The Xbox 360 Is great. There are really awesome game titles for it; the release of the kinect takes it to another level. One thing I want to know is why it breaks down.

There are many different errors that can go wrong on an Xbox such as E74 and the red ring of death. All can cause you a few problems but one in particular is a real pain. 3 red lights have got to be the worst of the possible malfunctions your Xbox 360 can suffer from. The 3 red lights is normally caused when pieces of solder on the circuit board become too hot, which leads to them becoming brittle and breaking. Don't rush out to buy a new console just yet as you have three realistic choices left to fix an Xbox 360.

1. Obviously your first port of call should be Microsoft to see if there is help available from them. If they recommend that you send your console back to them you should check if your Xbox 360 is still under warranty. If it is not the repair could cost around $150 for them to do it. Either way you need to be prepared to be without your console for around six weeks for them to do it.

2. I will let you know about this next option but I do not recommend it as it may work but only for a little while and can cause more damage to your console. This is the towel trick. There are two ways of performing this. The first is wrapping your Xbox 360 in the towel and turning on. This overheats the console allowing the broken solder to melt and hopefully reconnect. The other version of the towel trick involves you putting your wrapped up Xbox in a low temperature oven to heat it up. Like I said this can cause more damage to your console and eventually the solder will become so brittle it will not be able to be repaired this way.

3. The safest option if you want to fix your Xbox yourself is to get hold of a repair guide. Inside you will find step by step instructions to not only repair the console but stop it happening again. A particularly good guide is written by James Dean and with his help thousands of people have fixed their games consoles. The guide itself is thorough and extremely detailed. There are HD videos which will help you carry out the repair with ease.

These are your 3 choices if you don't want to be without your console for 6 weeks or don't have $150 lying around then do it yourself. If you do attempt the towel trick it is at your own risk. Happy gaming.