Finally! A Way to Fix the Red Rings on Xbox 360 Fault

By Vincent Moore

There is nothing more frustrating than being half way through your favorite game when your Xbox console suddenly freezes up and you are presented with that nasty display of red rings on your Xbox 360 or otherwise know as the "Red Ring Of Death". This article will help you understand why this problem occurs and show you ways to resolve the problem without busting the bank.

After completing a lot of research I finally found out from an expert the reason why the red rings on the Xbox appear after extended game play on the console. It seems its all down to a design flaw which occurred when Microsoft were rushing to release the console.

The design flaw which causes this fault stems from where Microsoft wanted to have the DVD drive positioned in the console. The Xbox console was originally supposed to have bigger heatsinks which are used to expel heat from the motherboard and its components but the DVD drive was to big to fit around these. So what did Microsoft do? Yes you guessed it they reduced the size of heatsinks to make everything fit. They also choose a strange way to connect the heatsinks to the processors which means when the console has been played for a longer period of time the system cant expel enough heat and starts to overheat which in turn will display the dreaded red flashing lights or the "Red Ring Of Death".

How not to fix you Xbox

In an effort to try and get their Xbox consoles working again some people have even resorted to putting their console inside a towel and wrapping it up and turning it on. This is known as the "Towel Trick" and is supposed to work by overheating the console. You are advised not to try this one as it does not work.

One thing you should always check first is the AV cable on your console, it is always worthwhile unplugging the cable and just giving it a quick clean to ensure the connection is good. While not really recommended you can still have the choice to send your Xbox console back to Microsoft for repair if it is still under warranty but will only get a refurbished system sent back to you again.

Learning to Fix an Xbox 360 Can Be Very Handy

By Robert Donahue

There you were, playing your Xbox 360. The hours were flying by and you didn't even realize how late it was. Then, all of a sudden, the game stopped playing, and you had the red ring of death. Microsoft has taken steps to improve the warranty, including covering most E-74 issues for three years. So you may want to send your unit to an Xbox 360 repair center. However, considering that your unit might not be covered, and if it is it will take two months to get back and might break again, it might be worth it to learn how to fix them yourself. If you think you can't learn to do this, please keep reading.

First I'll tell you a few of the reasons why you might want to learn to fix an Xbox 360 yourself. Then I'll tell you how easy it is to learn. I actually already mentioned a few reasons to learn to do it yourself when I spoke about how long it would take Microsoft to get you your unit back. Not to mention, if it's not covered under warranty, it will cost one hundred and forty dollars, plus tax, plus shipping and handling. Also, there's a good chance you will get a refurbished unit, so the chances of it breaking down again are probably not as low as you would like them to be. I wonder if you've considered getting rid of your unit altogether. If you have, did you consider selling it on eBay? Can you see where I'm going with this? If you can fix your own Xbox 360, you can buy other units that need an Xbox 360 ring fix. You would be surprised how many units you can find for sale. You have no idea how many units have had the same problem as you have.

Now to answer the part about how easy it is to learn to fix them yourself. First of all, let me tell you that I am the least mechanically inclined person that I know. I am not kidding! When my unit broke down, I didn't even consider this option. I was only concerned about the warranty situation. Then I, by coincidence, ran into a friend of mine who had just fixed his own unit. He told me that there are really good repair guides that you can instantly download from the internet. After we practically argued about whether I could learn to fix one myself, or not, he convinced me to try. I did try, and I couldn't believe how easy it is. I only wish I had more free time because if I did, I would buy Xbox 360's off of eBay, and make a few extra dollars by selling them. Oh yeah, I almost forgot. The best thing about all of this is, if my unit breaks down again, I already know how to fix it!

Video Games - Health Pro's and Con's

By April Mayes

Playing a video game online can have both positive and negative effects your overall health. The consequences to a persons health can be immensely varied, depending on the types of games played and the amount of play time. Certain harmful effects can be caused by other factors in conjunction with extreme play of games. The good news is that they can usually be corrected by living a healthier lifestyle. You can find hundreds of video games that provide positive psychological benefits as well. Many of these video games are increasing in popularity. Daycare centers and Elementary schools now offer playing video games as a means to teach children to learn positive teamwork, problem solving, working together and many other things that schools work hard to teach but often find it challenging to teach them in an exciting environment. There are several games that are used as part of a comprehensive program that can also help autistic children and other children with developmental disorders.

The Following are some of the positive and negative aspects of playing various video games. By knowing this information you will be better prepared on which games you should purchase and those to avoid.

