http://majornelson.com/archive/2009/04/14/xbox-360-warranty-extended-for-e74.aspx

Hey guys, there have been a stories recently about the E74 error message that I wanted to address. The team is aware that a very small percentage of our Xbox 360 customers have reported receiving an error that displays E74 on their screen and after investigating the issue, we have determined that the E74 error message can indicate the general hardware failure that is associated with three flashing red lights error on the console.  As such, we will be covering any repairs due to the E74 error message under the three year warranty we announced related to the three flashing lights error, as well as reimbursing any customers that have already paid for an E74 related repair.  This applies to new consoles for the original retail purchaser, whether purchased before or after this change.  You can read additional information on the warranty extension on the Xbox.com support site. Today’s announcement reaffirms our commitment to customers that we stand behind our products and deliver a great Xbox experience.  

Thanks and I look forward to reading your comments on this issue.

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Xbox MOD / MCSE
This posting is provided "as-is" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Thanks for putting this up.

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SBoK
FoBb
Account Security

Mine bricked on me doing this like a month or so ago.  So, i bought a Jasper to replace it.  Sold the broken one on craigslist for 65.00.  Had I known this was going to happen, i would have waited a bit, had the broken one fixed, and traded it in.

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You'll probably win, but just don't call me noob.

Finally, mine got the E74 after the february mandatory update.  I have been fighting with MS ever since, two complaints to the BBB, one to the attorney general of Washington and at least 10 conversations with ms.  My son gave up and bought another arcade and slapped the hard drive on it.  Personally I think that was MS plan all along planned obselences(sp).  I wonder if they'll refund the 199 for the arcade.  Any goodwill they may have generated by this fix is lost in the hell they put people thru to take care of a obviously flawed system. 

Kudo's for refunding monies spent by others to get units fixed.

Great news, now i have one less worry when i switch my console on.

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Neurosis is the inability to tolerate ambiguity.

Hooray, now my friend doesn't have to worry about not being covered.

I have a warranty with best buy though so I don't need to worry

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On my 3rd 360
#1 May 31 07-March 08
#2 March 08-February 09
#3 February 09-November 09
#4 November 09-

huh. I wonder. I had a box do this and I just bought a new one. It failed over a month ago but it's "3 year" date would have been right about this week.

I wonder if they will still cover it?

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Post provided "as is" and confers no rights

I get mixed messages about this. I have 1 red ring and E74 message on an Xbox Elite. It was purchased on 18 Dec 07. So its out of 1 year warranty.  The Xbox360 broke on Monday 13 April 09

I sent an email to customer support on Thursday 16 April. Here is part of the reply:

Microsoft 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. Those customers should automatically receive the refund within 4-12 weeks, and no additional action by customers should be necessary. However, if a customer has not received a refund by July 1, 2009, the customer should visit www.xbox.com/support before November 1, 2009 for information on how to place a claim. All refund claims must be received on or before November 1, 2009.'

I will let you know how I get on with the sending back and other issues. Watch this space!

 ihatesbox wrote:

Finally, mine got the E74 after the february mandatory update.  I have been fighting with MS ever since, two complaints to the BBB, one to the attorney general of Washington and at least 10 conversations with ms.  My son gave up and bought another arcade and slapped the hard drive on it.  Personally I think that was MS plan all along planned obselences(sp).  I wonder if they'll refund the 199 for the arcade.  Any goodwill they may have generated by this fix is lost in the hell they put people thru to take care of a obviously flawed system. 

Kudo's for refunding monies spent by others to get units fixed.

I'm in the same boat.  I just went and bought an arcade With a Best Buy warrenty instead of paying the $100.00 Just last Friday.  So I want to know the same thing.  So now I am gonna have two.  Why do I need two.  Too Little Too Late in my eye.

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COD4 ROCKS & SO DOES COD W@W

Get this MS.  A warranty is where you promise to replace a defective piece of merchandise with a unit that doesn't have the same defect.  Let me know when you can offer that.  Then I might replace the unit I purchased for Christmas day 2007 that failed after seven days of use.  Until then, I'll just keep the PS-3 I bought as a replacement and continue to refuse to do business with Microsoft.

