Would you like to get more useful life out of your Xbox 360? And avoid the overheating and red ring of death problems that plague this device? If so then proper usage and care of your console should be your number one priority. There a number of practices you can do that will keep your console healthy for years to come. Two of these will be covered in this article.
The number one enemy of micro electronics is heat. The smallness of these devices means they are very poor at dissipating heat. This is because they have little surface area for cooling into the surrounding air. Their small size also means that internal heat is concentrated in a small mass so their temperature can rise very rapidly. That is why cooling systems are always used with these devices.
The components inside of your Xbox 360 are no exception to this. The console has a cooling system that is only marginally effective. Over a lifetime of use, these components will have had a lot of exposure to high temperatures. High temperatures degrade micro chips over time so long hours of Xbox usage especially with games that place a heavy work load on the GPU and CPU will "wear out" your Xbox.
Another issue with heat is how it causes warpage of the motherboard. Repeated warpage stresses and weakens the solder joints. When one or more of these joints break, your Xbox ceases to function.
One suggestion for reducing heat exposure is to never allow the console to get too hot in the first place. This means avoiding super long gaming marathons and limiting use to only a couple of hours at a time. Another less obvious suggestion is to allow the console to idle for twenty minutes at the Xbox dashboard before you shut down the power. Doing so allows the cooling fans to continue to remove heat from the system. Since the console is in idle, no new heat is being generated which allows the fans to bring temperatures down to a much lower level before shutdown.
When you shut down your Xbox without allowing it to idle, leftover heat gets trapped, taking hours to dissipate without the fans on. This increases the exposure time of the motherboard and its chips to heat.
If you make a habit of using the two tips discussed here, the useful lifetime of your Xbox 360 will be extended. You will also see fewer occurrences of the two red light error. Another benefit is that you will reduce the risk of getting the red ring of death.
The number one enemy of micro electronics is heat. The smallness of these devices means they are very poor at dissipating heat. This is because they have little surface area for cooling into the surrounding air. Their small size also means that internal heat is concentrated in a small mass so their temperature can rise very rapidly. That is why cooling systems are always used with these devices.
The components inside of your Xbox 360 are no exception to this. The console has a cooling system that is only marginally effective. Over a lifetime of use, these components will have had a lot of exposure to high temperatures. High temperatures degrade micro chips over time so long hours of Xbox usage especially with games that place a heavy work load on the GPU and CPU will "wear out" your Xbox.
Another issue with heat is how it causes warpage of the motherboard. Repeated warpage stresses and weakens the solder joints. When one or more of these joints break, your Xbox ceases to function.
One suggestion for reducing heat exposure is to never allow the console to get too hot in the first place. This means avoiding super long gaming marathons and limiting use to only a couple of hours at a time. Another less obvious suggestion is to allow the console to idle for twenty minutes at the Xbox dashboard before you shut down the power. Doing so allows the cooling fans to continue to remove heat from the system. Since the console is in idle, no new heat is being generated which allows the fans to bring temperatures down to a much lower level before shutdown.
When you shut down your Xbox without allowing it to idle, leftover heat gets trapped, taking hours to dissipate without the fans on. This increases the exposure time of the motherboard and its chips to heat.
If you make a habit of using the two tips discussed here, the useful lifetime of your Xbox 360 will be extended. You will also see fewer occurrences of the two red light error. Another benefit is that you will reduce the risk of getting the red ring of death.
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Got an Xbox that runs too hot? Get more troubleshooting information about fixing the 3 Red Lights Error.
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