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by MarcSandford

Have you recently experienced the red ring of death? If you've done any research, then you've probably come across the towel fix or towel trick. As frustrating as the ring of death is, there's no reason to panic. Don't let the stress and annoyance to cause you to try it.

The towel trick entails covering up the console with some towels, and then running it for a number of minutes. This heats up the soldering inside the console which makes the solder soft enough to fix any broken connections. In any case, that's the principle behind it. Although it's simple enough to understand and to do, does it work and is it a good thing to do to your Xbox?

While there are plenty of YouTube videos about this technique, most are authored by kids or amateurs. They put little consideration into whether their fix causes any lasting damage. There are better approaches for fixing the ring of death.

People using this technique often end up with a severely damaged Xbox while the lucky ones get a temporary fix. Continual usage of this fix causes additional damage to the electronics. When the cumulative damage becomes too severe, the towel trick doesn't work anymore.

With this method the overheating problem doesn't get solved permanently. It is guaranteed to make your console even more prone to getting too hot.

This is because the chips on the motherboard can be damaged by heat exposure. This is the reason why cooling fans are employed to begin with. If heat is the problem and heat is also used to fix the problem, then this should tell you that something's wrong with this fix.

The towel fix is the wrong approach. There are plenty of people with damaged consoles who can attest to that.

Don't destroy your console. Return it to Microsoft for a replacement if your warranty is still intact. Otherwise, fix it yourself or hire a professional.

If you decide to do it yourself, you must get a good repair guide. Of course this means opening up the console. This might result in further damage if you aren't careful. But if you're able to use some basic tools and can exactly follow the guide's instructions, you will do OK.

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Got an Xbox that runs too hot? Get Xbox trouble shooting information about fixing the Xbox 360 ROD.