"Red Light of Death": The new Red Ring?
by Kyle Orland 
{ Apr 8th 2008 at 6:00PM }
Unlike the distinctive three red lights of the RRoD, the "E74" error is characterized by a blinking red light in the lower-right corner of the ring and graphical problems on the television. The problem has been known for a while but is currently not covered by Microsoft's extended three-year Xbox 360 warranty, which only applies to traditional Red Ring problems -- E74 sufferers have to shell out the money to ship their system in for repairs.
Of course, we don't know just how widespread this E74 problem is, so it's not necessarily a cause for alarm just yet. Still, we have to agree with the Consumerist that the warranty extension should apply to all sorts of hardware malfunctions, not just the common ones that get a lot of media attention. How about it, Microsoft?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Vidikron (FU) @ Apr 8th 2008 6:02PM
When I first looked at that screenshot I thought it was another Wii that had been fried by WiiConnect24.
Jody Anthony (cookingrebels.com) @ Apr 8th 2008 6:04PM
same
AcidMonkey @ Apr 8th 2008 7:28PM
Yeah, me too... weird.
StrangeBum @ Apr 9th 2008 9:21AM
And me fourth apparently, because that was precisely the first thing I thought when I saw that screenshot as well.
Poor 360 though, always getting a bad rep because of these red lights. Let's take a moment to look at all the good things that red lights have brought us shall we?
Darth Vader's lightsaber is a red light....cool
There's a certain District in Amsterdam....very cool
And....uhmm...yeah that's all I've got.....super cool!!
Dan @ Apr 11th 2008 4:30PM
Just to let you guys know. I found out that E74 is the new RRoD for newer xbox's. Trust me, within the next 6 months your going to see a lot more of these and it's too bad we have to pay over $100 to fix a product that you can't get 2 years out of.
Knight Marquise @ Apr 8th 2008 6:03PM
Cue 9,456,003 Sony fanboys posing as 360 Owners claiming to have had this very problem with the last 548 360's they've purchased.
P.S.
Nice Flame Bait Post
Sam Zebian @ Apr 8th 2008 6:07PM
I don't even think there are that many PS3 fanboys... PS2 yes, but PS3, no. Well, maybe that many fanboys, but owners, no.
DangerMouse @ Apr 8th 2008 6:10PM
"Nice Flame Bait Post"
Why are you complementing yourself?
Zeus.:God @ Apr 8th 2008 6:11PM
He was referring to the article/post/blog.
JonFitt @ Apr 8th 2008 6:33PM
and DangerMouse was mocking the OP.
It's farsical to suggest that posting a story about 360 failures is just "flamebait" and will only cause PS3 owners to post false occurences. The OP is bordering on paranoid delusional.
Hala Madrid!!! (You fail to impress me with your skillz) @ Apr 8th 2008 6:36PM
@knight
Do we really need to start a flame here?
c'mon this is old news
Zeus.:God @ Apr 8th 2008 6:45PM
Jon, this is hardly "news-worthy", let alone post-worthy, and there is no real need for it.
Whatever Kyle Orland's intentions, it is an unnecessary article, and will, no doubt, incite flames and attract fanboys.
For the record, this isn't news- never was.
el serpiente @ Apr 8th 2008 6:57PM
WAHHH, THEY IS MAKING DE FUN OF MAI XBOX!
Croove55 @ Apr 8th 2008 7:19PM
GUYSGUYSGUYS.
GUYS.
Somebody's feelings are going to get hurt.
DangerMouse @ Apr 8th 2008 8:14PM
"
Whatever Kyle Orland's intentions, it is an unnecessary article, and will, no doubt, incite flames and attract fanboys."
First i heard of it, so it's news to me. It's funny that people are quick to label the fanboys, yet they put their guard up preemptively before someone has a chance to bash their favorite system. If it's such a flamebait post, then why mention the obvious? Hooray for Reverse Fanboyism.
