Exploring The 360's Crashing and Heat

GameDailyBiz has a piece up looking into the crashing and overheating problems that have plagued the Xbox 360 since the system launched. A new crashing problem seems to be associated with the most recent update to the Xbox Live software, while german forum-goers think they may have identified the overheating issue. From the article: "The way it's installed now by MS the GPU chip makes contact with the protection foil instead of the heat transfer pad. This can of course cause cooling issues for the graphics chip as for optimal cooling performance there should just be a thin layer of thermal pad between the GPU chip and heatsink."

Comments

Sad day indeed

[suspected]

One of the main advantages of a console games over PC games is simplicity and compatibility. About 10 years ago, installing a computer game wasn't as simple as it is today, and you were never sure if it would run on your computer. Today such concerns are minor, but consoles still hold a considerable market share even though they are nothing more but computers that are geared for video game.

Having said that, it's really disheartening to hear that Microsoft has over-looked the key advantage of consoles and screwed it up. I certainly hope that the xbox360 sales stay low, if for no other reason than to send a message to prospective console entrepreneurs: don't screw your consumer base by releasing expensive, under-tested products!

Re:Sad day indeed

[E-Rock]

Sales stay low? Low as in they sell every single unit they get on the shelves?

Also, I'm not sure how 'wide spread' this problem is as no one I know with a 360 has ever had it happend and no-one I see complaining about it on-line has either. It's always a friend of a friend, or I hear that...

Re:Sad day indeed

[wolrahnaes]

Sold out does mean as recently as 2 weeks ago, one local Best Buy got a shipment of 6, and 15 minutes later I was walking out with the last one in hand. Every other store in town was out of stock.

This isn't a small town either, Toledo is either the 4th or 5th largest city in Ohio (not sure if we're ahead of Akron).

There were only 2 core packages anywhere too, so even those pieces of crap are selling.

Re:Sad day indeed

[JL-b8]

I have to say that every time the 360 comes into the limelight I smell the fanboyism all over the place. If it isn't the PC gamers than its the sony or nintendo freaks and everyone slings a nice thick wad of mud on the other guy while thinking they're preference is so high and mighty. I've owned all 3 systems and I've gone through my share of crap with all of them. I've yet to cross that road with my 360. But I know they're imperfect machines designed by imperfect humans and assembled by more imperfect people. Shit happens. The way of Bill is the way to salvation. All hail the green Pope!

Re:Tragedy Becomes Farce

[CaymanIslandCarpedie]

Same here and any time mine isn't being played it is acting as a media center extender. So its been on 24/7 for months now without a single issue. Obviously when its not happening to you its easy to things its all a load of crap, but I'd love to hear some type of stats as to what % are effected by this.

until now ...

[Frag-A-Muffin]

consoles have been such a stable platform. A consistent target for developers with usually not many surprises.

Thanks Microsoft! For bringing in the troubles of the Wintel world into the console world! Updates to fix a system that clearly wasn't ready. That's what I want from a console, incomplete, work in progress! w00T! :)

Re:That's not a glitch!

[earnest murderer]

It's a feature.

Actually it is. At least according to some... http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=4 96524 or http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=4 96524&st=30

Re:Holy crap these people are morons

[iocat]

I like the part where there's this worry that the foil will somehow block the heat transfer. Right. If you believe that, wrap your hand in tinfoil and stick it in a fire.

User Headspace Error

[Stormcrow309]

Several people I know have gotten their 360s that I know. The major issue that I have seen is the insuffecient grey matter heap size issue. You know, PEBKAC.

Three friends and a brother all have had the heat issue. They kept their consoles in nice av cabinets, one with a glass front. No air flow. A-B user interaction error. We had this problem with high performance gaming PCs and enclosed areas. Local user issue.

Re:User Headspace Error

[rafemonkey]

This is the same mistake Microsoft made. They, like you, assume that the 360 is a computer, and people will treat it as such. But the reality is that a game console is not supposed to be a computer. It's a piece of AV hardware, and it ought to work like it, since that's how people are going to treat it. Think of it like a VCR, it needs to be able to go in the cabinet under the TV and still work.

