Added Heatsinks May Revive Broken Xbox 360s

Microsoft adds more cooling for the Xenos GPU in beleaguered Xboxes to restore consoles.

Certainly, most savvy 360 owners already know that three red lights on the front of their console means certain unwanted death. A number of users have already undergone the painful ordeal of seeing their 360 units die, but some of them have also witnessed their machines come back to life due to the efforts of Microsoft's customer service department. The more curious lot of these Xbox 360 owners have opened up their repaired consoles to see what exactly has been fixed, and have discovered a new heatsink in their machine.

Reports indicate that this extra heatsink is installed by Microsoft to provide additional cooling for the Xenos GPU, leading some to ponder what exactly is wrong with consoles that are affected by the "red ring of death". Some believe X-shaped clamps are at fault, while others blame an abundance of thermal paste (although others, curiously enough, believe that there is not enough thermal paste).

Either way, the problem of overheating GPUs is still a problem that looms over the head of Microsoft's hardware division. Both the company, as well as serviced 360 owners hope that this additional heatsink will make the red ring of death a thing of the past. However, it is unknown at this time whether newly manufactured Xbox 360's contain this second heatsink or if it is simply something that Microsoft installs only if the console has died.

Interested readers can head over to TeamXbox for more internal pictures of this new heatsink that has found its way into repaired 360 units.


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