AfterDawn: News

Xbox 360 cooling system improved

After 18 months of complaints and concern regarding the Xbox 360 heat problems, Microsoft seems to be ready to take a step forward, however that might not be the leap everyone is waiting for.

Several Xbox 360 owners have confirmed that the cooling solution of their console have been upgraded while in repair. The improvements include a completely new heatsink for the Xenos GPU. Microsoft hasn't officially confirmed this, neither is there any proof that the improvements would be fitted inside upcoming retail consoles.



A long wait is over for some of the 360 owners, and hoorays are echoing from the Xbox 360 community after tragic "Red Ring of Death" and "My PS3 just killed my 360" incidents. But it remains to be seen, is it a new company policy or just couple of unorthodox cases.


Retail cooling solution


Upgraded cooling system



Source:
Xbox-Scene
TechSpot
Engadget

Written by: Matti Robinson @ 14 Jun 2007 14:59

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• 39 comments

• DoomLight

  my SchittBox just got the redRings of DEath after freezing a bunch of times after only being on for 5 mins. not sure if this will fix it tho. it is underwarranty and will be shipped out soon. i hope this will fix the problem. i was thinkin about stickin some processor fans over the heat sinks. wonder if anyone has done that.

  14.6.2007 15:17 #1

• limelight

  If this actually works and MS plans to implement this into future versions, I will most likely buy a 360.

  14.6.2007 15:24 #2

• hughjars

  More roll-out of the true XBox 360 mk2 stuff
  (when the XBox 360 switches over to 65nm CPU & GPU).
  
  If this works well with the existing hardware it will be more than able to cope with the new hardware......leaving 'headroom' for a performance (clocking?) upgrade when the new CPU & GPU come in?
  
  Interesting.

  14.6.2007 15:33 #3

• Iguana775

  Isnt the new 65mm CPU going to be implemented this fall too? combine these 2 and it might actually run well. I'm glad I have waited to get one.

  14.6.2007 18:12 #4

• fgamer

  This is better than nothing, only time will tell if this actually helps us avoid the 3red lights. I'll know for sure myself if their actually implimenting this new heatsink when I get my 360 back from repair. I also got to send another one in, so I hope they've fitted mine with this new solution.

  14.6.2007 18:22 #5

• spydah

  Common sense should have told them to do this in the first place. They been in and around the PC business for years you would think somebody woulda have a brain storm and figured that a game system they want to make like a PC would have a good heat sink with good ventilation. But no we get that like 2 years down the line after problem after problem. Its nice to see they stepping up but 2 years is a long time to fix something that shoulda been on the plate in the beginning.

  14.6.2007 18:39 #6

• fgamer

  Originally posted by spydah:Common sense should have told them to do this in the first place. They been in and around the PC business for years you would think somebody woulda have a brain storm and figured that a game system they want to make like a PC would have a good heat sink with good ventilation. But no we get that like 2 years down the line after problem after problem. Its nice to see they stepping up but 2 years is a long time to fix something that shoulda been on the plate in the beginning. They were too busy trying to ban people from Xbox Live.

  14.6.2007 19:06 #7

• DoomLight

  Quote:They were too busy trying to ban people from Xbox Live.haha true

  14.6.2007 19:33 #8

• Iguana775

  Quote:Originally posted by spydah:Common sense should have told them to do this in the first place. They been in and around the PC business for years you would think somebody woulda have a brain storm and figured that a game system they want to make like a PC would have a good heat sink with good ventilation. But no we get that like 2 years down the line after problem after problem. Its nice to see they stepping up but 2 years is a long time to fix something that shoulda been on the plate in the beginning. They were too busy trying to ban people from Xbox Live.And trying to make a stable operating system....keyword...trying...

  14.6.2007 20:41 #9

• theridges

  as much as everybody cries about Microsoft about 95% of people still have a windows based pc and use microsoft word and office,and a bunch of other MS programs...and like me own an Xbox(which was the best console to date period) and probably own or want a 360...i have a 360 and haven't got the 3 Rings yet.
  i guess its a hit or miss thing,anyways glad there adding this addition heatsink attachment but for older consoles like mine i guess its inevitable that i get the 3 rings and with no warranty i guess i will be paying 140$ to get it fixed but i dont mind....

