PSA: Is Your Switch Overheating? Perhaps The Joy-Con Rails Need A Clean

That sounds like a manufacturer issue. Mine doesn't overheat though.

Mine only gets hotter than usual when all the conditions are right. Those usually are a lengthy session with a graphic demanding game, a really hot and/or humid day and no a/c on (just normal house fans). If I have the volume low and/or the sound in game fluctuates I can hear the Switch's internal fan blowing like mad.

Good to know if I run into this.

My joycon rails are prettier than yours.

Ok that's.. weird. What about dirty rails could cause heating? There's no air intake along the rails I can detect. Is this something with joycon contacts inside the bottom lip getting dodgy connections and thus overcharging joycon batteries or just generally high resistance at the contracts or something?

first of all, i never liked blowing air (and dust) into my computer systems, i use a small vacuumcleaner, then clean it with a earstick.
you also have to look out with airsprays, the cheap ones are not for electronics, there is too much moisture in it.

there is only one game btw, that overheated my switch several times, namely goat simulator.
dunno what it is with this game.

I had this happen recently and paid $100 for Nintendo to fix it. Not only was it overheating but also the system didn't charge the joycons any more.

I just recently got my Switch back from Nintendo after sending it to them for repairs because of this exact reason, so this is interesting timing for this article lol

Lucky for me, Nintendo repaired it free of charge! 👍

Did the Nintendium mines start running dry or something???

I think it's a good thing to tell people about this issue. What I personally don't like is the lack of explanation/details behind it. If I do this fix, I want to know the cause and the reason, otherwise I feel not comfortable doing any of this.
So, is there any connections to the heat system? Is there an air intake? Has it something to do with charging the joy cons? More details, please!

Yeah my joy con's get hot but I thought it was because I game hard.

P.s.: I watched the video, didn't understand a thing. But what happened is, he took a video and measured the heat with a closed and running switch, then opened it, replaced the rail and checked the heat with a still open switch...
Come on! At least put the back cover on and run it for several minutes to check the heat again. It's like measuring the temperature in a sauna with the door open...

And if your joy-con drifts try to clean up your karma or eat healthier food. Or random.

Don't cha wish your Joy-Con was hot like me?

@NEStalgia I think it may indeed be caused by bad/dirty contacts causing the contacts to heat up while the joy cons are charging. A bad contact means a higher resistance and thus you will have power dissipation. People that never take the joy-cons off may not even have this issue as the batteries are almost full all the time and the contacts are less prone to get dirty.

Further evidence Nintendo joy-cons aren't worth half what they charge for them.

@BreathingMiit They are VERY expensive. I stopped using mine over a year ago. I've found the Pro Controller not only more durable, but also much better in achieving accurate diagonal's in games. The one thing I do miss is the HD Rumble.

My day One switch was overheating quite a lot after 2 years (and I could feel the battery life drain faster too). Reason why I decided to traded in for a maricko version

My fan was on non stop in handheld, so I took the back plate off and dusted where I could (too scared to take the silver plate off underneath), and that’s lessened the issue as the fan now runs for a couple of minutes and then stops.

Frankly if I can keep it alive until the rumoured upgrade next year I’m happy. I’ve used the thing since day one and have played several thousand hours on it so you don’t expect the thing to last forever.

What happens when it overheats? Does a message display on the screen? Any kind of warning? Does it force sleep mode for 10 minutes or something?

@mazzel That was my thoughts exactly. You can't test something opened like that and expect the same high temperatures. I'm more reluctant to believe that's actually the problem just from this video.

@spirit_flame the pro controller has hd rumble as well

Well lookey here, its another Switch-problem! Luckily I haven't experienced it so far. And I have never cleaned the rail, but maybe its time to do that?

My switch did start getting very hot on the right side. I'll try that to see if it fixes anything.
Edit: Did a quick test but it seems that cleaning the rail with compressed air works. I played Xenoblade and the Pikmin 3 demo and it's already a bit cooler than before. It was a quick test though so I'll see if it gets bad again after a long play session.

I don't know if it's a heating problem as it only happens during long Animal Crossing sessions. But my Switch gets hot while playing Animal Crossing. In fact, it not only gets hot. But the battery goes faster playing Animal Crossing as well. For comparison, I play other games and don't have those issues unless it's in conditions that might cause the Switch to get hot (like playing outside on a hot day or when it's warm inside).

@RustedHero Yes and yes. I recently started having overheating issues with a launch day Switch. It will suddenly stop your game and display a message saying it is going to sleep to allow it to cool down.

I got a little bit of an improvement by opening the Switch and replacing the thermal paste, which was totally dry and almost gone. But it didn't change much. The next logical step, to me, was to dismantle it even further and clean or replace the fan, but I didn't want to do that myself as my eyes don't do well with screws that are about the size of fleas. I bought a new Switch, and my daughter uses my old one as a handheld now. The overheating problem is much less prevalent in handheld.

I might try cleaning the Joy-Con rails just for kicks, although it seems very strange to me that dirt on the rails would cause such a bad overheating problem.

@Zuljaras I have a launch day switch and I replaced the thermal paste just yesterday with Grizzly and the fans are completely silent now on games that would kick them on pretty loud.

My problem is the system refusing to recognize the right joycon is connected. It finds the joycon but registers it only as detached even though I can slide it in and get the click sound and little graphic on the screen. It still acts like it's not mounted.

Very inconsistent.

BREAKING NEWS

Nintendo switch has yet another hardware issue.

what a shock.

it ain't the most durable console nintendo ever released

Today's systems, I tell ya...

I bet it's the case that is hold the Joy-Cons together that is part of the problem.

@PALversusNTSC There's nothing wrong with blowing air into electronics. I've been doing it for decades and never had an issue with it. I used a small air blower with a nozzle as using suction doesn't get the dust out at all especially if it's been a long time since cleaning. You just can't get the same force pulling as you can pushing with air. I also have anti-static brushes I use after I've blown the majority out and brush the motherboard and cards and fans. My issue with the can dusters is the expense. That's why I bought a plug in air blower.

@PALversusNTSC I'd stop using a vaccum cleaner ASAP if I was you, the static discharge from a vaccum cleaner will damage things like your motherboard

You might think "well my PCs fine" but that doesnt mean everytime you do that you arent damaging it, because you are.

@Zuljaras doesnt the switch use a big blob of compound over regular thermal paste? I ask because in future I too planned on opening up my switch, cleaning it out and applying new thermal paste but it looks different in switch to your regular thermal paste to me

@ivory_soul you mean after opening the switch up.. right? I hope you dont mean just blowing air INTO the system through the top exhaust vent? That would just blow dust deeper into the system

@Moonlessky Don't know... my one has a not so impressive rumble, but nothing near the detailed HD rumble on Lumines on Joy-con's - you could feel the tunes.

@bigpale mine was doing that right before it started the drift issue. I would put pressure on it & it would help it register, but eventually i stopped using the joycons since i broke the right one after being pissed at it doing that crap. I use the nyko ones now.

@spirit_flame i think it's just due to the smaller size that u can feel it more. I haven't played that game, but in other games it seems that's the case.

@Doktor-Mandrake If the air is strong enough it won't hurt anything. I've been doing this for years. I have never seen dirt "blown deeper into a system" ever. If you have so much build up that you need to take the system apart, you need to either dust more or blow the system out more.

@sketchturner. Did you contact Nintendo and start a work order with them or for you take to a store? Ours is doing the exact same thing. Overheating and not charging joycons.

Thanks

@Stangsa Yeah, I just contacted customer service. They completely fixed the issue for me and the Switch has worked great ever since.