XBOX 360 - Does it overheat a lot?
Discussion
Hi
I have been looking to buy an XBOX 360, but Play.com sell cooling fans for it to "Helps to reduce running temperature allowing your console to perform more efficiently and reliably"
www.play.com/Games/Xbox360/STCS3/3-/3257063/Xbox_360_Cooling_Fan/Product.html
Therefore, are they unreliable and do they crash a lot or just get hot?
Thanks for any info
Tom
I have been looking to buy an XBOX 360, but Play.com sell cooling fans for it to "Helps to reduce running temperature allowing your console to perform more efficiently and reliably"
www.play.com/Games/Xbox360/STCS3/3-/3257063/Xbox_360_Cooling_Fan/Product.html
Therefore, are they unreliable and do they crash a lot or just get hot?
Thanks for any info
Tom
My best guess would be its complete bollox about the overheating stuff.
Either people are blocking vents and thus causing them to overheat or tampering for the sake of it.
A company like Microsoft would run hundreeds of them on a test bed at 100% probably for weeks to see if any issues are apparent when the units are under stress.
If a rumor starts like this then company's will cash in on this by selling equipment that is not required.
Either people are blocking vents and thus causing them to overheat or tampering for the sake of it.
A company like Microsoft would run hundreeds of them on a test bed at 100% probably for weeks to see if any issues are apparent when the units are under stress.
If a rumor starts like this then company's will cash in on this by selling equipment that is not required.
I agree to a certain extent, but power supplies were failing quite a bit,
many consoles have failed for unknown reasons (not all due to being in cupboards etc), the latest
live update has screwed up some machines and killed them and moving the console with a disc inside has destroyed the game disc.
Test beds or not, they have had their share of issues.
I know a few people that have had them die and none of them were in warm enviroments.
Stories of people now having owned 2 or 3 consoles even after taking precautions just makes
me wonder what the problem was.
many consoles have failed for unknown reasons (not all due to being in cupboards etc), the latest
live update has screwed up some machines and killed them and moving the console with a disc inside has destroyed the game disc.
Test beds or not, they have had their share of issues.
I know a few people that have had them die and none of them were in warm enviroments.
Stories of people now having owned 2 or 3 consoles even after taking precautions just makes
me wonder what the problem was.
The problem could be anything. However, I suspect the root cause of all this drama is corner cutting and penny pinching.
Look at it this way, in the case of heat: every modern x86 CPU (and I belive PPC) has a thermal cutout in it, if it gets too hot for whatever reason then the CPU either throttles itself down in terms of speed or litterly stops processing anything. Find it rather odd that something as grunty as the 360 (and it is a monster in terms of console processing power) wouldn't have this feature thrown in to the processors. Be rather simple to work as well; CPU gets outside its thermal saftey zone, save memory state to HDD, screen blanked, text that reads "Thermal Overload: Please power off and wait for 30min" and then the CPU ceases operation.
I regularly move powered down PC's with CD's and DVD's in their drives, including laptops, never seen a disk rendered unusable (actually now I think about it, I haven't even seen a disk scratched by doing this in a long time). Which would suggest the drives suspension mechanism isn't working properly (or doesn't have one) and/or the optics aren't retracted as far as they could or indeed should be.
PSU bricks failing. Nuff' said. My old AMD laptop brick has a weeny little fan on it 'just in case' it's an annoying feature as it's rather loud but I'm sure Microsoft's engineers could have developed something workable.
Bad software updates sending things spastic in random cases: Welcome, console gamers, to what every Windows user has been ripping their hair out about for the last umpteen years. What? You thought you 360 people were going to escape that? Dream on
Welcome to the club, queue for the 'kick a MS dev' event starts behind the people who got shafted by Win95A. 
But other than the software issues, which are typical Microsoft, it sounds like the project blew the budget on the processor and cut every corner they could to keep the budget under control afterwards; which explains why replacing the thermal gunk with something decent CAN help.
Speaking as someone who's dealt with Microsofts offerings since Windows 3.1, I'm not actually surprised about that either.
Edit to add: And in terms of bench testing. Depends. If I run a 360 that's built to A1 spec with perfect parts in a perfect enviroment... will it fail? Probably not. Bench testing will only show up faults if you play with the variables, we don't know what and indeed IF they benched the thing properly.
Look at it this way, in the case of heat: every modern x86 CPU (and I belive PPC) has a thermal cutout in it, if it gets too hot for whatever reason then the CPU either throttles itself down in terms of speed or litterly stops processing anything. Find it rather odd that something as grunty as the 360 (and it is a monster in terms of console processing power) wouldn't have this feature thrown in to the processors. Be rather simple to work as well; CPU gets outside its thermal saftey zone, save memory state to HDD, screen blanked, text that reads "Thermal Overload: Please power off and wait for 30min" and then the CPU ceases operation.
