[projectego]

My Xbox 360 has a single flashing red light and it's pretty much dead. All I see when the Xbox 360 boots up is a big black screen and "E74 error" written in different languages followed by, "Please contact Xbox 360 Support". Apparently the E74 error is down to a GPU fault. I'm sad.

I just phoned Xbox 360 Support and told me to ring back in two hours because their system has died or some crap like that.

Hopefully something will get sorted out. I'm still under warranty - I think. Can't remember when it was exactly that I brought my Xbox 360 but we'll have to see. Does anyone know if the whole extra "three year extended warranty" for the Xbox 360 was limited to users who experience the "three red ring of death"?

Sad face.

[Dark Drakan]

I think the warranty covered any faults with the Xbox 360 system so if its still under warranty you should be covered. Ive seen an error similar to that before but my 360 pulled through and survived it.

[Tsuyu]

YouTube - Amazing Grace

[Dark Drakan]

Really is judgement day for technology this year, first my GFX Card dies and PC breaks down and now your 360 has died.

[Angel]

Quite possibly was entirely my fault - I was playing Mass Effect when the screen suddenly pixelated into green and blue squares...the dashboard was covered in little lines like an untuned television screen...

I kill everything in this house

[projectego]

Just got off the phone with Xbox 360 Tech Support. The "One Ring of Death, E 74 Error" problem does not fall under the three year extended warranty plan. The tech support guy was really nice and gave me a detailed run down of what I need to do: Send an email with proof of purchase to xboxsup1@microsoft.com and have my account details updated. Then re-ring Xbox 360 Tech Support and try again.

I asked the Tech Support guy's opinion was and whether he thought it was likely my Xbox 360 would need to be sent in - he reckoned that this would very likely be the case. I performed all the necessary checks to ensure that it was indeed the GPU that died and it really looks that way so far.

It's not life threatening at all and I don't doubt it'll all get sorted eventually, it's just a bit of an inconvenience. My cousin's Xbox 360 died like... one week ago. He had to buy a new new though so I guess I should count myself lucky that I should be able to get mine fixed.

If not, I'll just buy a brand new Xbox 360 Elite.

[Albion Knight]

That's why I buy the service plan
Walk in, show them the plan, get a new one.

[cometojames]

this happened to me the other day no joke, i was playing battle stations midway and then the 1 ring. I turned everything off, disimbanded it all, including hardrive and cables at the back, then plugged it all back in and wam it works!! try it

[projectego]

Thanks for the tip, ctj. Sadly, I tried dismantling the Xbox 360 and putting it back together again first. I followed all the Xbox 360 repair tips that are on the official Microsoft... but no dice.

What also leads the Xbox 360 Tech Support to believe it is indeed a hardware issue is that me and Sharon experienced some really strange glitches whilst playing games recently. Mass Effect went completely green at one point. After restarting all the textures and stuff were glitchy as hell. Shortly after that--red ring of death.

Did you experience any weird glitches whilst playing games, ctj? Or did you just get the E74 error out of the blue?

[cometojames]

Originally Posted by projectego

Did you experience any weird glitches whilst playing games, ctj? Or did you just get the E74 error out of the blue?

ermm well i was playing Battlesattions midway and then it froze, and so i turned it off. When i turned t back on it had a red light and the console was make this low pitch rumble. That is when it came up with the errror message. I was in tears. so like i said i did all that stuff and ye it worked. I hope you do get it fixed sooner pr later, my halo 3 came back so you know still want that match

[Amanda]

I've gotten the error screen and the 3 rings before also I screamed and turned my 360 off before I could even read the entire screen. Once I turned it back on (about 1 second later), it works just fine. Thank god. I'm sorry to hear that yours actually broke. I'm sure they'll do something for you.

[Dark Drakan]

Originally Posted by Amanda

I've gotten the error screen and the 3 rings before also I screamed and turned my 360 off before I could even read the entire screen. Once I turned it back on (about 1 second later), it works just fine. Thank god. I'm sorry to hear that yours actually broke. I'm sure they'll do something for you.

Thats the same thing that happened to me but mine fought back from death too.

[projectego]

Kinda managed to get things sorted yesterday. Well, managed to get the ball rolling. The Xbox 360 Tech Support folks are some of the nicest people in the universe but, wow, it took five days to actually get anywhere. I rang up Tech Support yesterday - not in the best of moods, mind you - and was kindly put through to the supervisor who confirmed that my Xbox 360 is still only just within the warranty period. I'm getting some stickers sent to my address and details on which courier to contact in order to get a transportation box for my 360 sent here, too.

The supervisor reckons the whole send-to-Microsoft, repair my red-ringed 360, send-back-to-me process will take around 2-3 weeks - which is pretty gay. I'll probably be purchasing an Xbox 360 Elite anyway - making sure it's using the newer, more reliable "Falcon" chipsets - because playing on a PS2 just isn't as appealing as it used to be. I did have a blast playing the original Dino Crisis game, though.

[Angel]

Hehehe - when Steve asked the lady on the phone about the Falcon, she said "no, we only do Premium and Elite". She must have thought he was a lunatic

[projectego]

Bless her, she was a lovely lady and helped out a ton, but when I asked for some "inside info" about whether or not I could get a replacement "Falcon" model Xbox 360 she didn't seem to know what I meant. Bless.