Increase In Xbox 360 E74 Problems 346
Xbm360 writes "According to data collected by Joystiq as well as Google Trends, there's been a steady rise in reports and discussion of the so-called E74 error on Xbox 360 consoles since August of last year. The E74 error is related to video problems caused by either a faulty AV connector or, more often, a loosened ANA/HANA scaling chip. This is not the first time the Xbox 360 has experienced technical issues; in recent years many people have complained about scratched discs and over-heating consoles — the 'red ring of death.'"
Re:And who said (Score:1, Informative)
You're right except you're wrong, Microsoft is not leading here by any meaningful metric
Sony not much better (Score:5, Informative)
There's a lot being said about the infamous red ring of death killing 360's but Sony are getting almost no coverage of their issues.
There's been a large scale problem of Blu Ray drives in PS3s dying from the Diode burning out. This recently happened to me when I wanted to dust off the console to play RE5. I've replaced drive heads in the PS2 before so I thought I'd save £60 and repair it myself. Turns out the drive head that is in 'all EU 40gb ps3s' with two lenses, isn't in mine and I have to fork out another £60 on top of what I've spent already to get the correct part...
There seems to be two main possible causes of this happening: a patch increased the voltage going to the drive in an attempt to speed up the slow load times, some models can't take this and fail (the way the drives take a while to fail completely and cases focus around big new releases that force you to patch make this seem possible).
Second is turning the power switch off when there's a disc in the drive, apparently the drive hates it and is very sensative to power fluctations. Seems incredibly crappy if this is the case. I hate leaving things in standby.
I just can't understand why modern games consoles have so many problems. I've never had any drive fail except in consoles, Not even the cheapest, nastiest generic drives I could get have ever failed.
Re:I don't quite see what this is about (Score:2, Informative)
Microsofts prior hardware experience consists of building a bunch of mice and keyboards
Not really. To the best of my knowledge, all Microsoft keyboards are essentially rebranded products of Philips and Razer.
360 Design Faults Were Known By MS In 2005 (Score:5, Informative)
Xbox 360 consoles were dying in store demo kiosks months before the console went on sale.
> Hardcore Xbox fans screamed it was incompetent store employees who didn't know how to hook up a console
Xbox 360 consoles were dying at game media offices months before the console went on sale.
> Hardcore Xbox fans screamed it was just pre-release hardware and the real consoles wouldn't have those problems
Xbox 360 consoles were dying when they went on sale to the general public
> Hardcore Xbox fans screamed that they were just the first batch and that once production got moving those 'kinks' would be worked out
Every new Xbox 360 model continued to have massive numbers of hardware failures
> Hardcore Xbox fans screamed the new models about to come out fix those problems
Microsoft knew about the problems before the console was released and they went right ahead and put the turd of console up for sale regardless. They knew they had a fundamentally botched hardware design and lied through their teeth about the defective hardware until they finally had to fork out 1.1 billion in repair bills.
There is ZERO incentive for Microsoft to ship working hardware. The niche Xbox fanbase of the console market has demonstrated that they are perfectly willing to buy 3,4,5 or more new consoles without hesitation. It has helped inflate the installed base for the 360 mostly in the US but done nothing in Japan and Europe where the number of fanatical Microsoft fans is tiny.
The problem for Microsoft is the sales numbers from major console game publishers is showing equal to or greater sales rates for multiplatform games on the PS3 even though the 360 supposedly having a huge installed base amount in the US.
Either:
1. PS3 owners are buying massively more multiplatform games relative to 360 owners
2. The number of duplicate 360 consoles owned in the US is gigantic
Re:Sony not much better (Score:4, Informative)
Re:I don't quite see what this is about (Score:5, Informative)
Not really. They have their own H/W design department. They do not manufacture themselves - that's fact. But they design themselves.
Another fact: keyboard/mice/etc H/W design team has ZILCH/ZERO/NADA in common with Xbox* design team. They belong to different business units.
in recent years??? (Score:4, Informative)
This is not the first time the Xbox 360 has experienced technical issues; in recent years many people have complained about scratched discs and over-heating consoles â" the 'red ring of death.'"
I think the term "in recent years" is more than a little unnecessary in reference to a console that's only been available for a little over 3 years.
Re:Overheating (Score:1, Informative)
Actually, the processors inside the unit also generate a substantial amount of heat. That's why they all have these giant heatsinks on them.
Wow, does that article suck. (Score:5, Informative)
I don't have a vested interest in this article. I don't measure my self-worth by what strangers think of my choice in consoles. I don't give a damn about the RROD, or about the E74 error.
However, I hate stupid articles like this one.
Everything you need to know about the worth of this article is contained in this chart [blogcdn.com]
Lovely, isn't it? And no, the numbers aren't "in thousands". They're talking about reports over the last year going from 3 per month to 15. That's not failures - that's "emails to joystiq.com". It's worse than useless.
Did the emails spike because owners are, in fact, seeing spiking numbers of failures? Did the spike occur because some other site mentioned it with a link to related materials on joystiq.com? Did the emails say if the failures occured this month, or if some people were reporting failures from a couple years ago?
Al Gore would most assuredly approve of that chart.
They point out that their "little study" isn't perfect [joystiq.com], and that it's unscientific, but then they say, "as we interpret the data...". Of course that data is statistically insignificant and hopelessly flawed.
If you're going to start beating the drum on something like this you should get your shit together in advance. Otherwise you're going to look like an idiot.
That was my first trip to joystiq.com. Probably my last, too.
Re:I don't quite see what this is about (Score:1, Informative)
Watch the vid of the real men and woman who took the original xbox apart.
Its was junk from day one with MS pulling 3rd rate team members from other projects and trying to get it working on time.
