How The Towel Trick Slowly Destroys Your Xbox 360
Mistreatment is the tradition when it comes to easy fixes for electronic gadgets. You basically give it a solid whack to make it operate again. This generally worked because a loose wire or connection would reconnect after enough abuse. But the device would then fail at a later time as a result of other connections getting jarred.
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 towel trick begins with covering the console with several towels. Run your Xbox for about fifteen minutes and it’s finished. Now it’s time to do some gaming. If your Xbox gets the ring of death again simply do the towel fix again.
Why is the towel trick such a bad idea if it fixes your console? The problem is that the internal chips get exposed to extreme temperatures. A prime concern in the electronics industry, is avoiding heat damage to components during manufacture. It’s not an easy thing to get the right soldering temperature without causing chip damage.
In essence, the towel trick is a temporary remedy that works at the expense of damaging the Xbox’s internal components. This damage eventually leads to more problems in the future. When the towel trick is used to fix these new problems, more damage is done which weakens your Xbox even more. Eventually the towel trick will stop working because the heat damage becomes too extensive. Repeated application of the towel trick is a downward spiral for your machine.
Another problem is that it can be very hazardous. A great deal of heat is produced by your console when it is operating. Since the towels trap all of this heat, the console gets extremely hot. If your Xbox starts burning, other combustibles adjacent to your Xbox (like your house) may also burn.
The towel fix doesn’t make any sense. An inadequate cooling system is the reason for the ring of death in the first place. Fixing this problem by heating up the Xbox is like fighting fire with fire.
Discussion Area - Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.