You might be surprised to learn that most video game consoles are very dirty, even if your Xbox Series X looks spotless. Keeping your Xbox Series X free of dust can help it last a lot longer. It’s important to know what dust does to your video game console and how to keep it clean.
Dust can damage your Xbox Series X. When dust and other particles get into the small air holes and build up inside your video game console, some of the parts inside may break. For example, it could stop the fan from working right and cause the whole system to get too hot.
Video game consoles have a lot of small, fragile parts that can be sensitive to heat. This is why you should keep them clean. I’ll explain why and how dust can hurt your Xbox Series X in this article. I’ll also give you some useful tips on how to keep dust from affecting how well it works.
How Dust Affects Your Xbox Series X?
The video game consoles of today are much more durable and technologically advanced than those of the past. In the early 2000s, we would walk on eggshells around our consoles because we were afraid that even the smallest bump could damage their very fragile insides.
No matter how strong they are, the PlayStation and Xbox of today are just as likely to get dirty as the first ones were. No matter what kind of videogame console you have, you should keep it in a safe, clean place that is usually free of dust and dirt.
After all, all game consoles have the same thing in common: they all have small holes that let air in and out.
If you look at the back of the main console unit of your Xbox Series X, you’ll see a number of small holes. If you turn it over and look at the bottom of the console, you’ll see a few extra holes. Most of the air comes in through these two sets of holes and goes out through the holes at the top of the console.
Two things can happen when dust gets on your Xbox Series X:
- It can control how much air comes into and goes out of your console.
- It can build up around your controller’s buttons and make them hard to press (this, however, is a minor problem compared to reduced air circulation).
Dust Obstructs The Airflow Inside Your Xbox Series X
First, it’s important to realize how unrealistic and impossible it would be for you to keep dust out of your console all the time. Hair, dead skin, pollen, mites, bacteria, clothing fibers, and other small particles are pretty much everywhere, and the only way to stop them from damaging our technology is to dust regularly.
Even though some dust is bound to get into your unit’s vent holes, you won’t have any problems unless a lot of dust builds up inside your unit and stops its internal parts from working.
Dust Causes Your Xbox Series X To Overheat and Crash
If a lot of dust builds up around your console’s air vents, the system’s airflow will be affected because less air will be coming in and going out. If there is less air moving through your Xbox Series X, it may slowly overheat and make a loud noise from the fan. This could cause your console to crash.
The performance of your Xbox Series X may slowly get worse as dust builds up inside it.
Wes Fenlon of PC Gamer points out that the Xbox Series X has a fan on top that is 130 mm or 5.11 in. This makes sure that there is enough airflow without having to make the fan bigger. Smaller fans allow for smaller consoles, but they don’t perform nearly as well as consoles with bigger fans.
Tips To Keep Your Xbox Series X Clean And Dust Free
Since there are air holes on both sides of your Xbox Series X, you must keep it away from any surface where dust, hair, and dirt tend to gather. Rule number one is to keep your Xbox Series X off the floor. The little air holes on its surface would end up sucking in a lot of dust.
By, for example, putting your console on a TV stand or a shelf, you can keep a lot of dust and dirt from getting into the air holes. Also, keep in mind that if your console gets too hot and doesn’t have enough ventilation, its performance may slowly get worse over time.
Here are a few more tips that are worth mentioning:
- When you are done using your Xbox Series X, cover it with a cloth or a dust cover.
- Keep your Xbox Series X clean by dusting it often.
- Don’t use a can of compressed air to clean your console because it will just push the dust deeper into the parts inside.
- If your Xbox Series X gets too hot or makes too much noise, you can either open it up and clean each part inside carefully or hire a pro to do it for you.
If you follow the tips in this article, it’s very unlikely that dust will cause your Xbox Series X serious damage. The main problem with dust is that it’s everywhere, and no matter how hard we try to keep our electronics clean, dust always finds a way in.
Final Thoughts
Some people choose to open up their game consoles once or even twice a year and clean them to make sure they work at their best. This is something you can do with your Xbox Series X if you want to. But if you keep your console off the floor and dust it often, you won’t have to go to such lengths unless you see any of the problems listed in this article.