Is the towel trick (360 fix) legit?

There's a 50/50 chance it works. Its a temporary fix and just worsens the actual problem. Plus you can actually catch your house on fire if you aren't watching it closely lol.

FTR, i could never get it to work when i had the RRoD. I just did the x-clamp fix to permanentaly fix the problem.

If you have the RRoD (3 red bars) the problem is the thermal paste between the heat sink and two processors has gotten a bunch of tiny fissures, or cracks, therefore there isnt a good connection. This creates the RRoD.

The problem is what holds the heat sinks on the motherboard. They are these flimsy P.O.S. metal x shaped clamps that bend easily. When the 360 gets hot the x-clamps bend and thats were you get seperation, then the thermal paste recools and rehardens and you get your cracks.

The xclamp fix replaces the clamps with screws and nylon washers, permanently fixing the problem. You have to completely take apart your xbox and put down new thermal paste. If you have ever worked on any kind of electronic equipment its easy. If you search youtube for X-Clamp Fix there is a good 3 part set of videos that go step by step through the whole process. I've actually bought peoples xboxs that had the RRoD for 20 bucks, fixed em and flipped em for 75. Easy money

edit: the towel trick basically heats your xbox up so much that the thermal paste completely melts and then when you shut it off and let it cool it rehardens and sometimes fixes the cracks... You can get it to work sometimes but you will eventually completely frick your box

Do not send it in for repairs. You will receive a refurbished 360, odds are that the "repaired" 360 you receive will crap out in 2-4 months.

LINK