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.

Electronic games are gaining popularity day-by-day among children and the adults. Some children would even spend hours playing electronic games. XBox gaming console comes handy to those who are passionate about electronic games. Let us discuss some important features of this loving device.

The XBox 360 is a seventh generation video game console that has been designed and developed by Microsoft Corp. The device is a successor to XBox gaming console. The device competes with Nintendo’s Wii and Sony’s PlayStation 3 gaming consoles. Its Xbox Live feature allows the users to download arcade games, television shows and movies into the console. The device was officially launched on MTV in May 2005.

By the end of December 2007, about 17.7 million units of the gaming console were sold around the world. The gaming console supports .wmv, H.264, MPEG-4 video file formats. It uses USB mass storage for storing music, video and audio files. The device makes use of the Dashboard graphical user interface (GUI). The Dashboard is a tabbed interface that was designed by AKQA and features five Blades. Microsoft has released several updates for Dashboard since its launch. These updates have added new features to the console and have also enhanced its multimedia playback capabilities to a large extent.

The gaming console was officially launched with 13 games in the UK and 14 in North America. Some of the best selling XBox 360 games include “Call of Duty 2,” “Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter” and “Dead or Alive 4.” A new XBox Original feature was added as part of the December 2007 update of Dashboard. The XBox Original feature allows users to download original XBox games directly into their XBox 360.

The XBox 360 is presently available in four different versions – the Arcade, the Elite, the Core and the Premium. Microsoft has produced special editions of the device at times, usually to coincide with the release of a major product. These special editions of the gaming console are produced in limited numbers and are generally custom-coloured. The newest version of the gaming console comes loaded with a range of latest games that will keep the children enthralled for long hours.