Macha on 18/3/2009 at 22:26
Like anyone who owns one of these shoddy consoles I have recently suffered the three red rings caused by the fact that, despite 2 huge (and noisy fans) and an internal heatsink designed by the supposed best in the world, the xbox has a tendency to cook its own guts. Luckily still in warranty they begrudgingly replaced, instead of repaired, my console. Now, being the cynic that I am I suppose that means that they've hacked together a console from old bits, tied it together with a bit of spare string and sent it to me.
I don't know if its normal as I didn't bother checking this with my old console, but after literally five minutes of being on to check this replacement worked it got incredibly hot. I don't want to have to pay for another replacement and I know it is indeed ridicoulous that I should have to think of something like this, but do you guys have any tips on how best to position my xbox or any fairly cheap but cheery things I could buy to make sure it doesn't explode?
Also I live in a cool climate and my room is never warm anyway.
steo on 18/3/2009 at 22:52
get water cooling, or even liquid nitrogen cooling for the xbox [/the kind of really annoying suggestion which, to anyone who bothered to read your whole post, is obviously completely inappropriate but that this kind of thread inevitably produces]
How's the airflow to the console? Keep it in an open space and give it as much room as possible. Play less xbox.
Salvage on 18/3/2009 at 23:41
There are third party coolers available(15-20 dollars) but I don't know how well they work.
catbarf on 18/3/2009 at 23:49
Quote Posted by Salvage
There are third party coolers available(15-20 dollars) but I don't know how well they work.
I'm not sure, but I think they might void your warranty and replacement guarantee, so better to let the thing melt and have them replace it again than be unable to game and short a few hundred euros.
RavynousHunter on 19/3/2009 at 02:48
They do make external fans you can plug into the back of your 360 for some extra cooling power. Just plug it in, no need for any modifications or anything; and doesn't void any warranties. Works fairly well, and is cheap to boot.
Aja on 19/3/2009 at 02:54
Make sure the power supply brick is separate from the console, preferably a few inches to the side (if you put it behind you're just creating a giant heattrap).
Fringe on 19/3/2009 at 03:11
Do you remember when reliability and technology faults were big arguments in the console versus PC wars?
Pepperidge Farm remembers.
Renzatic on 19/3/2009 at 04:19
This is the best advice I've seen thus far:
Quote Posted by Steo
Keep it in an open space and give it as much room as possible.
I know 7 people who own an Xbox360. Of those 7, 5 of them have red ringed and had to be sent back. Those 5 also had the console crammed in somewhere on their bookshelves or in between their DVD player and reciever, and didn't leave anywhere near enough room for the thing to breath. The two who have had the same Xbox since day one always kept theirs someplace cool, separated from the bulk of their entertainment centers.
Granted it's probably not the most convenient thing in the world if you don't have alot of space to work with. Hell, depending on which rev Xbox you have, it might die regardless of what you do. But based on personal experience, it's the first thing I'd recommend if you want to keep the thing alive.
henke on 19/3/2009 at 06:57
Quote Posted by Macha
and an internal heatsink designed by the supposed best in the world
Who claims they're the best in the world? IIRC, the RRoD is caused by the shoddy heatsink not being able to cool the processor enough, causing the board to warp from the heat and inching the processor away from the heatsink. You can fix this problem yourself if you want to, by removing the X-clamp, scraping away all the thermal paste, re-applying with the expensive kind, then screwing the heatsink back in place with normal screws and bolts. This will, however, void your warranty. But it's the way I did it when my box RRoD'd. Because I'm some kind of idiot.
Aja on 19/3/2009 at 07:35
My disc drive kept making funny noises when I played Dead Rising. And I knew the drive was going to fail soon, and I knew that if it did fail I'd have to pay $100 to get it fixed. So the most logical course of action was to overheat it and let the warranty take care of the rest. But blocking the airflow doesn't work that well. I had plastic bags on the rear vents, towels on the side and heavy stuff to keep it all in place. I turned the console into a small oven, but it kept shutting down due to the heat. I couldn't get more than few minutes into any game before the safety-off kicked in, though I did run it through ten or fifteen cycles. I eventually gave up.
But then one day it magically broke all on its own! My new system doesn't have an HDMI port, but it's quieter and the disc drive doesn't grind discs anymore (I used to regularly open the tray to a still-spinning dvd)
the moral of the story is: good things come to those who play gears 2 (that is, if their warranty's good)
