Comments on: Overheated gamers http://seattle.metblogs.com/2008/01/30/overheated-gamers/ Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:15:38 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: Jake of 8bitjoystick.com http://seattle.metblogs.com/2008/01/30/overheated-gamers/comment-page-1/#comment-6557 Jake of 8bitjoystick.com Wed, 30 Jan 2008 17:34:30 +0000 http://seattle.metblogs.com/2008/01/30/overheated-gamers/#comment-6557 Room heating and air flow problem around the unit can be factors in making things worse but just storing and using an Xbox 360 properly is not enough to prevent a failing unit from dying on you. I know games that have treated their Xbox 360s like they were a box of Faberge eggs but it still died on them. It's not as simple as overheating. It can cook dozens of chips and connectors that can sustain damage from the thermal exchange. Also the 360 wasn't just a rush it had personal issues, not enough testing and the design of the motherboard was dependent on the sexy form factor. My <a href="http://www.8bitjoystick.com/archives/jake_inside_source_reveal_the_truth_about_xbox_360_red_ring_of_death_failures.php" rel="nofollow">original interview article is linked here</a> I do all right traffic wise. It pays the server bills and other perks. The company as spent over 6.5 Billion on the Xbox and Zune projects over the years and it's going to take them a while to pay that back but overall it is a defensive product to try and stop the set top box and music market from being dominated by non Microsoft companies. Also Microsoft though that Sony was going to launch the PS3 in Spring of 06 . They also had no idea the Wii was going to be so popular. Microsoft has had a major PC hardware manufacturing team in operation since the days of DOS so I don't buy the "Were just a software company" line. There has been 4.5 million dead Xbox 360s that has gone through the reanimation process and I don't think that they are doing enough testing in the repair factories. If you get a dead 360 they don't just give you a new one they send you a older previously died 360 that has a new fan on it but has a much higher chance of a 2nd failure since it had all the damage to the chips from it's first death. That is how gamers will have to be on their fifth or tenth Xbox because they are shipping back hardware that has already been run hard and failed and they are not doing enough testing over a long period of time in the repair factories. It would be awesome if you got a new Xbox out of the deal but you sort of get patched up sloppy 2nds previously dead "zombie" xbox back instead of a new box with the newest motherboard designs. That is what my next article is about. Room heating and air flow problem around the unit can be factors in making things worse but just storing and using an Xbox 360 properly is not enough to prevent a failing unit from dying on you. I know games that have treated their Xbox 360s like they were a box of Faberge eggs but it still died on them. It’s not as simple as overheating. It can cook dozens of chips and connectors that can sustain damage from the thermal exchange.

Also the 360 wasn’t just a rush it had personal issues, not enough testing and the design of the motherboard was dependent on the sexy form factor.

My original interview article is linked here
I do all right traffic wise. It pays the server bills and other perks.

The company as spent over 6.5 Billion on the Xbox and Zune projects over the years and it’s going to take them a while to pay that back but overall it is a defensive product to try and stop the set top box and music market from being dominated by non Microsoft companies. Also Microsoft though that Sony was going to launch the PS3 in Spring of 06 . They also had no idea the Wii was going to be so popular.
Microsoft has had a major PC hardware manufacturing team in operation since the days of DOS so I don’t buy the "Were just a software company" line.

There has been 4.5 million dead Xbox 360s that has gone through the reanimation process and I don’t think that they are doing enough testing in the repair factories. If you get a dead 360 they don’t just give you a new one they send you a older previously died 360 that has a new fan on it but has a much higher chance of a 2nd failure since it had all the damage to the chips from it’s first death. That is how gamers will have to be on their fifth or tenth Xbox because they are shipping back hardware that has already been run hard and failed and they are not doing enough testing over a long period of time in the repair factories. It would be awesome if you got a new Xbox out of the deal but you sort of get patched up sloppy 2nds previously dead "zombie" xbox back instead of a new box with the newest motherboard designs. That is what my next article is about.

]]> By: Jared http://seattle.metblogs.com/2008/01/30/overheated-gamers/comment-page-1/#comment-6556 Jared Wed, 30 Jan 2008 17:29:04 +0000 http://seattle.metblogs.com/2008/01/30/overheated-gamers/#comment-6556 i had one xbox 360 die because of heat and i bought about a year after launch. the warranty process wasn't exactly quick or painless, but i got a refurbed unit three weeks after i sent the box out, not a big deal. since then it hasn't overheated but i found a novel solution to deal with the heat: i sit the xbox on top of a laptop cooler. i used to use it for my powerbook, which was also notorious for heat and it works like a charm. it's got two 50mm fans that just constantly circulate air underneath the unit and subsequently through my entertainment center. i plug it into the USB port on the back and everything stays much cooler. these can be had from $15 to $50 but really anything will do. as a consumer should i have to deal with solutions like this? probably not. but whatever, you make due, or you whine and still have a problem :) because MS isn't going to give you a new xbox when your working one that was part of the faulty manufacturing run hasn't died yet. i had one xbox 360 die because of heat and i bought about a year after launch. the warranty process wasn’t exactly quick or painless, but i got a refurbed unit three weeks after i sent the box out, not a big deal. since then it hasn’t overheated but i found a novel solution to deal with the heat: i sit the xbox on top of a laptop cooler. i used to use it for my powerbook, which was also notorious for heat and it works like a charm. it’s got two 50mm fans that just constantly circulate air underneath the unit and subsequently through my entertainment center. i plug it into the USB port on the back and everything stays much cooler. these can be had from $15 to $50 but really anything will do.
as a consumer should i have to deal with solutions like this? probably not. but whatever, you make due, or you whine and still have a problem :) because MS isn’t going to give you a new xbox when your working one that was part of the faulty manufacturing run hasn’t died yet.

]]>