Mistreatment is the tradition when it comes to the quick fix for electrical gadgets. You would give it a good whack to get it functioning again. This often worked since a loose wire or connection could be coaxed into reconnecting. But the device would then fail at a later time since the mechanical shock would weaken other connections.

The towel trick is a well known quick and dirty fix for the 3 red light error or red ring of death. It also fits neatly into this category of abusive, quick fixes. The fix entails cooking the inside circuitry instead of using mechanical shock. The theory behind this is that the broken connections will somehow re-solder themselves if you heat them up enough.

The method starts with wrapping a few towels around your Xbox. Then run the console for 15 minutes or so and you’re all done. At this point, you are ready to enjoy some games. Whenever the next ring of death happens just grab your trusty towels and repeat the trick.

So what’s wrong with this method if it fixes your console? The trouble with this technique is that the internal chips get exposed to extreme temperatures. A major concern in electronics manufacture, is avoiding heat damage to components during manufacture. It’s a tricky thing to find the right solder temperature that does the job without causing chip damage.

So the towel fix does it’s magic at the expense of further chip damage. The damaged chips then causes more ring of deaths later on. When you use the towel trick for the next problem, your Xbox is weakened further with more damage. You can only do this so many times before the console gets too damaged to function. Using the towel trick over and over is a kind of death spiral for your Xbox.

One other problem is that it is a dangerous thing to do. A lot of heat is generated by the Xbox. Because the heat is prevented from escaping, internal temperatures get extreme. If your Xbox catches on fire, flammable things next to your Xbox (such as your house) can burn too.

The towel trick doesn’t make any sense. An undersized cooling system causes the ring of death in the first place. Trying to solve the problem by applying more heat is like fighting fire with fire.

Marc Sandford is a gaming addict and writer. Get more Xbox 360 trouble shooting information about repairing the Red Ring of Death.

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