The Xbox 360 repair world is full of more myths than a high school classics class. Believing the myth of Hercules might not cause any harm, but following some of the myths around about repairing faulty Xbox 360 consoles can cause a lot of damage to your expensive piece of gaming kit. I don't want to see anybody damage their console whilst trying to fix a problem that is completely not their fault! Because of that, in this article I am going to debunk and discredit two of the most commonly quoted repair methods which are the towel wrap trick and home soldering. And just to make things absolutely clear before we go further in depth - using either the towel wrap trick or re-soldering your console will probably result in you causing more damage than there was before. You have been warned!
If you search up on Google with a phrase similar to "free way to get rid of red lights error", you'll probably wind up being taken to a website that promotes fixing your Xbox 360 console by wrapping it in a bath towel. This trick seems to be recommended just about everywhere on the internet and I am sure many people have tried to use it without any success at all. Come on, how can wrapping what is essentially a small, overheating computer in a bath towel do any good whatsoever? Well, the answer is "it can't!". In fact, wrapping your Xbox 360 in a towel could potentially cause it to catch on fire. You wouldn't be doing much gaming after that would you? Using the towel wrap trick is plain dangerous because it causes more heat to build up that cannot escape which will not only cause more damage to the components inside, but after a prolonged period of time will likely cause a fire due to the excess heat. The moral of the story - never, ever, EVER attempt to fix the 3 red lights error by wrapping your Xbox 360 inside a bath towel.
Soldering Gun
Another often recommended broken Xbox 360 fix is to open up your console and re-solder it using a home soldering gun. This ain't gonna work I'm afraid. In fact, just like the towel trick, it will cause more damage than good. When your Xbox 360 console was constructed it was soldered using expensive industrial grade machinery that costs thousands upon thousands of dollars. Apply a little bit of common sense here, there is simply no way your hardware store solder and gun is going to be able to do an equivalent job, even if you happen to have prior experience soldering high grade electronic equipment, a skill which most people do not or never will have. Because this method involves messing around with the delicate wiring inside your console it is virtually guaranteed to completely ruin your console forever. What is even more scary is the fact that many Xbox 360 repair guides that cost money and are written by so called "experts" suggest you use the soldering method. No real electronics expert would expect anybody without industrial grade equipment and proper training to be able to successfully carry out repairs on complicated electronic devices such as the Xbox 360, even if they are provided lo-res videos to "guide them step-by-step". Once again, you'd have to be a "nutter" to even consider for a second trying to repair the 3 red lights error this way. It will cause more harm than good, guaranteed.
So that brings us to the only real way to fix a broken Xbox 360 and banish the 3 red lights error forever. What it involves is finding a way to prevent the cause of the problem, overheating. It doesn't involve performing repairs as risky as soldering and doesn't run the same risk of damaging the delicate components such as the graphics chip, motherboard or processor. Of course there's one slight problem, me telling you how to carry out this repair job with writing isn't enough. You need audio, and more importantly high quality, step-by-step video that will show you the exact method required. Seriously, you MUST have high quality video walk-throughs to enable you to carry out the repairs safely and swiftly. Any other way will risk damage to your precious Xbox 360 and could also cause harm to yourself. And in case you're getting concerned about whether this true, best way to fix a broken Xbox 360 is actually safely and it does really work, don't worry because it has actually been verified as being the only real way to repair the 3 red lights error at home.