How to Fix the Xbox 360 Red Ring of Death With a Heat Gun

Remove any cables from the Xbox and pry off the faceplate with your fingers. Press the button on the hard drive, located on the left side of the machine, to remove it.

Turn the Xbox 360 so the right side of the machine is facing up. Pry up the gray cover just enough so you can see inside. Locate the three gray plastic tabs on each side of the cover and insert the stick end of your case removal tool into the holes in the side of the Xbox wherever you see a tab. Once you pop off all six tabs, lift up to remove the side cover. Repeat the process on the other side of the Xbox 360.

Locate the four visible clasps on the front of the unit and pry them open with your finger. Then flip the Xbox 360 over and turn it so you are looking at the back side.

Pull the top and bottom halves of the case on the right side slightly apart and push the single tab at one end of the case removal tool into the clasp. Push in until you hear the clasp click, then pull the two pieces as far apart as you can. Then line up the other side of the case removal tool -- the side with five tabs -- with the five clasps on the left side of the Xbox. Push in until you hear the clasps click, then lift the bottom cover off of the system.

Remove the 14 silver screws from the bottom plate with your T12 screwdriver. Remove the eight black screws with your T7 screwdriver. Carefully flip the Xbox right-side up and lift off the top cover.

Lift up the DVD drive and disconnect the two DVD cables from the motherboard. Pull up on the shroud over the fans to remove it, then pull the fans out and disconnect the fan cable from the motherboard.

Pull the large white plastic piece off of the small control board on the front of the Xbox. Remove the three torx screws from this small board using your T7 screwdriver. Pull out this front piece, and then lift up the motherboard to remove it from the case.

Turn the motherboard over and insert your flathead screwdriver into one of the four ends of either of the two large X-clamps on the back. Pry up the end of the X-clamp until it pops up off of the screw. Do the same thing for an adjacent end of the same X-clamp, then pull the X-clamp off of the motherboard. Repeat this process for the other X-clamp, then turn the motherboard over and pull the two large heatsinks off of the board.

Turn the motherboard back over so you can see the underside. Turn your heat gun on high, hold it about 4 to 5 inches from the surface of the board and move it over the back of the board for about a minute. Keep the heat gun moving at all times.

Flip the motherboard over and lay it flat. Apply heat to the CPU and graphics processor, which were directly underneath the heatsinks and located in the middle of the board. Also apply heat to the large chip located below these two and the four smaller chips that surround the CPU. Hold the heat gun 4 to 5 inches away from the board and move it between all of the chips. Do not let the heat gun sit over any one particular spot for more than a second; keep the gun constantly moving.

Wait 30 minutes for the solder to cool. Then reverse the disassembly instructions to put the Xbox 360 back together, and power it on to see if the process worked.