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Microsoft combats red rings: heatsinks to the rescue photo

According to Xbox-Scene News, it would seem that Microsoft is taking steps to lessen the chance that your recently repaired Xbox 360 will be making a return visit to the doctor. Thanks to some hulking heatsinks that are being added to help alleviate heat stress on the Xenos GPUs, our Xbox 360s should be more healthy in the future.

While it is unclear if the new Xbox units are coming out of the factory with the dual-heatsinks under the hood, it is obvious that at least some repaired consoles have been modified.

Even to this day there are still rumblings around Internet forums that the Xbox 360's failure rate is a bit abnormal. With the whole notion of excess heat being the driving force responsible for those gaming woes, this is welcomed news, to say the least. Is this a silent admission by Microsoft that their engineers were sleeping on the job when the Xbox 360 was originally designed, or simply a natural progression of improvements that every console goes through over time? We'll let you be the judge of that. I can tell you that my own Xbox 360 is pretty much flawless.

[Thanks, Joe Burling]


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34 comments | showing # 1 to 34

Jordan Grim Devore's Avatar
Jordan Grim Devore at 06/14/2007 13:38
It's about time they take some action
cjpkiller's Avatar
cjpkiller at 06/14/2007 13:41
too bad its not soon enough to fix my three, broken out of the box, 360's... may they rest in peace...
BlindsideDork's Avatar
BlindsideDork at 06/14/2007 13:43
Joe Burling, he have any relation to Jim Sterling? Or just a rhymer?
Agent Nixon's Avatar
Agent Nixon at 06/14/2007 13:44
Cool. Get it? Cool.. LAWL!!
mix's Avatar
mix at 06/14/2007 13:51
Right after he got home the guy with the gray toque cried as he stared into 3 little red rings.........

I think they should have done this about a month after launch all I heard about from my friends at retail stores talk about was how (Futureshop) 9 out of 12 360's were returned and sent back and (Walmart) had the same ridiculous numbers.
Grapefruit Juice's Avatar
Grapefruit Juice at 06/14/2007 13:54
Ohh... So its supposed to not get hot.
BluDesign's Avatar
BluDesign at 06/14/2007 14:11
The guy in the toboggan looks about as enthused as I did when I did my business in someone's lady-parts.

Maybe the girl standing next to him is part of his purchase.

I know I didn't look that way when I only bought an Xbox 360.
tazarthayoot's Avatar
tazarthayoot at 06/14/2007 14:15
Joe Burling fucks wolves.

There, I said it.
slee's Avatar
slee at 06/14/2007 14:18
Hey I did this story a day ago!!
908peruvian's Avatar
908peruvian at 06/14/2007 14:25
we will see how long my
THIRD replacement X360 lasts....

oh yeah,
do i always have to log into Xbox Live
to play my arcade games now?! WTF !!!
Joe Burling's Avatar
Joe Burling at 06/14/2007 14:54
Joe Burling has tried to fuck a wolf, but failed. He does fuck wolves up, though. His current count is 69.
Netik09's Avatar
Netik09 at 06/14/2007 15:07
I'd say it's about time, but this should of gotten done a long ass time ago.
bhive01's Avatar
bhive01 at 06/14/2007 15:08
Do the new ones have this already built-in?
brainderailment's Avatar
brainderailment at 06/14/2007 15:13
I would have thought that they would've done this in the elite.
Whateva' heat is the enemy of a lot of things. They put the 360 through some super rigorous testing phases, but I guess they never did the standard "hey, let's play it for a really long time" test.
brainderailment's Avatar
brainderailment at 06/14/2007 15:16
I guess this is a better idea then putting Christmas sweaters inside the console. mumble* stupid jesus and his snazzy sweater having birthday mumble*
Joe Burling's Avatar
Joe Burling at 06/14/2007 15:18
I'm hoping the 65nm processors will fix most of these issues.
Brock_Dainjer's Avatar
Brock_Dainjer at 06/14/2007 15:24
Out of all of the people i know with 360's, myself included, I havent physically seen or heard of problem. Just constantly online with the ridiculous numbers. Not to say there isn't a problem, but i guess just odd that i havent seen it, and me and my roomies have put that fucking box through the ringer. Although i bet i just jinxed myself and when i return to cali after this trip, all three xbox's will have exploded and the only thing left will be the fucking useless ps3 aka cheap bluray player.
Yoeburleengs's Avatar
Yoeburleengs at 06/14/2007 16:02
Yeah, that fucker should stop tipping this place
BluDesign's Avatar
BluDesign at 06/14/2007 16:16
@Brock

It happens.

I've got two registered 360's and it's happened to both of them. One of them was a bitch to replace too, since it's in Northern Japan right now.

