I found this video earlier, some really useful info here. Just ignore the dramatic music.

What about cooling units that dont have their own power thing. >_>

"What about cooling units that dont have their own power thing. >_>"

Wow I didn't knew a lot of this things, I actually made all those things that shouldn't be done, no wonder my 360 RROD'd. :(

I have a few things to say about this video:

Diz was 200% better

The most these tips will ever do is delay the RROD. I treated my 360 like i do any other expensive piece of hardware, carefully and do all i can to prevent it from malfunctioning, but still the inevitable happened. The best advice anyone can give you is dont void the warranty!

Thanks Diz :D

Lots of good info all around... For me, Horizontal is a must.  When I RROD'd, I was in an enclosed entertainment center and plugged into a cheap power strip.  After I got my xbox repaired (not refurbed) I put it out in the open and directly into the wall.  I also run a small fan around the back of it, but not directly into it.  I also vacume it from time to time.  RROD is a shity thing so I'm taking my precausions for sure.  Lastly, this may sound like superstition but I watched a video that said to unplug your console after every use.  I do it out of habit now...

I've left games in my 360 loads of times, and always left it sitting horizontally when in use. It is chugging along nicely, so far.

"Lots of good info all around... For me, Horizontal is a must.  When I RROD'd, I was in an enclosed entertainment center and plugged into a cheap power strip.  After I got my xbox repaired (not refurbed) I put it out in the open and directly into the wall.  I also run a small fan around the back of it, but not directly into it.  I also vacume it from time to time.  RROD is a shity thing so I'm taking my precausions for sure.  Lastly, this may sound like superstition but I watched a video that said to unplug your console after every use.  I do it out of habit now..."

Looks reasonable, diz, but vacuum cleaners around electronics are typically a bad idea - they tend to create static electricity due to dust striking the hose. Better is blowing with canned air or a compressor. It may seem counterintuitive, since you seem to be blowing it deeper, but blowing it is more about knocking it off of important heat sinks.

Plus, vacuums typically don't create enough suction to remove dust more than a couple inches away unless it's already loose - unless you can get close to the heat sink (which would mean voiding the warranty), a lot of the dust will still sit around.

I disagree - The 360 has a metal "farraday cage" around it. Your claim of static creation through dust striking plastic would occur inside the 360 with its fans  too. As you also state, you just blow the dust deeper into the heat pipe fins and internals.

What the f...

"The most these tips will ever do is delay the RROD. I treated my 360 like i do any other expensive piece of hardware, carefully and do all i can to prevent it from malfunctioning, but still the inevitable happened. The best advice anyone can give you is dont void the warranty!"

I have to agree with Black_Raven.   I got my 360 a little over two years ago and had no problems before Friday night when 10 minutes into playing Gears 2 (I was in the last act!) it got an E74....bricked!!  It was odd that it happened at that time as I've played it all summer when my house is 10 degrees warmer and it never overheated. (I also keep a fan running to keep the area cool.)  Anyway, coffin is on it's way and I'll hopefully get to beat Gears in three weeks.  Thank goodness I have a PS3!!  I should add one of my Friends had his original unit brick twice and after the second time he bought a new arcade unit  (which hopefully doesn't have fatal flaw of the older models.)   If my unit bricks again I may do likewise.

I can't stand to watch it because of the music!

A lot of that video sounds like pure shit to me.  Vertical position is actually more damaging to your DVDs & the disk player itself.  What difference does the power supply make if it's in a surge-protection plug?

Look at it this way:

1.  If you play the DVDs veritcally you damage the disks & the player, for which Mr. Softy doesn't have to support your console with a 3 year warranty (the warranty is for RROD).  So you end up paying for repairs.

2.  If a power spike courses through your Xbox 360 because you didn't use a surge protector, it's going to fry your 360.  Microsoft won't have to pay for that either since it wouldn't fall under warranty. You have to buy a new 360.  Or your power supply fries because it got fried from lack of surge protection.

I only played my 360 on the weekends for the past 1.5 years in a fully open, ventilated area & the power supply was elevated onto a rack. The rack system is made of aluminum & ventilated on all sides with holes in the shelf in which the Xbox was placed.

I didn't have any hangs or crashes to speak of. I just came in on Saturday morning & found the system RRODed after just turning it on. It worked fine the night before, and now it's dead.

The support people I talked to at Mr. Softy explained to me that there was no rhyme or reason that caused the RROD. It's just a glitch in the system.  So in all likelihood you'll be wasting your time following the above steps just to find out you still get an RROD down the road...

This video was probably designed by Cows.

Yeah plug your xbox into a wall input and get your xbox fried by a power surge. I'll leave my xbox in my surge protector.

bull,. none of those help. they do stop it from over heating but only sometimes, as well as the disc thing, the dvd drive is enclosed.

I got my 360 more than 2 years ago and still no RRoD.  I'm going to turn it in to get replaced right before the 3 year warranty is up just so I can get an updated system.  In my experience, try to never play more than 4 hours straight.

Elites can stil RROD, but the new Jasper chip is starting to be fitted in 360s now. This uses less power so runs less hot. It was designed to stop the internal overheating issues causing RROD. Anyone getting a new 360 should make sure they end up with a new Jasper unit.

"Diz about your tip for leaving the disc in or not, when I leave mine in ( never use to before ) I always get disc read errors telling me to clean the disc about 10 minutes into any game. Now if I start up my console with the disc in, but open and close the drive then start playing, it never gives me that error. Regardless - at least with disc usage - you should never leave discs inside any console, PC, DVD player, and so on."

My 360 has a lot of room to breath. It has kept it alive for one and a half years.

"Diz about your tip for leaving the disc in or not, when I leave mine in ( never use to before ) I always get disc read errors telling me to clean the disc about 10 minutes into any game. Now if I start up my console with the disc in, but open and close the drive then start playing, it never gives me that error. Regardless - at least with disc usage - you should never leave discs inside any console, PC, DVD player, and so on."

I'm in violation of all of the rules in this video it seems. I've gotten one red light flashing on the bottom right quadrant a few times (my xbox is placed horizontally as my TV Stand does not allow space for it to be placed vertically;  not that I'd place it vertically unless it had the disc loading capibilites of the slim PS2). This was easily remidied by turning the xbox off for a few minutes and restarting it.

I've had my Xbox for exactly 1 year now and about the only other problem I have with it is that it doesn't go to the dash board, or even the logo right away. What I usually do is power it on (when it has not been on for a while ie. >10-12 hours) and leave it for about 3 minutes(the screen is black and a single green light in the upper left quadrant either flashes or is solid at this point), turn it off and wait about 1.5 minutes, then turn it on again. It function's properly after I do this, however I do get that single red light somtimes... which makes me somewhat nervous.

Another thing to note (and I'm not sure this has anything to do with internal hardware exactly) is that I recently bought the 120GB hard drive about 1 month ago and I have not seen that red light flash since, although the power up issues remain.

-hiro

The device is meant to run in "normal" working conditions that means follow the manual. If it dies under these conditions there is nothing you can do about it and if it were the console wouldn't be on the market yet.

Hey Diz, make a video, post it here, and we will all realize how stupid the video Gizmo posted was. :P

Listen, take a thick book (I use Harry Potter) and place the 360 so the vents on the bottom hang off of the book. This will allow you to use every vent on the 360. Iv'e told my friends to do this and since then (about a year now) not one of them has gotten the RROD again.

And how I'm I not suppose to use a power stripe come on. Its also too inconvenient to take out the disc every time. I mean talk about over protective. Hell even if it does break at least you might get one of the new models.

Well, if you the 360 up in a mini fridge, it will guarantee that it will never overheat.