Move over
RRoD, it looks like there's a new
Xbox 360 hardware failure in town. According to anecdotal data collected by
Joystiq as well as Google Trends, there's been a steady rise in reports and discussion of the E74 error since mid-October, with no apparent correlation between any specific model or year of purchase. From what we can tell, the E74 error is related to video problems caused by either a faulty AV connector or, more often, a loosened ANA / HANA scaling chip. Symptoms include visual glitches like random lines or snow and a single red light on the console in the lower right quadrant (see picture). The time frame for the rise in issues makes
NXE and its November debut a suspect, but it's worth noting that the uptick started just
before that launch, so perhaps it has more to do with hiccups caused by spurred interest in turning on the console after a long period of dormancy. We're curious to know how the issue has affected the Engadget readership. Has your Xbox 360 gotten the Red Arc of Death? Let us know in the poll below.
Has your Xbox 360 gotten the E74 error?| Yes, some time after I installed NXE | 4197 (12.8%) |
|---|
| Yes, some time before I installed NXE | 1928 (5.9%) |
|---|
| Nope, just a red ring | 5476 (16.8%) |
|---|
| Nope, my Xbox 360 works just fine | 11911 (36.5%) |
|---|
| I just like pushing buttons | 9164 (28.0%) |
|---|
- Joystiq Survey
Read - Google Trends [Via
Negative Gamer]
posted Mar 20th 2009 12:31AM
first!
For Zombie Christ's Sake!
you better take a screenshot so you can show your grandkids your greatest accompishment
You will always be lowest rank, so why even bother? Numbskull.
engadget should filter the word "first" outa the first post
@matthew: that was actually kinda funny...
I wonder how many of the votes for having the error are angry PS3 fanboys?
Friend of mine got one after playing Halo 3 for the first time. Needless to say, he doesn't play that game too much anymore. :P
Engadget's polls probably aren't the most accurate but still... An almost 40% failure rate according to the polls so far??? Even it was a 5% failure rate, that's still unacceptable to me. Could you imagine buying a product that has a 1 in 20 chance of breaking?
Yeah, when the company repairs it free of charge, why not?
Is this problem covered by the 3yr RROD warranty?
E74 isn't covered by the 3 year warranty...
@Ellianth Y in the heck would you want to buy a defective product??
Got this last week as a matter of fact. Sent in for repair, to get it back next week sometime.
Xbox's failure rate is just... nasty.. yuck!
It's basically luck of the draw. I have a launch Xbox and it's still running 3+ years later. And that's with HEAVY usage. At least an hour or two a day on average, sometimes more.
As Brendan said, maybe the answer is just to play like hell on the things :P
My launch one died about 6 months in with the e74 rrod, which they fixed.. then started scratching all my games just after my warranty expired. I told microsoft to diaf and traded it for a ps3 and missed all the exclusives.
My girlfriend got sick of me whinging and bought me an elite for my birthday, and havent had any major problems yet. fingers crossed though.
I almost sort of had it. My Xbox was having all the symptoms that you normally get before it just gets the E74 error, but instead of getting that it just stopped outputting video.
What did you do with it?
My xbox elite doesn't display any video or audio but it doesn't have the e74 error.
The lights just look like nothings wrong
I have gotten E74 many times on my 360 Elite, both before and after NXE. I would guess a total of 10-15 times. This started almost directly after purchase. A reboot always solves this though. Is this something I should contact MS about, and what is the normal procedure for this error?
This is caused by cold solder joints on the Scaler chip and Microsoft knows it. Microsoft acknowledged to me after multiple phone complaints it was being discussed internally for possible inclusion into the RRoD extended warranty in the future. I was able to convince them to repair my friend's out of warranty 360 with e74 last summer. You should be able to also if you are relentless.
i had an error with audio and visual no red lights on...just weird snow that moved back and forth across the screen. $100 later my xbox works but now randomly doesnt load a game if i sign in b4 choosing to play the disc...knew i should of sold this damn stock
stealing jokes from joystiq... tisk tisk...
http://www.joystiq.com/2009/03/17/is-your-xbox-360-an-e74-victim/
*(i like clicking things)
also my 360 has had no problems since i got it january '06 (as bad as this problem is, there are people who's consoles are just peachy).
copied from another post on joystiq (probable explanation of the problem):
"DWells55 @ Mar 19th 2009 4:11PM
I've been through quite a few dead consoles and have gotten into the business of fixing failed 360s, so I'd like ot share what I've noticed recently. The E74 which has suddenly become so common shows the same symptoms prior to failure that the three red lights does. Graphic artifacts, in-game freezes, and texture corruption are quite common before the system goes into E74. This was also very common on systems with the three red lights, and, unsurprisingly, the fix is the same as well.
Of the three Xbox 360 consoles I have repaired with E74, reflowing the area around the GPU and CPU, using better thermal paste, and installing an X-clamp replacement has fixed the issue. Not once has the issue been with the scaler (ANA for pre-HDMI, HANA for HDMI systems) as this article suggests. Now, a while back, when the three red lights were common, the problem often was the scaler chip and could be fixed temporarily just by holding the chip down and permanently by reflowing it.
