Red Rings of Death Put to Rest – Xbox 360 Towel Trick

OK, so everybody knows how unreliable and faulty the Xbox 360 is, which is a problem caused by rushing it out to boost sales. I myself suffered 3 weeks of excruciating pains of boredom as my Xbox 360 was taken away to be replaced due to an unrepairable hardware failure. Although the new one did come free of charge I found out later that I didn’t have to go through the withdrawal systems of not having my Xbox 360 for 3 weeks…

Without going into too much detail, the actual fault was due to the game console heating up during use, and given enough time, the temperature inside reaches very high levels due to insufficient cooling. Now if this occurred tech support would be your first point of call and that’s exactly what I did. I went online, sent them an e-mail saying I got the three rings and hey band presto got an e-mail back saying I had to send my Xbox to Ireland (takes about a week to get UPS to pick it up) to get it checked out and within I would 3-4 weeks I got a brand new one free.

Waiting over 3 weeks like any avid gamer like myself would have done, I had nearly chewed off all my finger nails with the stress of not being able to play on my Xbox 360. However, to stave off the boredom till Mr UPS picks up the scrap of an Xbox you now have. The main one is the mighty ‘Towel Trick.’

Basically the Towel Trick entails wrapping the console in towels, (without the HDD, any game discs, A/V or ethernet – only the AC cord is left connected) and allowing it to “cook” in a warm room for 15 minutes, followed by a half-hour cool down time. Now the theory is that this heat that builds up because of the faulty cooling system somehow rewelds the solder and BANG the Xbox works again. Now this process has received mixed reviews some saying it works some saying it doesn’t, it seems to be like the lottery u can’t be sure if it is going to work. Microsoft say however that it is not advised to perform this technique as it could potentially void the manufacturer warranty and runs the risk of further damaging the system by overheating the memory, CPU, GPU, and drying out electrolytic capacitors, which can’t tolerate temperatures higher than 105° Celsius for a long time. When it does work however it does seem to be only a short term fix with the red lights appearing again in a couple of weeks or a month if it works at all that is.

Ok in an end note another remedy came up, a rather caveman style way to fix your Xbox and that is to kick the living hell out of it, now supposedly this works however a grinding noise is heard during gameplay.

Now personally I would have to say a slight tap is somtimes good but kicking it has to be 100% without a doubt one of the worst things to do. Overall if your Xbox breaks experiencing it myself just go online http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/support/ and set up a repair a link near the top, register your Xbox and try your luck. Why warranty was out dated by had 3 reg rings and still got a free Xbox360 worth a try no? If your desperate to play the new bestseller like GTA4 try the ‘towel trick’ but don’t say I didn’t warn you it may not work.

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