The towel trick just worked for me.

[DAPUNISHER]

My 360 bricked with the RRoD back in August, and after 2 calls and 3 weeks, I still hadn't received a return box yet. So, I called today for the 3rd time, and this time the girl helping me said that my file showed they shipped a box on the 25th of August, the day I first reported it. I explained it wasn't possible, as the 2nd CS rep informed me the 1st rep goofed up, and that he was getting it out to me. After a couple times on hold for 5min at a time, and ostensibly speaking with "superiors' each time, it seem my address had been misspelled *that's their story and they are sticking to it*. Now, for the 3rd time I am assured a box is heading my way and will arrive in 3-5 biz days.

Completely disgusted by the incompetence/whatever is the cause of my not getting a box yet, I decided to try the towel trick. I turned it on, it displayed RROD of course, wrapped it in a towel, left it alone for 20 min or so, came back and turned it off. Then I connected the HDD and turned it on, and I'll be damned if it didn't start right up like nothing ever happened. Played Gears for about 90 min with no issues. Turned it off, came back again about an hr later, and it starts right up still. Played the Stranglehold demo issue free.

So, how could the towel trick work? This one is a head scratcher to me.

Cliffs-
360 RRoD.
3 calls and 3 weeks, and still no shipping box.
Tried towel trick on a whim, and out of disgust over the seeming ineptitude of CS.
Towel trick worked. Several hours of game play, and a couple restarts, and still good to go.

 

[destrekor]

what is this towel trick supposed to accomplish? it confuses me

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: destrekor
what is this towel trick supposed to accomplish? it confuses me

Honestly, I have no idea. I read that you take an RRoD 360, wrap it in a towel, leave it turned on for 15 min+, come back, take it out, turn it off, turn it back on, and see if it works. It worked :Q I have no good theory on how or why it would work, but I can't deny results. I'll keep the shipping box if it ever makes it here, just in case, this is a very temp fix at best, but for now, I'm able to use my 360, so I'm kinda stoked at the moment.

 

[tw1164]

The 360 likes to feel the snuggles!

 

[Cabages]

Originally posted by: tw1164
The 360 likes to feel the snuggles!

Snuggle the bear?!?

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: Cabages

Originally posted by: tw1164
The 360 likes to feel the snuggles!

Snuggle the bear?!?

ROFLwaffles, thats it, the bear has mad repair skillz.

Reading around, it looks like the leading theory is that it remelts the crappy solder on the GPU, allowing it to make contact again. It is stated to be very temporary, so I hope that box shows up this time.

 

[randay]

most likely the towel is there to promote overheating. the system heats up, and if your lucky the solder reconnects itself either that or the towel is a magicall conduit for ethereal xbox technicians who fix it when it blinks over to the ghostly planes.

 

[randay]

on a side note... wouldnt it be funny if thats all they did to repair xbox360s? or something similiar, and it makes sense since the refurbs also usually fail with rrod?

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: randay
most likely the towel is there to promote overheating. the system heats up, and if your lucky the solder reconnects itself either that or the towel is a magicall conduit for ethereal xbox technicians who fix it when it blinks over to the ghostly planes.

Yeah, someone was nice enough to PM me and confirm it is solder.

I have seen magical things when a towel is removed though.

Originally posted by: randay
on a side note... wouldnt it be funny if thats all they did to repair xbox360s? or something similiar, and it makes sense since the refurbs also usually fail with rrod?

Not HaHa funny, but yes it would be. Could you imagine if someone leaked a vid of them doing that? Man would we have fun with that one. :laugh:

 

[bennylong]

Maybe I should try that. I have been waiting 2 weeks for my return box

 

[bennylong]

WTF...it worked!!! I can't believe it. I wrapped two towels over it and left it on for 20 minutes, turned it off, unplugged and replugged everything.

Those guys at Microsoft never asked me to wrap towels over it when I called for my repair box. This magical towel could have saved BILLIONS for Microsoft

 

[mundane]

Ford Prefect has a lot of wisdom to offer, and not all of it relating to the universal usefulness of towels.

 

[nboy22]

Originally posted by: bennylong
WTF...it worked!!! I can't believe it. I wrapped two towels over it and left it on for 20 minutes, turned it off, unplugged and replugged everything.

Those guys at Microsoft never asked me to wrap towels over it when I called for my repair box. This magical towel could have saved BILLIONS for Microsoft

Hahaha that's funny. I bet all the Techs at the warehouse just have a huge power brick with lots of outlets and an economy sized pack of towels.