Anyways, what I'm getting at here is that these E74 errors are the three red lights, just presented differently. It's entirely possible for system updates to change the way the system reports errors. Since three red lights indicates "general hardware failure," making the updates affect error reporting does two things for Microsoft:
1. Gives a more specific error message to aid in the repair process.
2. Alleviates them from having to issue a free repair as part of the three year "extended service" plan which was only issued to appease a class-action lawsuit.
Sure, it sounds pretty conspiracy theory-ish, but based on my own experience in fixing E74 systems and observing systems with E74, as well as the findings of others, I wholly believe that this is the case. Microsoft has done aggressive things in system updates before. For example, when the hypervisor exploit was discovered, Microsoft blocked the ability to downgrade with a system update that actually blew eFuses in the CPU (although modders figured out that by removing a resistor, the system could be upgraded without the eFuses getting blown).
tl;dr - Microsoft has simply updated the system so what used to be reported as three red lights is now the E74, creating the illusion that the three red lights failure has been fixed and allowing them to save money from not having to do extended repairs."
http://www.joystiq.com/2009/03/19/joystiq-survey-xbox-360-e74-errors-on-the-rise-since-nxe/#comments
and if you're console is having this issue and MS says they won't cover it under the 3-year warranty, just file it under RROD (i believe there's a form on xbox.com) and tell them you have the E74 error mixed with intermittent RROD.
sorry, i'll stop now. i wish we could edit posts.
*Holds his breath*
Outstanding information!
they said it was only on the hdmi models. but on my launch system i got it and on a refurb from gamestop my roommate got it. neither had hdmi. so ya. xbox gave up. i may have been the first one ever to call in with the problem. they had me talk to like 12 different people. it was amazing. they just ended sending me a new console and fixing the second.
Had my XBox for three years. Neither me nor anyone I know has had any problems with thier XBox.
mine has been fine for over three years too, though up to a fourth of my friends have had to get theirs fixed once (1). while it is still an unacceptably large issue, i think it is generally made out to be just a little bigger than it is (and i wouldn't trust these poll results).
I've had no problems either, mine has been healthy for a year now and still going strong. I think we get a rather polarised view of what is happening, since someone would only post online if they DID have a problem.
I do think it'd be nice to know the actual failure rate, though. It would be pretty good if companies were legally obliged to make information available pertaining to the failure rate of their products - this would dispel rumours and allow customers to make a more educated decision.
Well you are also on internet yet you spell 'their' correctly, you can't take that as evidence that that is the normal state of affairs ;)
Here's a hint: If your 360 is still under warranty but only for the RRoD (in other words you have had it for more than a year but less than three), just send it in as RRoD. MS doesn't have the time to check your console before they send out a replacement.
What a horrid suggestion. You know they send you back someone else's broken console, right? You don't get your same console back. At least the 4 people I know who have had RROD issues got back a used console that was supposedly repaired but ended up failing on them again.
how can Microsoft claim to sell so many units when most people are but multipe 360 to replace there dead ones
are you serious? or are you just trolling? 99% of people just send theirs in to get fixed, which doesn't count towards sales figures.
but remember, 70% of the statistics are made up on the spots with no factual background, and the xbox sales rate is over 90% right 82.5% of the times.
The same way Sony sold so many PS2s
Microsoft is just making new ones to replace the dead ones, it's kind of like their subscription based software.
@mynk
Works 60% of the time, everytime.
Man, I already forgave Microsoft once for my first Xbox dying. I got all my money back luckily, only to turn around and buy an Elite almost a year later. If this SOB kicks the bucket, I really think I am done with the Xbox 360. How can a company with so much money not produce a gaming console that is actually reliable? Was it really worth rushing a console just to beat Sony to the market? Was it really worth the over $1 Billion charge from the first fiasco Microsoft? Hey, look at me when I am talking to you Microsoft? That's a bad Microsoft. Now go to your room.
Of course, we don't know anything for sure so maybe I am just overreacting.
Know this Microsoft, I'm watching you and I know where you sleep.
This happened to me a few nights ago when I was shutting the Xbox down. Hasn't happened since.
I got the red ring once pretty recently. This was only after I opened up the box to see what kind of dvd drive it had.
Running fine now.
I started getting the E74 error while playing Street Fighter 4. Would randomly get vertical lines of a color but the system was still rendering fine behind the lines. I would then go to the dashboard without turning the system off. The background was fine but all the rendered elements such as friends' avatars were boxes filled with static. My elite is out of warranty. It was a "launch" Elite from March '07. No problems whatsoever until this March.
file it as RROD, tell them you're getting E74 with intermittent RROD, and send it in. they should fix it for free then, since you're still covered under the 3-year RROD warranty.
LOLERCOPTER
When will they ever learn?
I can hear the flame war coming.....
Trusty Atari 2600. You've never RRoD on me! *hugs*
On the Playstation 3 side of things, has anyone had problems with their wireless cards?
Random disconnects on Warhawk and unable to sign in to PSN using WiFi.
Fixed after I moved the console to a stronger signal.