Fixing the XBox 360 3 Red Lights Problem Yourself
The Xbox 360 3 Red Lights problem is without a doubt the most common hardware problem that has been faced by XBox 360 owners to date. It is estimated that upwards of 30% or more of XBox 360's manufactured during the first 2 years of manufacturing have had, or are still susceptible to the 3 red lights problem. Although the exact cause of this problem is still the subject of some debate in the XBox 360 gaming community, most people agree the fundamental cause is an overheating inside the XBox's General Processing Unit (GPU). If you are one of the unlucky Xbox gamers who has had this problem, you basically have 3 options:1. You can send it back to Microsoft for repair. This will cost you about $130-$140 AND you'll be without your box for upwards of 2 to 3 weeks.
2. You can use a 3rd party repair service. They will charge somewhere around $40 to $50 dollars and usually have a turnaround time of about 5 business days. This s your best option is you are not comfortable popping open your XBox and trying the do-it-yourself repair. Which brings us to option #3.
3. Buy one of the many popular XBox 360 3 Red Lights repair guides that are available on the market. These guides have a very high success rate and you can usually get your XBox back up and running in 1 - 2 hours.
You may also find that if you shut your XBox off and let it cool down for an hour or two, when you power it back up, the 3 flashing red lights will have disappeared and your XBox will operate normally. This, however, is the exception rather than the rule. And it is also important to keep in mind that once you have seen the 3 red lights problem on your xbox, it rarely (more like never) fixes itself automatically.
So if you are handy and don't mind the challenge of trying to fix your Xbox yourself, the do-it-yourself route using a good 3 red lights repair guide is your best bet. Most of these guides also include very helpful videos that let you actually watch the repair being done step by step.
