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Why You Are Having Problems With The Xbox 360 |
By:
Marc Sandford |
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Why You Are Having Problems With The Xbox 360
Marc Sandford
The Xbox 360 is a great gaming system and has provided many people with endless hours of fun. However, as many gamers know, the Xbox 360 has it's dark side, otherwise known as the red ring of death.
These three error lights go on when the system experiences a general hardware failure. Now, why is the Xbox plagued with this problem? It seems that in true Microsoft fashion, the Xbox was a rushed product with many design flaws that work together to bring about this failure.
These design mistakes are discussed below.
1) Heat - The Xbox design has a lot of high powered components that are crammed into a small space. Just as large engines put out lots of heat, these high powered components also create a great deal of heat. The Xbox design uses fans, vents, and heat sinks to keep the console cool. Because there isn't much of a reserve cooling capacity, this system will easily overheat if the airflow into the console gets obstructed. When the temperatures get hot enough, the heat starts to affect different design flaws (discussed below) which cause the ring of death failure.
2) Lead free solder - In order to avoid the use of lead in products used by children, Microsoft built the Xbox with lead free solder. However, this type of solder is more brittle than standard lead-tin solder. To add insult to injury, Microsoft also picked a lead free solder that gets especially brittle when exposed to heat over a long time. If you stress this brittle solder, hair-line cracks will develop. This results in a weakened solder joint which breaks when stressed and can obstruct electrical current.
3) Badly designed heat sink clamp - The X clamp distributes it's "clamping force" non uniformly which makes it a poor design. There is a plastic spacer that presses very hard on the motherboard at one tiny little area at the center of the X clamp. When the CPU and GPU get hot, this pressure increases which causes the motherboard to flex. Solder points which are already brittle due to the lead free solder are stressed by the flexing motherboard. The solder joints snap with enough time and heat.
4) Left over foil on the heat sink - Foil was left on the heat sink on many Xbox units. This left over foil has resulted in several "three red light" failures. The thermal compound must be reapplied if you decide to remove the foil.
So now the mystery behind the ring of death has been revealed. This knowledge is no consolation for not being able to play actual games, but it should help out when you're evaluating the different repair guides around. Don't forget that your warranty will be voided if you choose to open your console.
Marc Sandford is a gaming addict and writer. Get http://www.squidoo.com/Xbox-troubleshooting-red-ring-of-death-fix) Xbox 360 troubleshooting advice about repairing the http://www.squidoo.com/Xbox-troubleshooting-red-ring-of-death-fix) Red Ring of Death.
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Article Source: http://www.statssheet.com/articles/article67335.html |
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