Rrod What Is It And What Causes It?

[borabora00]

i'm thinking real hard about buying a xbox 360 but i'm getting scared and confused about what version of xbox is best and this damn red ring of something i see people on hear talking about. what causes this to happen and how can i avoid this from happening to me. what precautions do i take for not letting this happen to me?

 

[T3kNi9e]

Its caused by alot of different things but the main problem is the 360's overheat and the cheap metal on the motherboard would melt.

The new consoles have better material and better heatsinks so they don't heat up as much anymore.

 

[Minto]

i've had my 360 for a year and its fine and Microsoft are making all new 360's with better hardware like motherboards etc....

EDIT
Damm T3kNi9e beat me too it

 

[blueovalboy7]

Haha. :lol: You guys are funny. It is dubbed as "General Hardware Failures" and generally is caused by what T3k said.

Also they are constantly developing new motherboards and CPU/GPU set-ups to help the 360 run cooler and more efficiently. With the newest batch there is a much lower failure rate than that of the originals. Also you are backed by a 3 year warranty from Microsoft, so if it does happen you can get it fixed for free.

 

[Sovieto]

its not from overheating. ive had my 360 running 14+ hours straight playing gears of war non stop and it didnt overheat in a closed room.

i then turned it on another time and 10 minutes later it RROD'd, its from the **** that keeps the pieces inside together, sauder? or something.. coming undone. they used a real cheap kind and didnt do it very well when they first made it.

 

[kinryuten]

I keep mine sideways and the "bottom" is cool all the time. Plus the back is only warm, not ready to nuke my apartment.

 

[ProShooter]

Dude you have 3 year warranty on it, chillax. What version of Xbox? Definitely 360. I guess you could get a fan.

 

[alexbel]

just get a warranty

 

[ProShooter]

Do you have to buy the RROD 3 year warranty?

 

[Splash_King]

No, Microsoft's 3 year warranty is 100% free, at Microsoft's own cost.. If they made you pay for it, they'd be d*cks as it's their fault for the 360's early batches being so faulty.. My own 360 elite is yet to RROD yet. Owned it for a bit more than a year, so I'm going strong.. for now.

 

[Happy]

It's a general hardware problem so can be caused by many different problems. However a few new cooler chipsets have been released since. You are covered for 3 years against the RROD.

 

[DBloke]

Yet to get one
I feel left out

 

[strommsarnac]

RRoD is caused by faulty solder. This solder was purchased by Microsoft's console manufacturer from three sources. Two of those sources outsourced their supply and lied to MS that they were actually manufacturing it themselves. That solder had impurities in the mix. What happens is that as the components (circuit board and chips) heat and cool, they do so at different rates. The solder is supposed to accomodate those differences. However, the impurities in the 360's faulty solder cause the solder itself to heat/cool non-uniformly. The end result is that the solder either pulls away from what it's touching (board or chip pins, etc.) or it forms cracks in itself and raises resistance levels and lowers voltage while also becoming hotter. The ONLY fix is to replace the existing faulty solder with new clean solder. Otherwise the problem will continue to reoccur.

ALL non-Jasper 360's may be affected by that "2/3's" rule. Jaspers are the only consoles which positively do not have any of that faulty solder in them. From the years I have followed this, I have found no evidence that anything but the Jaspers have modifications to their design. Sure, Microsoft threw out the bad solder and resourced for replacement, but the old consoles still have the heating/cooling issue. Just the solder is better able to deal with the extreme differences without failing.

The rule used to be "Don't want an RRoD, but an Elite 'Cause they're redesigned". Total BS. I fell for that. I bought one and it still RRoD'd on me. Hadn't used it for over a month, powered it on...DEAD!! Took me two hours dealing with Xbox support on the phone, email, digitial pictures, VIDEO!!!! before they admitted that Elites can RRoD. Fast on the replacement though, just 5 days. However, I was promised I'd get a Jasper and bastards sent me an Elite that's 6 months older than mine was and obviously a repaired unit. Noisey as frak. Mine was whisper quiet.

Jaspers are just now hitting the street. However, there are still non-jaspers in warehouses, so watch out.

 

[Roast]

If you want to be sure about what console you're getting, look on the sticker with the bar code on it, if the lot number is anything higher than 750(?) you're getting at least a Falcon chipset, which was the first remake of the Xbox. This doesn't mean you're not going to get a RROD, but the chances are significantly lower. (Around the same chance as a Ps3 to crash).

 

[T3kNi9e]

If you want to be sure about what console you're getting, look on the sticker with the bar code on it, if the lot number is anything higher than 750(?) you're getting at least a Falcon chipset, which was the first remake of the Xbox. This doesn't mean you're not going to get a RROD, but the chances are significantly lower. (Around the same chance as a Ps3 to crash).

This is true, but the way I read was to check the amperage rating of the 360. Which is around the barcode next to 12V DC. The older consoles have an amperage rating of 16.5 while the Jasper amps is 12.1

Here's what I found on the web:

The thing is not every Arcade is a Jasper, some of them are Falcons. With some bad luck you might even pull out a re-used Zephyr board from the stock. So here is what you should look for in an Arcade model if you want to get a Jasper. Start on the outside of the box and look for a sticker with the lot number and team information. If you see a lot number of 0842X or above, chances are that it might be a Jasper. Team information isn't important this time. The lot number 0842X means the system was manufactured in year 08, week 42, of the respective year.

Another criteria is to look below the top left bar code. If there's a string matching “XGX-00019”, you can add another few percentage points to the likely hood of founding a Jasper. Now look below the second bar code and see if the first line matches “XBOX 360 ARCADE SYSTEM VALUE BUNDLE 2008 E”. If this adds up to the above criteria, you can be pretty sure that the thing is a Jasper.

Im gonna be sure to keep this in mind if my 360 breaks. Because instead of repairing it I think i'll just buy me a new arcade version since they're so cheap now.