Is it possible for the average person to repair their XBox 360 at home? All you really need is a step-by-step guide and you can spend more time enjoying your XBox, instead of waiting for it to be returned to you.
Although XBox 360 is an excellent gaming platform, with great games like Resident Evil 5, Assassin’s Creed II, Call of Duty: Modern Wafare2 and Grand Theft Auto IV, you can’t really enjoy them when your system fails. Although Microsoft has taken action with the newer versions of its XBox, many of the older systems suffer from two common fatal errors: the red ring of death (RROD) and the E74 error.
The red ring of death refers to the fatal error that occurs when the green lights (indicating the unit is on and working properly) on the front of the console turn red. This fatal fault is usually preceded by warning signs such as video issues (a blurry image), startup issues (drive freezes during startup), and game crashes (game freezes during gameplay). These problems will usually be resolved by turning off the XBox and restarting it. However, the more frequent these symptoms are, the closer you get to the infamous red ring of death. Once an RROD error occurs, you are advised to contact XBox customer support.
The E74 error is explained as a general hardware related fault and is indicated when the lower right quadrant of the green indicator lights starts flashing red.
Both of these issues are related to the initial design and manufacturing of the graphics chips specifically related to the solder joints that connect them to the motherboard. The boards tend to overheat (the heat sink shrunk to make room inside the case for the DVD drive), and temperature fluctuations cause the joints to crack and fail.
When trying to fix these errors at home, make sure that the proposed solution not only has specific instructions, but also a technical basis for success. For example, the ‘towel wrap’ solution (where you wrap a towel around your XBox and it magically starts working again) is nothing more than wishful thinking, and probably very lucky if it ever worked.
Hardware failures are technical problems that require technical solutions, but can still be easily resolved at home. All you need is a quality repair guide that provides step-by-step instructions and possibly even video tutorials to demonstrate exactly what to do.
Yes, you can learn to repair your XBox 360 at home, and when you do, you’ll save time (waiting for your console to be fixed) and money (repair and shipping fees), and spend more time having fun.
