Maybe you already own an Xbox 360 and you’re experiencing some of the bigger problems these console have, or your thinking about getting one and want to know more about what you’re going to invest your money in before you actually do it.

As far as this article goes, I think you’ll find it rather soothing, you’ll also learn and gain a few tips about how to prevent the worst from happening.

Here are the three greatest tips you’ll find, showing you the insider secrets to keeping a nice clean, fully working Xbox 360 from here on out.

1. If you keep your console in a display cabinet then it is time to move it up and out of the cabinet as the console does give out quite a bit of heat and display cabinets and allow the Xbox 360 to get far too hot, especially if you keep the doors shut on the cabinet while playing. So it’s a good idea to make sure it can breathe from all sides.

2. The second way that you can stop the 3 red rings of death from happening and need, is by keeping the power supply block, lifted off the floor, and keeping it on top of a stand or anywhere else, just try your best from letting sit on the floor. This may sound a little weird but the reason being, is because, just  like the Xbox 360 its self, the power supply block needs to breath, because it too also has fans on the inside of it. This method can also stop your games from freezing up.

3. And another awesome trick is to constantly make sure your machine is clean from dust, just like a computer, if you look at the little crevices, you’ll notice dust balls everywhere, making it extremely difficult for your Xbox 360 to breathe.

The three tips above should help you fix your Xbox and prevent game freezes and the red lights, however if you have already got the red lights then you will need to ring Microsoft support or find a way to repair it yourself.

But, we all know about Microsoft’s tacky service and outrageous cost it takes to repair a problem that was their fault to begin with, so for some it just isn’t an option to their machine away to Microsoft.

The only other option you have is to perform Xbox 360 fix yourself and you can do this by finding a good repair guide, there are a few about online however you must make sure that you get a good one that has full videos that will guide you through Step-by-step and also make sure that you get one that has a full guarantee so if you do need send it back you have not lost anything.

Learning how to repair your XBox will save you some major money. Microsoft will not tell you how to fix these errors. They’ll ask you to send your system back to them for repair. The typical cost for a repair can be as much as $140 plus shipping and handling. Also – they do not always guarantee a fix!

As quoted from Microsoft themselves:

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) said Thursday it expects to spend more than $1 billion to repair widespread hardware problems in its Xbox 360 video game console after a large number of them broke down.

Microsoft said it would extend the warranty on the Xbox 360 to three years after too many of the consoles succumbed to “general hardware failure,” but the company provided few other details about the extent of the problems.

“We don’t think we’ve been getting the job done,” said Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s entertainment and devices division, which also makes the Zune digital music player. “In the past few months, we have been having to make Xbox 360 console repairs at a rate too high for our liking.” (end quote)

What Causes The 3 Lights Error?

There are a number of different reasons the 3 red lights error happens and below are the most common causes:

Cause 1: Overheating. This has got to be the most common cause of this error and the good thing is it can be easily resolved. If you think the Xbox 360 has got lots of very high end gaming components within, similar to a top of the range gaming PC.

The difference is that the Xbox 360 has them crammed in a much smaller space so will need lots of ventilation to be able to get rid of the heat it produces.

If you are keeping your Xbox 360 in a display cabinet with the doors shut, then you could and probably will run into this error, make sure that the 360 can breathe on all sides.

Cause 2: The GPU. This is a major talking point and no one is quite sure if this is gospel but a lot of resources blame the GPU and the special coating they put on it with in the Xbox.

Cause 3: Warping of the Motherboard. Another reason you may find yourself searching for an Xbox 360 repair guide is because the heat that the Xbox 360 lets out actually warps the motherboard. This would make the solders come loose and eventually you would end up with the 3 red lights.

It’s ironic that the majority of Xbox 360 owners have done just that, sending the units in for repairs and paying through the nose. I have found that most of the owners are technically savvy and could do the repairs themselves. Just as I found out the other day, when a friend of mine revealed to me that he had been purchasing broken Xbox 360’s, repairing them cheaply and reselling them. Uhmmmm……..I smell a potential little gold mine here.