Several internet reports are coming in with claims that Microsoft has begun installing second heatsinks into Xbox 360s sent in for repair.
This is of particular interest to most 360 owners of course, because overheating has seemingly been the cause of the "red lights of death" problem which has been bricking consoles.
One Team Xbox user reports the second heatsink in his repaired 360, which TXB claims was installed by Microsoft to provide additional cooling for the Xenos GPU, and thus help avoid the three red lights of death that have been plaguing consoles since launch.
Despite almost two years of speculation, the exact cause of the red lights of death problem still isn't known. There's plenty of chatter about "X-shaped clamps" and "thermal paste," but what it seems to come down to is Xbox 360s just plain old overheating.
We don't know either if Microsoft is installing these new cooling components into all 360s or just ones sent in for repair. We think it's about time they did something to sort out the problem though; GamesRadar editors have lost FIVE Xbox 360 consoles to the problem in the last six months alone.
Microsoft was unavailable to comment on the issue when contacted, but we expect them to get back to us later today.
June 14, 2007
