Xbox 360 Woes: E74 Becoming Big Problem
Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: Xbox, 360, E74, Error | Themes: Digital Entertainment
There's no doubt that the Xbox 360 seems to have more technical issues than a junky used car. With that said, an old, existing error is now rapidly becoming a not-so-phantom menace.
From a personal standpoint, it's really amazing to see how well Microsoft's Xbox 360 console sells on the market. Granted, the Wii console from Nintendo kicks it around financially, the numerous hardware issues Microsoft has had to face should lead one to believe that the consumer market would actually stray away from the faulty equipment. Strangely enough, that hasn't happened, and from a sales point-of-view, the gaming community prefers the Xbox 360 over its same-level adversary (with less technical faults, no less), the PlayStation 3. That's based on numbers, of course.
To add on top of the Red Ring of Death issue and lawsuits stemming from the company's supposed knowledge of faulty hardware before the initial shipment, Microsoft recently faced huge problems once it released the new interface, the NXE. Additionally, an older error--dubbed E74 due to an error code displayed on the screen-- has rapidly increased in number since the release of NXE back in November 2008; the two may or may not be related. On the technical end, the E74 error stems from the integrated HDMI: the solder on the ANA/HANA scaling chip apparently comes loose. Because it's an internal issue, gamers aren't aware of the problem until snow or lines begin to cross the screen. The one red light in the lower right-hand quadrant eventually comes on. Many Xbox 360 owners have resolved the issue by wrapping pennies in electrical tape and weighing the ANA/HANA down, however that's not an official fix and will void the console's warranty.
So why would the new Xbox 360 interface aggravate the HDMI hardware problem? According to an analysis done by Joystiq (link), it's speculated that the entire system is being taxed by the NXE or, more importantly, Microsoft may have changed the system diagnostics test to report a Red Ring of Death error as E74 instead. The latter is probably unlikely, however if that were the case, gamers inflicted with Error E74 would thus have to cough up more than $100 for the repair if the error occurs later than 12 months after purchase, as Error E74 is not covered under the 3-year extended warranty set in place for the Red Ring of Death malfunction. Posing the Red Ring of Death error as E74 would save Microsoft millions.
Still, a Google Trends chart clearly shows an immediate increase in hardware failure since November 2008 (link), even more so since October 2008, so the problem isn't imaginary, it isn't fiction. The hardware revisions made to the overall Xbox 360 design have thus not addressed the current Error E74 issue. At one point, Microsoft even said it was looking into the matter. However just recently, Joystiq received this official statement:
E74 is a general hardware error on Xbox 360 indicated by a single red flashing light in the Xbox Ring of Light and an error message visible on the television. This error is unrelated to the three flashing red lights error and there is not a single root cause. We encourage anyone who receives this error to contact Xbox Customer support through www.xbox.com/support or 1-800-4-MY-XBOX. The majority of customers who own Xbox 360 consoles continue to have a terrific experience from their first day, and continue to, day in and day out.
By the statement, it is obvious that Microsoft is avoiding any public announcements regarding Error E74, however the company will ultimately have to face the thousands of consumers already complaining. And, if Joystiq isn't exaggerating the consumer feedback, it looks as if more will continue to pour in.
"When we recently posted about the Xbox 360's E74 error and asked for your input, we weren't prepared for the staggering response we'd receive," reads Joystiq. "Within a few hours, we had dozens of emails from readers like you who had experienced this particular hardware failure (typically caused, according to unofficial web reports, by a loose scaling chip). It was surprising to touch such a nerve, but what really knocked us for a loop was what we found when we started compiling the data sent to us."
While the Xbox 360 does have a great library of games, consumers may want to weigh the hardware technical issues against Sony's PlayStation 3. Of course, although all three current consoles suffer hardware issues to some degree, the Xbox 360 oozes with hardware design failures, feeling almost as if the console was hastily thrown together rather than designed with the consumer in mind. Stay tuned for more information regarding Error E74, as this problem will more than likely not be resolved for some time.
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LOL Class Action suit anyone?
