May 2021 arrived, and we still with our 2017 Nintendo Switch streaming non-stop on our Twitch channel. In that month she began to tighten the heat more and more in the room where we do live shows, making June, July and August unbearable! But not only for us, but also for our hybrid old lady… causing it to even shut down due to overheating! And that is one of its security measures to avoid getting older: if the console detects that the temperature is rising beyond what is reasonable, it turns off for our own safety… and for yours!
We currently have it easier. not just because we have a Nintendo Switch OLED, which dissipates the temperature much better than the previous model, but because now we work and broadcast with air conditioning. And our Nintendo Switch OLED appreciates it. Take, for example, what happened in our first streaming of Road 96 (from the 27 minute and 43 second mark)… and there are games that also make our console hotter than others! For the following direct of this series we put frozen water bottles around the dock XD (separated in such a way so that humidity was not a problem).
Nintendo Japan wants you to play cool
The Japanese Twitter account of Nintendo has published a series of tweets where they recommend do not subject our console to high temperatures, if what we want is for it to work correctly. In the following tweet, in fact, they recommend playing between 5 and 35 degrees, also advising not to block or obstruct the ventilation grills of our Nintendo Switch (those marked with arrows in the image itself).
If you use the Nintendo Switch in a hot place, the temperature of the main unit may become high. Use in a place of 5 to 35 ° C.
Also, if the intake and exhaust ports are blocked, the temperature of the main unit may rise. Make the air around the intake and exhaust ports better. https://t.co/bgS883YDWX pic.twitter.com/0c86fcgxnV
— Nintendo Support (@nintendo_cs) July 11, 2022
In the following tweet, Nintendo comments how his console can go into sleep mode if the temperature gets too highadvising that, if we play in TV mode, we install it in a place that does not retain heat.
If the temperature of the main unit becomes too high, it may sleep automatically to protect the main unit.
When playing in TV mode, install the Nintendo Switch Dock in a location that does not retain heat. https://t.co/GN31dkjcUn— Nintendo Support (@nintendo_cs) July 11, 2022
What you must also is that a little maintenance of your Nintendo Switch is also a way to prolong its life. If the ventilation ports are clogged, the console can get very hot, compared to if I had them clean. In a last tweet, they recommend removing particles and dust from the vents, as well as anything you have blocking or covering them. Indicate that you might proceed to clean it with a vacuum cleanerbut don’t ever think of disassembling it!
If there is foreign matter or dust on the air intake / exhaust port of the main unit, remove it with a vacuum cleaner.
For your safety, do not disassemble the main unit. https://t.co/tBvIHBryPr
— Nintendo Support (@nintendo_cs) July 11, 2022
Our bonus tip: use the Nintendo Switch only for gaming
One thing Nintendo doesn’t explain is that, in addition to a passive heatsink, tu Nintendo Switch uses an active heatsink. That is, unlike previous portables, the one on your current console It has a fan that tries to expel the hot air, as well as bringing in new air from the outside, in order to keep the heart of our console as cool as possible. What happens with these types of heatsinks is that they have a useful life, including an estimated number of rotations. That is to say: when the fan “dies” you will have a hard time making your Nintendo Switch work, and believe me: if you continue to use it, the fan will die one day! It is clear that if one day you stop using it, and it is still “okay”, it will stay that way. It may not even happen to you.
In fact, at home we have had a console, also from 2017, whose heatsink stopped “dissipating” because the fan ended up stopping working, and it is not the only case that we have known! In our community there have been some cases. On the other hand, the console that we mentioned at the beginning (the one with streaming), except for those blackouts due to excess heat, continues to work. Needless to say that it had far fewer hours of use than the console that “died.”
Why might my Nintendo Switch heatsink fan stop working?
Your Nintendo Switch fan may stop working, either due to a manufacturing defect, because it is clogged by excess dust or other particles, or foreign bodies that block it, also because of a blow, or because its life has already taken many turns (cymbal noise), or because the sum of all or some of these factors. In the case of the console that we have mentioned, the one that stopped working, had lived 2 or 3 playable lives if we compared it with the others that we had at home (in relation to the number of hours played with it). And with zero videos, trailers, direct and others. Her whole life was taken advantage of to play!
That is why we recommend you use your Nintendo Switch… for whatever you want! That of course. But, if you want the life of your Nintendo Switch to last longer, in relation to what it was conceived for (running games, and playing with them), we would recommend that for watch YouTube videos or direct from Twitchetc., use PC, TV, mobile or tablets, etc., instead of your console. We insist: you can do with it what you want, but… wouldn’t it be better if that useful life is used only to play?
