- My two centsI've had my one and only 360, never serviced, since about February 2006 because my local GameStop was out of stock, backordered. My hope was to turn it around online at a profit but by February it appeared the best I could do was break even. Wasn't really interested in a product by a company known for software, not much trust, but looked forward to the multimedia content, music videos, TV shows, movies, and games. The first year my 360 received little use because the multimedia content was almost non-existent. Only games specific to the 360 I have are the two DOA series the remainder are original Xbox titles of which about 2/3 are compatible.
Casual gamer probably best fits my gaming experience even though I currently still have a Nintendo NES, SNES, GameBoy color, Xbox, and Sony PSP. All are still working fine with the exception of the original GameBoy, the LCD display went bad even with light/moderate use. Back then toward the earlier years of LCD displays, they failed frequently. I had Fluke DMM's (Digital Multi Meters) toward the early 80's, the LCD displays would always fail in about a years time.
Last time I checked folks rated the 360 a 3.5/5.0 here. My rating is a 1.0/5.0 because I'm not a hardcore gamer and find the failures unacceptable. The market focus of the 360 appears to be for the mass consumers because of the multimedia content.
I will try to explain why IMO the 360's are dying and depending on perspective it's normal. MS (Microsoft) is a PC focused business similar to that of others, the politics are the same. Probably by the time the Pentium III came about the die size used on the processors shrunk to the point the voltage regulator on the mobo (motherboard) changed from a linear to a switcher for efficiency. Unlike previous mobo designs part of the PS (power supply) is now built onto the mobo, more heat. Toward the end of the Pentium III and beyond heat of the processors became more of an issue; a Pentium III has been said is 50% faster for a given speed than a Pentium IV. Multi-core came about because of heat, a method of working around the issue of heat. In years past it was said processor speed would double about every two years, that came to an end with the Pentium III. Processor speeds are no longer stated clearly upfront.
While makers of PC's, particularly notebooks, don't state not to play video games on a PC, it's common for such items to fail because of games or heavy graphics applications. Nvida recently took a hit of $ millions because of video related failures.
My setup of the 360 consists of a Sony 27" XBR square TV connected via composite video, NTSC, with the audio connected to the same TV. The 360 and original Xbox are connected directly to the TV while other components like DVD, LD, and video tape player/recorder are connected to the TV via a RS (Radio Shack) switch box. Both Xbox's are connected directly because they tend to pull the audio volume down on the other components when connected to a switch box. TV stand is a one piece welded square tubular steel frame with 3 shelves. No side/back panels or doors. Both Xbox's are on the lower shelf with the 360 placed on top of the original Xbox. They are separated by a bracket made of four chop sticks. Xbox's have always been in a horizontal position. Surge suppressors made by APC are used and sometimes an APC 1400 UPS is used for all the components on the TV stand.
My conclusion. I've probably read hundreds of reports and blogs but unfortunately folks generally don't state their setup or software (games) used. IMO the best way to help keep the 360 up and running is to not have the HD (high definition) video connected and limit the 360 game titles used. Also placement of the 360 in a vertical position is a no no, most of the air intake appears to be on that side of the console.
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Updated added info:
I got my lazy self to actually take some line input power measurements of my 360. Comparing my measurements with those from hardware.net yields differences. My TV/display setup is the same as above, standard video (NTSC) composite. I presume those from hardware.net are HDTV.
Objective is to estimate the power consumption of the GPU (graphical processing unit) of the 360 under various functions. The commonly known GPU overheating is the main cause of 360's becoming bricked, RRoD (red ring of death), display distortions, freeze ups, and shutdowns. My estimate of GPU power consumption is based on some fixed parameters (console and its modes/functions) and variable (display device). Maximum power consumption of the GPU is assumed to be 35W, info from the web.
Below, first number/reading, are my measurements using a Sencore PR57. Second numbers/reading are from hardware.net, they are separated by a / (slash). Example: myreading/hardware.net W= watts, NA= not available. Numbers are rounded to 3 digits or less because of resolution error.
1.) Standby (video output is off, power brick has yellow light indicator illuminated, no illumination at console) NA/2.5W
2.) Standby w/active background downloading (video output is off, power brick has green indicator illuminated, console has momentary center green light indicator flash at power switch) 110W/NA
3.) Idle (dashboard, specific area Xbox Live, usual power-up default screen), 141W/158W
4.) DVD (video playback from DVD disc) 120-123W/126-127W
5.) Xbox video (playback of downloaded video on HDD (hard drive)) 136W/139-149W
6.) Game Play (low and high average or just average, low and high peaks omitted) 165W, 172W/185W
7.) Background Download (additional power draw when active) 2W/NA
8.) Fan, high speed (additional power draw when active) 4W/NA
Measurement comments:
1.) Standby, the Sencore PR57 has a low scale of 175W, anything below 20% of this scale would be meaningless or with high error. This is the reason for omission.
2.) Standby w/active background downloading, usually its 110W but with the fan kicking up to higher speed will be 114W. This measurement should be the same regardless of display device. As high as 138W when downloading a demo game. Unknown whether the latter is normal because of no momentary green flash of the center light of the power switch on the console.
3.) Idle, a differential of 17W between standard video and HDTV. Fairly consistent see #6 Game Play.
4.) DVD, output would probably be 480p to a HDTV may explain why power is higher than standard video.
5.) Xbox video, output display device appears to determine processing of video file regardless of format, standard/HD. In other words while an HD file can be used with a standard display, a standard video file would be desirable if available. HD video file is about 4 times the size of that of standard video.
6.) Game Play, unlike most measurements these readings are highly subjective. I've eliminated peak high readings because they are generally of short duration. Should peak high readings be considered than it would be proper to include peak low readings. Peak low readings would bring the average reading down substantially because during game loads (accessing the optical disc) power consumption would drop substantially toward Idle. Demo games on the HDD (hard drive) would average higher because game load times would be shorter. Games I've monitored from disc are DOA Extreme, DOA 4, DOA 3, DOA 2. Demo games on HDD are Portal, Bioshock, Wall E, Doom, and many others. My readings where 165W and 172W, average of these would be 168.5W. Average is needed for comparison with hardware.net's reading of 185W. Differential is 16.5W or 17W. This differential is the same/similar to #3 Idle of 17W.
Conclusion, 17W is about half of the 35W maximum rating of the GPU or the remaining 18W is the power at the GPU with standard video. Sounds like a GPU saver to me.
Previously I mentioned 360 games should be limited but I have a change of mind. Very little difference noticed during measurements. Insignificant compared to the display device used.
Should be clear to most if not all the 360 wasn't designed and executed properly. Eventually I hope to rework/remount the heat sinks on the GPU and CPU.
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