The most common question
that I am asked from our customers is "How can I prevent my Xbox 360 or
PS3 console from failing in the future?"
When it comes to preventing
the Xbox 360 from getting the Red Rings of Death (RRoD) or the PS3 from getting
the Yellow Light of Death (YLoD), you must take precautions to prevent too much
heat from affecting the consoles.
Here are some simple steps
that you can take to keep your console from getting too hot.
1. It is very important that
the consoles are very well ventilated.
This includes keeping other hot electronics far away
from your console. You want nice cool air to be brought into the system and hot
air being blown out and away from it. Most of the hot air will blow out the
back of the console so it is very important that you have the back at least six inches of clearance. We recommend six
inches ALL around the console, so if you do put it in a cabinet (Please don't),
the console will be able to get some fresh air.
2. I also recommend that you
have the console laying flat.
This means keeping the console horizontal as opposed
to standing up vertically. Air will draw
in from the sides. You can put a piece
of paper against the opposite site of where the hard drive is and you will be
able to let go of the piece of paper and it will stay in place since it is
getting sucked in by the air that is being drawn in. This air is what will move through the heatsinks
and then get hot and blown out the back.
3. Do not set your game
console on carpet.
This should go without saying; however, you would be surprised
how many times I hear that people put the console on the ground... on
carpet. Hot consoles get carpet hot, hot
carpet gets hot consoles hotter! Also,
the closer an electronic device is to the ground the more dust and derby the
device will draw in since that is where most dust and derby settles.
4. Put your consoles up on a
higher platform.
Putting the consoles up higher will also help with
young kids shoving anything and everything into the DVD/Blu Ray player of these
consoles. The PS3 and the Wii consoles
will suck most items in that young kids just find fascinating and when you go
to play your favorite game or movie you will wonder why your disc won’t go in
the drive... but I digress.
5. Blow out your dust!
If you have dust build up in the system, the hot air
can't escape due to a blockage of dust being built up on the all sides of the
consoles as well as the heat sinks inside. Blow the system out once a month
with a can of pressurized air that you use to clean your keyboard or any kind
of pressured air that is strong enough to break up the dust build up. Some have
used a strong vacuum to suck the dirt out which will work as long as the
suction is strong enough. I recommend
using the air first and then the vacuum.
These are the some main
factors that cause the additional heat buildup and can shorten the life of the
game consoles. If you've done all this and the system fails, it is truly a
hardware failure that you could not prevent from happening. All electronics
fail sooner or later... that is where GameDay Resources comes in!
