Attempt to Reveal Microsoft Xbox 360 Failure Root Cause
Microsoft has recently reported a loss of exceeding USD1 billion due to the “general hardware failure”. The symptom with three red flashing lights, or popularly known as “Red Ring of Death” in gaming community was believed to be caused by components overheat in the system. Although Microsoft didn’t disclose anything, but some of the thermal experts have already taken the initiative to try figuring out what could have gone wrong with the system.
The thermal experts managed to compare two different sets of consoles: one original set which exhibits the problem and the other unit which was returned after being repaired (which supposed to fix the problem) in May 2007. This approach is clear that if they were able to compare the differences between the two units before and after the fix, then the potential root cause could be revealed.
First, the team analyzed the original console especially when the actual application – an intensive 3D graphics game was running. They realized that the ambient temperature was around 22°C higher as compared to room temperature, which was believed to be abnormal from thermal management perspective. On top of that, the air ventilation and heat sink on the graphics LSI was small (space constraint due to DVD drive above it) that could have made things worst. To confirm the actual temperature, they probed on both the CPU and graphics LSI heat sink and were surprised to get more than 90°C while the intensive 3D graphics game was running.
Next step, the team opened up the returned console, to inspect if there is any difference before and after the fix. Surprisingly, they can’t figure out any improvement especially on the heat sink and air ventilation. Obviously, Microsoft may have changed the faulty components but did not take further step to improve the thermal design. Potentially, it could be due to other root causes that doesn’t relate to overheated components at all. After all the experimental efforts, some of you may have some clues or able to guess what could have gone wrong.
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May 12th, 2008 17:35
Hola
Mi nombre es Javier Polo P
January 14th, 2008 18:52
I believe this failure rate in the consoles is an unusual anti-piracy method. The first Xbox proved too easy to open up and modify for the purpose of using pirated games. The new 360 uses both hardware and system failsafe measures. Pretty much making people keep their Xboxs’ closed and unmodified. A company extending the warranty for 3 additional years with this high failure rate is very unusual. This way people won’t rush to flash these DVD-ROMS because of the fear that their system might fail. Mine is failing again, and its the same issue. Red Ring of Death, followed by a resurrection and now by constant game play failure prompting me to return my kosher console back to MSFT so they can debug it and send it back to me. Imagine piracy for MSFT was 14+ billion, fail rate fix 1 billion.
September 23rd, 2007 11:13
AG shut the fuck up you sony fanboy go play your 2 games on your ps3
August 8th, 2007 18:55
I’ve seen the blanket trick. I suspect heat is causing something to warp resulting in a faulty connection somewhere. If there is too little contact between the metal pieces(or thinner “wire”) resitance is increased resulting in decreased current. Insuffecient current in a circuit then results in the RROD.
Its possible the original beta machines used a component from a different manufacturer for the “critical” piece and was changed at the last minute?
August 4th, 2007 04:09
Yeah I have an idea, the 360 is piece of crap that Microsoft threw into the market because the original xbox was already dead and nobody was buying, forcing the others to release “next gen” systems, so as to not fall behind technologically.