Hardware Could my switch be slowly failing?

[ack]

So i've had my switch since feb 2018, and over the last couple months i've noticed something. it seems that when i'm playing a game, it's laggier than normal, and has been getting laggier the past couple of months. I've also had it crash randomly 2 times. Could this be a sign something in my switch is failing?

 

[SheriffBuck]

It's entirely possible. Water damage is the main enemy here. Perhaps you had a light spill that you thought you got away with at the time. The problem being that unless it is fully dealt with, you will get a slow build up of corrosive, conductive salt deposits which grow over time. Some of the TronixFix videos talk about this.

If you are comfortable, pop the back off and take a look. You are looking for a white crystalline deposit around the pins of the chips. The water indicator can often be untouched as the Switch would need to be completely submerged to trigger that. Common place is around the backlight cable near the RH joycon where there are higher voltages (which accelerates the deterioration).

The issue is more tricky if it's actually under BGA style chips and that would probably need an ultrasonic bath to have any chance of clearing it.

 

[M7L7NK7]

Are your ganes on an SD? Could be the card

 

[Paulsar99]

A corrupted sd card can cause that issue. Exfat?

 

[ack]

Are your ganes on an SD? Could be the card

A corrupted sd card can cause that issue. Exfat?

no my games are stored on the system

 

[Teletron1]

You play in hand held or tv , maybe dust build up you ever check the temp on it?
Running full memory?
You running games off carts or mSd or SysM ?

 

[nero99]

Sounds like you need to put new thermal paste on the cpu. If that doesn’t fix it, you could have a failing fan or nand chip

 

[TheCasualties]

I'd try checking temps and fan speed with Status Monitor overlay before taking the switch apart. But it's true, you could be experiencing thermal throttle. At least that would explain the increased lag while playing.
NVM, I thought it could throttle.

Do you get any error code/screen when it crashes? Or does it just shut off?

 

[ack]

@sherrifbuck i couldn't find anything that matched that description, nor do i remember ever spilling something on it. It was a real dusty boi though, so that might be part of the issue. Also the game i've been experiencing more lag in is BOTW, and it might just be that i'm traveling faster, since i've also learned glitches that allow me to travel fast in the same time frame.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

@sherrifbuck i couldn't find anything that matched that description, nor do i remember ever spilling something on it. It was a real dusty boi though, so that might be part of the issue. Also the game i've been experiencing more lag in is BOTW, and it might just be that i'm traveling faster, since i've also learned glitches that allow me to travel fast in the same time frame.

Dust will get clogged in the heatsink over time, just as it does with PCs. And when the Switch is in the dock, the air vent is facing up, for dust to fall onto, which isn't great. Also, thermal paste can degrade, but it hasn't been long enough for that to be a likely cause. The thermal paste Nintendo uses is pretty cheap though, so if you're opening it up to clean it, might as well replace the thermal paste with a better one while you're at it, which will help temps further.
Personally, I keep my Switch in the pouch most of the time to avoid dust and accidental damage. And only charging it occasionally if I don't use it for a while to avoid wearing out the battery.

 

[ZachyCatGames]

You play in hand held or tv , maybe dust build up you ever check the temp on it?
Running full memory?
You running games off carts or mSd or SysM ?

Sounds like you need to put new thermal paste on the cpu. If that doesn’t fix it, you could have a failing fan or nand chip

I'd try checking temps and fan speed with Status Monitor overlay before taking the switch apart. But it's true, you could be experiencing thermal throttle. At least that would explain the increased lag while playing.

Do you get any error code/screen when it crashes? Or does it just shut off?

Switch cannot thermal throttle in HOS.

 

[Anxiety_timmy]

Main thing here, Its probably thermal throttling.
Does the fan get loud in any mode?

 

[ack]

@wiiuepiccpu it got pretty loud when i was playing botw with it directly in between the sun and i on what waas probably the solstice, but i think that that would be expected lol

 

[Teletron1]

@wiiuepiccpu it got pretty loud when i was playing botw with it directly in between the sun and i on what waas probably the solstice, but i think that that would be expected lol

If you have hekate you can check the temp on it after playing on it for a while

Botw only when you have to much going on does the game slow down like in the Forest with fog or when it’s raining

but if you don’t want to open it use a vac on the vents to suck up dust and check your temps ,in the end it would be nice to take a look inside especially if you have pets for dust balls , the thermal paste should still be good after 3yrs this isn’t PS3 heating issues where it bakes it