The Red Ring of Death and the Useless Towel Trick

Nothing, and I mean nothing is worse for a game reviewer who loses a console in the middle of the fall/winter game releases. For no reason that anyone can fathom, publishers still think it’s fair to release everything worth releasing between September and mid-November. So for us gamer writer folk we have a short period of time to review basically all the games that will eventually duke it out for game of the year. When you have a bunch of new titles to get through, your primary console you review games on breaks and you have no way to fix it other than send it back, it just blows. So was the case with my 360. If you’ve never heard of the Red Ring of Death (RROD) it’s this lovely hardware failure that happens to 360 consoles causing the entire machine to essentially stop working. The colorful acronym relates to the fact that when this malfunction occurs the normal green ring you see around the power button becomes three red rings. And when you see that … well that’s the end of that.


It happened to me right around the beginning of November in advance of several new titles with massive hype and expectations soon to be released. Suffice it to say I panicked. My first thought was, “Maybe there are some dudes who fix this cheap.” So I go on Craig’s List and lo and behold there are dudes who fix the RROD problem. Of course this means that if something else happens to your 360, you still have a warranty, and you have to return it, then your warranty becomes null and void. See they can fix it, but they have to mess with your console inner parts to do it. While the idea seemed like a great solution, ultimately I opted not to do it. In fact one of the dudes even suggested that I send it back as well that way if Microsoft screws up that I’m covered. If Johnny Xbox fixes it and something goes wrong — oh well. Bath towels, 40 minutes and a prayer I had not completely given in to sending off my console just yet.

During my problem solving Internet search I came across two other solutions. One involved a step by step guide that involved using tools, taking the motherboard out and messing with the insides yourself. If they say it’s easy but it doesn’t look easy then chances are it’s not easy and you just gave some guys $10 for a guide you’re afraid to use. Several others offer walkthrough videos and there are even alleged kits you can pay for. Each of those methods involved some kind of tinkering with computer parts that made me queasy. Not queasy like operating room queasy but more like would you do that with you Ipod Touch if you had instructions queasy. What method did I experiment with? The one that doesn’t involve tools — the infamous towel trick. Keep in mind I was desperate. The towel trick is based some theory that says that if you overheat your machine on purpose and then let it cool down, then everything resets itself and you’re back in business. This is not a technical or mechanical explanation but just something that people online said. The trick involves wrapping up the console (with the hard drive removed) in several towels and leaving it on for about 20-40 minutes. Then when it’s nice and hot — let it cool off for an equal amount of time. Magically when all of this is done, the red rings are gone and it’s game time again. Here’s the problem with the trick. It doesn’t last more than a few hours at best. Some people have done it multiple times other people have it as part of some routine, other people use their towels for things like showers, it varies.

Now that I’ve actually tried out this gaming urban legend, here’s what you should know — save the 90 minutes you’ll waste and do something else. It was neat to try it out and the scant few hours I had to play through my fresh copy of Gears of War 2 was well worth it but when those red rings were staring me in the face again I knew it was time to submit. Sending It Back — Game Cold Turkey The reason so many people are reluctant to send their machine back to Microsoft is because it used to take a really long time and you would basically be without a console so long you could build another one. The company though is now so used to this problem, they’ve streamlined the process and you can practically do it all without talking to one of their outsourced workers on the phone. Back in the day, they would send you a box and a shipping label and you send it off and hope to get it back in a month. Now they just send you a label through e-mail, you buy a box and if you’re lucky you’ll get it back in 2 1/2 weeks. Not too bad considering you just have to pay for a box. For owners who have a warranty, sending your machine back is still the best bet. Yes it sucks especially when you have a stack of fresh games and no way to play them but it would suck worse if you played Dr. Frankenstein and killed your $300 machine pretending you know what you’re doing. Just suck it up, send it back and become a Zuma master on your PC while you wait.