14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has confirmed a few new details about the Xbox One next-gen console and how it will detect whether or not it's overheating and take different steps to rectify the situation in order to prevent any damage.
Overheating was a serious problem for the original Xbox 360 as its unreliable hardware, coupled with the bad airflow inside the box, caused a wide array of issues resulting in the now-infamous Red Ring of Death errors.
With the Xbox One, Microsoft is stepping up and has developed a system to detect and prevent overheating, according to General Manager of Console Development Leo del Castillo, who talked with Gizmodo.
"We can’t prevent misuse of the product," del Castillo said.
"But we can certainly anticipate it. The way we designed the box, we don’t actually intend it to ever have to go to maximum speed under normal environmental conditions. But there is overhead. So we’ll allow the fan to go all the way up to its maximum speed and if that solves the condition without the user having to do anything."
What's more, besides allowing the fan to operate at higher than normal speeds, Microsoft also implemented mechanics that can dial back the power used by the box and even take it into a low-power state that doesn't need any air flow.
"With the architecture of the Xbox One, we can dial back the power of the box considerably. We had a little less flexibility with the 360. And so basically, if we couldn’t dissipate the heat, there wasn’t a whole lot of leverage we could pull to keep the heat from being generated, so we had a limited amount of time before it just shut down. Xbox One can actually dial it back to a lower power state, so low in fact that it can in a mode that uses virtually no air flow."
It's unclear if the Xbox One will display warning to users about the console's overheating, but Microsoft is still working on its strategy.