My 360 will play movies all day long, but when I put a game in it plays for approximately 3 minutes and shuts off. The lights on the left side of the power button flash red. What is the deal?

When only 1 of the 4 green lights that are located around the start button flashes red and the screen flashes an error code number, it means that you've got the Xbox 360 1 red light message.

If you get the Xbox 360 1 red light message, it means that the problem is either with the DVD drive, or with the hard drive.

Fortunately, the Xbox 360 1 red light message is not something that you should worry about. In order to identify which of the two drives the Xbox 360 1 red light messages is referring to, just look the code number that the screen displays. DVD drive errors are identified with the codes E64, E65 and E66, whereas hard drive errors are identified with codes E67, E69 and E79.

once you have found out if its the hard drive or the dvd drive then this is the part that needs replacing.
you will either need to get someone to do it for you or if you have some idea what you are doing then it is something you can do yourself, always check to see if you have any warranty left and if you do take it back if not then you will need to pay someone to do the work for you.

if you are doing it yourself then take it from me its not easy taking the case off let alone changing the parts so if you are going to do it yourself use google and fine an xbox 360 repair guide and this will then give you step by step instructions on taking the case off and removing any parts you need to remove