Seriously... I'm glad I don't own an XBOX 360. Seems like a great system, with many, many great titles, but the risk of having one go bad seems pretty large. At least that's the impression I get from the media.
Including the people that ended up buying a second, third, and forth console because they were to impatient to wait for their 360 for weeks?
I thought Jasper was supposed to fix all this shit or are these older consoles?
nope, its cheap solder and cheap heatsinks, not the chip itself.
It's hard to stay neutral regarding Microsoft when so many of their products are plaged with so many problems...how many times I read that Vista, Zune and Xboxes seemed to have been rushed into production?
I have a cousin who works there, so it's hard for me to criticize, but I have absolutely no faith in their products anymore.
I own an Xbox 360 and I've had a great experience with it from day one, I also use the NXE. I wouldn't let the fear of hardware failure keep you away from the solid game library and terrific integrated online experience and marketplace, of which there is a lot of movie and TV show content.
I don't buy TV shows from there due to the lack of options of transfering your content to other devices, but I do rent movies occasionally.
However, I don't deny these problems are real, and there is a chance you will receive a console that will go haywire on you. Jasper model 360's are supposed to greatly alleviate any problems.
I'm not a fanboy or a spokesman, I just genuinely feel that if you're willing to take the risk on it, it pays out great dividends in entertainment. I just wish you good luck in receiving a console as sturdy as mine.
knock on wood, but my Launch console has never had a problem.
heh i just had a friend's 360 give him the RROD a few days ago and sense it was a gift he has no proof of purchase so he's screwed. while all the crashbox 360 fans say the RROD issue is over here comes a different way your console will fail on you. the PS3 may be pricey but i have no doubt it has nowhere near the failure rate as the Xbox.
I always knew red ring or not the failure rates will still be huge with the xbox which is why i'm sticking with the PS3 this time
This is just like any other MS product, when it is broken instead of fixing it they shift it. They recognized they couldn't afford to keep bleeding money out on these claims of the RoD. So they made this new error which catches the RoD before it becomes a RoD and forces the user to repair at their own cost because this new error is not covered under a previous warranty. This sounds far more likely then some new problem popping up after how many years on the market now? Give me a break MS... This cannot end well for them.
My son's xbox 360 is having disc read errors. We got the system for him last Christmas and it has only been 3 months. I first noticed the problem when I bought him a new game at the store. The disc for the game could not be read. I figured it was a defective game. We returned it and got another copy. Same issue. I asked him if he has had any other issues with it and he said the other games where working. I had him test another one and sure enough it would not read the disc. Overall 3 out of the 4 games he has could not be read. After doing some research on this it appears to be a common problem with the XBox 360. I am thankful that I bought an extended warranty with Best Buy. We will see tomorrow if they hold up on their end for replacement.
Now we also have a PS3 and I just fixed an issue with it not being able to download updates for the games. It would get somewhere between 5 - 20 % and said the download failed and some error code. After doing some research on this I found that disabling the option to connect to media server (or something very similar) in the network preferences was to address this issue. I tested this and did not have the same problem.
Now I have been gaming since I was young and started with an Atari 2600. A couple years ago I pulled out an old Atari 2600 and some games and was able to get it to work with little amounts of work after this many years (my son could not believe I enjoyed playing these games). However today the technology has grown so much but the quality of the systems can never stand the test of time (let alone a few months).
wow i cant believe that xbox 360 after all these years is still plagued by hardware issues, microsoft needs to get on the ball, with all the bad press it could lose whatever gains xbox360 made against rivals. mine failed a bit ago and i had rip it open and luckily was able to fix it myself, otherwise i would be out by $100 for a $.0001 part what was not glued properly when manufactured.
I actually just sent my 360 in last week w/ an E74 error, and they fixed it for free out of Warranty, maybe they are actually gonna own up to this one w/o legal prompting.
Apparently having an older non hdmi version might be a good thing. Granted now that I know it's a bad solder connection, if I ever get one and it acts up out of warranty I'd just take it apart and re-solder it.