Nothing will ever change with MS.
The Google Tech Talks December 1, 2006 "Deconstructing The Xbox Security System" should be fun
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4356347903120410001&ei=z3THSeHCOpHMwgOYxfCYDw [google.com]
Re:Heh, figures. (Score:5, Informative)
So, lets make this very clear.
I bought an Xbox 360, which broke. It was replaced, and it broke. It was replaced, and that one broke. It was replaced, and it broke again. It was replaced, and it broke, just as the ones before. It was replaced, and it broke. It was, once again, replaced, and it broke. It was replaced, and it broke, as usual. It was replaced, and now I'm waiting for it to break.
Re:I don't quite see what this is about (Score:3, Informative)
>>>Microsoft knew about it but launched it anyway so it would be the first in its generation. There was a thread here in Slashdot about this.
Therefore it *must* be true because slashdot never posts inaccurate or biased stories! /end sarcasm.
No, it's true because it linked to documents and internal sources proving this...
At least Microsoft was willing to admit the problems and exchange or repair failing consoles. Microsoft was willing to lose money to keep people happy; that's better than what Toyota did when their 2004 truck engines started sludging oil & seizing-up (they blamed the customer). It's good to see a company stand behind their product for a change.
.
Hey fanboy, that's the least they could do after launching consoles they knew they were faulty! And you think they supported the product just because they were nice? Have you thought that it would be much worse for them if they didn't? There's no excuse to launch a product they knew it was going to give a lot of problems, when they could just have solved them by delaying the launch. Sure it was nice that they at least provided replacements, but it was just a compensation for a problem they shouldn't have caused.
Re:Heh, figures. (Score:3, Informative)
To me the PS3 is too spendy and the games I really like are all 360 titles. Gears of War, Halo, and lately the big one has been Fallout 3. Sure I can get that on PS3 but the dlc isn't avail for PS3. The first expansion wasn't all that great IMO but for the money it wasn't all that bad either. Second one comes out tomorrow and then the big one in a month or two. If I had a PS3 and had bought this for PS3, I would have paid the same $$ for the game but wouldn't be able to buy the expansions that make the game that much better. The third expansion will lift the level cap from 20 to 30 and change the ending. That's significant.
So yea, the hardware failures suck but they aren't the end of the world when you can just mail your unit in and get it repaired pretty quick. MS even covers shipping.
Re:I don't quite see what this is about (Score:1, Informative)
From what I gather DVD-Rs (or any writeable disc media for that matter) are susceptible to heat damage, if you keep them in a to-warm a place or in direct sunlight they degrade to tea coasters quite quicky.
http://www.library.unh.edu/loan/multimedia/care.shtml
Re:Heh, figures. (Score:1, Informative)
... If you went to the retailers they'd tell you it's between 15 and 20%. Which is still bloody high, but 1 in 6? I like those odds. ...
Basic math and knowledge of ratios tells us that 1 in 6 (1:6 or 1/6) is actually 16.6666....%
You don't like 15-20%, but you like 1 in 6?
Re:E74 happened to me. (Score:2, Informative)
Mine did this in November, a full 3 weeks out of warranty.
Rather than pay $100 to have Microsoft fix it, I threw a blanket on top of my xBox and played some UT2k3 until it overheated and showed three lights, and then sent it in for a free repair.
Re:I don't quite see what this is about (Score:2, Informative)
Are you stupid? The PS3 has sold ~21.3 million units and the 360 has sold somewhere ~28 million [citation given] [wikipedia.org]. Over their lifetimes, the PS3 has sold ~76% of the 360 in about 70% of the time. Which means it's doing better on average over its lifetime than the 360 is.
Disclaimer: I own a Wii, but very much prefer PC gaming.
Re:I don't quite see what this is about (Score:3, Informative)
don't forget the ring of death and all those broken discs we made up... because microsoft always makes quality products!
Read my comment, and TFA again. I didn't claim the RRoD was made up. I've suffered one scratched disk myself. I'm saying, a joystiq poll, and google trends are insufficient data (extremely insufficient in fact) for coming to the conclusion that there is an increase in E74 errors.
Re:360 Design Faults Were Known By MS In 2005 (Score:3, Informative)
The problem for Microsoft is the sales numbers from major console game publishers is showing equal to or greater sales rates for multiplatform games on the PS3 even though the 360 supposedly having a huge installed base amount in the US.
Either:
1. PS3 owners are buying massively more multiplatform games relative to 360 owners
2. The number of duplicate 360 consoles owned in the US is gigantic
1 is the most likely - the owners of the more expensive console are freer with their money, and are more likely to buy a big stack of games.
It is also worth mentioning that the best selling games on PS3 are multiplatform games. GTA IV is the best selling ps3 game to date, and has sold 5.5 million copies worldwide. The top selling title on 360 is an exclusive (Halo 3), as are it's #4,#6,and #9 selling titles.
Actually, on reviewing the sales numbers, I'm beginning to doubt your statement that multiplat titles are selling better on PS3.
Top selling PS3 games [vgchartz.com] vs. top selling 360 games [vgchartz.com]
Just from a quick examination of the numbers for the PS3's top multiplatform titles:
GTA4
PS3: 5.5m, 360:,6.9m
Call of Duty 4
PS3: 4.1m, 360: 7.1m
Assassin's Creed
PS3: 3.3m, 360: 4.5m
Call of Duty: World at War
PS3: 3.0m, 360: 5.5m
Of course, there may be a boatload of small sellers at the bottom of the list which swing it back to the PS3's side, but that would require a much deeper examination, so I'll just ask for your source.
I don't doubt that some people are buying new 360's rather than redeeming their warranties, I just doubt your method for measuring how many.