Xbox 360 Troubleshooting: Some Simple Tips To Try Out

By Marc Sandford

If you or a friend have used an Xbox 360 for any length of time, you've most likely experienced or heard of the red ring of death. Ever since it's introduction to the market, problems have been no stranger to this machine. This problem is indicated by 3 flashing red lights around the power button. Repair work is not out of the question if you wish to eliminate this problem.

Before considering any repair work, try out the following suggestions:

Restart the console.

If this doesn't help, then the problem may be due to a loose cord or cable. First, any power cords and cables that can be disconnected should be removed. Unplug the power cord from the wall. All cables and cords should now be reattached to the console. Now connect up the power and switch the console back on.

Assuming the above did not work, the next thing to try is turning the console off, unplugging the power and then removing the hard drive. Now after plugging into the power, turn the console back on. If you do not get the 3 red lights error, then turn off the console and unplug the power cord. After reattaching the hard drive, reconnect the power cable and turn the console back on.

If this didn't work, you may have a heat related problem. If the internal chips get too much heat exposure, they will shut off. Sometimes the thermal shutdown will be accompanied by the three red light error. This can definitely happen if you've had several thermal related shutdowns before.

Turn your machine off and let it cool down if you think that it has overheated. Make sure that your Xbox is in an open and well ventilated area and that the cooling vents aren't obstructed. There should be no heat sources nearby. Remove any dust that has built up inside the machine. Blow air across your console with a small fan. The power brick also needs cooling, so don't place it on soft shaggy carpeting.

This article discussed the different measures to take when your Xbox experiences a general hardware failure. If you are still having problems, you will have to get your machine repaired. The warranty for any Xbox experiencing this mode of failure was extended by Microsoft for a good three years beyond the date of purchase. This warranty is void if you have opened up your console. You will get your repaired Xbox back from Microsoft after a delay of a few weeks or more. A quicker but expensive option is to send your console to a repair shop. Yet another option would be to repair it yourself using the various guides that are available.

About the Author:

Marc Sandford is a gaming addict and writer. Get Xbox troubleshooting information about repairing the Red Ring of Death. Grab a totally unique version of this article from the Uber Article Directory

Why You Are Having Problems With The Xbox 360

By Marc Sandford

The Xbox 360 can be the gamers best friend, it can give him many hours of intense and addictive fun. But as many users know, the Xbox can also deal out pain in the form of the red ring of death.

This error is indicative of a general hardware failure. So the question is: Why does this happen in the first place? It has to do with Microsoft rushing the product to market without sufficient testing.

These flaws are discussed below.

1) Heat - The Xbox design has a lot of high powered components that are crammed into a small space. Just as large engines put out lots of heat, these high powered components also create a great deal of heat. The Xbox design uses fans, vents, and heat sinks to keep the console cool. Because there isn't much of a reserve cooling capacity, this system will easily overheat if the airflow into the console gets obstructed. When the temperatures get hot enough, the heat starts to affect different design flaws (discussed below) which cause the ring of death failure.

2) Lead free solder - Microsoft uses lead free solder in the Xbox in order to avoid the use of lead in products used by children. Lead free solder is very brittle. In addition, the wrong type of lead free solder was chosen by Microsoft, a type that with long term exposure to heat tends to get very brittle. Hair-line cracks will form when this brittle solder is stressed. The cracks result in a weak solder joint that easily breaks and can block the flow of electrical current.

3) Badly designed heat sink clamp - The X clamp distributes it's "clamping force" non uniformly which makes it a poor design. There is a plastic spacer that presses very hard on the motherboard at one tiny little area at the center of the X clamp. When the CPU and GPU get hot, this pressure increases which causes the motherboard to flex. Solder points which are already brittle due to the lead free solder are stressed by the flexing motherboard. The solder joints snap with enough time and heat.

4) Foil left on the heat sink - On many of it's units, it seems that Microsoft didn't remove the foil from the heat sink. This has been attributed to several "ring of death" failures. You will have to reapply the thermal compound if you choose to remove the foil.

So now you know the "why" behind the red ring of death. Although this knowledge is no substitute for actually playing games, it should help you to evaluate the various Xbox repair guides out there. Remember, if your Xbox was never opened before, it should still be under a warranty and you can send it away to Microsoft for repair.