At this point one would be foolish to choose Crashbox360 over
a PS3. But than again if you like loud noise and Red Flashing
lights than it may just be for U.
okay okay.. I'm on my third xbox now.. first was a launch model, which worked for over 2 years.. then i sold it when the new jasper models got around, to be on the safe side with rrod.. second was a new jasper arcade with my old harddrive, and i froze after 10mins of play.. over a couse of 4 weeks it kept freezing, and i was so angry, so i phoned in, asked politely to the store clerk to have it replaced.. he agreed(luckily!!) and i got it swapped for a new arcade jasper.. it's on its second month now a believe, and hopefully will run strong as my first one..
Hey, I've just got this error and am pretty irate about it. I have had my xbox for about a year and a half now, and with no problems what-so-ever. Now this E74 message is popping up. It would help me greatly if any of you could give me anything that would help me get my xbox fixed, without having to stupidly spend $100 on a repair that may not have been my fault. Please reply
For once, they are reporting correctly.. I'm seeing E74 more and more around here in Brazil and MS here won't do a thing about fixing this issues since 99% of the 360s comes from a grey market (illegal imports - who would pay US$1200 for an original/legal XBox if you can get them for $650???).
Don't be amazed, it IS true.
(since a long post won't do as I'm getting a 503 error page, here goes the rest of the text/post)
I'm around since the RROD was a common problem and I'm fixing most of those. The problem is. Because of the heat generated by the GPU/CPU combination that alone is causing the xANA chip to fail.
How can we fix it? Just add around a ten to a dozen nickel to the xANA, heat it again for 15 seconds maximum, close the game and voilá. A fixed 360. (let it cool down, of course - I wonder how long till Team Xecuter steals the idea and creates a knockoff product like the RROD "fix").
OH MY GOD, THAT EASY??
(since a long post won't do as I'm getting a 503 error page, here goes the rest of the text/post)
A small reminder: Microsoft created SEVERAL faulty hardware (who never had a MS mouse spinning down when playing FPS through the fist rock - Zune and it's faulty clock bricking all Zunes around) and faulty software (Vista anyone? Millennium than?). And because of that 'history', one can always find easy 'patches' for those problems.
I'm seeing several "falcon" with 0102, 0021, 0020 and TONS of E74. The later started around january last year and now it's a trend that we are seeing on all 2006/2007/2008 hardware.
The ones that are most commonly related to E74 are the one that have the BenQ and Hitachi 0079 drive. Older models with the "ANA" chip will get E74, but on a slower pace if compared to the new ones.
(since a long post won't do as I'm getting a 503 error page, here goes the rest of the text/post) Sorry for the spam..
(we don't have Sony support here also, so you can imagine the pain we are in to)
If we could sue MS from here, we would, but we are not willing to pay almost 5 times more than the original US price for that.
That said, my PS3 is also dead, launch date PS3. Died 4 days ago because the drive isn't spinning/ejecting anymore, so I'm willing to change the drive to fix it. Easier than having to find weird mods to save a 360..
(Sorry for the spam... but that's needed as I want to share this with all of you.)
(we don't have Sony support here also, so you can imagine the pain we are in to)
If we could sue MS from here (Brazil), we would, but we are not willing to pay almost 5 times more than the original US price for that.
That said, my PS3 is also dead, launch date PS3. Died 4 days ago because the drive isn't spinning/ejecting anymore, so I'm willing to change the drive to fix it. Easier than having to find weird mods to save a 360..
Show's how stupid people are by default.
Well, at the begining of March my XBOX started showing weird artifacts and lines with messed up textures all across the screen while playing certain games. Soon after that E74 error showed up with 1 red light in the bottom right corner. Luckly when I called the Microsoft there was 3 more days before the warranty expired so it ended up being a free repair. I have the Falcon version of the XBOX that I made sure to get so I dont end up with this problem. It has a manifacture date of December of 2007. Additionaly I have the old style menu system. Either way if the problem persists in the future its gonna be time to sell the XBOX and spend the money towards a PC since PS3 for me is not worth getting yet due to the lack of games.
My Launch console still works too...
