Hi, first of all check if you have any warranty as this fault is covered by 3 years warranty from microsoft, so check the date on the back of the xbox, if its less than 3 years old go to their website and enter your details and they will send you out another xbox in place of yours.
if its more than 3 years old or if its been opened before then you have 2 options either pay someone to fix it or fix it yourself.
what 3 red lights are telling you is that you have the dreaded red ring of death, you get this due to the gpu and or the cpu chip over heating, now the most likely causes of this are as follows.
1 the aire ven has been blocked at one end of the xbox stopping cool air being sucked into the xbox, this air vent is the bottom part when you stand it up.
2 after prolonged use the xbox sucks in dust and this blocks the heat sinks and stops the cool air being sucked throught the heat sink and then the gpu chip over heats
3, over time the circuit board can warp causing loss of connection between teh gpu and or cpu chip.
now what has happened is one of the above has caused either the gpu chip and or cpu chip to over heat and this has then caused either bad connection between the gpu and or cpu and the heat sink, so getting the heat sink paste replaced may solve the problem, how ever most cases of rrod is due to the fact the 2 chips have over heated and the cheap lead free solder microsoft uses to bond their chips to the circuit board has failed causing a loss in connection between these chips and the circuit board.
check if you have warranty as this fault is covered
if you have no warranty then you need to either pay someone to reflow the solder or risk having a go yourself and making matters a lot worse, its not easy to do if its the 1st one you have ever done as getting it wrong is very easy, now if as soon as you switch it on you get the 3 red lights this means the chips need reflowing but if you switch it on and the fans run slow but then speed up to top speed then this indicates the the heat sink paste needs teaking off the gpu and cpu chips and also off the heat sinks and new paste putting on.
if you plan on doing this repair yourself use google and search for free rrod repair guide how ever dont ever try the towel trick it will only get it working for few hours then it will be beyond repair, or dont put it in the oven this will destroy most of board, the only way i have found you can do it yourself is by using a heat gun with 2 settings on it and you use the lowest settings, you will be shown this in the guide.
also search for this how to fix rrod using heat gun then hit search follow these instructions carefully getting it wrong will destroy your xbox, just taking it apart is a nightmare on its own so you have been warned, i can send you a repair guide if needed just send me your email address ok
now if your going to fix it yourself use google and type in how to fix rrod on xbox 360 then hit search and have a look at some of the sites, now the chances are the gpu chip will need reflowing now this can be done with a heat gun on its lowest setting, but getting this wrong can do more harm than good.
the best thing to try first is the xclamp fix, go and buy a xbox 360 repair kit off ebay make sure you get the heat sink paste with it, you can get these kits for next to nothing and if you find one with a repair guide then that will make it easier for you, without these parts you wont be able to fix the xbox anyway.
dont do the towel trick it dont work and it causes more harm to the circuit board so dont try that one.
just use google type in how to fix rrod on xbox 360 and look for a guide that shows you how to replace the x clamps with normal machine screws and renew the heat sink paste, its not hard to do and you will get a guide off google with pictures so im sure you can give it a go.
if how ever replacing the clamps dont solve the problem then use google again and type in how to fix rrod with heat gun on xbox 360 then hit search then look through the sites and look for a decent guide that shows you how to do this, dont use a hair dryer like some sites may suggest they just dont get hot enough to reflow the damaged solder under the gpu and cpu chip.
if you do use a heat gun make sure the circuit board is lying flat if its not you will do alot more harm than good so make sure its level.
i cant point you to these sites as its against site police but use google and you will find all you need and you should be able to get it sorted. if its less than 3 years old and you open it up then your warranty will be void and microsoft wont even look at it,
now i repair these for 20 quid plus parts so it comes to about 25 quid, but im in UK and the chances are your somewhere else in the world.
if you are unsure what your doing then please dont try repairing this yourself as you could do a lot more harm than good.
let me know how you get on or if you need further assistance ok
please rate this solution as i have a whole page of unrated posts, thanks
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