Microsoft has finally explained what caused Xbox 360's red ring of death

The Xbox 360 was widely considered to be Microsoft's best console. But it was famously plagued by the dreaded 'red ring of death' or RROD.

Instead of the usual one to four green lights, this error code showed up as three red lights flashing on the console's power button, signalling a fatal error. It was kind of like the Xbox version of Microsoft’s infamous blue screen of death (BSoD).

For many, it meant the end of their console.

In saying that, some people did manage to repair their consoles by sending them in but the issue was popular across the Xbox community.

For a long time, the issue was a mystery.

Although, many rumours emerged about what caused it, leading to some people suggesting nonsense solutions to fix it like wrapping your console in towels before turning it on.

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It wasn't until 2021 when the cause of the problem was finally explained, in the documentary series called Power On: The Story of Xbox.

The series looked at the history of Xbox and featured the teams involved in the console's design and marketing.

Most people thought that it was basically an overheating issue, but the red ring turned out to be much more complicated.

Former head of Xbox Peter Moore clarified that it wasn't so much purely overheating. Instead, it happened when the Xbox 360 heated up and then cooled down too quickly.

So, the console doesn't really get rid of the heat effectively whilst operating.

This constant change would put a lot of stress on the system and it could just die as a result, displaying the red ring of death.

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Hardware engineer Leo Del Castillo added more details: 'The breakthrough came when we understood that the connections that were being broken were not located on the motherboard, but they were actually located inside the components.

'The reason it was breaking was thermal, but it wasn't because of peak temperature.

'It was because when the unit would get hot and then cold, hot and then cold, every time it did that it would stress the connection.'

Whether or not the explanation made sense to you, it's great to finally know what caused this infamous issue.

The tech giant eventually tackled the problem by releasing smaller, improved versions of the Xbox 360.

And so it came that the red ring of death became much less common and more of a distant, bad memory, for some.