About the Author:

Marc Sandford is a gaming enthusiast and writer. Get Xbox troubleshooting information about repairing the Red Ring of Death. Grab a totally unique version of this article from the Uber Article Directory

Unlimited Game Downloads For Your Nintendo Wii

By Davion Wong

Are you looking for unlimited game downloads for your Nintendo Wii? Let us not try to hide the fact that all gamers are often hooked to more than one favorite play. New games keep surfacing in the market and this can be really expensive for our wallets. But there is some hope as you read on.

But in order to keep up with the latest games, you need to spend a lot of money. This is why you need to get unlimited game downloads for your Wii online.

The online world is a fascinating one and everyday, download sites are mushrooming everywhere. So it is not that difficult to find a good resource where you can find your unlimited game downloads. But there is a need to make the right choice of where to transfer your files from.

Here are a few qualities the site should possess: simple to use interface, quick search and download speeds, concise step by step tutorials, a safe and protected download environment and strong customer and technical support.

Fortunately, there are several Nintendo Wii services that offer unlimited game downloads that can meet the mark. They are known to contain large arsenals of games, from the older ones which are readapted for Wii to the newest. You can practically find any one you wish to play.

Unlimited game downloads these sites offer are available for a low cost per file or a one-time flat fee for membership. The choice depends on your needs - if you are looking for a particular game, then paying per download makes sense; otherwise, at a cost of one Wii game you can get life-time access and play the latest games without paying extra. The latter is an amazing cost-effective variant any game lover should consider.

If you are still skeptical about joining websites for unlimited game downloads, you might feel more relaxed knowing that most of them offer a free trial period and/or money back guarantee. Reputable Wii game providers will not force you to pay unless you are confident that the site is what you were looking for.

There are a few places that could be good to explore. They are UnlimitedGame Downloads, Wii MediaDownloads, GameDownloadNow and GameDownload Pro. These are well run professional websites that contain many games for a low fee for membership. The beauty is you can download multiple games at any time.

For more details, read a full detailed review at the recommended site below on the top popular site for unlimited game downloads.

About the Author:

Join thousands to access unlimited game downloads for pennies. For more tips, read this on unlimited game downloads. This and other unique content 'Games' articles are available with free reprint rights.

Get Rid Of The Xbox 360 Three Flashing Red Lights Of Death

By Mack Thomas

Owners of Xbox 360s live in constant fear of the "three flashing red lights of death". What are these lights that strike fear into the heart of any Xbox 360 console owner? The three flashing red lights happen when the power is turned on to the Xbox 360 console. Three of the four lights surrounding the power button begin to flash red and do not stop until the console is turned off.

This isn't the only problem that can occur with the Xbox 360, but this problem is one that often requires repair work to be done on the Xbox 360 in order for the blinking red lights to go away. The Xbox 360 3 flashing red lights are often referred to as the "circle of doom" or "three red lights of death" for a reason. The Xbox 360 will not work any longer until the problem causing the three red lights is repaired.

A General Hardware Failure is the problem indicated by the Xbox 360 3 flashing red lights. Allowing the system to cool down or turning the power on and off will not make the lights go away. Repairs need to be performed in order for the console to play games again. Microsoft can provide repairs, but this involves packaging the console up and shipping it to them. This process can take a few weeks to a month to complete.

In addition to shipping the console, depending on the severity of the problem, repairs can cost around $150 to have the problem fixed. So after a few weeks and possibly $150, you get your Xbox 360 system back and hopefully it is repaired. Hopefully meaning Microsoft was able to fix the issue and the system was returned without being damaged again in transit. Usually, the system arrives back in working order with no additional issues, but there is always the risk of the console being damaged in shipping.

The other solution is to try to fix the three flashing red lights issue yourself. To do this you need to pickup the Xbox 360 Red Lights Repair Guide. This guide offers step-by-step instructions on how to easily fix the "three flashing red lights of death" as well as other Xbox 360 issues like overheating, graphics errors, and freeze ups. It comes complete with screenshots and step-by-step instructions on how to resolve the 3 flashing red lights in a fraction of the time it takes to ship the console to Microsoft and have it returned.

