Slim Xbox 360 in danger of overheating?

It could be like 2005 all over again

Remember what happened when the original Xbox 360 launched? To put it simply, it was a mess: Microsoft payed the price for what was, at the time, bleeding edge game console technology. During particularly visual-intensive games, the Xbox 360′s innards would heat up to such a high temperature that the thermal paste holding components together would buckle and flex, and sometimes even melt. This would eventually cause all sorts of problems in your games, and gave rise to what eventually became the “Red Ring of Death”: a series of flashing red lights on the console itself to indicate a fatal hardware error. The problem was so wide-spread that class-action lawsuits were filed, and Microsoft eventually appended a special clause to the usual 90 day manufacturers warranty: If your console receives the “Red Ring of Death” any time within three years of buying it, it will be repaired free of charge.

The problem was eventually discovered to be a special type of X-shaped metal clamp on the Xbox 360 motherboard that holds one of the primary chipsets in place. As Microsoft revised Xbox 360 hardware, the X-clamp was eventually phased out and replaced, and the frequency of the “Red Ring of Death” gradually began to slow.

On Monday, Microsoft revealed their latest revision of the Xbox 360 hardware: a smaller, piano-black edition of the Xbox 360 with built-in wifi internet and a 250gb HDD, arriving at stores now. According to Console Hardware Modification site “Solomod” via MaxConsole, Microsoft may be re-inviting 2005′s headaches back, as they claim the newer, slimmer Xbox 360 returns to using the same problematic X-shaped clamps that brought on the first round of Red Rings five years ago. This has obviously lead to a great deal of concern that the Slim 360 will be as unreliable, if not more unreliable as recent revisions of the larger console. It is worth mentioning, however, that Microsoft has assured the public at large that this new Slim 360 runs quieter and uses less electricity – and less electricity often means less heat.

Not only did the original “Red Ring of Death” issue become such a huge deal for Microsoft that they offered free repairs for anyone plagued by it, later firmware updates to the Xbox 360 console have been rumored to have disabled the console’s ability to display the original “Red Flashing Lights” error, instead replaced with a warning message when you first boot up the console informing you of an “E74 Error”. This trend continues as anecdotal information circulates around the internet that the Slim 360 completely lacks the hardware to display red lights as a means of error notification. This quickly lead to Microsoft covering the new “E74 Error” under the same three-year “Red Ring of Death” warranty.

Should these motherboard/chipset clamps turn out to be just as faulty as they were back in 2005, this could be another in a long line of blows to damage Microsoft’s image as a company that produces stable, sturdy hardware.