Is that Russian on the screen?? HAX!

I had my second E74 error back in Febuary, but that one was after my original one year warranty expired, and Microsoft wanted me to pay $100 to fix it. I traded it in for a PS3 instead and only paid $50 for the difference. Figures that they do this now.

I've already had one 360 die on me, now I want to stuff the new one in my freezer. hmmmmmmmmm chicken wings or street fighter 4...

Crap, in before I could take them to small claims court...

"we are aware that a very small percentage of our customers have reported receiving an error"

lol. Rite. The damn boxes are still dropping like flies everywhere from RROD, E74 and gawd knows what else. Everyone I know with the system is on at least their first replacement, with a few on upwards of 4 replacements now.

I just don't understand why it's such a major issue! You'd think after 3+ years of developing the machine they'd learn to make one that'd last more than a year! (most don't make it that far)

When does the current Microsoft provided warranty end?

@Brad Parker: Bought mine Summer of 2007. Have had no problems whatsoever with it. Zero complaints at all.

@Brad Parker: Maybe you should get to know more people, or luckier people? I know 15+ people with 360s, of which 3 have had issues. Mine is over 2 years old, with nary a sign of a problem.

I'll give you that 20% failure rate is still far too high, but it's not quite the apocalypse of the 360 that you're depicting.

@Brad Parker: Troll

@NeoNess: Three years from your purchase date.

More of a reason I'm happy I bought a PS3. Xbox360 = trash, just like Windows (no, I'm not an apple fanboy). I don't think I would be able to take having to send off my console for repairs all the time. Not that I can't go without gaming, just be really pissed that I'd have to go through it all of the time. And, once out of warranty, I would be basically screwed if it RROD on me or something.

Stupid xbox.

@josephbloseph: Why is Brad Parker a troll? What he is saying is somewhat true, in that after launch, Microsoft should have fixed the problem once and for all. In every incarnation of the XBox 360, errors persist. Why haven't they fixed this?

@josephbloseph: F*** you Joseph, you can't dismiss me comment with that trash.

@everyone else who replied before that - Perhaps I just know unlucky ones? Honestly, out of about 14 people I know with the system I'd say 2 have yet to have problems. It's not like I made the an argument for arguments sake.

@Jenkinsbball: I too am glad that I purchased a PS3. I'm always wary of sending things in for repairs because who knows how my box would get handled by USPS/FedEx/UPS, despite my writing "fragile" on it.

... that's just fantastic.

What about those of us who junked our E74 generating original XBOX360 and purchased a new one?

(sigh)

Hey don't sweat the tip I sent you guys... Oh, you didn't say thanks on the page! Nevermind. :)

I kid, I'm sure you get tons of tips for most stories.

On to a serious note, the Xbox has been plagued with issues since release. That's okay. Sometimes a product just sucks and needs to go through a revision before it works properly.

What is *not* okay is how slow Microsoft has been to acknowledge and take care of issues like this.

Currently on my 8th unit. Purchase a new 60GB for $100 direct from Microsoft. First six died, then purchased the 8th unit because I wanted the new CPU and 60GB HD.

@Radi0logy: Nyet.

@unobservant: It's one year general warranty and 3 years for the RROD.

I wonder how they will handle those people that ended up buying new systems because they rather not deal with warranty or out of warranty repairs. Especially since a lot of people believed the claim that newer models would not have these errors anymore.

@Brad Parker: obvious troll is obvious

As someone who is still rocking the PS2 many years after its demotion from state-of-the-art, I would be incredibly pissed at this rash of errors. Everyone knows you pay a penalty for being an early adopter, and part of the penalty is being the poor slob who finds out about the hardware failures in the first model. But it's not like the x360 is just hitting the market now...if this is a failure of the current version, M$ should be doing some serious damage control.

In my mind, it totally defeats the purpose of having a console if you have to spend a lot of time and hassle getting it to work properly. I want to plug in the shiny box and play fun games, not spend time talking to customer support or writing "Fragile" on boxes; if I bought a new console and it developed any serious problems, I think that thing would be going back to the store posthaste.

My son went through three. THREE. Each one RROD'd within four months. Don't even ask me about the warranty, because this was before/during the "okay fine, we'll cover it" era - the first time, I was told that the warranty was only valid for machines produced up to about a month before his was made. They wanted $149 plus S&H both ways just for a diagnostic. I said not only no, but hell no.