  15.6.2007 03:38 #10

• spydah

  Quote:[quote]Originally posted by spydah:Common sense should have told them to do this in the first place. They been in and around the PC business for years you would think somebody woulda have a brain storm and figured that a game system they want to make like a PC would have a good heat sink with good ventilation. But no we get that like 2 years down the line after problem after problem. Its nice to see they stepping up but 2 years is a long time to fix something that shoulda been on the plate in the beginning. They were too busy trying to ban people from Xbox Live.And trying to make a stable operating system....keyword...trying...[/quote]
  
  
  
  Thats another thing lmao. At this rate with Vista is headed down the Windows Me path. Vista the windows me for the new millenium lmao. For me keyword...Trash...

  15.6.2007 03:41 #11

• Wild9

  Like spydah said, you'd think MS would have known better. If Intel had done this, it would have been considered a disater of monumental proportion. Intel did get close with the overheating Prescott P4's, but not this bad.
  
  MS is big because people are sheep, not because it's products are the best. Sure, MS has come a long way, but it still produces rubbish and it's OS is not stable, it's just bolt-on after bolt-on, patch after patch..remember the Commodore Amiga? That was doing stuff MS has only recently been doing such as pre-emptive multitasking in the hardware and not just the software. MS is lazy and it charges too much for its software, in industrial or embedded situations it has the same reputation. MS is also preoccupied with licenses instead of being more open.
  
  I have to use MS products because my job dictates it. People have began switching but it is slow because like driving cars people have little choice in certain circumstances. Anyway this is going a bit off track.
  
  Every single person I know who has purchased an X-box 360, has had these problems as well as other problems associated with routine use (such as the inferior CD tray design causing the tray to stick). It's not like the PS1 which started off with inferior fabrication processes..at least that machine evolved; no, all we have is MS pretending it's crap doesn't stink and denying people the right to use a system that is at least stable enough to be used for its intended purposes. If you have an inferior X-box 360, expect to pay to have it fixed because MS obviously doesn't care.
  
  What next..a 360 running Vista? Ooh I bet would be a killer system..especially where your wallet is concerned.

  15.6.2007 08:41 #12

• scott2k7

  the first 360s virtually all overheated
  well my m8s hasent
  i havent seen the 3 ligts of death except and i literally pooed myself but restarted and it was fine....
  on had the bottom left light once when i had a shitty intercooler

  15.6.2007 13:37 #13

• Iguana775

  maybe they should just give you a free block of dry ice with each 360 sold. LOL

  15.6.2007 18:43 #14

• meXPvista

  I recieved my first 360 a week after its release. With in a year of first turning it on The reing of death was flashing away. First it was one red light then two then the whole ring. Xbox support at that time had no idea that they woud bebe recieving thousands of calls with the same problem. After sending in my first console I recieved my 2ND console about 2 weeks later, it had the flashing red ring of death with in a week. I sent that one in and recieved my 3RD console a month later. That was about 6 months ago. I bouht a cooling fan that plugs into the back of the console before I even turned the 3RD one on. No problems yet... It apears the fan is working, but it is very loud...

  16.6.2007 06:02 #15

• scott2k7

  if its the nyko intercooler dude they break xbox 360s trust me there is a thread somewhere on afterdawn its horrible it ruined all the contacts on his xbox and the intercooler but nyko said they would replace them but how long would they take

  16.6.2007 06:11 #16

• Wild9

  meXPvista, what size and voltage is your supplementary cooling fan? You can get ultra-quite one's - it's worth spending the extra.

  16.6.2007 07:54 #17

• spydah

  I was a victim of the Inter Cooler burnout. Something is wrong with how they put that together because if you use it for a few months the connectors where your power cord go start to overheat and it will either burn out the 360 its self or fry your slot for your power cord and power cord.

  16.6.2007 10:08 #18

• scott2k7

  unlucky dude :(

  16.6.2007 10:38 #19

• meXPvista

  no problems yet, my buddy has had the same one (he recomended it) for quite some time and has had no problems also...

  17.6.2007 20:28 #20

• borhan9

  They are some kewl cooling systems. With all these powerful gaming systems you would need more powerful cooling systems.

  21.6.2007 15:02 #21

• fgamer

  My new 360 that Microsoft is fitted with this new heat-sink, I didn't want to take any chances messing with the sticker so I took of the side grill and looked through the metal holes with a flash light or placed up to a lamp and I see the new heat-sink fitted in front of the power button...god I hope this avoids the 3 red lights...

