For those that have done/seen the XBox 360 towel trick for the 0102 error, how long does the trick work?

Also, how often does it need to be redone? Is it worth it?

? Towel trick?

My wife has a bit of a towel trick that she does, but I'm not too sure if that's what you're talking about. ;)

in theory it should only work for a few hours, or until it's off for a while to cool.

you wrap the 360 in a towel and turn it on for 15+ minutes to get the internals really hot. the components that lost connection either from a cold solder connection, or from the use of lead free solder, well they expand with the heat and regain their connection.

this is why i said in theory, after it completely cools you may have to do the towel trick again.


i'm not voting because i've never had a single problem with my launch console.

My wife has a bit of a towel trick that she does, but I'm not too sure if that's what you're talking about. ;)
LOL yes she does! Ever wonder where she learned it? :p (kidding)

unless of course you're actually getting it hot enough to melt solder to reform broken connections, then perhaps it could last a few months or so, assuming it doesn't over heat again and lose solder connection.

and another thing to consider is warping components from heat. this could be another reason things are failing, and why extreme heat (more warping) could cause a temp fix.

not voting on 1 day so far

Towel trick? :eek:

Towel trick???? Is this the xbox or Ikea forum?

I don't think I will try this!

enough with the towel trick questions, i had never heard of it either, but google works wonders.

Weird seems as though it would ruin the 360 even further...

Anyone who does this is an idiot.

We had this discussion a few months ago, and someone quoted the temperature at which solder melts. It varies by material, but we're talking over 300 degrees F, so it seems implausible that a towel would cause the 360 to heat to this temperature. And if it did? Well, that's certainly well beyond the operating temperature for the hard drive, the optical drive, and pretty much everything else...

I'm assuming this is basically just a spin off of the Heat Gun trick?

I gave my girlfriend a rat tail last night. I found it funnier than she did

I gave my girlfriend a rat tail last night. I found it funnier than she did


LOL!

As to the 'towel trick'...somehow I don't think that it'll help. It seems like it would do more harm than good. Doesn't the 360 already overheat? How about you all try it and let me know.

2 days usually. But, I can leave the console on for 12 hours at a time with a fan pointed at it and it's fine.

It only dies when I turn it off, go to bed, then come back and turn it on again.

In theory, couldn't one do the towel bake method and just leave the 360 on 24/7 after that?

Wouldn't it be easier to just send it back to Microsoft for repair?

When I got the three red lights I was going crazy waiting for my coffin to arrive from Microsoft, so I tried the towel trick.

It got me past the three red lights and into the dashboard, but I would freeze within 2-3 minutes whenever I started up a game. So it didn't really work for me, ever.

Wouldn't it be easier to just send it back to Microsoft for repair?
Maybe, but I'm not prepared to pay MS $140 for a refurb that's likely to fail again.

The reason I put this up was for others that have the issue out of warantee and to decide whether or not to spend $100 on a 360 that has the 0102 problem. It's a Premium and comes with; hard drive, wireless control, 2 faceplates, all original power and AV cords, paperwork, and box.

Not being a hardcore gamer (3-5 hours/1-2 times per week) I thought maybe I would put down the $100 and just try it out before forking out $650+ for a new one (I'll get the HD add-on if I do get it). If I have to do the towel trick once a week, no biggie.

What do you guys think? :confused:

When the 360's with HDMI come out, I think the (wet) towel trick will work just fine for me.. :D

God bless the service plan! :)

unless of course you're actually getting it hot enough to melt solder to reform broken connections, then perhaps it could last a few months or so, assuming it doesn't over heat again and lose solder connection.
Considering that solder melts at ~450 degrees farenheit, and flows at ~600 degrees, I'm thinking "no".

Only problem I've had with my launch console is that it sometimes hangs up and gives me a third quadrant red light (error code 086) at start up. I reboot it, and it's fine. Never freezes, occasionally crashes (3 or 4 times since I bought it.)

