Microsoft beefs up Xbox 360 cooling -- freaking finally

Only took 'em a couple of years, but Microsoft is finally taking a bit more of a proactive approach to its perennial "ring of death" problems of overheating 360s. Yeah, that means instead just doing the towel trick to get your 360 up and running again, you can send your Xbox off to Microsoft, and they'll actually improve the cooling internals -- in some countries anyways. MaxConsole had been getting some reports of French Xbox 360s getting this special treatment, and now they've got the first solid proof from Czech reader Ikari. We're no cooling experts, but it sure looks fancy in there!

[Thanks, Dutchman]

[Neebs Posted Jun 13th 2007 1:41PM]

I'll have to open up my friend's 360 he just bought. As if he'd let me.

[Andre Posted Jun 13th 2007 3:35PM]

I hope they're doing this in Canada, my replacement Xbox 360 just came back from Microsoft today. :P

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 13th 2007 2:16PM]

360 getting hot too often? Do what I do: don't own one. I never have to worry about having mine get the Ring of Death.

(wipes dust off of Dreamcast)

[Dragod Posted Jun 13th 2007 2:31PM]

Cool thing about buying your 360 from Sam's Club: They don't care when you bought it. They'll accept a return or exchange. The guy said that they get some kind of deal for it or something.. So, once an Elite with the 65nm chips come out, I can return it all, and I can pay the difference to get the Elite. Though I'm going to try to sell my extra two White controllers if that happens.

[erocm123 Posted Jun 13th 2007 2:42PM]

We have three 360's at my house ranging from 9 mo. to 12 mo. old and have not had any problems yet . . .(knock on wood).

[Zoidbot Posted Jun 14th 2007 7:10AM]

Surely this has to be a record, or you're a liar....

[erocm123 Posted Jun 16th 2007 1:53PM]

Nope, not a liar. Here is a link to my setup.

http://boardsus.playstation.com/playstation/board/message?board.id=ps3&view=by_date_ascending&message.id=1244156#M1244156

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 13th 2007 3:16PM]

Damn I am hoping they give me one of these for my next one. My 3rd 360 just got the rings of death. I have already had 2 replacements, and luckily they now don't even ask when your unit dies a 3rd time. Mine was always well ventilated, and I never even played it all that much, but again and again my units keep dying. And I have new HD DVD's to watch too!!!

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 13th 2007 3:03PM]

Palooz, last time I checked Apple didn't have a gaming console so why would Apple "fanboys" be making up crap about Microsoft? Don't you think it would be Sony and Nintentdo "fanboys" making smack up about the 360. That just goes to show how ignorant and how much a M$ fanboy you are. No where did I see this blog mention iPod and Zune, Tiger and Vista which would bring out Apple fanboys...stay on subject.

[ludwigk Posted Jun 13th 2007 3:49PM]

I don't understand how the 'towel trick' fixed some people's x360's. If heat is supposed to be a problem, how does wrapping it in a towel improve this? That just shuts off your air circulation, causing the x360 to superheat itself. Seems like an easy way to kill your xbox, but some people seem to be having success with it. *boggle*

[Nimble Cat Posted Jun 13th 2007 4:13PM]

My first 360 had overheating issues. The one they sent me last November is now having issues with the disk tray. I called them up and they wanted me to pay $140 for repairs. I got them down to $70, but I haven't sent it in yet.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 13th 2007 4:22PM]

The towel trick allows the solder points on the GPU to get hot enough to run and go back to where they were suppose to be (temporary fix). The solder points that were overheated from normal use became loose and the solder ran to another part of the chip. This fix is only temporary. MS put a glue over the elites GPU so it will take a much longer time for the solder to run. The xclamps cause the 360 mobo to warp when it gets too hot and this warping can also cause the solder points to break and run somewhere else. If you remove the mobo's ability to warp you essentially fix your xbox. I think this new heatsink lowers the temperatures enough to the point where the mobo wont warp TOO MUCH.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 13th 2007 8:29PM]

My Xbox 360 does have heat issues but it depends on what game I am playing. most of my original xbox games I can play for hours but if I put a xbox 360 game in there I’m lucky to get an hour out of it b4 it overheats and I have a intercooler on it (witch is bloody loud when you first start it up)

Does anyone know if this is valid for Australian customers? If it is I recon it would be well worth me doing it.

[PowerLlama Posted Jun 13th 2007 8:40PM]

Seriously guys, "a couple of years"? The console has been out 18 months.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 20th 2007 12:12AM]

Hot and loud. WAY to hot and way to loud. I can hear my machine from the other room with the tv on. It is also hot enough to bake beans.
Mine has never gone down yet. hopefully it will not.

[ipjunkie Posted Jun 13th 2007 10:28PM]

Ok, I have a similar experience to the poster above who got his 360 back within 7 days.

Saturday: Called Xbox support, brand new ELITE that I had for 4 days was freezing. They said unit needed to be replaced/repaired. They setup service, said I would be getting a box to ship old on back in.

Tuesday: Received shipping box
Wednesday: dropped off box at UPS
Thursday: notified that my 360 was recieved at service depot
Friday: receive email that my "repaired" 360 has been shipped
Tuesday: NEW 360 arrives

Not too bad considering I was told be MS Xbox support that I could be looking at 3-4 weeks. I'm also fortunate to be in Texas only one day's transit time from the depot via UPS. I got a brand new ELITE and a Live 1 month card for my trouble. I was satisfied, although I missed a few days of the Halo 3 beta, but oh well.

[Zoidbot Posted Jun 14th 2007 7:10AM]

Hope you are used to this procedure, as it's likely to be a regular thing..

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 14th 2007 10:56AM]

I know three different people who experienced their 360's literally catching fire. I think it is about time Microsoft stepped up and did something.
Jay
http://www.airdistributors.com/

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 14th 2007 9:04PM]

#1 Always keep the 360 upright, putting on it's side like a regular xbox ups the overheating.

#2 DO NOT USE 3rd part fan add-ons like the Nyko Intercooler. Those fry the 360.

#3 The DVD isn't all that loud, although mine is 3rd generation bought May 2006... I have more problems with old xbox DVD than the 360. Only problem I've ever had is getting odd "scratched disk" errors on downloaded demos... once I delete and redownload they work fine.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 22nd 2007 12:59PM]

Just change your air filters regularly (and use the best brand, not some cheapo $1 filter), swiffer your house, and have plenty of air cans with straws to clean out your 360. And absolutley DO NOT use an intercooler (they don't help, I'd know, with 3 loud small fans blocking two big ones and still get the ROD). Dust is the number one 360 killer, not small spaces.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 22nd 2007 7:08PM]

But will this new cooling unit be placed in 360 models shipping to stores?

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 23rd 2007 6:30AM]

can anyone say if they have the new cooling in their repaired/new xbox 360s? Oh well, im getting mine back today and i live in uk, so if it has new cooling and i can be bothered i will post on this site lol. and its been 15 days which is how long they told me it was gonna be.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 16th 2007 3:23PM]

hello everybody,i have recently noticed scraches on my 360 discs.my opinion is ididnt have any trouble with my ps3,ps2,gamecube,nintenowii,regularxbox,so this tells me microsoft screwed up and they need to be held accountable,oh yeah minealso gets hot and freezes up so im not paying extra for a blower that should have came with it in the first place becuase of the manufacturer`s screw up.