How to Do the Xbox 360 Towel Trick

Last Updated: May 13, 2022

One day, you may be playing your perfectly fine Xbox 360 when it suddenly freezes. When you reboot the system, it gives you 3 flashing red lights in the front. This means your 360 has encountered a hardware problem. If you don't want to return your console to Microsoft right away, you can do this "towel trick."

Steps

1
Make sure your Xbox 360 actually has the 3 red lights, also known as the Red Rings of Death (RROD).
2
Get enough towels to cover the whole system up.

Advertisement
3
Remove everything from the 360, including external hard drives, wired controllers, games, etc, EXCEPT for the power supply.
4
Wrap your Xbox 360 with the towels.
5
While wrapped, plug your 360's power supply into a wall socket and turn it on. You'll get your usual RROD. Let it run for 15-20 minutes.
6
Afterwards, turn the Xbox 360 off and let it cool for 20 minutes.
7
Plug everything back in and turn it on again. It should work.

Community Q&A

Question

Does doing the towel trick mess up my Xbox?

Community Answer

It can mess with the thermal dynamics (fans and cooling). I would recommend just taking off the front plate, removing the hard drive and put it in a cold place (but not in a freezer or fridge!).
Question

How do I get the red ring of death without doing anything?

Community Answer

It overheats while inactive. If the Xbox is left on for extended periods of time, it heats up.

Warnings

While this may solve the problem, it might only last a few more hours before showing the RROD again. In this case, call Microsoft (1-800-4-MY-XBOX) to place a repair order. This may take 3-4 weeks, but the repair is free if you have the RROD problem and if you're still under warranty.

⧼thumbs_response⧽
Helpful 18 Not Helpful 9