Oh, and occasionally my rear USB port doesn't work. Rebooting fixes it.

The solder isn't melting at all. The board is warping slightly at the increased temp, re-establishing contacts.

Apparently, the towel trick works with 0200 error as well, fyi.

My 360 died last night(0102 error code):(

After calling MS and getting my coffin shipped I decided to give the towel trick a try. I figured the worst I could do is screw it up some more.

It worked like a champ! I took off the HD and disconnected everything but the power cord. Wrapped the console in a towel and turned the bad boy on. It overheated, shut off the fans and displayed two red rings in about 20 minutes. I let it cool for about 10 minutes after that and when I turned it back on, VOILA!

I played Bioshock for about 2 hours after the towel trick and had no issues at all. I will post here when it dies again.

My question is, should i return the console when I get the coffin if it hasn't died again? Will they even fix it, or just tell me it's not broken.

My 360 died last night(0102 error code):(

After calling MS and getting my coffin shipped I decided to give the towel trick a try. I figured the worst I could do is screw it up some more.

It worked like a champ! I took off the HD and disconnected everything but the power cord. Wrapped the console in a towel and turned the bad boy on. It overheated, shut off the fans and displayed two red rings in about 20 minutes. I let it cool for about 10 minutes after that and when I turned it back on, VOILA!

I played Bioshock for about 2 hours after the towel trick and had no issues at all. I will post here when it dies again.

My question is, should i return the console when I get the coffin if it hasn't died again? Will they even fix it, or just tell me it's not broken.

Personally I would send it off. If it went out then most likely it will again. I would send it off and go with a replacement otherwise you are just waiting for somthing for it to happen again and not know when that will actually be.

My 360 worked after the towel trick once. After I turned it off and tried to play it again later it never worked again.

I played some games, watched some TV throud media center extender, and watched Transformers. The thing won't break!!

This is wierd but I hope it will break again soon so I don't have to send them a working unit.

4-5 days at a time. i put up with it for 1 month, then it happened at start-up from 3-4 of no playing. free repair, so no biggie.

This "towel trick" would look stellar in Microsoft's tech note library. Mind you this is probably a more helpful tip than most of their technotes.

Regardless, I'm sorry, but any piece of hardware that needs to be wrapped in a towel to fix malfunctions is going back to where it came from...

How about the jumper-cable trick:

You take a 120 volt power cord (not plugged into the wall), cut it, and attach one side of the cable to one jumper cable (black) and the other side to the red jumper. Attach these to any metallic portions of the 360, power that baby up, and then plug the 120 volt power cord into the wall.

Rumour has it, this "trick" is sure to resolder any loose connections in a jiffy.

:eek:

Towel trick would get me to the xbox dashboard but that's it.

my towel trick lasted a little over a month, since then i have removed the x-clamps, and i've been going without a single hiccup or freeze for almost 6 months.

i believe it's completely and permanently fixed. i swear by the x-clamp removal.

Well, it died again today. So the towel trick worked for a few days.

I still haven't recieved my coffin from MS.

My 360 died last night(0102 error code):(

After calling MS and getting my coffin shipped I decided to give the towel trick a try. I figured the worst I could do is screw it up some more.

It worked like a champ! I took off the HD and disconnected everything but the power cord. Wrapped the console in a towel and turned the bad boy on. It overheated, shut off the fans and displayed two red rings in about 20 minutes. I let it cool for about 10 minutes after that and when I turned it back on, VOILA!

I played Bioshock for about 2 hours after the towel trick and had no issues at all. I will post here when it dies again.

My question is, should i return the console when I get the coffin if it hasn't died again? Will they even fix it, or just tell me it's not broken.


It's definitely a fix with diminishing returns. It worked for 3-5 days the first time I used it, then rrod'd again. Tried it again and it worked for a day or so. You get the picture. It's a good way to get that last little bit of life out of a dying console, but it is a dying console nonetheless.