Brevard (NC) - A 14-year-old boy was knocked unconscious and sent to the hospital as a result of trying to cool off his Xbox 360 over the weekend.


According to a local news report, the teen's console would repeatedly shut off every five minutes. His mother told reporters that he thought the problem was likely linked to overheating. He reportedly tried to fix it on his own based on tips he found online.

"When I left to go next door he was playing a game but when I got back he was laying on his back on the floor and unconscious," said the boy's mother.

Local media reports suggest that the teenager took the power supply, wrapped it in plastic and tape, and submerged it into a bowl of water while it was still plugged in. This caused an electrical shock and knocked the boy unconscious.

His mother called 911 and paramedics rushed him to Transylvania Community Hospital in Brevard, North Carolina. He spent the night there and was treated for minor burns to his right hand and foot.

Yeah, I thought that was rather hilarious, although the title is misleading. The overheating XBox didn't hurt him, it was the absence of working brain cells and no parental supervision that did it.

A woman asked me if I knew how too cool down her box. I told her to stick a house fan on it, being the gentleman I am. It didn't floor her like the kid, but it got me the strangest look.

He'll probably sue MS for it too because nowhere in the manual or on the power supply did say NOT to submerge it in water.

Its because of people like him that games like Manhunt 2 get banned. How dumb can you f*ck*ng be!

Minor burns, at least on the hand and foot won't qualify him for a Darwin award, as that would require him loosing the ability to reproduce, which sadly isn't the case. It's because of people like him the movie Idiocracy might come true

The bad news is he does not qualify for a Darwin award. Not with minor burns on the foot. To qualify he would have to kill himself, or at least acquire major burns on a totally different area of the body (which I will not name here, but is required to transmit his genes to the next generation).

The good news is that he's a much smarter kid now

Edit: JustJC beat me to it. It looks like the Darwin award rules are common knowledge. I wonder why...

He should at least be given an honorary mention or be labelled as a "potential future award winner".

If he sues MS and wins, all those hillbillies who ever said "Hey Billy-Bob, watch this, hyuck!" before trying to jump their truck across a river are going to be suing the automotive industry.

Sigh.....High School these days.....no electronics or technology courses whatsoever....

aevm: They're common knowledge because there's probably more than a few in every lot secretly hoping to win one

He should be on the list Darwin awards top prospects/rookies

Isn't this the kid Jeff Foxworthy is always talking about whose mother thinks is a genius because he stands on the front lawn, points to the sky and yells "Air-pane, air-pane".

This kids future will likely include 6 kids and a career cooking fries at McDonalds.

I'm sure their phone is ringing off the hook from scumbag lawyers calling trying to get them to sue. And they likely will. Sadly, they might win if there is no label on the cord warning about electric shock (like they put on hairdryers).

get well soon "water cooled xbox-psu kid".

I'm pretty sure the cord included with the Xbox has that warning label on it. I wonder if he removed the label so he could tape the plastic bag around the power supply?
Hopefully, he learned a lesson that day...

Edit: Oh, the manual does mention not submerging the xbox and psu in water. I don't have it on me at the moment, but I remember seeing the cartoon pictures on the inside cover of the manual.

so sick of people bashing the system about product liability when people know nothing about it. First off, it is a tossup if microsoft would be liable or not because liability will likely be cut off based on a intervening / superceeding (sp) act; the boy taking the product apart and putting it into the water. So long as on the powersupply there was a warning then there isn't a warning defect if it is in a good place and it warns of electrocution hazards.

If he got the advice from a website then they may be liable but no microsoft.

I'd like to know which web site advised him to do that. I hope it wasn't THG

Wait a sec here. If you filled a plastic bucket with water, the electricity would have no where to go unless you stuck your bare hand in it and were grounded. I wonder if it would have worked had the kid not stuck his hand in the water.

Where would we be today if inventors and experimentors, like Ben Franklin, didn't think outside the box (or XBOX in this case )? I wonder if Ben ever zapped himself.

I read somewhere that he did

you have to be killed to get a Darwin award.. so this fellow gets an honorable mention.

gahleon: you remind me of all those news reports "today an SUV drove through a fence and killed 3 people in a park". Of course its not the lunatic behind the wheel, it was the will of the SUV that did it. From how they report it, I'm surprised SUV's don't run through peoples houses all the time.

I'd give this kid the Merit award, after all he was just knocked uncounsious, I would think an honorable mention should involve some major scarring or disfigurement and a long stay at a hospital. lol

Well, at least he tried, that gotta be worth something. Now, which one of you gentlemen advised him on the latest PSU cooling techniques?

LMFAO!!! ... made my day.