@908Peruvian

Yes, you do have to be online now. I'm right there with ya. Call MS about it, they'll refund your points so you can go rebuy your games through a second Silver account, but it's been about 3 weeks now and I haven't gotten a refund yet.
shadowcast's Avatar
shadowcast at 06/14/2007 16:40
Who the fuck is Joe Burling?
tom90deg's Avatar
tom90deg at 06/14/2007 17:08
I don't know if I'm just lucky or what, but i got a 360 launch day, and I've been using the hell out of it, and I've never had a single problem. (knock on wood)
Samit Sarkar's Avatar
Samit Sarkar at 06/14/2007 17:23
My brother’s 360 (which he got this past Christmas) has yet to have a problem with overheating...probably because I constantly remind him to keep it and its massive power brick well-ventilated at all times. However, we can’t use the damn thing vertically. Every time we’ve tried to play a game with the console on its side, it has only worked for a short time. Pretty soon, though, we get the classic error: “The disc is unreadable.” My PS3 is standing up right now, curing cancer as I type this, and I have never had any hardware issues — no overheating problems, no disc read errors, nothing. I guess an extra $200 doesn’t just buy Blu-ray...it pays for peace of mind, too.
MechaMonkey's Avatar
MechaMonkey at 06/14/2007 18:23
I've had my 360 on for long periods of time with no trouble due to overheating. That's why win teh haloes.
Joe Burling's Avatar
Joe Burling at 06/14/2007 18:39
Woah, Joe Burling has a profile now? It's kinda like I'm looking in the mirror like in the Aha - Take On Me music video...
jerrt's Avatar
jerrt at 06/14/2007 18:49
ok, so it has more heat sinks, good news. wait... without better fans how is the newly collected heat going to get anywhere but back into what was getting cooled down? don't tell me after market coolers, because that isn't the point.
jerrt's Avatar
jerrt at 06/14/2007 18:50
ok, so it has more heat sinks, good news. wait... without better fans how is the newly collected heat going to get anywhere but back into what was getting cooled down? don't tell me after market coolers, because that isn't the point.
jerrt's Avatar
jerrt at 06/14/2007 18:55
ok, so it has more heat sinks, good news. wait... without better fans how is the newly collected heat going to get anywhere but back into what was getting cooled down? don't tell me after market coolers, because that isn't the point.
jerrt's Avatar
jerrt at 06/14/2007 18:57
ahhh
sorry, i hit refresh a couple of times cause my browser was freaking out and then i see even with a blank comment block everytime after the intial post, it proceeds to fill up the window. sorry
Reverend Slim's Avatar
Reverend Slim at 06/14/2007 19:34
I just took 360 #8 to UPS in its little white coffin around 90 minutes ago, which was a refurb that just arrived last Friday and was dead out of the box. Here's hoping #9 has this fix and lasts longer than my 4 month average so far.

At least the Core system I bought as a backup is still ticking, I guess. Sad that I actually had to buy a second 360 as a backup though.
martinine's Avatar
martinine at 06/14/2007 22:34
I'm in China, and the guys at all the game stores say that they mod the boxes with new fans and heat sinks and shit b4 they sell them (chinese store people also lie like the devil to get you to buy something) but on the first day I had 3 brand new from Taiwan boxes go red. I'm on the 4th, and they were super pissed to give it to me bc they said it was some special one that had super fans or something. It's from Japan. I am a little worried though bc when I got home and looked at the maufacture date: November 17th 2005. It's a launch box. It's hella louder than my friends' and it doesn't ever seem to feel too hot even after 12-13 hours straight on Oblivion or Gears. The fans blow so hard that I have it sitting 2-3 feet from the wall and the wall is always warm. I cant get on live anymore though bc of the country lockouts and firmware bullshit. You can't get a system here w.o. modded firmware so I'm double fucked when I get back home. All my friends are on at least their 2nd box, though. One dude has been getting them about every 2 months. At least over here if you speak chinese you can bitch at the store owners enough for them to open up a new box and just give you the one in there. It's pretty nice.
Mxyzptlk's Avatar
Mxyzptlk at 06/15/2007 01:18
But won't the heatsinks eventually fill up and start shooting jets of fire out of your 360?
Burnt Meatloaf's Avatar
Burnt Meatloaf at 06/15/2007 04:15
Hmm... so now the air will be pre-heated before going to the CPU? Surely the 360 engineers knew how close to the edge they were taking the design? I guess they figured that as long as the core doesn't melt, it's OK.

I think I'll wait until winter for the new chips to come out. The problem THEN, however, is that the CPU is supposed to go to 65nm, and the GPU will make the switch later. If the GPU is the problem, will I have to wait until next spring to get a 360?

Then again, I waited more than two years to get a PS2.
tazarthayoot's Avatar
tazarthayoot at 06/15/2007 11:01
@Burnt Meatloaf

Quit procrastinating and just buy the god damn thing. It'll never be some uber perfect system, and Microsoft will replace it if you make sure you register and etc.

I've had mine a year, I've never had a single solitary problem with it.
Amethystine's Avatar
Amethystine at 06/17/2007 00:43
So, if you happen to be getting a new or new replacement Xbox 360 in the near future, how will one be able to tell if it has the heat sinks in it or not? Without opening it up and voiding the warranty, of course.

Some sort of serial number or something written on the label?
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