This is a bad issue, but i do not think Sony was any better. Almost ALL the first gen PS2's just up and slowly died(many users turned off the main power since it was claimed that the units power supply actually overheated the systems internals when the system was off) and stopped reading blue CD's it was so bad that no developers used CD's after a certain point and put 200-700mb games onto DVD's since the systems slowly stopped reading CD's. The PS2 Slimline had overheating issues as well.
I do hope MS gets this under control, but allot of issues near that start where from users running the systems in closed stereo stands.
According to this "article", Joystiq reports several dozen responses, which they solicited in an unscientific poll, which would be seized upon by the few dozen people having the problem.
This is totally bogus. I which THG would change their log to the Microsoft logo with the red-slash circle over it and drop the hammer on their keyboards so they wouldn't be able to write drivel like this.
My mate has a launch console and it has been working fine.. Only has RRODed once.. I have a 60gb model 360, and it works excellent, My xbox was actually left on from friday night all the way through to sunday night, and when i went to turn it off it was COOL.
My 3rd 360 fell victim to the E74 last week. This caught my attention "Microsoft may have changed the system diagnostics test to report a Red Ring of Death error as E74 instead." If thats the case all I can say is WTF!
~N2TrAnC3
Micro$oft bashing is a popular pastime.
Me I got smart and brought me a refurb Xbox 360 early on.
Half the price of a new 360 and the way I figure it has already suffered the RROD so should be more reliable. The refurb unit has lasted several years perfectly.
I would never recommend buying a used 360 but a refurb might be a real solid bargain.
Also for the console war people the PS3 brought at launch time was and still is a cheaper alternative to a XBOX360.
If you think a Xbox is cheaper you really do need some math lessons.
The XBOX360 has never ever been the cheaper console.
COST of ownership counts people
PS3 online play is free
Xbox online cost so far and counting $205 (cost on this keeps ticking upward over the cost of ownership )
Xbox Wifi $89
PS3 built in
Xbox Special hdmi cable $39 needed for optical out
PS3 uses standard cable
Xbox special hdrive $189 for 120 gig
PS3 came with a decent size harddrive and uses a standard SATA drive and there is even instructions in the PS3 owners manual on how to change to a bigger one WITHOUT voiding your warranty or online user agreement Also a standard USB interface or hard drive is all that is needed to transfer of backup your data on a PS3
Xbox rechargable battery and special cable for Play and charge $36
PS3 came with cable (standard USB cable and built in battery )
Xbox (now entering betamax territory HD add on ) $179
PS3 Blueray built in winner of the next gen format war
Xbox really overpriced memory cards
PS3 can use cheap thumb drives.
also web browsing and printing and hell I even have open office and UAE installed on my PS3 makes it an all round better product.
Last but not least is the cost of the 360 hardware failures and self bricking Xbox360 so love to do.
BUTTT!!! the large stable of nice exclusives for the 360 and in my opinion better ergonomics controller. The better gui. I like the 360
I still Love my 360 over a PS3 any day. I will spend thousands before i buy a PS3 for the games. Microsoft is the New sony. What sony did with PS1 n PS2, Microsoft achieved it with just the 360 alone. My 2 cents.
i am so sick of fanboys , seems half teh posters here are sony fanboys . sure the 360 has hardware issues , what console doesnt , aside from nintendo , NO one can claim not ever having issues, as for cheap soldier 99% of electrionical components today have cehap soldier, jobs , they pay peopelk in god wknows where to solider ina line of soldiers , they soldier a peice then another it fetched to them. xbox's soldier is no cheaper than the solider on yoru pc/laptop , or your ps3's soldier , problem is is the 360 gets hotter than these other components because it isa much smaller package ... this to me is a case where they should NOT be trying to make things smaller just to please the japanese, the 360 shopuld have been made ever bit as big and ROOMY as the original x box and perhaps then the cheap solider job that is used on ALL modern electronics would not be cracking up.
then again the FCC coudls tart allowing lead based solider to be used again , its not as if people's kids are going be licking their game system's soldier joints (originaly soldier was lead based , but due to health hazards every thing whent to resin based soldier .. which gets no where near the connectivity of the old lead based stuff, also the fumes off lead based soldier wa determined to be hazderous to workers ... but damn that is what those little white filter mask are for)