360 Failures and Nyko Intercooler Linked?

An interesting story has popped up over the last 24hrs from GWN regarding overheating Xbox 360's, system failures and the Nyko Intercooler.

It seems Microsoft are not happy with how the Intercooler draws its power from their system.

Basically the Intercooler seats itself onto the back of your console directly over the power cable, thus you actually have to remove the power cable and plug it directly into the Intercooler.

This is where MS claim the problems arises, due to the fact that the Intercooler draws the power directly from the powerpack before it has time to assign the power to all its components it struggles to power itself, thus causing problems.

There have even been cases where MS have received consoles back that have failed that have shown signs of Heat or Burn marks where an Intercooler has been sat and they have promptly sent them back unfixed!

So MS are recommending anyone that rings them up with 360 problems that have Intercoolers connected to remove them and if need be use a USB powered cooling system due to the fact the system then has all the power it needs before you connect such a device.

Here is a quote from the article:

The first Microsoft rep stated that the device simply drains too much power from the 360. He explained that the console requires a specific amount of power, especially during start-up, and that everything was built to supply the machine with the power it needs. The Intercooler drains a bit of that power right from the start, so the console is now getting less juice. Especially during the start-up of the system, explained the rep, this can cause problems as the 360 is trying to supply electricity to all its parts and somewhere along the line won’t have enough to get everything running. This can allegedly lead to all sorts of technical problems up to and including the complete death of the system.

A second representative didn’t go into any of that, but did say that they have seen cases where the Intercooler caused “scorch marks” on both the console and the peripheral. Where the Intercooler meets the AC input of the 360, he said, there has been multiple cases of brown discoloration, the result of too much heat where the two parts connect. In fact, if a console is sent to tech support and any evidence of that specific discoloration exists, Microsoft will promptly send the 360 back to the owner untouched.

In both cases, each rep went on to explain that Nyko’s Intercooler is an unlicensed device, and therefore Microsoft does not recommend its usage. They advised using only peripherals that have the official Microsoft seal of approval (a small green square on the packaging that states that it is approved for use on the Xbox 360). Interestingly, one of the reps mentioned the Pelican Fan Stand as an acceptable cooling option. While also unlicensed, the Fan Stand is plugged into the USB port, so the console is specifically powering it as a USB device rather than the peripheral just stealing electricity.

"As with most new products on the market, the Intercooler has an extremely small defective rate and is a very reliable product. We would like to assure you that Nyko stands by its products one-hundred percent, and will provide customer service and support for the Intercooler for the entirety of your ownership."