Everyone with an Xbox 360 is likely to at least know someone who has suffered from the dreaded "red rings of death". While there are uncountable threads complaining about it, I've yet to see any about preventing it.
While it is a design flaw, there are a number of things you can do to protect yourself from it, some of which Microsoft has not done nearly enough to make publicly known.
1.) Lay it horizontally, not vertically.
The main vent for the basic Xbox 360 is on the bottom, keep it horizontal.
2.) Keep it well ventilated
Duh.
3.) Do not leave it on overnight
Duh.
4.) Keep the Power Brick well ventilated.
Many people forgo this step, interestingly, when I got my RROD it was NOT my Xbox 360 that had broken, it was my power brick. If you do not keep the power brick well ventilated, you can cause an RROD, keep it off of carpets people!
5.) Do NOT plug your 360 into any sort of surge protector.
This is something Microsoft doesn't really make publicly known for some reason, you know that fancy power brick? That is a surge protector, so that means that if you plug your 360 into a surge protector, you are running it through two surge protectors, I'm not an electrical engineer, but running a surge protector through another surge protector can cause one of them to blow out, and if the one that blows out is your power brick (and as the second one, it will most likely be the one to blow out) you just earned yourself an RROD.
I hope this helped, if you know any other tips for avoiding the RROD, please post, and I will add them to the list. Please note that I do not blame anyone (within reason, as in: "don't dropkick your 360) for getting an RROD, even if you didn't do everything to prevent it, it's still a serious design flaw, and blame for it rests on Microsoft.
Just remember, if you ever get an RROD, try a friends power brick, that's what I did, and my 360 worked just fine!
While it is a design flaw, there are a number of things you can do to protect yourself from it, some of which Microsoft has not done nearly enough to make publicly known.
1.) Lay it horizontally, not vertically.
The main vent for the basic Xbox 360 is on the bottom, keep it horizontal.
2.) Keep it well ventilated
Duh.
3.) Do not leave it on overnight
Duh.
4.) Keep the Power Brick well ventilated.
Many people forgo this step, interestingly, when I got my RROD it was NOT my Xbox 360 that had broken, it was my power brick. If you do not keep the power brick well ventilated, you can cause an RROD, keep it off of carpets people!
5.) Do NOT plug your 360 into any sort of surge protector.
This is something Microsoft doesn't really make publicly known for some reason, you know that fancy power brick? That is a surge protector, so that means that if you plug your 360 into a surge protector, you are running it through two surge protectors, I'm not an electrical engineer, but running a surge protector through another surge protector can cause one of them to blow out, and if the one that blows out is your power brick (and as the second one, it will most likely be the one to blow out) you just earned yourself an RROD.
I hope this helped, if you know any other tips for avoiding the RROD, please post, and I will add them to the list. Please note that I do not blame anyone (within reason, as in: "don't dropkick your 360) for getting an RROD, even if you didn't do everything to prevent it, it's still a serious design flaw, and blame for it rests on Microsoft.
Just remember, if you ever get an RROD, try a friends power brick, that's what I did, and my 360 worked just fine!
