The XBox 360 is a great gaming console with one significant problem. It is prone to hardware failures and errors. One of the most well known of these is the Three Red Lights Error. You'll recognize it when it happens to your XBox 360 by the three red lights that light up in the ring around your power button.
The XBox 360 three red lights error indicates a general hardware failure and almost always it means that your XBox is dead in the water unless you send it back to Microsoft to repair or undertake the task yourself. It took them long enough, but Microsoft finally has admitted what a problem they have created with the XBox 360 and so have increased the length of time on the warranty so it is a good idea to give them a call and see if yours is within the warranty repair period. If it isn't, then you can either have it repaired at your own expense or undertake the repair yourself.
With the wait times that are often involved getting your XBox back from Microsoft, up to 12 weeks in some cases, you may just want to just fix it yourself, even if it is still under warranty. It really isn't that difficult, but it will require opening up the console unit. You'll also need a couple of torx screwdrivers to get it open and to remove some of the components, such as the hard drive.
There are a variety of possible causes of the three red lights error, so it is generally useful to use an XBox 360 repair guide to help you diagnose what exactly the problem is with your console. Disc failures are one culprit and video failure is another. Nearly any problem with the XBox 360 indicated by those three flashing lights, however, is usually something that you can easily repair yourself in an hour or two at the most. So don't be afraid to do it yourself!
And once you know how to fix the Xbox 360, you can probably make your friends pretty happy by repairing theirs too!