XBOX 360 is just such a hot box....

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Recently I put up an article (here: Xbox 360:General Hardware Failure really needs to be Demoted) about my latest round of issues with the General Hardware failure problem with the Xbox 360 system. These problems are yet more in the series of Xbox 360 hardware that winds up 'dead' because of just how warm the boxes get inside.

If you search around a little and research the General Hardware failure issue, you find that Microsoft basically did an exceedingly poor job of dealing with heat dissipation on the Xbox 360. They have a souped up CPU (central processing unit) and a souped up GPU (graphics processing unit) both in the system with both producing a fair amount of heat in a tightly confined space.

The Xbox 360 systems, for my taste, are somewhat poorly ventilated. That could be because of FCC requirements (shielding for RF interference), but I still wish the ventilation in the box was better. It just seems that in an effort to keep fingers out of the box (i.e., keep users from tampering with the systems) Microsoft closed the box up a bit tighter than they should have.

For many years now, heat has been the enemy and by-product of the faster CPUs and GPUs that have been going into computer systems. In a prior work environment I helped trouble shoot problems with special purpose PC devices that my employer produced and many of the problems we had with those systems were specifically heat related. Tight space + warm processor unit + poor ventilation inside the case = death for that equipment.

Microsoft sure seems to be experiencing that problem with their Xbox 360 systems. To the tune of a few billion dollars worth of set aside money to resolve the problems and extend the warranty on all (non-tampered with) Xbox 360 systems. Perhaps if they had tried harder to begin with, they could have eliminated a lot of the problems that users are now happening. Perhaps if they worked with test systems in *real world* gaming conditions with the consoles stacked in with racks of A/V (audio/visual) equipment, or sitting in rooms with 62 - 90 degrees F of ambient temperature for 6 - 12 straight hours, with temperatures fluctuating throughout the day, and changed again the next day, etc.

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I think that last paragraph nails the problems most succinctly. Microsoft seems to be using a test environment (or perhaps not using one at all) that just doesn't come close to simulating real world gaming conditions. I live in a home where the temperature does range from approx. 60 degrees at night (unless the power goes out and the furnace isn't running in cold weather months) to sometimes seeing temperatures of 90+ degrees during the day. Humidity comes and goes, etc. If it's the weekend, and I'm sitting home with the A/C working it's butt off trying to cool my home down into the mid 70 degree mark, but the temperatures outside are near 100 degrees, it's going to be hot in my playroom (Florida room) and in the house in general.

There's no getting around it, so I'm left with a choice of playing on the Xbox 360 or leaving the unit off for fear that letting it get too warm will cause problems with the heat sink and perhaps warp the system board enough to unseat the GPU (which is reportedly where many of the G.H.F. issues are coming from).

If Microsoft tested in extreme conditions, perhaps they'd work a bit harder at making sure that the boxes did a better job of dissipating heat so that the system worked the way it was supposed to.

For some reason, I'm picturing an environment where Microsoft runs the boxes in a lab without the RF shielding in place, and with out the top and/or bottom of the plastic case in place. Basically bare boards strapped down to a bench.

It reminds me of the days when computer sellers literally did burn-in systems by running them for long periods of time to make sure that the circuitry could handle getting hot, then cooling back down, and getting hot again, etc. If that wasn't done, then customers might wind up with a system that wasn't ready for them or that would crash because the circuitry would move around too much from the expanding and contracting processes that happened during all of that heating and cooling. It seems that Microsoft (like my previous employer) has forgotten those lessons and is now dealing with lots of fallout from their system designs and poor testing methodology.

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I meant to add: I really wish that Microsoft would test run the devices in a friggin' sauna for at least 72 hours (3 straight days). If they could get 'em to run under those conditions, then perhaps they'd finally be able to make boxes that run consistently and won't crash/fail to run at all.

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