Apparently, the GPU on an Xbox 360 isn’t socketed but soldered into the board. This wasn’t a problem until the Autumn Update, which upscaled the video output to 1080, which obviously put more strain on the GPU… This caused the GPU to generate more heat. Now all of this sounds fine as it wasn’t overheating that was causing these Xbox 360s to fail… or was it?
Read more on this intriguing development in this CES 2007 Headline.