Red ring of death just a “mass hysteria”?

There’s an interesting theory on the Xbox 360’s Red Ring of Death phenomenon: We all know that Microsoft is dealing with so many console returns, but there’s a possibility that some 360 owners just caved in to the Xbox 360 red ring of death “mass hysteria”. They immediately turned in their consoles upon seeing the four red lights, contributing to the reported high failure rate of the console.

The problem here – as Kotaku points out – is that those four red lights don’t necessarily mean that the Xbox 360 died; it might only mean that the A/V cables are not connected properly. If this is the case, the owner doesn’t have to go through the hassle of returning the console to fix that “problem”.

For those who aren’t aware, you should worry about the three red lights as this indicates a hardware failure, while four red lights mean that cables just need to be checked. So when you see your Xbox 360 getting a perfect circle of four red lights, check the cables first and try to boot up the system again before worrying so much. Why seeing three lights is more serious than seeing four, we really don’t know.

Whether this rumor is true or not, it’s good practice to check out the manual first before going nuts and calling Tech Support for assistance. Because leafing through a book or checking out Google for help is much easier than being put on hold.

There’s an interesting theory on the Xbox 360’s Red Ring of Death phenomenon: We all know that Microsoft is dealing with so many console returns, but there’s a possibility that some 360 owners just caved in to the Xbox 360 red ring of death “mass hysteria”. They immediately turned in their consoles upon seeing the four red lights, contributing to the reported high failure rate of the console.

The problem here – as Kotaku points out – is that those four red lights don’t necessarily mean that the Xbox 360 died; it might only mean that the A/V cables are not connected properly. If this is the case, the owner doesn’t have to go through the hassle of returning the console to fix that “problem”.

For those who aren’t aware, you should worry about the three red lights as this indicates a hardware failure, while four red lights mean that cables just need to be checked. So when you see your Xbox 360 getting a perfect circle of four red lights, check the cables first and try to boot up the system again before worrying so much. Why seeing three lights is more serious than seeing four, we really don’t know.

Whether this rumor is true or not, it’s good practice to check out the manual first before going nuts and calling Tech Support for assistance. Because leafing through a book or checking out Google for help is much easier than being put on hold.