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Cool Your Xbox 360 |
By:
Marc Sandford |
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Cool Your Xbox 360
Marc Sandford
The Xbox 360 is certainly one of the more popular game systems to hit the market over the last few years. This crowd pleaser of a product has one very dark downside: "the red ring of death".
The red ring of death is a flashing three quarter ring of light that signals the failure of a chip on the motherboard. This flaw has its origin in Microsoft's decision to get the product to market before a number of design and manufacturing issues could be resolved. A significant design mistake is a very weak cooling system that is barely able to keep the internal chips cool.
Various bugs and design faults within the console come to life with the excessive heat causing the red ring of death failure. So keeping the Xbox cool is the best preventative measure that you can take. The rest of this article will tell you how to do this.
The first order of business is to make sure that the cooling vents are kept unobstructed. This is probably very obvious to most people, but what is less obvious are the unintentional ways that the vents can be blocked. This frequently happens whenever the Xbox is placed on soft surfaces such as pillows, sofas, rugs, and beds.
Putting the Xbox in sealed off areas that have no ventilation is another way that the Xbox is commonly overheated. Places that restrict the free flow of air include racks, bookcases, cabinets, or simply a tight cluttered area. Since we all tend to arrange things in a way that saves space, this oversight is common.
Try tipping the Xbox over on it's side to give it's external surface greater exposure to the surrounding air. Additionally, blow air across it with a small fan.
Keep the Xbox away from all sources of heat. These are usually items such as radiators, heaters, stoves, and furnaces. Use the air conditioner when the weather is hot and humid. Try to avoid exposing your Xbox to direct sunlight.
The power brick needs to be kept cool as well. The power brick has it's own fan to vent out excess heat. However, placing the power brick in closed off areas with no ventilation is quite common. This is to be avoided. Keep it away from shaggy carpets and try to place it in elevated locations with plenty of exposure to the air.
These suggestions are preventative in nature, to be used when you've just purchased your Xbox. If you have had a screen "freeze up" on you already, then this indicates that too much heat has caused a component to shut down automatically. This is a warning sign that you Xbox is overheating and that enough hasn't been done to cool it down. If this happens enough times, the red ring of death is just around the corner.
Marc Sandford is a gaming addict and author. Get http://www.squidoo.com/Xbox-troubleshooting-red-ring-of-death-fix) Xbox troubleshooting advice about repairing the http://www.squidoo.com/Xbox-troubleshooting-red-ring-of-death-fix) Xbox 360 3 Red Lights Error.
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Article Source: http://www.statssheet.com/articles/article66988.html |
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