Boostjunkie @ Apr 8th 2008 8:32PM
This is a VERY important post. I had this exact problem, a single red ring section and an error on the screen. I've had mine a bit more than a year, I'm just thankful I bought it at Costco. Because I would have had to pay for a repair. It's ridiculous that the 3 year warranty doesn't cover all hardware failures.
Mr.ESC @ Apr 8th 2008 8:58PM
Ps3 is ghey.
Xbocks sux!
The Wii is for Pedophiles!
PC FTW!
AmIRite?
Matt B @ Apr 8th 2008 9:18PM
For someone who refers to it as the "God box 360", I can see your frustrations with the fact that your "god" is far from perfect.
Just take a few deep breaths, and repent! Heathen!!
Vegeta (aka Ska Oreo) @ Apr 8th 2008 10:58PM
flame bait no. Flame bait would be having a thread each time one of the staff's 360 died on them. Of course no gaming site I know of does that(*cough Kotaku *cough) This is just news that gamers should know, so it has a purpose.
dsub @ Apr 8th 2008 11:38PM
agreed.
However, this was what happened to my original 360. I've actually never gotten the 3 red rings that everyone speaks of. Luckily it happened 9 months in, and my replacement system has been flawless ever since.
Zeus.:God @ Apr 8th 2008 11:46PM
Matt B, I certainly hope that post wasn't directed to me, as it would be entirely untrue if it was.
Phoenix @ Apr 8th 2008 6:08PM
Could always try and make it Red Ring anyways, with a couple of towels or something.
Just sayin.
John McPoop @ Apr 9th 2008 12:33AM
Yeah no shit ... I had to do that twice already when I had disc read errors ... I have had 4 natural RRODs and 2 forced RRODs ... I am pretty pissed that any hardware failure is not covered by the warranty but where there are towels there are forced RRODs ... Microsoft isn't fooling anyone and I would guess the actual console failure percentage is higher than 33% ... If you only count the RRODs it is probably around 25-33%
ToRo @ Apr 9th 2008 1:18AM
yea it suck that we have result to BS like this just to get a replacement console. I have the regular warranty with MS and 2 year warranty from the best buy that i bought it from. Which in my opinion is better. (I go in hand in my broken 360, and grab a new one from where they have them. They take out all the extra goodies though like the HDD and controller.)
Phoenix @ Apr 9th 2008 1:23AM
Oh man 6 rings total? That'd be way too much for me to handle without killing a man.
I've had mine for almost a year, and I've been lucky enough for it to be just fine.
...though I get kinda scared when I turn it on nowadays.
CamDS @ Apr 8th 2008 6:12PM
I had the E74 error on my console on Saturday. Happened just after downloading an update on Oblivion. (which I saw is pictured in the screen shot). If I leave it for a few hours it will boot then after about 30 secs will freeze and the next boot you get the error screen. I thought we might have been safe with the newer chipsets
Liquid Ocelot (call me Liquid) @ Apr 8th 2008 6:18PM
Yeah i had this problem too.
HAHA not rly. I just love my PS3 :)
marauder800 @ Apr 8th 2008 6:29PM
Well, my first PS3 lasted all of 3 hours so speak for yourself. I had the E74 error early December and MS repaired it no questions asked. In terms of hours, I play my 360 20:1 vs. PS3, and I've had many more problems with my shiny Sony brick than I've had in 2+ years of 360 ownership. Probably a fluke, but that's been my experience.