Negative: Seizures/Epilepsy: While there is no real concrete evidence that playing video games can cause epilepsy, people who suffer from this seizure disorder must be very careful when playing video games. People diagnosed with epilepsy and have played video games with extreme photo sensitivity have been known to experience seizures. Being aware of this is of the utmost importance and should be taken seriously. Positive: Building Eye & Hand Coordination: Recent studies have shown that playing video games can help to increase mental faculties, such as hand-eye coordination. Kids that played advanced games such as strategy and puzzle games can also increase problem solving, and intellectual stimulation.

Positive: Studies have shown that certain types of video games can have a positive effect on a players involvement in civic or political activities. A large number of kids who were civically or politically active also played games that involved social, moral or ethical issues, or played games that involve helping others.

Negative: Eyestrain: The detection of eye problems is especially significant in children since undetected problems can lead to long-term setbacks in school and social settings. Normal screening methods are administered by a family doctor and schools. A procedure called photo screening is especially suited to detecting amblyopic or more commonly known as Lazy Eye. It involves using a special video system or in some cases a camera to capture varied images of the eye. This is beneficial because a child doesn't have to focus on a target like a chart, the test is easily administered. Unfortunately, this technology can be costly, and results have to be sent in to be analyzed. If any issues of concern are detected after a test like this, the child is sent to an optometrist for further testing. It is significant for good eye health not sit too close to the TV or Computer screen while playing any video game.

Positive: There is a new eye test that can make screening not only easy, but also exciting for kids. The computer game Eye Spy helps medical professionals' pinpoint vision problems like refractive error and amblyopic. Children simply put on glasses are made with red and blue lenses and then begin to play an interactive treasure hunt game. This works to improve eye retraining, vision therapy and visual perception.

Negative: Decrease in Exercise: People of all ages who live a sedentary lifestyle because of inactivity and do the majority of their activities sitting down (such as when playing any video game), will usually suffer from some sort of ailment later on in life, such as heart and muscle problems and obesity. This is most often combined with poor nutrition as a result from eating fast food or junk food, which contributes to putting on weight and other hurtful health problems.

Positive: Physical Interaction Games: Given current technology, you can find exciting interactive games such as Dance Revolution (DDR) and Wii sports games. In addition there are electronic bikes hooked up to monitors so that kids can literally join a race to learn their numbers and ABCs, and laser-guided waist packs that track a child's movements as they ride their way through simulations.

If you or your child is ready to begin getting fit by having fun playing video games, then the following games are just what you need.

1. Rock Band: Without a doubt the guitar and singing portions are great fun, it is the drums however, that help provide the physical interaction that your child needs. It's not difficult to begin working up a sweat, plus it can spark some interest in playing a real guitar or drum set.

2. Nintendo's DDR: To really get the heart rate up, this is an exciting game that uses a special dance pad that prompts your child to can match the notes on the screen by stepping on the pad arrows in sequence. Using the corresponding quadrants of the pad with their feet, it's easy to get a good work out while dancing to a favorite song.

3. Wii Sports: Wii offers a wide variety of fun entertaining and stimulating video games for people of all ages. You will burn some calories and learn some good health habits. You can use the Wii remote as a baseball bat, tennis racket or bowling ball, be sure not to let whatever you holding slip out of your hand, so hold on tight!

NOTE: Video games that include physical activity usually come with a WARNING in the manual. Be sure to read the entire manual before playing a new game, as this may help prevent some unnecessary injuries. Video games that include boxing, tennis and bowling may suggest in the manual to "take a 10- to 15-minute break every hour, even if you don't think you need one. It is advisable to consult your family doctor before beginning any type of new strenuous physical activity.

Troubleshoot the Xbox 360's E74 Error

By Robert Macmillan

Xbox 360 is the console by Microsoft. In order to make it slim, lightweight and fancy, Microsoft made some changes while designing the console. The narrow space in the console and around the inbuilt components made the console cramped. Along with this the deficient cooling system of fans and heat sinks caused the console be overheated during the longtime hours playing. This overheating caused many problems to the console such as red ring of death error or Xbox e74 error. This fatal and inevitable error is found among the one third of Xbox 360 gaming consoles all over the world. This being so the problem is very common and generally called as RRoD.

In order to fix the pesky e74 problem on your Xbox, there are some solutions that you should follow.

Firstly, send your console to the Microsoft and let them to repair it for you. It is beneficial, for you are assured that the repairs are being done to a professional standard. However, this is a time-consuming process, since they will take a couple of weeks to repair your console and send it back to you. In fact, if the warranty period of your console is expired, then they will not do the job at free of cost. Indeed, they will charge you $140 plus shipping charges, and you have to wait for weeks without gaming until you get the console back repaired.

Secondly, pay somebody to repair your console. It will work and you have not to await weeks or months altogether and get the console quickly as early as possible. However, in this case, there is no guarantee that the work has been done to a professional standard.

