red ring of death

English

An Xbox 360 indicating a general hardware failure, also known as a red ring of death.

Etymology

Derived from blue screen of death, a type of failure on a personal computer running Microsoft Windows.

Noun

red ring of death (plural red rings of death)

1. (video games) A fatal hardware exception in the Microsoft Xbox 360 video game console characterised by three or four red indicator LEDs around the power button.

   Synonyms: RRoD, RROD

Usage notes

Occasionally used as a verb, sometimes expressed by the initialism RRoD (e.g. "having red ringed" or "having RRoDed").

Derived terms

• red ring

See also

• yellow light of death