"Hey man.. I am telling you... I just did it. Don't use a wet towel. I think this is the major issue.... When a 360 overheats, two red lights come on. You let it cool, and no problem. When 3 red lights come on its a general hardware failure. If you purposefully overheat it, maybe it tricks the CPU into believing the only problem was a heat one, so when you let it cool, and try to turn it on again, no problem. What I am trying to figure out, is what the actual problem is. The thing seems to work fine. Sure the red lights come on again eventually, but I have done the towel trick like 3 times now, with three successes. The machine boots up, and I can play any game, Xbox Live works fine, no problems with media streaming, I have sound.... Nothing. So whats the problem???"
Let me fill you (and the other guys here) in. This trick does SOMETIMES work, and the science behind it is logical. It has nothing to do with cooling it down or melting the solder. Some background. It is well known that the 360 is a pretty poorly made machine. I'm on my 3rd personally. The problem with the 360 is that the PCB (printed circuit board) material of the mainboard is not properly mounted onto the case. It is only secured at the corners. So you can think of it like a bedsheet with someone holding each corner; one can easily cause it to twist and bend near the center, since it has no support there. This is were the achilles heel of the xbox 360 lies. The heat generated by the 360, and the thermal stress of the machine turning on and off, warming up and cooling down, can cause the motherboard to warp and bend near the middle, particularly around the CPU and GPU chips. The result, then, is not melted solder, but disconnected solder, caused when the board literally bent away from the chips. (Many people assume that the 360 "overheats", or generates too much heat. This is actually not the case. The heat generated by the 360 is not unreasonable for a machine of its power, its just that the lack of support on the motherboard means that the machine cannot withstand normal operating temperatures. Seriously.) This is where the towel trick comes in. Basically, the trick consists of completely wrapping the 360 in a towel, covering all the exhaust vents, and then turning it on for at least fifteen minutes before turning it off for a half hour or so before use of the temporarily ressurected machine. How it works is simple. Heating the machine excessivly, which the towel trick definitly does, inflicts a tremendous amount of thermal stress on the board, which can (emphasis on can) cause it to warp back up to the chips and make contact again. This is not just theory; it really can work, and I've successfully done it twice. Unfortunatly, it is only temporary, and the best use of the trick is to keep it alive long enough to play while you wait for your M$ shipping box. On a side note, another poster mentioned an "X-clamp replacement". He is referring to the method by which the CPU and GPU heatsinks are fastened to the chips. Replacing them with a solution that bolts through to the case, rather than simply sitting on the motherboard like the stock X-clamp does, provides support for the center of the PCB and negates the warping problem altogether. Anyway, I hope I've helped some people understand exactly what the hell this towel trick is and how it works. For a more brief summary, check out the wikipedia page on 360 technical problems, to which I contributed. 8) Cheers!
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