Xbox 360 Update May Cause System Failures
Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: xbox, update, rrod, e74 | Themes: Digital Entertainment
Microsoft's Xbox 360 has come under criticism once again as reports emerge that say the latest round of updates may have caused far more problems than it fixed.
A 13-page thread on the official Xbox.com forum is filled with users who updated their consoles with the February 3rd mandatory Dashboard update and experienced a range of problems after shutting down the console and powering on again.
Common problems that users have reported are the system refusing to power on with a "Red Ring of Death," an error code E71 or E74, random freezing in games after varying periods of time and graphical glitches. Microsoft does not give many details about the aforementioned error codes, only that they are caused by "hardware failures." Microsoft states a few basic fixes on this support page such as disconnecting and reconnecting cables and devices such as the hard drive.
Some of those who did not end up with failed consoles reported problems running certain resolutions over HDMI, including one user who couldn't output more than 480p.
The mandatory update was released to address "the issue that a few folks were having with audio and their HDMI connection." It seems that those "few folks" won't be able to tell if the issue was resolved or not.
The Xbox 360 console is infamous for its frequent system failures. Last year, Microsoft was involved in a lawsuit over the so-called "Red Ring of Death," where it was claimed that the software giant had concealed the failure rates of the console to prevent damage to its reputation.
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Mine did this three weeks ago, so I don't think that it is necessarily related to the update. My cousin's did the same thing.
The ONLY good thing about my PS3 is that I don't expect it to fail any time soon, that's about it.
My 360 has been fine after the update, i have no clue what these people are talking about, none of my friends have got this either, i guess its just a few unlucky people.
Hadn't used my console for a few weeks till Saturday. Everything was fine with it though. Turned it on, it forced the update and WHAM! It froze when I tried to log back in after the update. Had to disconnect the power cable as the power button didn't do anything. Got back to the console, logged in and started looking around (not gaming), it locked up again. This time the power button worked, but not the controller. Got back in and played some SR2 via system link and it locked up once more about 20 minutes in. I gave up and shut it off. Haven't tried since. It'll be interesting to see if I have more problems.
Yeah no problems here either. I run at 1080p HDMI out to my reciever. No problems in any way.
I didn't power mine in the past few days so I wasn't aware of the update. I think I'll wait a couple of days before using it again (or I'll play offline), just in case...
"The Xbox 360 console is infamous for its frequent system failures. Last year, Microsoft was involved in a lawsuit over the so-called "Red Ring of Death," where it was claimed that the software giant had concealed the failure rates of the console to prevent damage to its reputation."
LOL as if Ms ever had a good reputation!
No problems for me on this one either.
don't forget how many DISC READ ERRORS the PS2 had and it still sold record numbers. Sony didn't fix the problem for 5 years after PS2 was released.
This is some real bull.... Here I am wondering what system to get and finally leaning to the 360 and more bull from Micro$ to give you another headache. First, it's the red ring, then the scratched discs, an update that could've bricked your system EVEN when it was unmodified, and now a new update that could brick it again?
Consoles are getting worse than PCs man!
Im willing to wager that most of the people having problems are the ones who didnt wait for the update to complete before screwing with their xbox. When the update happened mine appeared to freeze for almost 5 minutes but I didnt touch it and just let it finish and whaddaya know it works just fine.
Impatient and stupid people are the real problem.
I didn't have a problem with my (60GB) or my son's (20GB) 360 after the update. Not using HDMI however, so it might not have affected me anyway.
The last 360 I sent in for repair (the one my son is currently using now) was only out of commision a total of 5 days. I called on a Monday, had box on Tuesday, sent out on Wednesday and recieved it back on Friday.
I do have a 3rd core system which took a dive on me a few weeks ago, stopped reading game discs, although it reads everything else just fine. Oh well, called MS on Friday, they sent out the UPS Box, which I recieved yesterday and sent it out this morning. I asked for the DVD-rom and motherboard to be replaced with the Opus or Jasper version, since the one I sent in was a launch Xenon version.
Will know if they actually do it, since they'll need to include a new power supply with it.
MS has been very good about the repairs (IMO) from my own experiences and from what my friends who've also had problems have told me. It's disappointing that there are problems to begin with, but my 2 launch consoles have always been repaired within a matter of days if they took a nose-dive. Happy to report that my 60GB version hasn't had a single hiccup and is so much quieter than the launch versions (thank you die-shrink).
My PS3 (well my son's now) has never had a problem.. well except for the fact it just sits around collecting dust with the occasional Little Big Planet diversion.
Good thing Microsoft are only Software ppl ! Imagine if they were designing cars, planes or medical instruments !!! Now, imagine that they WANT to be in every computer system... gives me nightmares at night!
oh, oh, my xbox was updated the other day. ouch, where is my lawyer.
Why is everyone still buying that POS of hardware? No sympathy from me, you got it coming.
