MS responds to new heatsink in 360s

by Richard Mitchell { Jun 14th 2007 at 5:30PM }

Microsoft has responded (in a manner of speaking) to yesterday's reports that the company has been installing new additional heatsinks when repairing Xbox 360s. Supposedly, these new heatsinks are appearing in refurbished Xbox 360s in the United Kingdom as a means to combat the Red Ring of Death. In response to a query from gamesindustry.biz, a Microsoft spokesperson noted that "regularly updating console components is commonplace within the industry and is a standard aspect of the business for a variety of reasons including cost reduction, improved manufacturability and improved performance." So yeah, they dodged the question. Furthermore, the representative refused to directly confirm or deny the new heatsinks, saying that Microsoft does not provide information regarding hardware updates. Uh huh, and we're sure that Microsoft won't be trumpeting the new 65nm GPUs either. Sure ....

Our translation: there are new heatsinks in refurbished Xbox 360s, but admitting that would be tantamount to admitting that the 360 has a systemic flaw, something Microsoft is not keen to do.

Tags: 3 red lights, 3RedLights, heatsink, heatsinks, red ring of death, RedRingOfDeath, ring of death, RingOfDeath

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Boff @ Jun 14th 2007 5:59PM

You hit the nail on the head there

vid33nyc1 @ Jun 14th 2007 6:03PM

I dont see what the problem is.Msoft should just admit there is a systemic flaw and fix the problem.If they end the system failings and Continue to pump out good games they will sell even more consoles.People will forgive and forget and it will be a thing of the past.

Ieu-ee @ Jun 14th 2007 6:17PM

Well this is pretty interesting especially since my UK 360 RRoDed last friday (thats right on Forza 2 launch day - not impressed!)

I would like to agree with you vid33nyc1 but I just don't see that happening ever. Bear in mind here that MS are being investigated over the 360 disk scratching non-mystery and so another hardware related issue could be the first of many straws on the proverbial camel's back.

Ryan @ Jun 14th 2007 6:34PM

It's a liability issue, even saying that a part of the initial release was inadequate opens them up to endless lawsuits. I don't think MS had any idea this problem was going to be as common as it seems to be (who really knows how many have broken, I'm still running my release day model with no problems). A lot of people think MS is some huge evil corporation... and they may be... but it benefits them in no way for the systems to be failing. If they had known this ahead of time they would have fixed it prerelease.

MS will never say that there was a problem in early 360s it just opens up too many lawsuits. Companies don't do recalls unless someone could possibly be hurt or killed by their product. Admitting a cooling issue (if its even that) would be MS begging to make many many lawyers rich while no good comes to the consumer.

Xanto @ Jun 14th 2007 6:44PM

Sweet news, I have to send in my 360 later this month for repairs.

gibber9583 @ Jun 14th 2007 6:51PM

@2

If Microsoft admits there is a systematic flaw to their system they are not looking at just bad press, but they are looking at a recall of the what...millions of 360 units sold?

gibber9583 @ Jun 14th 2007 6:51PM

Woops, #4 addressed this...my bad.

B33b3s @ Jun 14th 2007 8:38PM

Aside from severly limiting my access to the Halo 3 beta, it seems that I red ringed at a good time.

SToNeP2277 @ Jun 14th 2007 9:49PM

i have the 1 RED LIGHT of death E74 1 flashing red light i just sent in my 360 for repair. :( i wonder if my old 360 really gets repaired or do they send me a factory refurbished one what do you guys think.

B TIzo @ Jun 14th 2007 10:28PM

I've had my 360 for over a year and according to 360voice.com, I have played it over a 120 days in a row up to today for multiple hours each day and I have never had a RRoD or any disc scratching problems. I honestly believe there failure rates aren't as widespread as everyone on the internet claims. I think it's just people being more vocal than anything.

Justin U @ Jun 15th 2007 12:58AM

The problem is that the ones being vocal have voices, and they are influential/important people in the community (Hasn't one website had like 7 dead consoles? I know a few important people have had a few.)

Either way, I got one Console, and it died with 1 red light of death, and the other night my new console (refurb from M-Soft) got 3 red lights during the HOur of Victory Demo.

Immediately deleted that (One, because it destroys Xboxes, B because it sucked)

Titty Pink @ Jun 24th 2007 8:09AM

Why is it so hard to believe that these things are shitting the bed all over the place? NO ONE IS MAKING THIS STUFF UP. 360S ARE DYING BY THE ASSLOAD!

Boff @ Jun 15th 2007 6:52AM

Just my 2 pence here, but you have to remember it's usually only the people with problems that are so vocal about them. In other words, you're more likely to see/hear someone complaining that their 360 got the red rings than someone else who hasn't had a problem since launch or whatever.

@12: I'm sure there are a *lot* of 360's dying, but it's hard to judge what the exact ratio of working to non-working 360's is, in the grand scheme of things.

So probably not as many as an ASSLOAD, more like a titload or something ;o)

PeteL @ Jun 15th 2007 9:47AM

@11 & 13 - I just shipped my dead 360 to Texas yesterday morning by dropping it off at a UPS Customer Center in Farmingdale, NY. The UPS rep took one look at the box and said, "Another 360." I asked him if they get a lot of these and he replied, "Lately we've been getting about 20 a day."

20 a day from one UPS shipping center! Unbelievable, but true.

DjChad @ Jun 15th 2007 10:04AM

Its happening enough to make Microsoft make TWO of these subtle changes to the hardware. 1) being the "glue" that now secures the gpu/cpu on the Elite to the motherboard and now 2) this extra heat sink. Why make such changes if the problem isn't widespread?