Do you own an Xbox 360? There every chance then that you will encountered or at least heard of the red ring of death. The Red Ring Of Death (great name) it caused by overheating inside the console. What’s less well known is that the red lights on the front of the console can also indicate a number of fault codes, or e-codes such as the Xbox 360 error e79. The E codes are so called because they, wait for it, start with an E – and then have 2 other digits after it, so we end up with E71, E74 and so on.

Unlike the normal 3 red lights error, an E error is denoted by a single red light in the fourth segment of the ring ie the bottom left corner. You usually only get this type of error just after you switch the power on.

The most common E error is E74.

• E64, E65 and E66 – Problem with the DVD drive., restart the system and sometimes this clears.
• E67 , E68 and E69 and E79 – Disk drive problems Unplug your drive, reboot and see if this clears the error code.
• E73 – General Hardware Error – Normally network related. Unplug from the LAN if you are connected and try again.
• E74 – Trickier problem to diagnose. First suspect is the AV cable – make sure its correctly fitted. If this doesn’t cure the problem then its either overheating or a faulty ANA/HANA chip. If this is the case then I’m afraid you will have to open the machine up and fix the problems yourself. My advice is get a good repair guide and give it a go.

The simplest error to try and fix is Xbox 360 error E79 – faulty hard drive. You don’t even need to open the case to fix this one. Fixing this error doesn’t even involve opening the case. Just remove the hard drive and reboot. Before you bin the drive however, try reconnecting it as it could just have popped out of the connectors. If this doesn’t work then just get a new drive.

Well hopefully I have shown you that the red lights error may not just be caused by overheating. Hopefully you will see now that the little ring of lights on the front of your Xbox 360 can be very useful in tracking down faults.

I recommend that if you get an E error, or any other kind of hardware fault on your Xbox 360, that you get a good repair guide from the internet. They only cost a few dollars but can help you get your Xbox back up and running again in no time at all.