“Inside Source” Explains Red Ring of Death Causes

Seattle PI had a chat with an “inside source” from Microsoft who knows the ins and outs of the Red Ring of Death, and most importantly, why the dreaded rings appear in the first place. Many people already knew that system overheating was a prime suspect, but the insider notes that it could also be caused by hardware-gone-bad.

Oddly enough, one of the primary reasons has to do with the DVD drive. This strikes me, because you’d imagine that even if the DVD drive failed to function, the console would at least boot up, but that’s not the case. It could be a more deep-rooted issue though, such as one with the DVD controller. Great interview if you want to be told the story from the “source”. It also reminded me that I still have a borked Xbox 360 to return…

RROD is caused by anything that fails in the “digital backbone” on the mother board. Also known as a core digital error. CPU, GPU, memory, etc. Bad parts, incompatible parts (timing problems) bad manufacturing process (like solder joints), misapplied heat sinks or thermal interface material, missing parts, broken parts, parts of the wrong value, missed test coverage.

Source: Seattle PI