 

[nycxandy]

Originally posted by: bennylong
WTF...it worked!!! I can't believe it. I wrapped two towels over it and left it on for 20 minutes, turned it off, unplugged and replugged everything.

Those guys at Microsoft never asked me to wrap towels over it when I called for my repair box. This magical towel could have saved BILLIONS for Microsoft

You're supposed to unplug everything before wrapping it with the towel. But hey, you still got it to work.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

The magic towel is only a temporary solution. The solder will come undone again.

 

[tw1164]

Is there anyone selling repair towels yet?

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: bennylong
WTF...it worked!!! I can't believe it. I wrapped two towels over it and left it on for 20 minutes, turned it off, unplugged and replugged everything.

:thumbsup: Glad it worked for you too, Benny. I know you have been bumming just as I have. AS stated, it is likely very temporary, so keep that shipping box when you finally get it. You have 30 days to have it back in MS's hands from the time we make the request, after that you just have to call and make it a new repair request. Since you will already have the box, you can likely get them to let you use the same shipping sticker, or e-mail you one to print. Hopefully someone will read this and have a definitive answer on that.

In my case, they just started over and gave me a new ref#, so I have 30 days from yesterday to get it in for service. I doubt the towel bought me that kind of time, but you never know.

 

[bennylong]

Still working so far. I left it on all night to download a bunch of demos. I'm not too worried about it being undone since there's still 1 more year left on the 3 years warranty(hopefully it will still be RROD and not something else when it breaks again!).

When I plugged it back again, I saw ALL RED blinking and I thought to myself,"ooooooooh crap. Now I'm not covered under the warranty because it's not 3 RROD, it's ALL BLINKING!! FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDGE." I checked everything again and realized it was blinking all Red because I didn't plug in the A/V cable!

 

[CPA]

X-Clamp fix FTW!

 

[bennylong]

It's 24 hours(left it on for about 24 hours, turned it on and off a few times to make sure it wasn't a fluke)now since the magic towel and my XBOX 360 is still working! I'm going to pre-order Halo 3 now that I 'm confident that my 360 is going to continue working and my magic towel will save me if it goes RROD.

Oh yea, I still haven't received my 2nd request for the return box.

 

[Kirby64]

Sorry to crap on this thread, but the towel trick is just a cheap, crappy method of bandaiding a console on it's way out. All it's doing is HOPEFULLY remolding the solder on the BGA joints, to make it run. But if you already got the RROD, you'll get it again sooner or later.

The only good real fix is the X-clamp fix. It gets rid of the issue of the flawed x-clamps and solves your issue permanently.

 

[RaiderJ]

Originally posted by: Kirby64
Sorry to crap on this thread, but the towel trick is just a cheap, crappy method of bandaiding a console on it's way out. All it's doing is HOPEFULLY remolding the solder on the BGA joints, to make it run. But if you already got the RROD, you'll get it again sooner or later.

The only good real fix is the X-clamp fix. It gets rid of the issue of the flawed x-clamps and solves your issue permanently.

Done two X-Clamp fixes myself, they do work quite well.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: Kirby64
Sorry to crap on this thread, but the towel trick is just a cheap, crappy method of bandaiding a console on it's way out. All it's doing is HOPEFULLY remolding the solder on the BGA joints, to make it run. But if you already got the RROD, you'll get it again sooner or later.

The only good real fix is the X-clamp fix. It gets rid of the issue of the flawed x-clamps and solves your issue permanently.

You aren't crapping, you are absolutely right. Thats why I'm still getting a return box for warranty repair. At worst, I'll have to start a new repair claim, if it holds up long enough for the 30 day return window to close. If MS doesn't get me out a box after 3 calls, I will either do the x-clamp mod, or pay someone experienced with it, to do it for me.

BTW, Thanks for the sound advice.

 

[hans030390]

Originally posted by: Kirby64
Sorry to crap on this thread, but the towel trick is just a cheap, crappy method of bandaiding a console on it's way out. All it's doing is HOPEFULLY remolding the solder on the BGA joints, to make it run. But if you already got the RROD, you'll get it again sooner or later.

The only good real fix is the X-clamp fix. It gets rid of the issue of the flawed x-clamps and solves your issue permanently.

I wouldn't call it a permanent fix yet...I don't think there's been enough data to say if it solves the issue permanently or not. The results for now, however, seem to be great.

 

[Hyperlite]

what is this X-Clamp fix you speak of?