In fact, many users of the Red Lights Repair Guide have reported getting their Xbox 360 console up and running again in less than 2 hours. Compare two hours to two weeks and that's a lot more time that can be spent gaming instead of waiting for the console to return. Also, the cost for the Red Lights Repair Guide ($25) is a fraction of what it could cost to send the console off to Microsoft (around $150).

The Red Lights Repair Guide has helped Xbox 360 owners turn the red ring of death into a distant memory. With this guide and some common tools, the Xbox 360 Three Flashing Red Lights can be easily solved. No more waiting half a month for the 360 console to return from Microsoft. A 360 player can perform their own repairs and start gaming again in no time.

About the Author:

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Best Sites To Download Wii Games

By Wii Man

Are you one of the millions that has been looking for a way to build up your collection of wii games? The best way that I found was to download wii games from the internet. I almost couldn't believe it when I stumbled on sites out there were actually free wii game downloads available. I searched around like a mad man trying to find the best place to download free wii games and then I stumbled accross a couple of exceptionally good sites that let me download an unlimited amount of content. Before I get to the best places available to download games for wii let me go over a couple of things to watch out for. I will give you a complete list of the best sites at the end of the article.

Torrents - I'm honestly not sure that I can think of one good thing to say about these types of files. I was looking to download wii games and what I found was a bunch of virus ridden trash. If you want to download free wii games stay far away from these sites as they are not worth the trouble. There are better sources for free wii game downloads.

Pay Per Downloads - These sites are exactly what they are called. You can download wii games and pay per file that you download. The content that these sites offer is relatively good and the download speeds are good. The one down side is that you have to pay for every single file that you download which can get quite costly.

Mega sites - These are the sites that I started to see about a month ago. I went ahead and joined the site because it was only a short registration form just like any forum you might be a part of. After I joined I was able to download wii games immediately. The amount of content that they offered was literally unlimited and my kids were pointing out the games that they were wanting and playing them in a short amount of time.

After everything is said and done when you are looking for free wii game downloads the good options are definitely alot harder to find than the bad ones. In my opinion the mega sites are definitely the way to go when you download wii games. The files are guarenteed to be 100% virus free and more importantly you are downloading legally.

I have done a complete review of the best sites to download wii games on the internet. To see the complete list just follow the link to DOWNLOAD FREE WII GAMES

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Make Unlimited Warcraft Riches - How To Farm Wow Gold With A Mage

By Dr. Warcraft

Everyone who plays World of Warcraft is always looking for ways to make more gold. Thanks to resources like the Warcraft Riches guide, these tactics are made available and can be used over and over again without any fear of a WoW account being banned. Check out this tip for using a Mage to make some easy gold in World of Warcraft.

An effective way for high level characters to farm gold is through Area of Effect (AoE) grinding. A mage is a popular class to do this with as they can gather a large amount of mobs around them and then wipe them out quickly with a few spells. The key point of AoE grinding is to make the time and energy worth the reward. If 5 mobs can be taken out in twice the time of 2 mobs, then it's a more efficient way to farm gold and experience.

One thing to be aware of when AoE grinding is that breaks will need to be taken to recover. This will lead to some down time, but it's certainly more efficient than going randomly from mob to mob. Make sure that downtime is minimized as much as possible while maximizing the amount of time spent grinding.

A great place to do some AoE grinding is Silithus. Most of the mobs in this area of humanoid which means they will tend to drop better stuff when killed. Wiping out large mobs of humanoids quickly will help bring in a pretty good amount of gold. The Silithus humanoids tend to drop a good deal of runecloth. Runecloth can ususally fetch a pretty good price at the Auction House.

Head to a local Auction House once a few groups have been taken down or you can't hold anymore items. Since these mobs tend to have good coin drops as well, you'll make some gold just off looting. Certain items might be better sold to a vendor instead of at the Auction House. Overall, this area is very effective for AoE grinding and gold farming.

Thanks to the Warcraft Riches Guide, you've now got an easy way to make some gold with a Mage in World of Warcraft. It's possible to use another class, but the mage is a little easier to do AoE grinding with that many of the other classes.

About the Author:

Want more tips on how to farm WoW gold? Check out the Warcraft Riches Guide for 100 pages of 100% legit tips and secrets for unlimited gold in World of Warcraft. Check out Warcraft Riches Review for more information. You are welcome to reprint this article - but get your own unique content version here.