. Depending on your own individual circumstances, pet hair, human hair, dirt, grit, dust, and lint can build up quite rapidly. That’s because of all of the air passing through the fans which effectively act as dust funnels. Cleaning the fans out with compressed air will easily increase air flow into your Xbox.

Don’t run your machine for long periods of time. Those internal components will get warmer and continue to do so with use. If you are done with your Xbox, turn it off and let it cool down.

People with overheated Xboxes typically had their machines on for more than four hours at a time. If you live in a very warm climate without air conditioning, your Xbox will heat up at a very fast rate. Therefore, it will be necessary to scale down your playing time further.

Whether you like it or not, your Xbox is a very finicky and unreliable “high maintenance” machine. Even if you follow the precautions mentioned here, there’s no guarantee of freedom from the red ring of death. However, it will happen if you let your machine overheat.

Find out why the “red ring of death” happens and get some Xbox troubleshooting advice at http://www.squidoo.com/Xbox-troubleshooting-red-ring-of-death-fix.