As you'll see, there's a huge increase of E74 claims since the launch of the New Xbox Experience. In fact, you can see a spike right around November, and many claiming an E74 in that month say it was just a day or two after installing the firmware. The evidence that we've gathered from emails, our poll and the Engadget poll all points to the same conclusion: There's been a definite increase in E74 errors since the NXE dropped. Whether that's due to a change in error reporting, a change in the way the system operates causing the error or simply increased use during that time, we can't say. Check past the jump for all the data.
1. In addition to the above data, there are 11 others who say they've received the error intermittently since they've purchased the console.
2. Our coverage is now one of the top results of the "E74" Google search, which may be skewing the data. That is, we may be reporting a disproportionate number of March 2009 errors, given that recent recipients of the hardware failure could have found and responded to our initial report by searching "E74" on the web. Those who received E74 before March and searched the topic would not have found our report (which had yet to be published), and therefore are less likely to be included in our data.
3. Jacob Metcalf of 8bitjoystick.com has continued to delve into the technical reasons for E74.
We're still hoping to get a more in-depth explanation from Microsoft as to what causes the error and why it's not covered under the same three-year warranty as the Red Ring of Death. As soon as we hear something, we'll let you know.
