Owner of eight failed Xbox 360 explains failures

While many of the news and talk revolving around Xbox 360 overheating issues have caused much disappointment to the Microsoft camp, many hardware enthusiasts with specialties in “bang for the buck” have foreseen a time their own console would hiccup after feeling the hot exhaust from the back of their unit.

And although console gamers usually don’t come with the geeky and techie know-how of Banzai Runner hobbyists, an owner of eight failed Xbox 360s finally tapped into his inner geek and got the problem of the Xbox 360 issues down pat.

In response to the surprisingly non-technical explanations of Microsoft’s Todd Holmdahl – the man behind the hardware aspects of the next-gen console – Jeremy Anderson gave his own analysis of why the Xbox 360 is failing considerably. And he did that on the comment section of the published interview in question.

Click on Full Article to read Anderson’s views on why the Xbox 360 can’t alleviate heat well.

While many of the news and talk revolving around Xbox 360 overheating issues have caused much disappointment to the Microsoft camp, many hardware enthusiasts with specialties in “bang for the buck” have foreseen a time their own console would hiccup after feeling the hot exhaust from the back of their unit.

And although console gamers usually don’t come with the geeky and techie know-how of Banzai Runner hobbyists, an owner of eight failed Xbox 360s finally tapped into his inner geek and got the problem of the Xbox 360 issues down pat.

In response to the surprisingly non-technical explanations of Microsoft’s Todd Holmdahl – the man behind the hardware aspects of the next-gen console – Jeremy Anderson gave his own analysis of why the Xbox 360 is failing considerably. And he did that on the comment section of the published interview in question. His comment goes as follows:

…the problem isnÂ’t just with launch units. Of the 8 IÂ’ve had so far, only 2 were manufactured in the first three months of launch. The last one I had red-ring on me was manufactured in November of ‘06 – a full year after launch.

The problem is that the cooling design of the 360 doesnÂ’t hold up. The cooling of the CPU was well done, with a heat pipe to draw the heat away from the chip (and accordingly, away from the mainboard). The problem is that the GPU and its low-profile heatsink sit under the DVD drive, and are given a very narrow channel for air to be pulled across the heatsink by the fans. When the GPU heats up enough, not only does it reflow the solder in the ball grid array slightly, it can cause the entire mainboard to flex – a phenomenon largely caused by the X-shaped brackets that hold the heatsinks on under the mainboard. They hold the heatsinks down to the chips with a tension fit that presses up directly underneath those chips.

So when the system gets too hot, the combination of loosened solder with a mainboard that flexes from heat causes the GPU or CPU to actually break its connection from the board – resulting in the 3 red lights and secondary error code 0102 (the “unknown hardware error” code).

This is true of ALL systems manufactured thus far, not just the launch systems. Hopefully, MicrosoftÂ’s new measure of adding a heatpipe to the GPU heatsink will reduce the heat on the mainboard itself enough to keep this from happening. We shall see.

Gladly that some people did have the know-how to try that nifty Arctic Silver trick or a modded air duct design that channels air even underneath the DVD drive, the Xbox 360 failures aren’t much of a threat to the modding bracket. But as many are unwilling to open their units to create a custom solution, here’s to hoping that Microsoft’s new solution works out considerably well.

Via A+E Interactive