“Eek!”
After the jump, let’s skip back ten minutes and see what heinous events led to our hapless hero (Egbert) expelling such an anguish-filled yowl.
After casually smearing butter over a slice of bread, Egbert wanders over to the couch. It’s not a particularly fancy couch, but Egbert thinks it does the job just fine.
[Splurgh]
Oh no! That horrifying squishing sound signified that Egbert just trodden on his birthday cake! What used to be a delightfully delicious Victoria Sponge, was now a partially mashed-up pulp of sponge and cream, with the words “Egbert 74 today!” rearranged and squashed into an incomprehensible message: “E74!”
Egbert remarked that his birthday celebrations last night must have been pretty crazy for him to leave an uneaten cake on the floor.
With his newly created ‘cake foot’, Egbert shambled over to his Xbox 360 and turned it on.
The message “E74″ is displayed above a URL for Microsoft’s Xbox support page.
“Eek!”, yells Egbert.
Thankfully, neither Egbert, nor anyone that has suffered the trauma of receiving an E74 error, will have to hand over money to Microsoft for a repair, an announcement on the Microsoft Support website revealed this morning. The same 3-year warranty that covers your Xbox 360 for the classic ‘Red Ring of Death’, will now also cover the ominous E74 fault. Microsoft have said that the E74 error “can indicate the general hardware failure that is associated with three flashing red lights error on the console” and that customers who have already paid to have the error rectified “should automatically receive the refund within 4-12 weeks”. However, if you haven’t received a refund by July 1, 2009, then mosey on down to www.xbox.com/support before November 1, 2009 to register a claim.
The whole Xbox 360 situation is now beyond embarrassing for Microsoft. The ‘Three Red Light’ error showed that, in getting the console to market a year early, the build quality was sacrificed. People were angry, and with good reason, but Microsoft stepped in with a much warranted (hey, hey!) extended warranty and that was that — people got bored of complaining and life carried on as normal. Yet here we are three-and-a-half years after launch, and a new fault has just started cropping up. In that kind of time span, I would have expected Microsoft to realise that they made a bad machine, find out how to fix it, and start rolling out error free units. There have been many hardware revisions already, I know, but whether these have completely eliminated the ‘RROD’ error (or the newly discovered E74 error), or whether the new components are even being put into old Xbox 360’s that arrive for repair, I have no idea. Some people may thank Microsoft for being so benevolent with their warranties, but it is not generosity that drives Microsoft to repair your console for free, it’s the many impending law suits, diminishing customer loyalty and loss of general reputation. Three years is not a particularly long warranty anyway for one of the most, if not the most, unreliable piece of consumer electronics in history. The failure rate is 100%. Eventually, your console will break — whether it’s the E74 error, three red lights, or your discs being scratched — there’s no doubt about that. Who’s to say that if your console gets the E74 error three years and one day after purchase, that it is not Microsoft’s fault?
Eugh.
For now, all we can do is carry on playing (and praying that our consoles keep on chuggin’), but let’s hope that Microsoft’s have learned their lesson for next time, eh?
Source: Microsoft Support [Via Joystiq]
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ant THAT is why I dont have an xbox 360!
the failure rate is unacceptable!
Well thats just great. Now how about adding the black screen failure to the list of issues as well. Of any of the other issues that are still only covered by a one year warranty.
New and new… I got E74 at least 10 times before my console RROD’d (you can restart most of the times you get E74). My friend’s Xbox got ruined by E74 after his 1 year warranty went out, but he didn’t have to pay.
As long as the warranty policy has pinpointed extensions and isn’t a blanket “Three year warranty”, I think it makes some consumers doubt Microsoft’s confidence in the system. If consumers doubt _Microsoft’s_ confidence, why should _they_ have any confidence in it themselves?
Why the pinpoint stipulations for warranty extension past one year? I mean isn’t the point of extending the warranty to make people worry less about their purchase?
Did your DVD drive die after one year at no fault of your own? Tough sh*t
Are your games getting scratched after one year at no fault of your own? Tough sh*t
Are you getting checkerboard graphical distortion after one year at no fault of your own? Tough sh*t
Are you getting the RRoD after one year at no fault of your own? Oh, we’ll fix that free
Are you getting E74 after one year at no fault of your own? Oh, yeah, we’ll fix that free now too
Is your power brick dead after one year at no fault of your own? Tough sh*t
LOL.
I got RRoD 2 months ago,and I’m hoping to finally send it off tomorrow for repairs, though I wouldn’t be surprised at all if I got it back home in a few weeks time, only to have it RRoD on me again or even E74 now. Then I would be very, very, very annoyed. It really just is embarassing for MS, such a popular console having all these hardware problems, and comparatively on PS3 and the Wii there’s hardly any failures. The list of failures on 360 will probably just keep growing, and if that happens the 360 will probably kill itself off the market. Really though, it’s Microsoft’s fault. If they’d have manufactured their consoles properly, they wouldn’t have had to go through any of this, and they wouldn’t have lost the billions of dollars they have lost due to hardware failures.
Ghost-ridin’.. Ghost-ride the whip!
Ghost-ride the whip!
Gh-oh crap that’s E 40. Mah bad.
Yeah….great. Could have used this about a month ago. I got the E74 error, and i didn’t feel like sending it in so i just got a new one. I assume you can’t get the refund unless you actually sent it in….so f**k….
man im glad i didnt get a shitbox i wouldnt be able to afford it XD
Thank god for this, I’ve never been so happy it wasn’t Friday (fiction). My little white paper weight got the dreaded E74 (We need as scary title for this like the Red Ring of Death) 4 days ago
You are scaring me.
I do not know if this is a coincidence, but I got E74 today i.e. the day after I read this write-up. I’m not blaming no-one but I do know that I would’ve felt better if I hadn’t read this earlier.
Yeah so check this out. I was sent a brand new console from MS last year Nov 2008. That being my FOURTH console. Well just my luck i got the RROD this sunday. So I called MS and they told me it wasn’t covered due to me being out of my 3 year warranty, original purchase date november 2005. Now this makes sense and kinda doesn’t make sense. They gave me a brand new unit last November! So they deliberately gave me a unit which would break in less than a year and won’t fix it?! I’m pissed none the less and plan on trying the ol’ penny fix on the peace of SH@#.