I now have the Dreaded "Red Ring of Death"


Recommended Posts

So, i power up my 360 (which is played for about 4 hours a week), and I play a game and it freezes. I turn it off and back on, and the "Red Ring of Death" starts flashing. I googled it, and found a useless KBA from MSFT telling me how to fix it. It basically says "unplug everything, and plug it back in.". I did that. I also made sure the power adapter was green, and was plugged into the wall.

I Still get the red Ring of Death. I've discovered that my error code is:

0102 unknown error - though it's most likely GPU related literally means the console does not know what is wrong. possibly a short or cold solder joint somewhere. So far there is 1 major theory for what causes most of these errors is that the Ram, CPU, or GPU are not soldered properly to the mother board due either to poor manufacturing or excessive heat up and cool down cycles that stress, weaken and eventually break the soldered connection. This can be solved by re-Heating the chips DO NOT attempt this if your console is still under warranty. If your console is still under warranty return it to the store where it was purchased or call MS to have it replaced. I have also heard of limited success by simply switching the AV cable from "HDTV" mode to "TV" mode.

http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=484726

So, since the warrenty period is over, i've taken the 360 apart. The fans work fine. I can only imagine it is a CPU/GPU issue. So, tomorrow I'll be taking the heatsink off the cpu, and applying new thermal grease, etc. Hopefully this works. I am VERY dissapointed, as this is a $400 peice of hardware. :angry:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

erm, as far as I know, until the 30th you could have sent to MS to get it fixed for free. Of course you can't now since you opened it up...

great..... :argh:

Well, i'm getting a Wii for xmas. I guess that'l have to do

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Did you try leaving it alone for a bit and trying to turn it on again? Mine did that once, was playing a game and it froze and when I restarted "Red Ring of Death" ..I left it alone for a while turned it back on and it worked and has been working fine ever since.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Did you try leaving it alone for a bit and trying to turn it on again? Mine did that once, was playing a game and it froze and when I restarted "Red Ring of Death" ..I left it alone for a while turned it back on and it worked and has been working fine ever since.

I had a similar problem recently where I would get the ring of death after having my console on for a short time, but then leaving it off for a bit would fix the problem. I called support and they recommended that I buy one of those external cooling units. Got the one that attaches to the back through the power supply, booted it up, played the Lost Planet E3 demo and some halo 2 co-op for a few hours, no freezes and no ring of death :D

I expect to have more problems in the future, I just hope Microsoft recognizes that a console dieing after a year from normal/infrequent use is just not acceptable. I've had a lot of consoles in my life, starting at the original NES, and I have never had one die on me, even my Sega Genesis with original Sega CD, which fell 3 feet off a counter after my dog tripped over the cord.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I called support and they recommended that I buy one of those external cooling units

o.O they recommended that? Scary.. considering some early models of them have been known to leave burn marks on the case....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well i had the same problem and opening it only made more problems.

at the end of the day.. wait a month buy a new one! and when you buy it.. look at the manufacture date on the back and make sure it's not OLD!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was just reading your blog and noticed ur post about Xbox 360, your Xbox is one of the first manufactured thus you WERE eligible for a FREE repair from MS.

You should not have opened it, but you should try to call them and tell them that you had opened it before MS had issued this "FREE" repair to apply thermal gel, etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I seriously cant believe you opened it hey, I know it's not good to see it die but you had the error message which tells you more than anything you could likely have found yourself anyway.

You should have called MS first. They may or may not have been happy to repair it. If not you may at the very least have been able to do it for a price which is probably a heck of alot cheaper than simply throwing the machine away.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah. I'm an idiot. I just figured since it was past the warrenty date, it would no longer be covered. So I thought I was "on my own".

I called MSFT, and since it was opened, They wont take it back. :s

So, today i'll be removing the heat sink and applying new thermal paste. Maybe that's the problem.

Oh well. Lesson learned.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey dude,

Just to make you feel better my second 360 just died ;( I bought my first on the UK launch day (2nd dec 2005) and it died in August, they sent me a replacement which was manufactured in January '06 and that has just suffered the same fate (3 red lights of death). Luckily they seem to go on the warranty of the box you currently have so I'm just inside the warranty period of my current machine.

God I hope I get it back as quick as last time so I can play it over xmas.

Ascii

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.