Whoops - Some XBOX 360s Shipped With Foil on Heatsink

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dipdude

Forerunner
Someone has been falling down on the job



For those that may have been having heat-up issues with your Xbox 360, some folks from the German Xbox modding scene have encountered what may be the cause of some of those problems.

They uncovered that some Xbox 360 units have been shipping with the protective foil left in place that covers the GPU heatsink compound during shipping from the manufacturer. With the foil in place, heat cannot be properly transferred from the ATI GPU to the heatsink.

This protective layer is probably placed by the manifacturer 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.
 
That done, now they better concentrate on releasing a mod chip for it soon :ohyeah:

But if that really is true, shame on M$. Its just sad they'd manufacture parts of X360 without proper testing, and blinded with the rage to beat Sony to the market, they'll end up destroying their system instead.
 
This is really shocking...... Didnt expect this from MS and that too from such a high profile system like Xbox 360.

@params --- This has nothing to do with testing. Just that during assembly, the foil was not removed.

If by testing you mean testing each machine after it has been made, it is a bit too muc hdont you think?? The sheer manpower required for that would be simply too much
 
Nikhil said:
This is really shocking...... Didnt expect this from MS and that too from such a high profile system like Xbox 360.

@params --- This has nothing to do with testing. Just that during assembly, the foil was not removed.

If by testing you mean testing each machine after it has been made, it is a bit too muc hdont you think?? The sheer manpower required for that would be simply too much
Click to expand...

Testing was just a random word i used for manufacture, lol. I meant they should tested at least a handfull of final X360's to check for any errors. If the foil really is causing it, that's very lousy on M$'s part. Releasing a product in the market in hushed manner, we can expect these side-effects. Safe to say M$ was least bothered in properly making sure the product is 'OKAY' for the market. But the fact is every 4rth X360 user has experienced lockups, crashes and severe overheating.
 
Foil me once...



John Porcaro, Microsoft Group PR Manager for XBOX, claims the protective foil seen on Xbox 360 GPUs is supposed to be there according to his recent corporate blog. The foil used is THERMFLOW T558 MULTIPHASE Thermal Interface Material from Chomerics:

T558 has been coated on one side of a conformal metal foil carrier. It is easily attached onto a heat sink or heat spreader, leaving the metal foil surface exposed. This foil eliminates the need of a protective liner, which simplifies the final assembly process and minimizes shipping concerns and contamination issues.

My previous employer and current Editor In Chief have confirmed to me that the XBOX 360 they disassembled in November 2005 did not use the foil pads, but thermal grease instead, as evidenced here. Perhaps Microsoft decided to switch to foil pads to reduce cost.

We reported on the original article claiming the XBOX's were assembled incorrectly here.
 
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