I’m annoyed and ecstatic at the same time right now. Just yesterday, Microsoft caused shocks around the internet community by announcing, and I quote "Microsoft is extending the terms of its Xbox 360 warranty to three years for certain general hardware failures which are indicated by three flashing red lights on the console". Now this is tremendous news for Xbox 360 owners who have been plagued by hardware failures left, right and centre since purchasing their console. I am extremely happy to state that my launch day 360 is still running fine despite the fact that I treat it like dirt, and use it for 3hrs a day or so.
What angers me is that these hardware failures should never have happened in the first place. I hear users on the web stating that their Sega Megadrives or N64’s never broke, and that is true. It’s also a hugely unfair comparison as those machines never relied on kenetic parts, let alone a custom cooling solution. At the end of the day, the way I see it is that MS balls up massively when they designed the 360. For a long time I have realised that EVERY 360 is going to suffer at some point or another because of the poor cooling solution within the console. Was the 360 rushed back in December 2005? In my opinion yes, but for a good reason, and you can see that now with the console having a firm foothold in the console market, whilst Sony suffers.
So what went wrong? They designed the machine in such a way that their cooling setup just cannot handle the sheer heat generated by the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) as well as the CPU (Central Processing Unit). The motherboard flexes from the heat and components slowly work their way loose. Your casual console gamer that is used to old consoles like the PS1, PS2, and N64 will not be used to consoles with active cooling solutions and will no doubt ram the 360 into the nearest TV cabinet, without taking into account how much heat the thing throws out - bad move. Microsoft wanted the 360 to be the centrepiece of one’s living room, and sadly that alone will backfire on them as users begin getting various heat related issues from storing them in poorly ventilated areas. My 360 sits on my desktop and has good cooling, but I still expect it to bite the dust soon, although I’ve been saying that since Xmas 2006…
Since heatsinks by nature collect dust over time, what will you do once the heatsink is crammed full of dirt? On a PC you can simply open your case and use a can of pressurized air to blow the dust out. On a 360 this isn’t possible, as removing the case voids your warranty. Why couldn’t MS come up with a way to allow the end user to remove the internal air-duct so we could easily see the exposed heatsinks for cleaning? Doh.
Microsoft has attempted a quick fix design to get around the issue however that could backfire too. Why couldn’t they fix the problem at hand instead of implementing a work-around? I refer to the fact that on ‘Elite’ 360’s in America and more recently Japan having an additional smaller heatsink literally hanging off the GPU to soak up any additional heat. It’s a nice idea, but completely stinks.
Now while I am pointing out the obvious here, this 3 year warranty is a huge problem for Microsoft, and it’s all because of the way they built the console. The fault still exists in a ALL new consoles, even users of the ‘Elite’ console began reporting failures upon buying them, and MS hasn’t really haven’t done much to address the problem. The warranty may guarantee piece of mind for most 360 users, but if a console fails in a week how will the casual gamer see Microsoft as a console manufacturer? They’ll lose faith right away and turn to the Wii, or PS3. Upon implementing this system MS have now guaranteed that their customer call centres will be rammed full of callers, and that repairs will take even longer as they struggle to cope with an influx of 360’s on a frequent. Lastly, will they reimburse those 360 owners who recently took out 3rd party extended warranties?
Of course over time MS will resolve these problems as the 360 moves to a .65nm CPU SOI (Silicon-on-Insulator) process. The end result will be a cooler 360, emitting less heat and noise too. The ‘Elite’ should have had this but it hasn’t. How long we have to wait for the next proper 360 revision is anyone’s guess.
Personally, this is what I’ll be doing. If this launch day 360 is still running in a couple of months time, I’ll be opening the thing and examining the state of its heatsinks for dust. I’ll post pics of my discovery too, just to show how much dust a 360 accumulates in a bedroom environment over the course of three years. Right, enough ranting, time to get back to Forza!
Warranty FAQ on Xbox.com
Why the ‘3RLOD’ exists
Top stuff and very well worth a look if you’re a Simpsons fan, and like me, you’ll enjoy if it you aren’t.