He sweet-talked his grandparents into getting him a replacement machine around Easter of the following year (they were fully aware of the situation), and my mom paid for the "extended warranty" on that one. I can't even tell you what happened there, because I seem to have blocked the episode from my memory. All I remember is "EB Games are LYING LIARS and they SUCK and I will never EVER set FOOT in there again."

When we couldn't get the second one fixed without spending another fortune, I said, again, tough. Court of last resort: He asked his dad to get him one for his birthday. He got it in early August 07. He ran two fans/coolers attached to the unit, and two room fans pointed directly at it/the power brick. Within three weeks, the third one had RROD'd too.

I was ready to set every XBox item he owned on fire. Microsoft AND whichever retailer he bought the third one from were spectacularly unhelpful. More useless or "expired" or "doesn't apply to this" warranties. (This was in part because I had no idea what I was talking about, trying to explain the problem, and was so mad I could hardly speak - I'll own that. It wasn't all them.)

BUT at about that time, my son found a Craigslist ad for someone who offered a repair service. I was skeptical, but after meeting the guy, he seemed upfront and trustworthy, so I said we'd give it a shot. We did them one at a time to make sure his repairs actually worked. All I remember is the phrase "heat sink," although he explained it to me in great detail and even showed me step by step what he'd do. After the older one had been running like a dream for a month, we also got the second one repaired to have as a backup just in case.

Whatever he did, it worked like a charm (and he cautioned me several times that it would void the warranty, but they weren't honoring the warranty ANYWAY so whatever). My son's been running the older machine since ~October, with only the one cooler, and hasn't had a single problem with it, even when he pulls all-weekend marathons.

@Brad Parker: Calm down he wasn't even referring to you in that comment.

Funny how I also singled out this exact line when reading the article. If it was a very small problem they wouldn't need a press release or mass refunds. As for comments about how nobody people know seem to have problems with Xbox failures I have 6 friends with them that all said the same thing. Now 4 of them have had theirs replaced including 2 who bought the newer elite systems that Microsoft claimed wouldn't have the problem.

@Raekwon: The new ones do not have the RROD error, at least, not with anywhere near the frequency of the first model. They have an improved 45nm process (as opposed to 60nm), which means the processor throws off a lot less heat. In addition they have re-engineered the cooling system to be more efficient. So... it would take a lot to get a new 360 to RROD.

This E74 error is a different animal entirely, and it strikes me as very odd that they didn't do enough testing to see it before the NXE came out. It strikes me as a software issue that they can hopefully fix with a firmware update.

small percentage lol... 5 of the people who I know who have a 360 have had 1 break on them in the past 2 years. I don't get how they don't just recall and fix it, cmon MS.

@ribblefizz: I should add: After the first one, we read up about the heat issues and did everything we could do, short of routing it through the freezer, to keep it cool and make sure there was plenty of air circulation.

The XBox is now in the *same* place it was before (actually a bit more enclosed/less air-circ), with *fewer* exterior cooling devices on it, and getting more use than it was previously.

It seems almost surreal that they can't make that console stable yet. It's been long enough. I know my brother is on #3; all of them suffered from RROD. He keeps hounding me to buy one so we can play games online together. I just can't justify spending all that money for something that is pretty much guaranteed to fail.

@opsomath:
sony all the way ! even though the ps3 isn't without its own problems

@shinseiromeo: Okay, I take back my "can you believe it!" attitude about my son's three units... 8 makes me feel better. (c;

Microsoft's warranty repair sucks. I sent my xbox in for the RROD repair, when it came back the fan was much louder than before, to the extent that it now makes it impossible to enjoy watching movies using the system. I likely won't renew my xbox live subscription because using the system is not enjoyable with a jet engine in the room. I guess it is time to upgrade to a Wii or PS3. Microsoft = Fail

@Raekwon: I'm sure Microsoft will be perfectly happy honor their warranty on both systems, so long as the warranty is still in force.

@opsomath: For what it's worth, my original toaster NES finally gave up the ghost earlier this year, maybe a good 15 years after Nintendo stopped manufacturing for it. I wonder how long existing 360's will last in the wild once Microsoft decides to abandon it for the next new big thing.