Re:Tragedy Becomes Farce

[SnprBoB86]

Right, so whatever hocky game my friend has is NOT GOOD SOFTWARE.

Geometry wars, Call of Duty 2, Halo 2, Full Auto, and the various other games do not exhibit this behavior. Shitty, buggy games exist on all platforms.

Re:Holy crap these people are morons

[Entropius]

Foil does do a good job at blocking radiative transfer.

Re:new user notes

[Dance_Dance_Karnov]

what I hate is not having the ability to boot to menu, ala the DS.

Thermal Pad?

[Anonymous Coward]

What thermal pad are they talking about? Those pads are for Electrical Insulation! They also are more resistant to heat transfer making them bad. You only use them when you need to electrically isolate the component from the heatsink. IE multiple transistors with active tabs on a shared heatsink. For a processor like that you want the chip as close to the heatsink as possible for best heat conductivity. Heatsink grease is only used to fill in any air spaces (nothing is completly flat) between the chip and the heatsink. The grease conducts heat much better than air but not as well as direct contact.

Re:new user notes

[DeadScreenSky]

Most of your problems just sound like new user issues, honestly.

Downloads are fux0red. You can only download one at a time, and while that's happening you can't do anything else. There is no time display, only a percentage display. Not only is the percentage display grossly wrong, if you don't touch the box (because you can't do anything else), the screensaver kicks in and shows you the menu underneath -- totally useless. Downloads instantly start at 5% done. Abort and restart it, and it'll automatically be 50% done. Abort and restart it again and it'll be 100% done and quit downloading.
Limiting downloads is actually a feature, sort of. The X360 isn't a PC. Games expect to get complete hardware performance every time they run (technically 5% or so of one of the cores is devoted to the GUI, but you understand what I mean). Yeah, I guess you could still want to listen to music or something while you download a demo, but the interface isn't really designed for multitasking like that. That's a good call, it's already fairly complicated enough for a gaming system. Like I said, it's a console, not a PC.

You want the screensaver to cut in. Some HDTVs are very susceptible to burn-in. The controller turns off too, to save power. I guess that could be mildly annoying to some people, but I don't think you are expected to just sit there and watch the download.

The 50% resume issue is a little bizarre, but it's not really much of a problem IMO. I've never had that fake 100% issue before, and I've resumed and stopped downloads all of the time.

The box constantly logs me in and out - some things need me in, some out.
Like your problem with unexpected reboots, this sounds like an issue with software updates for a new system. I'm not sure I consider it a problem myself, but you won't really have to worry about it now.

Menu items are inconsistent. Even on the same menu, some items are highlighted by brightening the center, others are highlighted by brightening the edges.
Where does this specifically occur? I've never noticed this.

When you quit a game, the OS doesn't know if you've saved the game or not. So, it'll always warn you that you are about to lose data, even if you haven't started a game. A little communication between the OS and games, please!
This is more of an issue with shoddy games that don't autosave, generally lazy multiplatform releases. It's not a problem with the consoles. Games like DOA4 will never make this complaint. It just autosaves in the background when you unlock or accomplish something new. This kind of thing was pretty standard even on the better Xbox1 games.

The unit is really loud. Much louder than my PC or my microwave.
It is very loud. This is probably my biggest complaint with the console. That said, my PS2 is roughly the same volume, maybe even louder. So is my new videocard. I understand why they don't allow this, but it's too bad you couldn't upgrade the fans to something higher-end and quieter like I have with my PC's CPU.

Graphics have been a letdown compared to my PC.
Wow, seriously? What PC games am I missing exactly? I've had the completely opposite experience. I haven't seen anything on the PC that looks as good as PGR3, DOA4, Kameo, GRAW, Full Auto, and occasionally PD0. This is the first videocard upgrade I've really been disappointed with, and it's solely because nothing has come close to the X360 I've had for months.

And I'm a big fan of the controller too. One of these days I have to pick up the wired version for my PC. It's just so damn comfortable.