3-year Xbox 360 warranty extended to cover E74 errors

It's been a difficult time for you, we know. While all your friends were getting the radical Red Ring of Death and happily cashing in on Microsoft's three-year Xbox 360 warranty, you had to make do with a decidedly less impressive (though equally cataclysmic) hardware failure, one that couldn't even manage to spit out more than a few crimson lights.

But your lonely torment is at an end, with Microsoft ceasing its defection discrimination and revealing via the Xbox Support page that the mysterious E74 error is now covered by the RROD's three-year warranty. Microsoft has determined "that the E74 error message can indicate the general hardware failure that is associated with three flashing red lights error on the console," and will "refund to customers the amount paid for an out of warranty repair due to a general hardware failure associated with the e74 error message." If you don't automatically receive this refund by July 1, 2009, you'll need to claim one through xbox.com/support before November 1, 2009.

Hooray! Welcome to the club, E74 victims! Um, sorry about your Xbox.

[Thanks, Peter]