XBox 360 3 Red Lights
Article Source:
XBox 360 Repair Guides Reviewed. Copyright 2008
Author: XBox360e74fix.com
When a Microsoft Xbox 360 console experiences a "general hardware" failure or "core digital" failure, three flashing red lights appear (known as the "Red Ring of Death") around the power button, in lieu of the four green lights indicating normal operation. Warning signs may include freeze-ups, in which the screen has strange, spontaneous graphical problems in the middle of gameplay, such as checkerboard or pinstripe patterns on the screen, the sound is frozen and changed to a strange, static-like sound, and the console only responds to pressing the power button to turn it off. These events may happen once or several times until the general hardware failure occurs, when the user attempts to turn the console on, and the three red lights are seen and the console will not function.
Some have confused General Hardware Failure with a similar looking error warning where four red lights appear, in which case the console does not detect an AV cable is plugged in. The four lights can sometimes also be seen when power surges or very brief power outages occur while the console is running, in which the console needs to be unplugged and plugged back in again to reset the error.
Another general hardware failure is shown by one flashing red light, and error codes E74, E79, or E71 displayed on-screen. This can occasionally be fixed by ensuring that all A/V connections are securely attached, or also there maybe a power surge or outage. If so unplug the power supply cable and restart it . However, this error is often a result of a hardware failure that is not covered by Microsoft's extended 3 year warranty.
Source: wikipedia
