14/08/2014

The design of the XBOX 360 failure

The design of the XBOX 360 failure
Intro.: In this post we analyze the internal design of the XBOX 360 with a view to improve its ventilation in next post and avoid the three red lights.



The XBOX 360 from my brother returned to fail (and that that was a Falcon), the second time in less than 6 months which showed lights red. He started blocking it from time to time, until it stopped working; It was clear that the problem was lack of refrigeration.



So when it arrived we repaired to the two-week, dismantled it following this tutorial, and examine the provision of heat sinks, the failure of design is evident .




If you look at the disposal of the coolers, the natural circulation of air is contrary to the provision of air vents of the housing.
While other consoles as the PS3 (high quality of dissipation = zero problems and low noise) or as the Power Mac G5 computers favor air to circulate from one side to another team crossing completely the heatsinks on the XBOX 360, despite having two fans, the air is extracted from the sides, being poorly refrigerated central sink and especially the graphics cardWhen you should enter from the front, covered by the front of the 360.
The air always looks for the best way to spend, and we are sure that it will not go from the opposite side of the coolers for own intelligence, but it is consigned directly ahead.


The root of the problem on the XBOX 360

A design rotated 90 degrees from the plate base and/or sinks would have cost very little to Microsoft and it would have improved the ventilation by 50%; because although problems decreased have thanks to improvements in the design of the coolers and the change in the technology of its processors to a smaller size and consumption, the root of the problem is the air circulation, which should be side by side (up to the modern plates Falcon have problems of red lights as soon as filled with a little powder).
In addition, replace the GPU just below the DVD reader, they have to put a thin ultra sink supported by a second small sink, connected to a "heat pipe" or conductive copper heat pipe, which is less efficient than a good heatsink connected directly.
Much of the "red ring of death" are due to overheating of the GPU.

It seems that new plates Jasper could troubleshoot finally (by reducing the consumption of the GPU), and is almost better use much the console, and hope it damage in the three years of grace that gives Microsoft, which somehow improve its ventilation, but for those is over that the warranty or want your console to last beyond four or five yearssoon we will modify it and I will discuss the details.
These changes will go through promoting circulation of air within the meaning of the provision of the coolers (as does the plastic nozzle connected to them) or add internal fans that direct fresh air circulation; while we filter the air to avoid the accumulation of dust on heatsinks with high performance filters ;-) and placed externally, easy to clean. Stay tuned.

Plates and sinks of the XBOX 360 versions:
Plate original Xenon (only plate and sinks):


Plate Falcon (Poorly refrigerated 90nm GPU; still overheating problems):

Plate Zephir (change the aluminum heatsink on the other copper):
Images courtesy of Microsoft

The new Jasper plate with 65nm GPU is identical to the Falcon (again put sink aluminium; that retains less dust to carry a wider fins... If it is that engineers will not learn...). It seems that the easiest way to know if you have a Jasper plate, is see your consumption on the back of the console, which spends 14 amp 12 (although this only applies us if the console is new):

Image

The GPU, reducing their consumption reduces your heating, but still not a definitive solution. Your problem will continue to be the dust, as we have already mentioned on this blog, all with active ventilation systems require maintenance.

All the 360 will end up failing, while it is possible that less than 5% of the PS3 fail within 10 years (so far fail 2 of every 1000, a good number).