I regularly move powered down PC's with CD's and DVD's in their drives, including laptops, never seen a disk rendered unusable (actually now I think about it, I haven't even seen a disk scratched by doing this in a long time). Which would suggest the drives suspension mechanism isn't working properly (or doesn't have one) and/or the optics aren't retracted as far as they could or indeed should be.
PSU bricks failing. Nuff' said. My old AMD laptop brick has a weeny little fan on it 'just in case' it's an annoying feature as it's rather loud but I'm sure Microsoft's engineers could have developed something workable.
Bad software updates sending things spastic in random cases: Welcome, console gamers, to what every Windows user has been ripping their hair out about for the last umpteen years. What? You thought you 360 people were going to escape that? Dream on
Welcome to the club, queue for the 'kick a MS dev' event starts behind the people who got shafted by Win95A. But other than the software issues, which are typical Microsoft, it sounds like the project blew the budget on the processor and cut every corner they could to keep the budget under control afterwards; which explains why replacing the thermal gunk with something decent CAN help.
Speaking as someone who's dealt with Microsofts offerings since Windows 3.1, I'm not actually surprised about that either.
Edit to add: And in terms of bench testing. Depends. If I run a 360 that's built to A1 spec with perfect parts in a perfect enviroment... will it fail? Probably not. Bench testing will only show up faults if you play with the variables, we don't know what and indeed IF they benched the thing properly.
Edited by ThePassenger on Saturday 11th November 00:10
I think the discs being damaged only happened when the position of the console
was changed while the console was in use, at least that is what i heard.
I believe they have put a warning sticker on the consoles now?
What you suggest about the thermal throttle is interesting though because i have also
read reports of peoples 360's running jerky etc until they turn them off for a while.
Maybe that is another heat related argument.
I'm sure every console has had its share of problems over the years though, much like anything else,
but it does seem to be quite common with the 360.
Despite cooling mine with an extra fan etc, i still get that same feeling i do with
say PC hard drives when i turn it on.Namely, will it power up ok or will i be sitting
with my head in my hands wondering what the hell went wrong
Oddly enough i have never had any console die on me apart from the original Xbox and i have owned almost all of them over the years.
I had a hard drive death and a power supply go pop on 2 old Xboxes...maybe i am on borrowed time with my 360!
<< touches wood.
was changed while the console was in use, at least that is what i heard.
I believe they have put a warning sticker on the consoles now?
What you suggest about the thermal throttle is interesting though because i have also
read reports of peoples 360's running jerky etc until they turn them off for a while.
Maybe that is another heat related argument.
I'm sure every console has had its share of problems over the years though, much like anything else,
but it does seem to be quite common with the 360.
Despite cooling mine with an extra fan etc, i still get that same feeling i do with
say PC hard drives when i turn it on.Namely, will it power up ok or will i be sitting
with my head in my hands wondering what the hell went wrong
Oddly enough i have never had any console die on me apart from the original Xbox and i have owned almost all of them over the years.
I had a hard drive death and a power supply go pop on 2 old Xboxes...maybe i am on borrowed time with my 360!
<< touches wood.
Digby said:
I think the discs being damaged only happened when the position of the console
was changed while the console was in use, at least that is what i heard.
I believe they have put a warning sticker on the consoles now?
was changed while the console was in use, at least that is what i heard.
I believe they have put a warning sticker on the consoles now?
Dunno TBH. Xbox = Microsoft. I wouldn't touch it with your 10ft barge pole let alone mine.
Digby said:
What you suggest about the thermal throttle is interesting though because i have also
read reports of peoples 360's running jerky etc until they turn them off for a while.
Maybe that is another heat related argument.
read reports of peoples 360's running jerky etc until they turn them off for a while.
Maybe that is another heat related argument.
Yep. That's thermal all right; computers do weird things when they overheat (like tearing graphics, jerky performance, etc). As it's still trying to play the game rather than save itself I'd bet money they thing can't throttle or simply power down the processor.
Digby said:
I'm sure every console has had its share of problems over the years though, much like anything else, but it does seem to be quite common with the 360.
Not really. Every console has a few bad units escape QA. However as consoles become increasingly complex they become harder to build, develop and test. So unless Sony by some miracle perform the worlds wickedest QA on every PS3 leaving the factory... expect it to be just like the 360 (if not more so). Same with PC's and games in general TBH.
Digby said:
Despite cooling mine with an extra fan etc, i still get that same feeling i do with
say PC hard drives when i turn it on.Namely, will it power up ok or will i be sitting
with my head in my hands wondering what the hell went wrong
say PC hard drives when i turn it on.Namely, will it power up ok or will i be sitting
with my head in my hands wondering what the hell went wrong
Them, Microsoft, pole, barge, your, 10ft, poke, wouldn't, with, It's, I
Welcome to Windoes Update lottery. The fun game for 90% of the computer owning population, will it download, will it install properly, will my computer work afterwards? Nobody knows, fun for all the family Ages 3 and above contains scenes of extreme violence against inanimate objects. Parental discression advised
My son's on his third one (inside 11 months) and second wireless pad - shoulder button worked but didn't make the click feedback sound to notify its pressing.
