Why Xbox 360 Towel Trick Will Destroy Your Machine
Quick fixes for troublesome electronic devices have traditionally involved abusing it somehow. This meant shaking, rapping, hitting, or kicking the device to make it work again. These methods worked because loose connections could be made to reconnect in this way. But it also weakened other connections making the device more likely to fail again.
One of the more well known "fixes" for the red ring of death problem is called the towel trick. It also falls into this category of abusive, quick fixes. Rather than giving the Xbox a swift kick, the "cure" involves baking the internal components at extreme temperatures so that broken connections are resoldered again and warped components get reshaped.
The towel trick is done by covering your Xbox with 2 or 3 towels. Then your Xbox is switched on for around 15 minutes or so and you're through. Then it's time to do some gaming. The next time the ring of death shows up simply repeat the towel fix.
If it works, then what's the problem? As mentioned before, this technique bakes the internal components at extreme temperatures. Heat induced damage during the manufacturing process is a prime concern in the electronics industry. Getting the right soldering temperature for a strong solder join without damaging other components is difficult.
So when you use the towel trick, you get a temporary fix at the expense of damaging the Xbox's internal components. Eventually this damage will lead to yet another heat related failure. Then when you apply the towel trick again, more damage is done which weakens your Xbox even more. You can only repeat this process so many times before the heat damage is too extensive for the towel trick to work any more. This process is a downward spiral that thoroughly destroys your Xbox.
Another issue that's somewhat beside the point of this article is that the towel trick can be dangerous to do. The Xbox generates a lot of heat (hence the need for the cooling system in the first place). Because of the towels, the heat has nowhere to go and builds up fast. If your Xbox catches on fire, flammable things next to your Xbox (such as your house) can burn too.
The towel trick makes no sense at all and in this case, counterintuitive doesn't help. The ring of death is caused by the Xbox producing too much heat and having a cooling system that can't keep pace. Fixing this problem by applying more heat only makes the problem worse.
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