Widespread internet reports are claiming that some customers who had sent their Xbox 360 to Microsoft for repair have discovered that the returned consoles have had a second heatsink installed.

Heatsinks are designed to keep a machine’s internal components cool, so the decision to install a second near to the 360’s Xenos GPU could be seen as an acknowledgement that the machine does indeed have an overheating problem, as some have speculated.

Since the launch of Xbox 360, Microsoft has constantly denied allegations that its console suffers from an inherent fault that causes it to overheat and display an error symbol – which has since gone on to be known as the ‘Red Ring of Death’ – insisting that hardware failure rates are below average for machines of its kind.

It is not yet known whether this second heatsink is just being installed in faulty machines or whether it is a new design feature present in all new machines.