Lastly, you could fix the e74 Xbox problem yourself. Actually, this is the best way to deal with the problem and troubleshoot the e74 error. All you need is a screwdriver set, a Xbox 360 repair guide which contains the entire video repair instructions. In this way, you will be able to fix your Xbox quickly, safely and easily.

Fixing Xbox E74 Error is not a problem at all, so long as you have quality resources. Read the repair guide here, and you will know how to fix the e74 error. This quality step-step instructions guide found here will help you crack the Xbox 360 e74 error with ease, which will ensure you can start enjoying gaming rather easily.

Click Here to Visit xbox 360 e74 error repair guide.E74 error is also known as red ring of death.

Xbox 360 - Red Light of Death

By Scott Jarry

The Red Light of Death. Or some call it The Ring of Death. Either sentence may cause some of you to quiver in fear, and there is no shame in that. The Red Ring of Death can happen at any time on any given Xbox 360. Mostly everyone has no idea how to prevent it from happening, or fix the problem if it ever happens.

So What is the Red Ring of Death?

• The Red Ring of Death refers to the red ring that forms around your power button after turning on your Xbox 360.
• You WILL NOT be able to play any of your games or even start the system up.

So How Can This Be Fixed?

Below are some suggestions

Send Your Xbox back to Microsoft - For a long time, sending a faulty Xbox 360 back to Microsoft seemed to be the only adequate solution. You will not see your system again for 4 weeks, if they give you the same one, and once you have it back you will have no idea how they fixed it. So if the same problem happens again what will you have to do? Send it back to Microsoft!

Sign Up For an Xbox 360 Repair Guide - I know some of you may be skeptical about this solution, but it actually does work. Instead of waiting up to 4 weeks to get your system back, your Xbox 360 could be up and running within 1 hour. Besides the fact that the problem solving is fast, you will also be educated on how to identify different problems and fix them immediately.

Gamerscore Boosting

By Austin Meadows

Gamerscore is the backbone of the Xbox gaming community. Players with high gamerscore earn respect - something that is rarely given in the world of Xbox live. There are about 400 games out for the Xbox 360, and each has 1,000 gamerscore or more. Plus, that's not even including the arcade games. That means that there are about 400,000 gamerpoints to earn, plus whatever amount from all the arcade games. How could someone possibly get all the gamerscore available? It is possible, but you would have to do some serious gamerscore boosting.

But what is gamerscore boosting? Basically, it's cheating the system in order to get more achievements. It is not technically cheating, so you can't be banned from Xbox live or anything like that. The basis of gamerscore boosting is simply getting some friends, or even just random people from Live, and playing with them for the sole purpose of getting achievements.

You know all those achievements that say "kill ____ people with head shots"? I'm sure you know full well how hard that is and how long it would take. However, with gamerscore boosting, you can get a few friends together, line them all up, and get hundreds of head shots within minutes.

Gamerscore boosting works for virtually any achievement. Almost every achievement becomes easier when you are playing with friends. The only ones that don't gain anything from gamerscore boosting are achievements that require solo play - things like "Beat ___ level on solo only". These achievements usually cannot be boosted, so they must be earned legitimately.

Looking for specific methods of gamerscore boosting? Want to boost gamerscore quickly and easily? You can find an article explaining specific methods at the link provided. Also be sure to check out a list of games for easy Xbox achievements to get a head start.

How to Copy Games - This is How to Copy and Backup Your Video Games

By Jason Downs

If you play video games of any sort whether it is the PlayStation, Nintendo Wii or the Xbox 360 gaming console, it should be a must that you know how to copy any of your video games. Being able to burn and make backup copies of your video games should be a no brainer. Video games are not cheap and can get destroyed very easily. Therefore it is a smart idea to backup your video game collection and protect your investments.

Just a few years ago your chances of burning your video games was slim to none. But thanks to good old technology we can now make an exact copy of our original video games. Technology companies have made a software just for the sole purpose of burning video games.

In order to make backups of your video games you are going to need a few things. Of course the first thing you will need is the game copying software. The normal software that you use to burn a CD or DVD will not work for burning video games. Game copying software will get you around all the copyright protections on the original disc. You will need to have a DVD burner on your computer and some blank disc.

Once that you have the copying software installed on your computer you are ready to burn a copy of your original game. The first thing that you will need to do is load the game that you want to make a copy of, then start the game copying software.

The software will then read your original game disc and store the data on your computers hard drive, when it is done it will then tell you to load a blank disc, and depending on how fast your computer is, in just a matter of minutes you will have an exact copy of your original game. And the good thing about the software is that it can burn all types of games. These are just some of the games that it can burn, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3, Nintendo Wii and even PC games.

That's all there is to know on how to copy games, it is so easy that anyone can do it.