Comment on Xbox 360 Red Ring of Death Repair by Ryne Landers.
The RROD is caused by an overheating GPU, not the hard drive. The thermal grease tham was used by ATI on their card was a low quality type, that when mass-applied by machine on the production line, does not spread properly.
Consequently, over time, as the GPU gets up near 200*F, the thermal grease hardens and cracks, removing the heat barrier between the GPU and heatsink.
This causes the GPU to reach the temperature threshold at which point it shuts down and shows 3RR.
The solution described in the guide is to take it apart, remove the bad grease, apply some Arctic Silver (the type used in PCs) and re-assemble.
Will fix problem.