I'm very please to see MS taking responsibility for this issue. I was about to conduct an investigative report on this matter for my employer (one of the two major international news outlets *1) and literally had spoken to MS on the phone starting at 4pm EST and ending at 4:48pm EST the day before this recent announcement, requesting they waive the fee to repair my Elite's E74 error, since this has nothing to do with normal wear and tear and everything to do with faulty hardware. 

After speaking with two supervisors and presenting my Press credentials they said that if I saw the RROD first, they could then waive the fee.  I explained that did not happen and I was told that they were "trying to help me out".  They again asked me "are you sure you didn't see the RROD before the E74 error?" I said I would not lie to get the repair and that they needed to address the issues of faulty hardware construction and waive the fee for that reason.  I think they got spooked when I mentioned I was recording the phone conversation (which is legal since they were recording as well *2).  I spoke with the India based call center and my contacts were "Kurt" and "Bernard".  I was treated with exceptional courtesy and respect and thank these gentleman for handling my phone call with such professionalism.

I hope that this is partially what prompted the announcement made the next morning around 7am regarding the OP.  I also give major kudos to the two websites who compiled the data on the E74 errors, which is what attracted us to investigate the issue in the first place.  Blogs and websites are what give power to the people and everyone who participated on those sites are equally responsible for pushing MS to do the right thing here.

I also agree that for MS to state that only "a very small percentage of our XBOX customers have reported receiving an error that displays E74".  This is simply not true.  If you Google "XBOX E74" you will see thousands of reports on this issue.  I also would like very much for MS to replace these units with new, non-refurbished consoles, so we can benefit from the cooler running Jaspers and save headaches for both the consumer, as well as to save MS from having to repeatedly repair these units in the future.

I'm waiting for my box so I can ship out my console.  Many consumers, including myself, went ahead and bought a Jasper-based Arcade console because I figured the additional $90 would at least guarantee me a cooler running machine.  You will note that many of us bought the new Arcade so in the bigger picture, MS BENEFITED by refusing to pay for the repairs up to recently.

I will post an update both here and on my companies website to explain the outcome of the E74 repair and what they did for my console, since it will be dismantled immediately upon return by my technical team *3.  Lets cross our fingers that they do whats right and full-out replace these with brand new up-to-date systems and not refurbs, or the story will run as is.

*1: This post is being made as an XBOX 360 and XBOX Live consumer and NOT on behalf of my employer. I may reference this post in the future.
*2: I do not advise that people use recording devices during phone conversations with MS unless they clearly understand the laws regarding wiretapping, cross-state and international law, as well as how to gain consent to conduct phone recordings.
*3: Two of which are former Microsoft employees and have participated in both refurbishing units and were the ones who explained the cause of this E74 error to me in great detail.

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Change can lead to something better or something worse. How you react to it makes it better or worse for you.

This is great news for me. I'm new to the Xbox community and just bought an Xbox 360.

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Red is to Fire!

Sweet Im getting my hard earned money back

Today my system crashed on me and when I turned it back on it had some type of black screen with white dots flying at light speed across the screen. Then some error message came up and it lasted for a while and it vanished and now I can't don nothing except listen to the damn audio. So when is this three warrantry for the E74 will take in effect?

I love how they say 'a very small percentage'. Apparently it wasn't so small to warrant a warranty extension. I've received the E74 error several times over the past year and was told that my hard drive was the problem and I would have to pay to get it fixed. This past week, my 360 has started overheating. I called the support number today and the lady kept telling me that I would have to pay to get it fixed if it's overheating. Now I know that they can go back and look at any error messages the 360 has displayed previously. This happened with my first 360 where it red ringed several times and then continued to work for 3 months before completely freezing up. It never showed the rings again, but they assured me they could look and see that it has before and sure enough, they sent me the 360 I currently have. She finally admitted that they can go back and look, but I should call back anyway. I couldn't understand how if she confirmed they can look, why I would need to call back again.  She said if I send it in and it's not the E74 error, it's 'not her problem'. After a lot of arguing, she finally relented and will be sending me a shipping label. Hopefully I can get a free repair now that MS has finally admitted to this issue.