Liquid Ocelot (call me Liquid) @ Apr 8th 2008 6:37PM
Sux for all you guys. I've had 0 probmes with my PS3, and i sent in my 360 once cuz Saint's Row and Gears of War were freezing every 5 seconds. They replaced the fan :)
Jody Anthony (cookingrebels.com) @ Apr 8th 2008 6:49PM
had my ps3 since november and not a single issue.
had my wii for a month and a half (got it at launch) and had the graphics card error. sent it off to get it replaced and the replacement (that I got less than a week later!) is still running great
don't own a 360
ThornedVenom (Harley Quinn Defense Force) @ Apr 8th 2008 9:19PM
My PC is working fine. :D
Vidikron (FU) @ Apr 8th 2008 10:14PM
My PC's video card was DOA and then the motherboard died a week later. Thankfully, it was a new build so I was able to RMA both. But in two weeks time I had more problems with my PC than all my consoles combined.
As for my consoles... I had a launched 360 that had never RRoD'd, but I sold it last year and got an Elite. Sadly, the person I sold it to got the RRoD a week or so after I sold it. I think it must have been hit too hard during shipping or something. Oh well, he was able to get it fixed for free through MS.
Neither my PS3 nor Wii have given me any troubles at all. Both operate great *knock on wood*
smith @ Apr 8th 2008 6:19PM
My launch 360 died with the E74 well outside its 12 month period.
XBox UK repaired it for free!
Draco @ Apr 8th 2008 6:32PM
I thought in Europe the minimum warranty was 2 years... maybe thats why they repaired it no questions asked
smith @ Apr 8th 2008 6:42PM
No idea! Just glad I didn't have to pay, console bricked again the second I got it back aswell!
toboski @ Apr 8th 2008 8:29PM
In Europe you're covered by the Consumer rights Act - You can take any good back to the place you purchased it from and demand an exchange if it fails within an unreasonable timeframe, warranty or not. I took the advice of a friend who runs a few dispatch offices for an online retailer - he said the Spanish Xbox's have a much lower rate of return than most of the other countries, and we figured maybe due the the Consumer Rights and the hot temperature in Spain, that Microsoft were making sure the good consoles went there first. Both our (Spanish) Xboxes have been fine (My friend has had his nearly 2 years now) compared to my brother in law's US xbox, which has been returned twice, and my brother's UK xbox, which has rrod'd once (But now works ok). Can any Spanish readers out there verify this?
ThornedVenom (Harley Quinn Defense Force) @ Apr 8th 2008 9:20PM
@toboski
Sounds a bit too farfetched.
NATO_Duke @ Apr 9th 2008 10:15AM
@toboski
Yeah, thats a bit of a conspiracy theory there. Are you sure the rates aren't lower just due to sales numbers / population.
Mr Khan @ Apr 8th 2008 6:24PM
Is it coincidental that that pic depicts something that looks like The Ring?
Glen @ Apr 8th 2008 6:26PM
I've been lucky enough to never have to deal with this.
will @ Apr 8th 2008 6:28PM
this actually happened to me before my box red-ringed
a connection, perchance?
kpeezy @ Apr 8th 2008 6:29PM
"Still, we have to agree with the Consumerist that the warranty extension should apply to all sorts of hardware malfunctions, not just the common ones that get a lot of media attention. How about it, Microsoft?"
I'm sure it is very frustrating to have this happen to you, but to expect a company to cover "all sorts of" of malfunctions for 3 whole years is a bit much. It's great they're covering RRoD, but you can't expect them to do that for every single symptom. That would make the standard 1-year warranty a 3-year warranty, which I bet is pretty uncommon in the electronic's industry.
Jason @ Apr 8th 2008 6:40PM
Covering all their various malfunctions for three years is the least they can do when they greedily rushed out a half-baked box so they could beat Nintendo and Sony to the profits. This thing was not QC'd nearly enough; When they decided it was a good choice not to put in the time and money up front they pretty much made there bed for what is happening now.
Zeus.:God @ Apr 8th 2008 6:48PM
This E74 issue is likely a small one- hardly ever hear about it... As a matter of fact, I hear about more PS3s with broken disc drives than the E74.
