Question about the Slim's Power Brick

DOMINATOR912

DOMINATOR912

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Should I always make sure its being laid flat? I'm asking this because my 360 Slim sits on a pretty high shelf and the brick itself is dangling in midair since the power cable is so short. Over the past few days, I've noticed that the bricks fans have gotten really loud and I'm not sure why. I don't even play all that much either; plus they seem to get loud almost immediately after turning on the 360. Should laying the brick flat on the ground help this problem?
 
[quote name='giantqtipz']not sure about the power supply. but if you install your games to the hard drive, i assure you that your xbox will be super quiet.[/QUOTE]

It's not the Xbox itself making the noise, its the power brick. It gets loud even when I'm browsing the dashboard without having put a disc in.
 
I think you may have a faulty power supply.

When I originally bought my slim, the power supply sounded like a jet engine / vaccuum cleaner... I swapped out the power brick and the noise is minimal.
 
[quote name='Hybrid5006']I think you may have a faulty power supply.

When I originally bought my slim, the power supply sounded like a jet engine / vaccuum cleaner... I swapped out the power brick and the noise is minimal.[/QUOTE]

Well it's not that its super loud, its that it's making a loud sort of whistling noise, so it really gets on my nerves. I'm over my 30 days, and even then I had already exchanged it because the first one I got was making a loud buzzing noise on the console itself. I'm about to just call MS and ask them to send me a new power supply.
 
Hi everyone,

Mine makes the same type of noise. Called MS today and they pretty much told me to either live with it, send it in for repair, or give them $35 for a new one. I have only had this thing for about 6 weeks. I'd be interested to see if you have any better luck.
 
[quote name='DOMINATOR912']Should I always make sure its being laid flat? I'm asking this because my 360 Slim sits on a pretty high shelf and the brick itself is dangling in midair since the power cable is so short. Over the past few days, I've noticed that the bricks fans have gotten really loud and I'm not sure why. I don't even play all that much either; plus they seem to get loud almost immediately after turning on the 360. Should laying the brick flat on the ground help this problem?[/QUOTE]
Regardless of noise, I wouldn't let the power brick hang. I'd imagine over time that kind of weight pulling on it could damage the power supply connector or the socket on the 360.
 
I laid it flat and it got somewhat better, but the noise is still there. I think it's just the way the fan inside is made, although I have a crazy theory that sort of makes sense. It's a bit long, but I guess I have to give my whole story for the theory to sort of make sense.

I bought 2 PS3s in January at Best Buy and both made grinding noises, so I returned them. Maybe 2 months later I bought a 360 at BB that made a similar grinding noise. I returned it and got another grinder. After another exchange, I wound up with the one that I made this topic about and just gave up and kept it.

My theory is that Best Buy (and maybe other huge retailers) are getting their supply of consoles from certain manufacturing depots (is that the right term?) that are making their respective consoles with slightly cheaper parts. Since BB buys a massive amount of consoles to keep up with their demand, I'm sure they manage to get a cheaper price on their stock due to buying in larger bulk than other retailers. The manufacturers make up for it by using slightly cheaper parts, in this case cheap fans. Typically cheap PC fans are all pretty loud, so it would make sense that cheaper console fans do the same. Fast forward to this week: I bought a PS3 from Target and it's very quiet.

I thought back on all the other consoles that I've owned, none of which gave me problems. Then I realized I bought them all from much smaller retailers (Circuit City, Target, Gamestop). While the stores themselves are (or were in CCs case) huge companies, they don't keep the same supply of consoles on hand that BB does. Meaning they may have bought from different manufacturers that used better parts. After all, it's not like all consoles are manufactured in the same exact place.

In the end it's probably just bad luck on my part, but I may just be onto something. Even if it's all in my head, I'm going to avoid BB for consoles from now on like the plague. Sorry for the lengthy read, but I just wanted to get my hair-brained psycho theory out there. Who know, I may be right :)
 
No. The consoles BB buys from MS or Sony are the same ones that Gamestop buys. BB doesn't buy a "cheaper" version of said console because it deals in larger quantity, the console manufacturer (Sony, MS, etc) make all their consoles to the same standard. It makes zero sense to do otherwise. If you can get away with selling cheaper consoles to BB, why not do the same to GS and Target as well?

If you are not satisfied with the console you got, can you not exchange it at BB? I thought the advantage of buying from a B&M was fast and easy exchange.

Re: the fan noise, some fan designs fare better in a vertical position and others horizontal. According to wikipedia, sleeve bearing fans wear out faster when used in a horizontal orientation due to the redistribution of lubricant over the lifetime of the fan. Ball hearing fans, OTOH do not have the same sensitivity to orientation. But, I think orientation only affects the fan over a longer lifetime (i.e. in 3 years time, a ball bearing fan will be louder if it was run horizontally compared to the same fan having been run vertically for those 3 years instead). Anything you see right away is either manufacturing differences between individual fans, defective product, or simply psychoacoustic effects.

Ruahrc
 
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