  22.6.2007 00:12 #22

• mikeg730

  I'll just say a "freind's" launchday xbox36 died via red ring of death(lasted a year).. They sent a new one..so He puchased the NYKO 3 fan cooler. it worked great UNTIL...1 year later ..red rings again..then we all hear about the power/terminal issues... WELL, when the 3rd xbox arives after its replaced.."HE" is gonna take the power wires out of the cooling unit and hook them(red & black wires) to a 9v 300ma adapter, thus running the NYKO unit on it's OWN power and it will never come in contact with any electrical parts on/in the 360 itelf. The 3 fans run great with the separate AC adapter (10 bucks at Radio Shack) Anybody have any opinions on this brillant idea?

  24.6.2007 16:32 #23

• villaj

  iv had my 360 for 6 months i first had to send it away for repair because the disk tray had frose and wouldnt load up i got it back a week later but they had replaced it now iv had the dreaded 3 rings so sent it away again they are currently fitting a new cooler system thats great but they have had my xbox for over a month now and its still 2 weeks off returning according to them compo coming my way i think! still its done my head in waiting all this time hopefully i can have the next 6 months problem free anybody who has to send in there 360 for repair prepare for a very long wait

  29.6.2007 13:33 #24

• DoomLight

  this might be a little off the wall. but my 360 started acting gay around the time i got Forza.... and i've been reading on forza's sites forums that the game causes some 360's to fail. bout 1000 systems so far. so maybe someof these games cause the system to crash beyond recovery...
  
  and update. week 2 and no 360 repaired from Msoft. i think they are tryin to make me get another system from someone else.

  29.6.2007 15:09 #25

• sammorris

  Some games always demand more from consoles than others, it's the case with PC games, so why not 360 games. Gears of War is another famous boxbreaker. Note how original xbox games rarely bring on the ring of death.

  29.6.2007 23:05 #26

• evilseed

  I fixed the problem since I had already taken apart my xbox to paint the case, so warranty is bye bye...
  it wasnt a bad fix,
  I found out that thier cooling fans in the back are 12 volt but only have 5 volts running to them so I ran a new wire from the dvd rom cable that was 12 volt to the rear cooling fans and then I dug up an old CPU fan from an old computer and mounted it to the front of the heat sink pushing more air through to the back and out the case.
  Now it is much louder but its not hot at all and I can finally play DIRT
  without the game freezing up...
  
  it only took me a total of an hour and a half to fix and that time included me looking up the info I needed to find the proper wire for the 12 volts .. the hardest part is really opening the case. but M$
  really needs to quit half-assing products and just admit they screwed up sure viva pinata and oither non demanding games play fine . but any game that has good graphics and the need for some real power the xbox poops out ...
  My xbox works great now and I highly recommend having this mod done..
  because Micro$oft has problems admitting they screwed up and only fixing the one when people complain when they should be doing a recall
  
  just google it or go to llama or xbox scene they have lots of info on it.
  why ask micro$oft ?.... go to the people that really know what they are talking about .
  I swear the next system M$ puts out they really need to give one to those guys/gals at llama or xbox scene and have them show them how to put out quality merchandise LOL

  28.7.2007 14:28 #27

• sammorris

  It seems funny this article gets a new post today, after a month of inactivity. Today is when the red ring of death happened to our communal console. However, simply turning it off and leaving it for an hour, coming down and turning it back on again, it worked fine for the half hour game of PGR3 I had. However, you're right about the cooling fans. I can clearly tell they're low voltage because of how loud they are for Delta fans. At full pelt Delta fans scream, but the ones in the 360 really don't sound like they're working that hard.

  28.7.2007 14:32 #28

• scott2k7

  i bought a fan once and that gave me the 3 lights of death but it was alright wen i didnt start it with the controller and i had 2 have the tv chanel on for some reason it was really bad so i took it of and its fine i had the 3 lights once wen playin smackdown vs raw 2007 online and i was pooing myself thinkin its gunna say it again but now i need a new saints row disk i bout like the third disk sinse christmas i bought a new one the other day and my xbox fell over so it had a massive lasere mark on it now i use the old one because the laser mark scratched off my mum wouldnt be to happy to buy another and neither am i wasting my own money i am a bit silly i no but lifes hard get used to it!

  28.7.2007 14:37 #29

• sammorris

  Yeah, one of our discs is a little scraped.
  
