If you own an old Xbox 360, then getting more useful life out of it means giving it tender loving care. Any Xbox that predates the slim, is a very fragile device and treating it the wrong way can get it red ringed. This article will cover a couple of things you can do to keep your console running strong.
Most micro electronic components will overheat and fail in a few seconds if they weren't kept cool by a cooling system. This is because of heat generated by power running through them and their small size. When power is forced to flow through small things, they tend to get hot very rapidly. Overheating is always a problem with electronics and especially so with micro electronics.
Your Xbox 360 is no different in this respect. To make matters worse, the cooling system within the console was poorly designed. This makes the machine prone to overheating. Micro chips exposed to high temperatures will degrade over time. So lots of play time with CPU intensive games can reduce the useful life of your Xbox. Other factors can aggravate the situation further such as using the console in an environment with little or no ventilation.
Burning out the motherboard components isn't the only problem caused by heat. The motherboard itself gets warped repeatedly over time which weakens the solder joints. If they develop cracks, then the console won't work.
The most important thing you can do to reduce heat exposure is to keep the console from overheating from the outset. Therefore gaming time needs to be restricted to one or two hours at a time. Keep the environment cool, ventilated, and dust free. There is another practice you can try after you've finished a gaming session. Let the console idle for twenty minutes at the Xbox dashboard before turning the power off. The fans will continue to run allowing the Xbox to cool even further since no new heat is being generated at this time.
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.
The idea behind the two tips given here is to keep the overall exposure of your console to heat at an absolute minimum. This increases the life of the internal components and therefore the life of your Xbox. Too much heat exposure can also dry out the thermal compound inside the console. This will almost guaranty a two red light error and perhaps the red ring of death as well.
Most micro electronic components will overheat and fail in a few seconds if they weren't kept cool by a cooling system. This is because of heat generated by power running through them and their small size. When power is forced to flow through small things, they tend to get hot very rapidly. Overheating is always a problem with electronics and especially so with micro electronics.
Your Xbox 360 is no different in this respect. To make matters worse, the cooling system within the console was poorly designed. This makes the machine prone to overheating. Micro chips exposed to high temperatures will degrade over time. So lots of play time with CPU intensive games can reduce the useful life of your Xbox. Other factors can aggravate the situation further such as using the console in an environment with little or no ventilation.
Burning out the motherboard components isn't the only problem caused by heat. The motherboard itself gets warped repeatedly over time which weakens the solder joints. If they develop cracks, then the console won't work.
The most important thing you can do to reduce heat exposure is to keep the console from overheating from the outset. Therefore gaming time needs to be restricted to one or two hours at a time. Keep the environment cool, ventilated, and dust free. There is another practice you can try after you've finished a gaming session. Let the console idle for twenty minutes at the Xbox dashboard before turning the power off. The fans will continue to run allowing the Xbox to cool even further since no new heat is being generated at this time.
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.
The idea behind the two tips given here is to keep the overall exposure of your console to heat at an absolute minimum. This increases the life of the internal components and therefore the life of your Xbox. Too much heat exposure can also dry out the thermal compound inside the console. This will almost guaranty a two red light error and perhaps the red ring of death as well.
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Having difficulties with an overheating Xbox 360? Get more trouble shooting information about the red ring of death fix.
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