My 360 (second one after the first rrod'd) has been locking up ever since the update... and it never gave us an issue in the year of operation prior to the update. The system is that either the system rrod's or it starts and runs for about 5 minutes then locks.
Either the update found a "problem" that wasn't causing problems before or the update CAUSED the problems.
LOL The Red Ring of Death is back!!! Muwhahahaha!!
Still, that Red Ring of Death would look pretty freaking cool on that Red XBOX 360 that's supposed to be released...
ohh cut it out...ps3 vs. xbox 360...WHATEVER!
i have both!!!! they are both great!
only downfall for the ps3 is that 3/4 or more of the titles only output in 720p and that SUCKS! those same titles on the xbox360 are usually in 1080p....THAT"S THE DEAL BREAKER FOR ME!
but hey i have the best of both worlds.....
I had this problem, unfortunatelly. My XBox was working perfectly, until the update. I did everything correctly (waited until the update restarted the system on its own and everything else), but after a couple of minutes playing Halo 3, heavy artifacts appeared and the system locked up. After another restart, a Red Light went on and the error E-74 appeared on the screen. And my XBox doesn't even have HDMI port...
to danimal: I'm not sure which games are truly 1080p. Most games run at 720p anyways.
I have both systems. I personally want the PS3 to do better than it is right now. I love it's media center capability combined with user installable hard drive to store my movies.
I also enjoy gaming on my 360 as well but my Zephyr Elite died 2 weeks ago out of MS warranty and not RROD. Luckily, I had bought extended warranty on it so I ended up buying a new 360 arcade and it had the Jasper board in it. On top of it all the DVD drive doesn't sound like a jet fighter taking off from an aircraft carrier anymore. Not dead silent but a big improvement. I'm quite happy with my 360 again. I'd be more upset if I didn't have that extended warranty.
The 360 would be the only console I would buy of this current generation if it didn't have so many damn issues. Why anyone puts up with it is beyond me.
Well, almost immediately after I downloaded this update my xbox locked up. Luckily, I just shut it off and it worked just fine for the next 5 hours of play time. One of my friends xbox locked up 1 time in GoW2, and another friends locked up 5 times going into various games. Only 5 ppl downloaded that update that night, and 3 of us had our system lock up at one point.
But at least no rrod yet!
[citation]LOL as if Ms ever had a good reputation![/citation]
Now that's funny. My 360 seems to be fine after the update.
The ONLY good thing about my PS3 is that I don't expect it to fail any time soon, that's about it.
Well, that'll happen when you don't play it that often with the two or three games out for the game
We use our PS3 more than our 360... and games wise the only thing the 360 seems to have going for it relative to the PS3 are FPS's... and I play all shooters on the PC (Consoles suck for shooters).
We have been using the 360 a bit more lately... for streaming Netflix, but other than that the only decent game for the 360 lately has been Fable 2 (and that would have been better on the PC if it was available).
From the Major Nelson site which talks about the update:
When we update the Dashboard we test the new version for weeks or months, not a day.
Sure you do!
m$ still doesn't get it that in the HW world their usual SW product cycles - as in let the end-luser beta test it on it's own money and time - don't work as expected. Usually the failure results in bricked HW.
Mine was fine until the update. Immediately after playing Horde on Gears of War 2 I got nothing but greens color distortion. Tried rebooting a few times with no resolve. I then attempted a movie and had the same trouble there. Finally, I decided to unplug the HDMI cable and try a different port on the TV, then the component cables on the box. After I unplugged it now no screen at all. Just audio of the device loading up.
Called the Support line and the argued with me that It was a video card failure and that they want $119 to repair plus shipping. I am infuriated. I guess it is just to be expected that me and the rest of the guys out there are victims of coincidence that are boxes failed right after an update. I am just waiting for those of you who claim there is no connection to join the club when your 360 is tanked by a Microsoft update. Most expensive update I have ever had.
Why is everyone still buying that POS of hardware? No sympathy from me, you got it coming.
Maybe we bought it when the system was first released? Just because problems are still happening doesn't mean we went out and bought the hardware last week.
Mine was fine until the update. Immediately after playing Horde on Gears of War 2 I got nothing but greens color distortion. Tried rebooting a few times with no resolve. I then attempted a movie and had the same trouble there. Finally, I decided to unplug the HDMI cable and try a different port on the TV, then the component cables on the box. After I unplugged it now no screen at all. Just audio of the device loading up. Called the Support line and the argued with me that It was a video card failure and that they want $119 to repair plus shipping. I am infuriated. I guess it is just to be expected that me and the rest of the guys out there are victims of coincidence that are boxes failed right after an update. I am just waiting for those of you who claim there is no connection to join the club when your 360 is tanked by a Microsoft update. Most expensive update I have ever had.
My cousin got that run around the first time he called to. Call them back and talk to someone else! He did and now they are fixing it for free! CALL THEM BACK
Well here is another one whos output is limited to 480p now