  You do realise we're talking about the internal fans? Those fan 'addons' ALWAYS make the situation worse. Think about it. Those fans are no more powerful than the ones there before, so what are they doing? They can't pull any additional air through the same holes, so all they do is generate extra noise.

  28.7.2007 15:03 #30

• scott2k7

  they are so loud it is unreal! like if they made an extra hole or case etc. that would be better and they should make the fans the full 12v for a start they would waste less money with people sending there xbox 360s back!

  28.7.2007 15:09 #31

• sammorris

  People would be put off by the noise. Have you heard that fan at 4000rpm? I rigged up a fan from an original crystal xbox (it's the same fan) to a 12V supply. Holy cow it's loud, and that was just one, let alone two. Besides, the problem is partly due to the lack of ventilation of the case. Note how the fans cool nothing but the CPU and GPU due to those ducts. What about the warm air in the case?

  28.7.2007 15:12 #32

• scott2k7

  i suppose yer cos like if i went on it wen my xbox wen my mum and dad in bed its really loud so i try to do stuff so the disk doesnt spin at all hardly i would like a switch to the fans powerful or not or to swap fans

  28.7.2007 15:15 #33

• evilseed

  Originally posted by scott2k7: i bought a fan once and that gave me the 3 lights of death but it was alright wen i didnt start it with the controller and i had 2 have the tv chanel on for some reason it was really bad so i took it of and its fine i had the 3 lights once wen playin smackdown vs raw 2007 online and i was pooing myself thinkin its gunna say it again but now i need a new saints row disk i bout like the third disk sinse christmas i bought a new one the other day and my xbox fell over so it had a massive lasere mark on it now i use the old one because the laser mark scratched off my mum wouldnt be to happy to buy another and neither am i wasting my own money i am a bit silly i no but lifes hard get used to it!
  
  it depends on where you hooked up the fan...
  if you are talking about those ones that snap on the back some have been known to mess up the power supply..
  
  but if it was internal it may have been hooked up to the wrong
  spot

  29.7.2007 06:18 #34

• evilseed

  Originally posted by sammorris: People would be put off by the noise. Have you heard that fan at 4000rpm? I rigged up a fan from an original crystal xbox (it's the same fan) to a 12V supply. Holy cow it's loud, and that was just one, let alone two. Besides, the problem is partly due to the lack of ventilation of the case. Note how the fans cool nothing but the CPU and GPU due to those ducts. What about the warm air in the case?
  Thats what I was saying about M$ putting out poor quality merchandise...
  a little research and development problably would have concluded that the case was too small and poorly designed..
  
  personally I think there should be more room between the dvd rom and the GPU.
  do you realize what the specs are for the 360?
  Thats just alot of power and heat to be generated crammed into a small box with poor ventilation.
  I even thought about taking mine out of the box and putting it in a PC case...
  Dirt would still freeze with the case off of it so the Holes in the case theory is a wash I am sure it would help but with the case off,its nothing but air . and it still overheated. so either two options.
  1. make the fans more powerful or add more or both(which is what I did.) and just deal with the noise.
  
  2. Make it watercooled(there is many pc kits to do so) or use a peltier cooler(basically a mini refridgeration unit they use for those food coolers that you plug into the cigarette lighter in your car/truck) those run quiet and can cool it plenty enough to fix M$
  mistakes
  
  either options will stop the red ring of death.
  read on the internet almost everyone who keeps geting the red ring and just turns it off for a while then trys again eventually has a pretty white brick they paid $400 for and now is worth spare parts.

  29.7.2007 06:36 #35

• sammorris

  I know that, and that's why I've decided to leave my joint ownership of the unit. It was working when I last used it, so when it next does it, it's their problem. I don't want to be held responsible for the after-effects of poorly designed hardware.

  29.7.2007 06:46 #36

• scott2k7

  can u give me a link for a watercooled one or wotever they are because u said they dont make much noise
  it will be much appreciated!

  29.7.2007 09:26 #37

• evilseed

  Here you go, I believe they have all the links and such to the suppliers but you have to use a PC watercooled kit and mod it to fit xbox 360 .
  It didnt look very complex if you are good working on PC's
  
  http://www.nforcershq.com/article5082.html
  
  Have fun let me know how it turns out I will problably do the same to mine but I wanted an immediete fix, without waiting for parts

  30.7.2007 15:43 #38

• hamza3862

  microsoft NEEDS TO SORT THIS OUT

  23.12.2007 09:32 #39