"a mysterious new error has been affecting the XBOX 360"

There is nothing new about this error. This has been around for some time, just not as high profile as the RRoD. It just hasn't been finacially vesable for them to want to work on it yet.

@Jenkinsbball: I'm not a fanboi to anything, but when I buy product, I expect them to last me a very long time...

I mean I still have my sega genesis from when I was 6, which was bought used... I should still have my PS3, Wii, n64, snes and etc when I am 40 (I'm 22 right now), providing that I take good care of my equipment like I do right now.

My life has no room for inferior products that can't last even when they are taken good care of =(

@opsomath: Amen.

@ribblefizz: So did you get the E74 error? Or did you RROD and just didn't realize there was a warranty?

If you had E74 you might as well file a claim for the out of warranty service you paid for. Even if they won't warranty it, they should pay your expense.

@Adam Breslin: The Wii is weak, you are better off getting a PS3.

Personally I still think the Xbox is the better system in terms of game selection and hardware performance, but obviously that only holds true if the hardware doesn't break. The PS3 has better graphics, but the game selection isn't as good, and Guitar Hero doesn't work well on it.

@Jenkinsbball: Seconded.

I'm a PS3 owner (60GB EU Mk1), my brother is a 360 owner. He's on his second 360 (first one died of RRoD), I'm on my first PS3 (and even that was bought used). I'll admit the PS3 is a little sluggish (and the PS2 "backwards compatibility" is a total joke) but I'll take "a little slow" over "worketh not a toss" any day.

Anyway, I've got access to surface-mount repair gear and decided that seeing as his first 360 was utterly stuffed, I'd try and fix it. Not a chance. I eventually gave up, and decided to do an autopsy. Pulled the CPU and GPU, and both were absolutely covered in failed solder joints. These either didn't melt properly when the machine was being assembled, or they failed in use.

I've been toying with the idea of "re-balling" the chips (replacing the solder joints and resoldering the chips) but to be honest, the cost-benefit ratio is too low to make it worth bothering.

Definitely not impressed.

@Brad Parker: Agreed. I know about 8 people with an XBox 360 and 5 of them have had to send them in for service. And they treat their systems well, not leave them unventilated and dusty.

I was wondering why Microsoft repaired my Xbox when I did not have 3RROD. I sent it in hoping for the best and it was repaired and sent back. I guess they didn't notice that I had:

A)opened the Xbox to repair it myself a couple times.
B)took the X-Clamps off the bottom of the Motherboard.
C) Re-did the original thermal paste as well as a few broken solder points.

Oh well. Now I have 2 Xboxes. :)

@Applekid: I hope mine won't give up the ghost soon, I still use it on occasion.

@josephbloseph: Okay, this is a total "n008" (or however it's quasi-spelled), but what is a troll, in this sense, and what would make Brad Parker one?

-Thanks

@ribblefizz: Oh wow, and I thought 4 replacement systems was a huge thing!

@lannister80 - Thank you! Nice to see someone else with insane failure stats to make me sound less crazy!

According to several fans of the Sony Playstation 3, an estimated 130% of XBox360s suffer from this mysterious E74 error, although they admit that number is just an estimate and actual E74 errors could affect anywhere from 120% to 140% of the XBox360s manufactured to date, adding "Micro$soft is teh suk".

@Dave Arias: Why would you throw away an xbox that can be repaired for $100-150 dollars and spend twice that amount on a new one?

@WOPDingo:

A troll is someone who generally posts inflammatory messages in order to cause a stir. Check here for a better description:

[en.wikipedia.org])

@WiglyWorm: I'd say taking about a month to investigate the claims of a suddenly higher incidence of a particular error, look for potential liabilities re: that error (especially looking for defects or design flaws), summing up all that data into a report, and deciding to (once again) put a lot of revenue on the line and extend warranty service for customers, is not terribly slow.

I own both a PS3 and an Xbox360. And while I enjoy the PS3 more, and have had my xbox RROD on me once, the Playstation hasn't been perfect. When update 2.40 came out, it froze my PS3 and I ended up having to wipe my hard drive to fix it. I of course hadn't been backing up my saves, and I lost a lot of data.

This being a firmware update and not a hardware one, I do feel that the PS3 is better built and more reliable. That was a terrible pain in the ass though...