The Towel Trick For the Xbox 360 – Is it Recommended?
When I first heard of the towel trick for Xbox 360, I must admit, I thought it was just some practical joke, and that nobody would try something so ridiculous in order to fix the red ring of death! Don’t get me wrong, I understand all too well how frustrating it can be when you cannot play any games due to the red ring of death, but the towel trick just did not seem to make any sense to me!
As a computer technician, I am all to familiar with overheating problems and the need for proper cooling, but wrapping a towel around what is essentially a mini computer in the hope of a quick fix seems to go against common logic!
The towel trick is only meant to be a quick fix, not a permanent solution and because it is so quick and simple to perform, many Xbox 360 gamers have decided to give it a go rather than wait several weeks for Microsoft to repair their consoles. The theory behind the towel trick is quite simple.
You basically wrap one or more towels around your console, switch it on, and then leave it for 15 minutes or so. The idea behind this is that the intense heat that is generated inside the console starts to melt the broken solder joints and re-solder them as well as reshaping the motherboard!
Now this sounds quite logical to many and it is possible for this to work, however, because there is no controlled environment, there is no way to be certain what solder joints get melted and what gets re-soldered, in other words, its a shot in the dark, which is probably why it only works for a few days or so and the process has to be repeated.
Unfortunately, because of the uncontrolled nature of this technique, repeating the process causes unnecessary wear and tear on the components and ultimately, they are damaged beyond repair! So, because of these factors, the towel trick for Xbox 360 is really not recommended even though it may be a quick fix!
A much better solution if you just cannot wait to get back to playing games is to repair the console properly using a quality self repair guide. By using such a guide you will be able to get to the root of the problem and fix the red ring of death permanently, without using any towels!