I should mention that I successfully fixed my 360, which most definitely red ringed. Grumbleduke, you too can fix your 360 by yourself if you have the time and patience for it.
First thing you should note that Elite systems made after about the middle of 2007 and Core systems made starting in 2008 will not experience this problem due to a redesign.
The cause of the RRoD is overheating. The first generations of the 360 experience a build up of heat overtime that continues to increase until the error occurs. It happened to me. after three years. Chances are, it will happen to you too.
If y ou dont mind voiting your warrenty, you can open the 360 with a flathead screwdriver, a small pointy object (a small screwdriver does the trick) and torx 10 and 20 screwdrives. To be totally honest, I just just brute force and ripped most of it apart with my hands. The case is extremely strong, even if you break some of the tabs it will still snap back together with ease.
Anyway, once your system is apart, you have a few options on what you can do to fix it. The best and easiest is with a heatgun.
The solution I went with was to take apart my system and apply a heatgun (a really powerful blow dryer used to remove paint) to remelt the solder balls under the CPU and GPU. There are a few tutorials on how to do this online. Just google heatgun Xbox 360 repair and you'll come to a few. Follow the one that suggests thick plastic sheeting! Once I knew what to do, the entire process from start to finish took about an hour, and the majority of that was letting the 360 cool down! Thus, the RRoD is not a death sentience.
Once fixed, the 360 should never Red Ring again! And if it does, just repeat the process again!
