3 Year Warranty Extended to E-74 Error

Microsoft's three year warranty for the Xbox 360 now includes Xboxes that die from the dreaded E-74 error as well as the Red Ring of Death. This was revealed somewhat quietly by Microsoft who has seen an increase in the number of E-74 errors reported. Owners who paid for a repair during their first three years for an E-74 error problem should receive a refund.

Xbox.com describes an E-74 error as a graphics hardware problem.

Sadly, this announcement comes a little too late for me. My first two Xbox 360s both died from E-74, not RROD.

My very first 360 got the E-74 error from time to time but a quick reboot would usually make it go away. Then one day the graphics went weird(after an update to Orange Box). It returned to normal, but it wasn't soon after that my 360 went E-74 for good. It would only go to that error screen.

This happened after my 360 was out of its one year warranty. Microsoft didn't recognize the E-74 as a serious problem then. In fact, the person I talked to on the phone didn't understand what an E-74 error was.

I decided not to send it in and pay for repairs. Instead, I went out and bought an Xbox Arcade system and used my old harddrive and controllers. (I also didn't want to wait for repairs which at the time were a bit longer.)

My Arcade system died from an E-74 error within the first six months. This one I sent in since it was still under its year long warranty.

I am glad to see Microsoft taking the E-74 error seriously.

Microsoft Extends Some Warranties

Because of the recent flood of broken Xbox 360s(some reports indicate possibly 33% failure rate) and the bad press that's gone along with it, Microsoft has extended some Xbox 360 warranties from 1 year to 3 years.

That's right. I said some. The wording is somewhat unclear. "New users and users who have not experienced these problems will continue to fall under the 1-year warranty plan."

Apparently, the warranty increase only applies to 360 owners who have experienced the 3 Red Rings. What's confusing is if the warranty will suddenly cover someone who experiences the Red Rings after their first year is over?

It's good to see Microsoft taking steps to help users because of the Xbox 360's hardware problems. Experts say the extension of warranties could cost Microsoft over a billion dollars(which seems high to me).