Fan in 360 not working

I noticed yesterday that my 360 was sounding noisier than usual. I was playing a game off the Hard Disk and the fans seemed to be making more noise than they normally do.

Having checked the back, it seems that the top fan (when stood vertically) is no longer working. It's pumping out warmer air and the side of the unit feels warmer to the touch as a result.

I don't know what the best course of action is an was hoping someone might offer some advice.

My 360 will be 3 yrs old in early Oct so I only have 4 and a bit months left on the RRoD cover that MS are offering and it already has been repeaired for that issue in April 08.

I guess I have 2 options:

1. carry on using it as it is and risk possible further overheating of the motherboard/internal components, but it will be covered at least for RRoD until Oct if it occurs again.

2. Pop in some new fans but void what warrantee I have left.

Since it's already been repaired and there's a good chance it still might not RRoD in the next 4 months, I'm thinking of getting some new fans as a preventative measure from RRoD down the line.

Does anyone recommend or not recommend doing this? Also, any advice on what fans to get would be useful.

My thanks in advance.

or maybe one of those 3rd party external fans, should do the job and won't void the warrantee.

Ta for the reply. I already have a base stand thingy and I can see where you're coming from. I guess an intercooler might be enough. I'm kind of caught in the 'do I do nothing and then get RRoD possibly after my warranty expired in 4 months' or 'do I void my 4 month warranty now to possibly prevent RRoD at all'.

Either way in 4 months time a RRoD will not be covered anyway and it's more likely to happen again in the future(I'm guessing) if the machine is getting too warm now.

I've had a butchers round the web and it seems a Talismoon Whisper fan would be suitable. Anyone got any experiences with these?

Yeah the intercooler thingy might work for a while, long enough to go past you warranty!


I havn't really looked into fans and coolers for the xbox, but I have seen Talismoon Whisper fan mentioned as the best one a good few times.

Hmmm. Having done a bit of reading I was under the impression that the stock fans were 5v but I've had a look through the back holes of my 360 and noticed that the fans in there are 12v "Sunon - MagLev" fans.

I wonder if MS put the 12v fans in when it went off for RRoD repair?

I don't suppose it matters really. I've ordered a Whisper Max fan and I'll just have to see if I can avoid borking it up or not.

EDIT: my Talismoon fan arrived today, so with my 360 in bits I plugged it in for a quick test before installing it properly. Guess what? The same chuffing thing happens - only 1 of the fan works. I guess the problem could be in the fan socket on the board or maybe elsewhere on the circuit board somewhere becuase it seems that power is not getting to one of the fans.

Luckily the Whisper Max came with some other cables used for the 12v nitro switch (allowing me to alter fan speed from the standard 5v to a faster (and louder) 12v. These draw power from the DVD socket on the board, so after connecting these cables and a test run I can happily say both fans are now spinning. Yay!