The Ring of Death - How and Why Your Xbox 360 Has This Affliction
Got a love-hate relationship with an Xbox360 gaming console? You love it due to the fact that you're massively addicted to the hours of unbelievable enjoyment that it gives.
You really detest it because of...
well, need I say the infamous ring of death? The red ring of death gives countless consumers a great deal of frustration and hardship.
It's likewise given Microsoft some headaches as well...
to the tune of over one billion dollars in repairing consoles under warrantee.
Now the first question to ask is why? What exactly are the causes for the ring of death? To put it simply, its main cause is heat.
The Xbox becomes overheated when it's used continuously over lengthy time periods.
Why does the Xbox overheat? There's two parts to the answer here.
First, the graphics chip had been engineered very cheaply by Microsoft.
Instead of going to an experienced vendor to design the chip (ASIC vendor), Microsoft designed the graphics chip in house, in other words, on it's own.
They did this in an effort to save some tens of millions of dollars in the cost of the design.
We all know that to get the job done right, you go and hire a professional.
It's well known that our "home made" efforts simply won't work as well as work performed by professionals.
Microsoft's in house job is inefficient in that it puts out far too much heat.
The other part of the overheating problem is that the cooling system is only marginally capable of dissipating the enormous heat put out by the graphics chip.
It really doesn't take much to cause it to get too hot.
Try running the unit for any length of time, especially in a warm, un-air conditioned room and it'll get too hot.
The console doesn't tolerate partial blocking of its cooling vent-holes either.
For example, it's easy enough to allow cords and cables to get really clumped up at the back end of the console.
This by itself can cause the unit to get over heated.
Thinking of running it in a junky cluttered corner where direct sunlight can reach it inside that room without air conditioning? Well, it isn't a good idea in any case.
Of course, you probably don't treat your toys like this, but the point that I'm making here is that a well designed product is supposed to be able to take some customer abuse and continue functioning.
An issue that I have no answer to is what happened to Microsoft's quality control process? There must be some sort of product testing program in place to protect the consumer from buying faulty products.
Maybe it was deficient in that it didn't simulate normal customer usage of the console.
Or possibly the testing did detect the problem, but management pushed it out anyway? All conjectures aside, the great news is that Microsoft has already gone to a US based ASIC vendor and got the graphics chip redesigned.
Hopefully, some day your average Xbox gamer will have no idea what you are talking of when you mention the red ring of death.
You really detest it because of...
well, need I say the infamous ring of death? The red ring of death gives countless consumers a great deal of frustration and hardship.
It's likewise given Microsoft some headaches as well...
to the tune of over one billion dollars in repairing consoles under warrantee.
Now the first question to ask is why? What exactly are the causes for the ring of death? To put it simply, its main cause is heat.
The Xbox becomes overheated when it's used continuously over lengthy time periods.
Why does the Xbox overheat? There's two parts to the answer here.
First, the graphics chip had been engineered very cheaply by Microsoft.
Instead of going to an experienced vendor to design the chip (ASIC vendor), Microsoft designed the graphics chip in house, in other words, on it's own.
They did this in an effort to save some tens of millions of dollars in the cost of the design.
We all know that to get the job done right, you go and hire a professional.
It's well known that our "home made" efforts simply won't work as well as work performed by professionals.
Microsoft's in house job is inefficient in that it puts out far too much heat.
The other part of the overheating problem is that the cooling system is only marginally capable of dissipating the enormous heat put out by the graphics chip.
It really doesn't take much to cause it to get too hot.
Try running the unit for any length of time, especially in a warm, un-air conditioned room and it'll get too hot.
The console doesn't tolerate partial blocking of its cooling vent-holes either.
For example, it's easy enough to allow cords and cables to get really clumped up at the back end of the console.
This by itself can cause the unit to get over heated.
Thinking of running it in a junky cluttered corner where direct sunlight can reach it inside that room without air conditioning? Well, it isn't a good idea in any case.
Of course, you probably don't treat your toys like this, but the point that I'm making here is that a well designed product is supposed to be able to take some customer abuse and continue functioning.
An issue that I have no answer to is what happened to Microsoft's quality control process? There must be some sort of product testing program in place to protect the consumer from buying faulty products.
Maybe it was deficient in that it didn't simulate normal customer usage of the console.
Or possibly the testing did detect the problem, but management pushed it out anyway? All conjectures aside, the great news is that Microsoft has already gone to a US based ASIC vendor and got the graphics chip redesigned.
Hopefully, some day your average Xbox gamer will have no idea what you are talking of when you mention the red ring of death.
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