Forgotten foil in the 360
A German modder might have figured out what was wrong with the early Xbox 360’s. When he took apart two 360’s he found out that someone forgot to remove the protective layer of foil from the GPU heatsink’s heat transfer pad. In this way the GPU headsink wasn’t cooling but heating up.
On the left a close-up of the protective layer/foil on top of the heat transfer pad. On the right the protective foil has been removed and placed next to the heat pad. This protective layer is probably placed by the manufacturer of the heatsink and is used to protect the heat transfer pad from dust, but should normally be removed just prior installing the heatsink on the GPU. The way it’s installed now by MS the GPU chip makes contact with the protection foil instead of the heat transfer pad. This can of course cause cooling issues for the graphics chip as for optimal cooling performance there should just be a thin layer of thermal pad between the GPU chip and heatsink.
After he announced this discovery, and placed this little German video online, Microsoft quickly came with an official response to this claim.
The video and photos posted by German blog GameStore24.de show thermal interface pads that are installed per specification. This foil eliminates the need of a protective liner, which simplifies the final assembly process and minimizes shipping concerns and contamination issues.
Customers should know that opening the Xbox 360 case voids the warranty. If your console is malfunctioning, call Xbox customer support. They can diagnose whether the system is malfunctioning, and will arrange for repair/replacement if necessary.
There is no systemic issue with Xbox 360. Any customer inquires are being handled on a case-by-case basis. The return rate is below the CE industry average of 3-5%. Of the total number of Xbox 360 systems already in the field, the calls we’ve received represent a very small fraction. Even so, we’re doing everything we can to take care of these customers quickly so they can get back to enjoying their new consoles.
So basically they warn us, again, that we shouldn’t open our own 360 to take a closer look at the headsink, since this will cause the warranty to be void.
bastards
Ah well, when things go up in flames I allways have my 2 years warranty
i had one of those boxes, i can’t believe it was not hardware failure, but lack of training for the assemblers, or maybe just one really stupid one. hard to believe one idiot could cause so much trouble for micromama.
“This foil eliminates the need of a protective liner, which simplifies the final assembly process and minimizes shipping concerns and contamination issues.”
what a bunch of lying pricks too. why the complete lack of acceptance of any responisibilty for their errors. seems like a trend.
– mu
“This foil … simplifies the final assembly process and minimizes shipping concerns and contamination issues.”
actually this is true. BUT it still needs to get removed before final assembly. so what they did was explain why the foil was their in the first place, but neglected to explain why it was never removed.it says it eliminates the need for a protective layer wchich is not true. this is even more manipulative and scamdocious, and m$ is really behaving badly again.
– mu
Excuse me Tr1gg3R, you have kind of stolen my name..:) Anyway…
Do these overheating (foil) issues fall under any sort of batch number?
If so then you will have the right for replacement under the sales of goods act (uk).
If this is true then I can see a case for a callback of early models. My 360 was bought on the 2nd wave of uk shipments and I have had no problems yet.
I await a proper response from Microsoft about this issue, as this news spreads the concern will spread also.
Is there anyway they can trace if you bought an early model? yes - I do have xbox-live aswell, if that helps. Because I have had NO problems with heating issues, so mine doesn’t need repairing.
My 360 never froze. Until I got the March update, Since then my 360 froze like 2 times in 1 hour playing GRAW :s
i think it is likely that the only ones capable of providing batch numbers are going to be from microsoft themselves, and i really think they are going to attempt to absolve themselves from this one, because this could easily explode into a class action law suit.
3-5% return rate? i guess it is possible, but that estimate seems to be a little low considering the clamoring. maybe it was just the lack of availability of replacement units.
we will have to wait and see if anything happens with this one. it does seem odd that with a virual universe of modders ganking these bitches apart, these guys were the first to notice a discrepancy 4 months into the game.
– mu
oh my god, i just noticed this:
“If your console is malfunctioning, call Xbox customer support. They can diagnose whether the system is malfunctioning,”
wow. that is not right.
– mu
/me nods, pretending to understand a word of all this
ok, so this is from xbox-scene (totally reputable):
“*UPDATE* Several people on our forums say that this ‘Indium’ foil has probably been placed there intentionally, is part of the thermal pad and should not be removed. Apparently similar foil is used some OEM PCs, P4 and some PC GPU chips. While it looks like most people agree that normal thermal paste/compound without such a layer usually works better, one of the advantage of such a layer is that a heatsink can easily be re-installed without re-applying thermal paste after you removed it. You can follow the discussion about it here:”
http://forums.xbox-scene....ndex.php?showtopic=496524
— mu
This too:
http://www.xbox360fanboy..../11/germans-foiled-again/
http://gamerscoreblog.com/team/default.aspx
I really can’t wait to see this played out… Im curious to see if mine has this or not. I have a launch console, and mine is still hanging on, but everyday on the forums theres a new person claiming his launch console has died… And it has frozen quite a few times over the last 4 months, In all sorts of situations…. And stupid me, I never got any extended warranty, never had a console go on me before. Hmmm what to do?…
I really want better fans exhaust fans in the back too, they just dont seem to push enough air, considering they aren’t mounted directly on the CPU/GPU, anyone know where you get the LED lit ones like in the other modded 360’s?
The foil on the heat sink is supposed to be there, it’s a thermal transfer foil.
http://digg.com/gaming/XB...U_heatsink_was_Deliberate
Don’t think you guys have read the article correct… That information is already in it
i believe the article states that microsoft claimed that this info to be true. these links seem to be pointing toward confirmations…
– mu
Foil, Lockups, Overheating, Scrached disks, Disk read errors. I’m having just about every problem that everybody esle is having. I own 10 360 titles and everyone of them has locked up at least once. Now here is my question. How do i fix the problem? I’m in Afghanistan with the US military and the xbox is my only form of fun. I can’t download any thing through live(no internet in my room). All microsoft sites are blocked on the military network…. I’m stuck. Any sugestions?
I don’t have any advice about how to resolve your 360 problems, but I would like to say “Thank you for serving our country”.