How To Cool Your Xbox 360
Marc Sandford
January 23, 2008
To stay ahead of it's competitors, Microsoft rushed the production of it's Xbox 360 product too quickly. Because of this, it has a failure rate of over 30 percent. Due to it's many built in 'bugs', the Xbox 360 is a frail device.
It has a cooling system that barely keeps up with the heat output of it's circuitry. When it gets too hot, the heat interacts with it's design flaws which brings about the red ring of death. Therefore it is important to keep your Xbox 360 cool in order to avoid the red ring of death.
This article will discuss different ways to keep your Xbox cool.
Although no one is going to deliberately block the cooling vents, there are many unintentional ways of doing this. These include placing the Xbox on surfaces that block local cooling currents such as pillows, beds, soft rugs and sofas.
Be careful to place the Xbox in an open and well ventilated environment. This means that the Xbox should not be placed in enclosures like cabinets, racks or bookcases. It certainly doesn't make any sense to exercise great care in keeping the cooling vents open only to place the Xbox in a closed in area. Oversights like this are commonplace because we naturally arrange things in an effort to conserve space.
Try placing your Xbox on it's side so that it gets greater exposure to the open air. You might also try using a small external fan to cool your console.
Don't place the Xbox near heat sources such as furnaces, radiators, heater vents, stoves and other heat generating electronics. Also take care not to expose your Xbox to direct sunlight.
While keeping the Xbox 360 cool is vital, let's not forget that the power brick also requires adequate ventilation. Most of us including myself, wouldn't think twice about putting the power brick on the floor. But if you place it on a shaggy carpet, cooling air currents will be blocked. The power brick is best placed up off the floor onto a surface that is level and hard.
The tips given above are intended to be prevention measures for a brand new Xbox. However if your Xbox 360 has been shut down for the first time by overheating, then these steps should be your first actions to take. Hopefully this first time heat build up didn't do any lasting damage.
Find out how Microsoft's design mistakes caused the "red ring of death" and get some Xbox troubleshooting advice at http://www.squidoo.com/Xbox-troubleshooting-red-ring-of-death-fix.
It has a cooling system that barely keeps up with the heat output of it's circuitry. When it gets too hot, the heat interacts with it's design flaws which brings about the red ring of death. Therefore it is important to keep your Xbox 360 cool in order to avoid the red ring of death.
This article will discuss different ways to keep your Xbox cool.
Although no one is going to deliberately block the cooling vents, there are many unintentional ways of doing this. These include placing the Xbox on surfaces that block local cooling currents such as pillows, beds, soft rugs and sofas.
Be careful to place the Xbox in an open and well ventilated environment. This means that the Xbox should not be placed in enclosures like cabinets, racks or bookcases. It certainly doesn't make any sense to exercise great care in keeping the cooling vents open only to place the Xbox in a closed in area. Oversights like this are commonplace because we naturally arrange things in an effort to conserve space.
Try placing your Xbox on it's side so that it gets greater exposure to the open air. You might also try using a small external fan to cool your console.
Don't place the Xbox near heat sources such as furnaces, radiators, heater vents, stoves and other heat generating electronics. Also take care not to expose your Xbox to direct sunlight.
While keeping the Xbox 360 cool is vital, let's not forget that the power brick also requires adequate ventilation. Most of us including myself, wouldn't think twice about putting the power brick on the floor. But if you place it on a shaggy carpet, cooling air currents will be blocked. The power brick is best placed up off the floor onto a surface that is level and hard.
The tips given above are intended to be prevention measures for a brand new Xbox. However if your Xbox 360 has been shut down for the first time by overheating, then these steps should be your first actions to take. Hopefully this first time heat build up didn't do any lasting damage.
Find out how Microsoft's design mistakes caused the "red ring of death" and get some Xbox troubleshooting advice at http://www.squidoo.com/Xbox-troubleshooting-red-ring-of-death-fix.
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