As the owner of any kind of hardware knows, breakdowns are not uncommon and always seem to happen right when you’re in the middle of something. On PC, we have the notorious blue screen of death. On XBox 360, this phenomenon is known as the classic “3 Red Rings of Death”.

So what do you do when this happens to your XBox? First of all, don’t panic. In almost all cases, your XBox can be fixed and the 3 red lights error will be gone. Before you do anything, try these simple solutions first:

1. Does your XBox get very hot? Put your hand in the box. Does it seem abnormally hot? If so, it may have overheated. Simply unplug your XBox from the power source and give it some time to cool down. In the future, make sure your XBox has enough ventilation around it, so don’t throw your clothes on it or place it with the vents next to a wall. Make sure air can circulate in and around it.
2. After you unplug your Xbox and while it cools down, take a can of compressed air and use it to blow out all of the vents. Dust trapped inside your computer can cause it to overheat, both on your XBox and PC. If you don’t have compressed air handy, you can try using a hair dryer if it has a cool setting. Just don’t blow any more hot air on the thing.

After letting it cool down, plug it back in and see if the 3 red lights error is gone. If you haven’t done so now, you need to consider what to do next. If your XBox is still under warranty, it’s fairly easy to return it for repair or replacement; however, you should be aware that if you send it to the Warranty Center, you probably won’t get it back for at least two months.

The other alternative is to fix it yourself. There are a couple of different repair guides available for the XBox designed to get rid of the 3 red rings and following the instructions is quite simple and this is the best way to do it if your XBox is out of warranty or you don’t have the patience to wait two months.

I fixed my XBox myself while it was still under warranty because I didn’t have the patience to wait and since then I haven’t had any problems, but it’s up to you if you want to do it. If it’s under warranty, it voids the warranty when you open the machine. However, fixing the red lights is very easy and since this is usually the main thing that fails on the XBox, it is usually worth doing. Plus, some of the available solutions don’t even involve opening your Xbox, so if one of them works for you, you’re good to go with your warranty protection.