I’m imagining that the phrase ‘Red Ring of Death’ sends a shiver down your spine, and rightly so.
This is a sight you never wanted to see.
If that ominous red light was omitted from your Xbox 360, you knew you were doomed.
It certainly spelled trouble, usually indicating that your console needed some form of repair.
Advert
But have you ever wondered specifically what the light was referring to?
The Red Ring of Death wasn’t indicative of an overheating issue, as many Xbox 360 console owners assumed.
In the documentary Power On: The Story of Xbox, it was revealed that while the issue was linked to high temperatures, it wasn’t the root of the problem.
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is set to land on Xbox and PC next month.
Leo Del Castillo, a former member of Xbox’s hardware engineering team explained that the red light was brought on by connectors inside the components of the console breaking.
The breaking of these components was usually linked to high temperatures, but it was the breaking more so than the overheating that was the problem the light indicated.
Xbox’s former head of hardware Todd Holmdahl said that the Xbox 360 would fluctuate from hot to cold frequently as players switched the console off and on in quick succession.
Somewhat admitting to this fault, Xbox offered free console repairs at the time, at a great cost to the company too.
Fair to say though, Xbox owners are less than impressed with this omission.
“That's something that should have been expected and fixed before the 360 left the R&D stage,” wrote Reddit user modemman11, offering a very valid point.
Admittedly, in the documentary, it’s reported that around half of the consoles produced went to the trash pile after failing to pass testing.
So if you had one and never witnessed the Red Ring of Death, consider yourself lucky.
