
If you owned an Xbox 360 during the first few years of its existence, we're willing to bet you know exactly what we mean when we say 'Red Ring of Death'. It's what you see in the image above - the console displaying three glowing red lights indicating a general hardware failure, pretty much rendering the system obsolete.
The RRoD was a significant issue, both for players and Microsoft. As noted on an IGN podcast back in 2015 (thanks KitGuru), former Xbox executive Peter Moore figured out that fixing and replacing all the broken systems, of which there were many, could be a "billion dollar problem":
“I remember going to Robbie Bach, my boss, and saying, 'I think we could have a billion dollar problem here'. As we started to do the analysis of what was going on, we were getting the defectors in, it was a challenging problem for our engineers, and we couldn’t quite figure out what it was. We knew it was heat related. There were all kinds of fixes. I remember people putting wet towels around the box."
The company extended the standard warranty on the Xbox 360 to three years following increasing reports of the 'Red Ring of Death', and later added the notorious "E74" issue to the warranty as well. "After investigating the issue, we have determined that the E74 error message can indicate the general hardware failure that is associated with three flashing red lights error on the console," read a 2009 statement.

Fortunately for late adopters, the RRoD problem generally affected models released from 2005-2010. It was with the release of the overhauled Xbox 360 Slim in 2010 that the RRoD became much less of an issue, and the same can be said for the Xbox 360 E released a few years later.
By that time however, a significant number of people had already experienced the 'Red Ring of Death' issue, and in some cases on multiple occasions. So, did you? We want to know whether your Xbox 360 suffered the RRoD, how many times you dealt with it, and what your experiences were like getting it fixed and/or replaced.
Did you ever experience the RRoD with your Xbox 360? Share your memories in the comments.
Comments 24
one of them did yes, one had a disc drive failure and the 3rd had the black screen of death but they were all OG models
my slim though is perfect
I had three Xbox 360s suffer the RRoD issue. It wasn't fun.
But as @FullbringIchigo says, my Slim has been perfect and my Xbox 360 E has been perfect.
None of my 360's suffered RROD - but I did trade out my original 360 to get a black Elite as soon as I could and then sold that to get the Xbox 360 Slim w Kinect so may of sold before that happened.
My Original PS4 Phat though did suffer the Playstation equivalent - the dreaded YLOD but I also wasn't looking to trade that to get a better colour or to get a HDMI output - the only 'downside' to that was its size but made up for it in other ways,
My first and only Xbox 360, original model, suffered the Red Ring of Death after a couple of months, so I had it sent back to Microsoft for repairs, got it back within the space of 10 days, and ever since then, it's been working perfectly, and it still does, to this very day.
never had RROD but when my cat was kitten she discovered the slim touch disc eject. and broke the bloody thing
I never experienced it when i had the 360, I guess i was one of the lucky ones
Don't know when mine was made but nope. Old model. Pre owned too. Had it since about 2010. Still works but noisy. Haven't touched it in a while as most games I played on it are backwards compatible. Just wish Xbox Indies were also backwards compatible. I miss Xbox Indies.
@Anguspuss i had a similar experience with my cat and the original model XBOX One, once she discovered that pressing it made a noise she was doing it all the time
Plus being a touch sensitive button she could actually set the thing off bit of a pain when you're playing a game and she turns it off
Eeyup. Mine red ringed 2 or 3 years in.
One of my friends went through about 10 but mine only red ringed after I got my PS4 in some sort of protest I think
Experienced the RROD on three different consoles. The good ol days.
I had one RRoD and now I've got a ps4 that sounds like a jet engine. Seems like I'm good at making dubious hardware choices!
Two of my three had the RRoD
Yes. But the customer service was great and I had my console replaced within a few days. The new console didn’t have RRoD.
I had a PS3 not a 360, but my brother suffered from it. A couple times if I recall
I remember seeing three rings, my heart almost stopped. But thank God everything worked out. He continued to work fine without any problems. But he scared me seriously
I never suffered from the Red Ring but I got my first Xbox 360 in 2008 (The one with Lego Indiana Jones and Kung Fu Panda packed in) and used it regularly till 2013 when the R2D2 360 model came out which after transferring everything I traded in. So not sure if I was lucky or by them time I got one the problem was fixed.
Had three RROD. However Microsoft just kept sending me new consoles for free. Meanwhile Nintendo, who I grew up with Mario bed sheets and wallpaper, refused to acknowledge my drifting joy cons until the lawyers came out.
I had mine day one and played to the end. I had three RRoD in that time haha
I had the RRod on the HDMI model, for whatever reason the warranty wasn't extended on the one I had and it suffered the fault the month after the warranty ended so I was stuck. It was pre DSR and CCR additions to the consumer rights act too so I was stuffed, soured me on Microsoft as a whole until I got my Xbox one X last year!
I had two 360 consoles that got the RRoD.
My cousin's old 360 Elite was overheating so I opened it up. I cut myself getting in and bled on it. I saw some dried blood that was too old to be mine, and when I took the heat sink off there was dried flux around the CPU and GPU. The X-clip said fixed 03 OCT 07, and it was clear they had reflowed it cause of red ring. I replaced the dried thermal paste and it runs cool again. My 360 Slim never had issues. My Xbox One's Wi-Fi got flaky and replacing the Wi-Fi board did nothing so that is my new hardware puzzle. My One never overheated though, even with the dry old thermal paste.
I've had 4 Xbox 360 consoles all brand new. An original which made a sound like a jet engine, a falcon and two 360 E consoles. I never kept any of them long enough to have an issue. I'm sure the first one is dead somewhere but I got a good trade in price from GameStop at the time.
I'll probably be shot for this but I definitely tried and never could take to the 360. I loved the original Xbox and the Xbox one, but I don't like the 360. Weird, I also don't like the PS2 and I tried with it too.
I’m on my 8th 360 and pretty much use my xbone as my 360 out of fear. I’ve only had two of them that worked. My current one and I bought the halo 3 edition when it came out. As such I tend to wait until at least 3years into the lifecycle before I buy a ms system.
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