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You gotta pay the troll toll.

What about those of us that were out of warranty, cracked it open and tried to repair it ourselves?  Or those that sent it to a third party repair shop because they felt they were getting scammed by Microsoft into paying for a repair that looked like a scheduled breakdown and was no fault of the user? Are they going to fix or replace those? 

My Xbox E-74'd on New Years weekend after one year and a month of use. My nephew's E-74'd 12 hours out of warranty, to which Microsoft said, "too bad, pay us." Were we supposed to wait 4 1/2 months without any indication that Microsoft was going to anything about this problem? We tried to fix ours ("penny trick") and it worked for a while and then E-74'd again. Why not crack them open? They were both out of warranty and Microsoft had said they wouldn't fix them without getting paid. Because I have too much money wrapped up in accessories, DLC, and games, I go and buy an Elite to replace my E-74'd Pro, and pay for an extended warranty.
 
What a rip. I do know this, I won't be buying a Xbox 720 or whatever else they decide to call it.

this is the second time in six months I have had to send my xbox in for repairs the need to just start sending new ones concidering it is obvious that they are selling defective hardware its bullshit

My xbox will be one year old on April 23. Today I got the E74 message. My warranty ends April 30 apparently. So should I be sending in my xbox? And does this mean I get an additional 3 year warranty when I send it in?.. Sorry really tired and slightly confused.

yes you still get the 3 year extended waranty and its only for cases that have a red ring or the E74 or an internal errror

Cool

What do you mean by arcade console?

I am in the UK.My XboxElite was picked up by UPS today, and the guy says it usually takes 5-10 days to fix. It is off to Germany for the fix.

mine has just been freezing every 5 mins. or under. and sometimes when it freeze's, it goes black or purple or blue screen. Is this E74 or like a cpu or gpu failure? This box I have now is brand new from the factory when the other one got replaced in Oct. of last year.

You did not say that you saw E74 on screen so it will be something else. Try the troubleshooting on the support site below:

http://support.xbox.com/support/en/us/nxe/default.aspx

not once when it locks up does it say E74 or anything for that matter. I went to the troubleshooting page and the only thing I see that may be relevant is that it's sitting next to the TV it's used on and small speakers. It's got enough ventilation.

the power is on the apposite side of the TV. It's in my basement, so it's a lot cooler down there. It's somewhat elevated, and the TV is a 27" Sylvania tube. Could the power brick and stuff be worn out? Had them since Dec. '06. Or does it just need to be moved for the time being?

Thats great MS is steping up and fixing this stuff for free..

ok, so it just ran for about an hour and a half, then it decided to just start locking up again. whatever, I told them it red ringed back in Feb. and the coffin will be here tomorrow and hopefully it will come back fixed.

 ihatesbox wrote:

  Personally I think that was MS plan all along planned obselences(sp). 

Definitely. My replacement Xbox broke within a month of the warranty expiration, and I have never owned any piece of equipment that has failed so epicly. When are they going to finally issue a product recall, or at least halt production until they can make a system that works?

Just had my first E 74 message. i find it ridiculous to be honest. I realise that hardware these days is more sophisticated that my dreamcast/ps2/saturn etc but FFS. the product is clearly broken. i think its a bit shameful to be honest. I imagine if Apple made a console we wouldn't have these problems.and playstation?? as far as I am aware it works out of the box and is designed to work for years. end of story. I feel very let down. My old xbox never had these troubles. will i get a 3 weeks free on my gold account in compensation whilst microsoft take my 18 month old console in for repair? doubtful.

Got the  E 74 message on my Halo 3 console and have to send it in, hope they don't send me back a chincy white one...and I wonder if I get a free month of Live or something since I'm paying for it and can't use it...

I've had that console and an original launch one and this is my first problem, can't say Im pissed, I've had a good run so far!!!