The red ring of death. It has been brought up all across the internet. The red ring of death is an Xbox 360 owner’s worst fears. I own a defunct 360, I don’t even play that often, and one day it decided to eat my disc and give me a red ring of death. I would probably rank this ring more evil than the One Ring and more sinister than The Ring. One might wonder why the Xbox 360 is plagued with so many issues. The general consensus is that Microsoft rushed the Xbox 360 to the production stage, and did not give enough time in the development and testing phases, all in an attempt to get a head start on other next generation consoles. The Xbox 360 was released in 2005, while the Wii and Playstation 3 were released in 2006.

So the next question is, “what exactly is wrong with the 360?” and the next question to be asked, “what is Microsoft doing to fix this problem?” The Xbox 360 is known for its notorious heating issue, specifically, the loud large fan, and the over sized power brick, but it all comes down to heat. Theories floating around suggest that the Graphics Processing Unit or GPU fails due to overheating, or the heat sinks and fans are not enough to cool the 360, or the soldering cracks at high temperatures. I think it’s safe to say that the Xbox 360 has numerous problems on numerous levels. They sacrificed quality (at their own expense and the expense of the consumer) for a head start in the console market.

Lately, Microsoft has extended the warranty on all 360’s as a short term solution to appease customers, but recently news has surfaced on an attempt by Microsoft to reduce the failure rate by introducing a motherboard configuration called “Jasper”.

Many Xbox 360 enthusiasts have come up with more creative ways to solve their Xbox 360 woes… the most common is wrapping the Xbox 360 in towels and overheating it on purpose, which seems to work for a little while (I had some friends that tried this, and it fixed their 360’s for a few weeks, until they got the red ring again). According to Yahoo! Tech News, there are three things that make “jasper’’ Xbox 360’s more reliable than previous models. First, the graphics processing unit has shrunk from 90 nanometers to 65 nanometers, which means “jasper” Xbox 360’s will still perform at the same level just with less waste heat. Secondly, “jasper” models have a power supply of 150 watts, a step down from the original 175 watts. Finally, the flash memory has been upped from a meager 16 MB to 256 MB, which in theory should allow you to run the New Xbox 360 Experience faster, better, stronger.

While Microsoft hasn’t commented vocally specifically on the quality of the Xbox 360’s, they definitely sent out a huge message when they extended the warranty on Xbox 360’s, in contrast, Microsoft isn’t throwing a parade for this new “Jasper” model. They are carefully slipping in these new models to avoid embarrassing scrutiny.

The Bottom Line: I’ve been through THREE Xbox 360’s… I guess you could say I’m pissed… There shouldn’t have been a problem in the first place….