The only real defect that MS SHOULD have to own up to is the RRoD... Everything else is fair game, just like the broken PS3 owners who don't get their console repaired for free- oh, lets not forget that dust is an act of God, as well.
el serpiente @ Apr 8th 2008 6:54PM
Wow, Zeus is so desperate he is now making things up. Its just a console dude. Not your ego. Although, why the two are inextricably tied might be a good question for your therapist.
LJ @ Apr 8th 2008 7:11PM
WTH are you talking about???? they should cover every malfunctioning issue with their console as long as is not the customers fault, or an accident!
If they can't make a decent piece of hardware the least they could do is have some warranty for it.
I only own a PS3 right now, until they are done with all the RROD crap and all the other bugs on their console i wont get it, i want to though... but i'm not gonna waste my money on a piece of junk.
I'll just play gears 2 on my PC, just like i did with the first one. I really hope they can work out the bugs!!
Zeus.:God @ Apr 8th 2008 8:55PM
Really, now, Serpiente? You just keep proving me right, you little fanboy, you.
Maybe Sony should have replaced my out of warranty PSP that constantly froze 5-10 minutes after turning it on? It wasn't my fault, but it was out of warranty, so they didn't replace it without a fee- was that wrong? No. It wasn't. It sucked yes, but the E74 obviously isn't a large problem as you hardly ever hear about it! Its more of just a defect with the console that is fairly rare- the only reason the warranty was extended was for the RRoD which WAS and IS an abnormally large problem with a lot of 360s- therefore, Microsoft SHOULD (but in no means are they REQUIRED to) fix it, which they have. They covered a certain very common issue. E74 with the single light, is not, and affects a smaller amount of consoles (obviously), otherwise it WOULD have been included.
Maybe Sony or Nintendo should cover each and every defect for as long as the console is available for sale? Thats what you're implying Microsoft should do.
Be reasonable and THINK for once.
el serpiente @ Apr 8th 2008 9:39PM
I know you are, but what am I?
Quix @ Apr 8th 2008 11:32PM
So...Zeus has a rock-solid Xbox, his Zune 80 is WAYYYY more reliable than any of his friends' iPods (per his post yesterday (even though the Zune 80 has only been out a whopping 5 months!)), and he wears Steve Ballmer jammies (just an educated guess on my part).
Do I smell...a Redmond shill?
Zeus.:God @ Apr 9th 2008 12:01AM
Quix, I'm in no way a "Redmond shill", a "Microsoft shill", or a shill of any kind. I state the FACTS, and I have yet to have a single problem with either of my Zunes; I have had a few slight issues with the Xbox from time to time, but never a single RRoD, disc read error (except from smudged discs), or disc scratching.
I know whats up with the 360, and I know that it has problems that I have been lucky enough not to have (partly because I take care of it, as I do with all of my electronics). On the other hand, though, the RRoD is unacceptable- by no means have I ever implied that it was. It never should have gotten this bad, but I also don't believe it was ever as high as a certain *EB Games* manager claimed it to be.
I feel Microsoft has dealt with and fulfilled their ethical obligations by extending the warranty 3 years to cover their main, widespread issue- the RRoD. Considering that the E74 error is a less common error, as with any other product from any other company, it shouldn't be specially covered by a specific warranty.
Every Xbox is given a 1 year warranty covering ALL defects. The 3 year warranty covers the widespread issue, and thats all it was intended to do, and thats all it was ever CLAIMED to do.
This article is NOT news. The fact that it is not covered is NOT news.
By the way, if I was a Microsoft shill- would I have owned every previous Sony console? PS1, PS2, and PSP- had them all. I'm all for Sony; I don't care what it is, if there is something wrong with it, I will criticize it, I'm just against misinformation, which mostly seems to spread from PS3 owners, generally.
I don't support the Xbox 360 fanboys or any of the bullshit they spread either, however, on both Engadget and Joystiq, it seems to have become a fad to bash Microsoft at every turn- in sort of a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" type of way.
I'm looking forward to buying my PS3.