Hardware Nintendo Switch meltdown....?

[kuletko]

anyone experience this?

https://www.yahoo.com/news/nintendo-switch-apparently-melting-docked-mode-160937963.html

 

[kingraa777]

Fuck ! Hope that doesn't happen to mine

 

[Joe88]

Someone probably needs to run temperature probes to test just exactly how hot the outer shell is getting during gameplay (docked and undocked).
If it can melt the adhesive on screen protectors, its not a good sign, in the teardown, they are using alot of shims to transfer the heat, it may be on of the problems.

 

[DeslotlCL]

What? really? nintendo seal of quality?

 

[slingblade1170]

I haven't noticed my switch even feeling hot when playing docked. Hope mine don't warp.

 

[linuxares]

How can it bend that much in the dock? Feels like someone have bent it.

 

[Saiyan Lusitano]

Didn't Nintendo do a QC test? It's supposed to always be durable but if it melts down then it won't last for a lifetime. :-/

 

[linuxares]

This just seem strange to be honest, it's a big metal plate inside, it have copper inside. It require a lot of heat to bend those. The Screen should have been damaged by that heat as well.

 

[slingblade1170]

How many reports of this? I can only find 2 and one of those I can't really see any bend.

 

[AlexanderLS]

AFAIK two users on reddit had this happen.
They may live in a hot climate and not have proper AC.

No need to panic about this yet, more information is still needed.

 

[sarkwalvein]

Someone probably needs to run temperature probes to test just exactly how hot the outer shell is getting during gameplay (docked and undocked).
If it can melt the adhesive on screen protectors, its not a good sign, in the teardown, they are using alot of shims to transfer the heat, it may be on of the problems.

Someone already did. It is very cool.
I will see if I find the video.
But the temperature next to the GPU was below 50ºC in the worst case scenario.
That is cool. Hot enough to melt chocolate anyway.



PS: Is the switch frame made of chocolate?

 

[TheCyberQuake]

I've held my switch immediately after coming out of the dock after 8+ hours of play, and it was only mildly warm to the touch for me. No issues with melting on my screen protector either. Maybe I'm just lucky.

 

[linuxares]

I've held my switch immediately after coming out of the dock after 8+ hours of play, and it was only mildly warm to the touch for me. No issues with melting on my screen protector either. Maybe I'm just lucky.

The only time I played on my TV with it and taking it out afterwards. It was maybe 50-60C directly over the SoC, else it was fine holding. So I have no idea how they manage to bend them. Did they sit on them or something?

 

[DiscostewSM]

I get the feeling that it wasn't bending while played in the dock, but that perhaps they bent it themselves, or left it in a hot car. Honestly, with what some people do to their new devices on Youtube and whatnot, could it even be hard to imagine?

Either way, shouldn't the metal plating inside sorta prevent that without force, let alone other components melting or going dysfunctional if the kind of heat needed for that deformation were to occur?

 

[Enigma Hall]

Add honey. Is delicious. :v

 

[The Real Jdbye]

While my switch does get fairly hot to the touch after playing for a while in docked mode, it doesn't get hot enough to be unpleasant to touch. I have trouble believing that article. For that to happen, everything on the inside of the Switch would need to be bent too. I don't see how that could happen outside of physical force. Maybe they sat on it by accident and lied about it in order to get a warranty replacement.
I couldn't see this happening even if you took a blowtorch to the Switch. Plastic may be pliable at high enough temperatures but the internals would keep that from happening unless they were also bent.

 

[bennyman123abc]

Something smells fishy.... Why is it that there are only 2 reports of this rather than multiple? Why is it that no one else has reported heat problems with the Switch? Tune in next time to hear the answers right here on GBATemp!

 

[DiscostewSM]

Personally, I use my Switch in the dock most of the time, and don't have any deformation that could even be considered that. What I have seen seems to be more of design than error. I look at the bottom, and see the edges looks straight enough on either side. I look at the top, and while the edge where the screen is looks straight enough, the back looks like it bulges out slightly. But, it looks so uniform. Imagine that on both left and right sides, it's straight (for aligning with the pads in the dock), but then curves out a little, then curves in a little to form what looks like a bulge, but then is straight for the majority of the center section.

I'll try and see if I can take a good enough picture to show what I mean.

 

[gamesquest1]

yeah im not seeing it, if there was a heat issue it would more likely cause warping of the plastic but not entirely bending the console like that, especially with it being curved on both sides like........... its been sat on

but I will say it does seem to be bent more on the side where the heat pipe runs, so idk, maybe it could have been some weird fault or something.....but seems like either BS or a weird one off fault

 

[Kioku]

yeah im not seeing it, if there was a heat issue it would more likely cause warping of the plastic but not entirely bending the console like that, especially with it being curved on both sides like........... its been sat on

but I will say it does seem to be bent more on the side where the heat pipe runs, so idk, maybe it could have been some weird fault or something.....but seems like either BS or a weird one off fault

If it gets hot enough, you CAN manipulate the plastic. It's not exactly witchcraft, and it makes sense. I do believe that this particular user had their switch dock in a stuffy space. No proper airflow or anything.