Subject: Xbox 360 Crash

Anyone managed to recover their machine after receiving an E 74 error? Mine managed to crash after I'd gone out and stocked up on a bunch of games for the Christmas break. I am displeased.

Is that the 3 light ring of death thingy? If you're out of warranty i heard vernon kay talk about a bloke that knows how to fix them for a small fee. If you're decent with hardware you can buy this video that shows you how to fix them.

It's the single red light of death, which apparently doesn't fall under the three year warranty. It's a real pain because I've just bought Gears of War 2, Fable II, Far Cry 2 and Fallout 3. At least they are still in their wrappers..
I've seen that video mentioned but I don't fancy fixing it myself.
Time to dust off the PS2..

i got the red ring of death after buying pro evo, fallout and fable. i put fallout in and the .... nothing. :(

anyway if i remember rightly the E74is either a sound or video card error and nothing can be done about it. try taking the A/V cable out the back and turn it on i think the red light wont show (at least thats what youtube is showing me)

someone once told me a trick was as you turn on your xbox you hold the wireless button next to the right hand memory card slot, probably a complete lie but what the hell you can give it a try. god knows what it does, if anything at all.

failing that, contact Xbox. i was pissed off as hell because i was without my xbox for 3 weeks after spending over 100£ on games so i know you will be to but sadly thats just xboxs all over, they break....alot.

i'll tell you now if you ship it off it is all dealt with by microsoft, they use UPS and all you need to do is get a plain box and stick your xbox in it with nothing else in it, and make sure you are around when they come to pick it up/deliver.

the towel trick does not work and is a bad idea so dont be trying anything like that!

Cheers for the advice. I've some pretty odd-looking 'solutions' scattered across the web. I just need a solution in time for Christmas..
I was thinking of gettting an Elite console anyway for the main tv and moving my existing xbox upstairs so maybe I'll just do that.
Still rubbish though.

I got the ring of death on my Xbox Eltie yesterday which is meant to be far more reliable. The nice people at Zavvi gave me a brand new one this morning. :)

Kept my hard drive though so I lost no data either.

I'm certainly going to keep my receipt and warranty etc this time..

yeah i kept my receipt the first time it happened and got a swap straight away at gamestation. sadly they didn't give me a receipt for that one but it broke down with only a week left on the warrenty.

anyway Elite's are only more reliable on the 3 red light problem, the problem is microsoft, knowingly or not but the processor chip in such a bad place. what happens is the heat inside is so hot it heats the solder it'll either melt (seriously) or over heating and cooling it'll crack and this stops the processor working and thus the whole thing goes. the elite is slightly better at keeping cool but not enough to totally avoid the problem.

my repaired Xbox came with the new "heat resistant" chip, it runs quieter and is apperently solderd in alot more solid (source IGN) but time will tell with that, the newer machines should come with this as standard but unless you want to open it up you'll never know.

just completed fallout this morning, great game. :D

*edit* as for a quick solution i dont think it exists and you certainly wont have your Xbox returned by christmas. new consoles are much like modern cars in as much as joe bloggs cant get under the bonnet and strip/rebuild the engine.
(edited)

Yep, i consider myself a bit of a retro gamer and have never had or seen anyone have any problems with any consoles from (not including) nes to ps1. Nes' were awful with those cartridges and everyone i knew had problems with them but up to and including playstation 1 i can't recall a single console fault, except the people that chipped their playstations to play pirate games. I have been looking at getting an xbox for quite some time but have been put off with these problems. Many of my friends have xbox's and they have all had a problem with them of some sort. Are playstation 3's like this?

PS3 have their own problems but not as numerable as Xbox, there has been problems with Duds being shipped usually the graphic card is broke, they can over heat and lock up when you download certain firmware.

in fact sony have a long history of cocking up firmware updates, one for the PS3 knackard up the system whenever you wanted to play PS2 games. most problems stem from the graphics card though.

as for solid built retro's well i've got a saturn up in the freezing cold attic that i know still works a treat, and what a system it us the only thing wrong with it is the battery is flat which i will at some point fix (only effects time and memory, although i have a memory card) got guardian heroes and dragon force for it too :D so there's some money tied up in it

All new Xbox's now have the new inside like the Elites and so are far more reliable. The Ring of Death as it is called is a well known problem that Microsoft have acknowledged, and if it happens within 3 years then you can just take the Xbox back to the shop you bought it from (with proof of purchase) and you get a new one given to you in exchange. I think thats great personally. I think the Xbox is my favourite of all consoles, I have always had Playstations before.....not the PS3 though.

All I took with me was the credit card statement to prove I had bought it, I did not even need the receipt.

they dont make em like they used to. its all this bish bash bosh, graphics instead of gameplay thesedays anyway

they dont make em like they used to. its all this bish bash bosh, graphics instead of gameplay thesedays anyway

Wii?


I have a PS3 and it's a great all round machine. I use to for family photos, blu-ray films etc. etc.

i just bought a ps3 today 230quid with 4 games thanks to a mates discount card :p also have a xbox, im now on my 4th console.

Have you been outside recently?

i'm on my 5th console...

snes
ps1
n64
ps2
ps3.....

mind you never play em....