The 360 has been sitting in free air and would lock up randomly. This 3rd one has done it already within 4-6 weeks of being swapped over by the retailer.
They confirmed the returned one was part of a batch of serial numbers indicated by MS (I presume) to be potentially iffy.
It'll be interesting to see the situation with the PS3 as to how many are found to suffer from similar issues.
The 360 has been sitting in free air and would lock up randomly. This 3rd one has done it already within 4-6 weeks of being swapped over by the retailer.
They confirmed the returned one was part of a batch of serial numbers indicated by MS (I presume) to be potentially iffy.
It'll be interesting to see the situation with the PS3 as to how many are found to suffer from similar issues.
JagLover said:
There are details of a some custom made water cooled XBox360s on the internet, which apparently are far more effective at preventing overheating. I wonder how much a massproduced water cooled XBox360 would cost?
Only slightly more than an air cooled one in reality.
However, water cooling is more complex than air cooling. Complexity = cost both in terms of designing it and in finaly assembly.
You also have the issue of leaks and/or requiring maintenance. People will need to know that they should periodically check the coolant level and add more, they need to know that if the coolant vanishes then turn the damn thing off and remove the power.
People are dumb; they won't do this and will complain bitterly about it.
Not sure if anyone has read the reports on the PS3 release - but its near silent and doesnt seem to generate much heat at all. Famous last words of course, but it seems that Sony have understood what the consumer wants, while Microsoft have gone for horsepower without considering heat and its management.....
Xbox360 - damn fine machine and very quick, but suffers with heat and very noisy fans.....
Xbox360 - damn fine machine and very quick, but suffers with heat and very noisy fans.....
ThePassenger said:
Only slightly more than an air cooled one in reality.
However, water cooling is more complex than air cooling. Complexity = cost both in terms of designing it and in finaly assembly.
You also have the issue of leaks and/or requiring maintenance. People will need to know that they should periodically check the coolant level and add more, they need to know that if the coolant vanishes then turn the damn thing off and remove the power.
People are dumb; they won't do this and will complain bitterly about it.
They probably would have a problem with some people; but if they offered it as an optional extra, at additional cost, then only your 'hard core' gamers would tend to buy it.
off_again said:
Xbox360 - damn fine machine and very quick, but suffers with heat and very noisy fans.....
I can hardly hear my fans at all, the DVD drive sounds like a turbine though.
Also, the Xbox 360 cpu heatsink uses a form of water cooling out of the box in the form of a heatpipe heatsink.Nothing new really as they have been in use on PC's for ages in a similar guise.
It circulates in the heatsink, rises as steam, cools back to water again and repeats.
Not quite the same as a full blown liquid cooled solution of course though.
Talking of water cooling, you can now order up the latest graphics cards with water cooling
out of the box for around 600 notes lol.
Edited by Digby on Saturday 11th November 19:41
Digby said:
off_again said:
Xbox360 - damn fine machine and very quick, but suffers with heat and very noisy fans.....
I can hardly hear my fans at all, the DVD drive sounds like a turbine though.
Also, the Xbox 360 cpu heatsink uses a form of water cooling out of the box in the form of a heatpipe heatsink.Nothing new really as they have been in use on PC's for ages in a similar guise.
It circulates in the heatsink, rises as steam, cools back to water again and repeats.
Not quite the same as a full blown liquid cooled solution of course though.
Talking of water cooling, you can now order up the latest graphics cards with water cooling
out of the box for around 600 notes lol.
Sounds like a phase changing system. Hollow tubes with a wick like substance inside, small amount of liquid inside; liquid heats up goes up pike and thus in to giant heat sink connected to pipe, cools to liquid and is returned to the CPU block via the wick.
Not strictly "water cooling" as the liquid isn't water, but I get you.
ThePassenger said:
Sounds like a phase changing system. Hollow tubes with a wick like substance inside, small amount of liquid inside; liquid heats up goes up pike and thus in to giant heat sink connected to pipe, cools to liquid and is returned to the CPU block via the wick.
Not strictly "water cooling" as the liquid isn't water, but I get you.
That's the type of thing aye, like i say nothing new really.
Anyway, if you have issues with your Xbox but can still power it up, why not use it to cook
your breakfast?
www.kotaku.com/gaming/xbox-360/xbox-360-cooks-your-breakfast-211030.php
ThePassenger said:
Sounds like a phase changing system. Hollow tubes with a wick like substance inside, small amount of liquid inside; liquid heats up goes up pike and thus in to giant heat sink connected to pipe, cools to liquid and is returned to the CPU block via the wick.
Not strictly "water cooling" as the liquid isn't water, but I get you.
Commonly known as a heatpipe. Very quick to heat up and transfer heat along the pipe. Nicely designed heatpipes can operate through various angles so can be designed around other equipment. It'll require a secondary heat sink to help spread the heat away from source and/or a large diameter slow moving fan (to keep noise down) to also help transfer and dissipate the heat.
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