The red rings do not mean the console's defective its indicates somethings wrong depending on the number of bars lit up etc. I wonder how fast this was aproved vs when posted?.

Give it up lol. MS's is going to drop the bomb.(poker anybody).

SO MUCH CRAP. THEY NEED TO CHANGE THE RULES TO APPROVE NEWS. I'M SORRY, BUT WITH THIS CRAP THIS SITE WILL NOT GET SERIOUS ANYTIME. TIME TO NOT BE SO BIAS PEOPLE!

Are they letting anyone post news now. This is not news. This is somebody wanting to feed the fanboy firestorm. Please screen your news N4G!

Please click REPORT at the top of this page and get this garbage removed.

not taking any chances I suppose

sadly xbots have back up console too..lol..

This is fun.

Can i get some disagrees :D I bet you your home, I wont get more than 20 disagrees :D

God, all you fanboys get a life. MS has found the cause of the problem and is adding an extra heatsink, not to mention the new chipsets coming out shortly. GIVE IT A REST!

its nice to see MS didnt burn down the entire e3 event

PLUG. IN. AUDIO.VIDEO. CABLES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

A/V cable isn't plugged in. This isn't the 3 red light of death.

I seem to remember a line of people at EB games exchanging their PSP when it came out, because so many had dead pixels.

Look, it happens, MS is fixing it, let's move on!!!

god chill out people. its only a light hearted story, no need to take it so damn serious.
and wtf is with you newcomers that are complaining about the site? honestly if you dont like it dont be here, no one is forcing you. just take the good with the bad and move on please...

First and foremost I will admit that I am pro XBOX, but I think that the vast majority of people on this site are Pro PS3. I would guess well over half.

A testament to this is how many disagrees you get if you make an antiSony statement or Pro XBOX.

I realize that you are supposed to be neutral and there are a vast minority....but even most people who pretend to be neutral really aren't. It is so transparent. Sugarcoating your statements to get Bubbles is pathetic. I could give examples but what is the point.

I would rather speak my mind and have one Bubble than be a politicly correct pile of uninteresting rhetoric...contantly going into threads and saying both look good. Blah Blah Blah.

With that said.....Flame on.

My 360 developed the red ring of death problem in late April... I called and they said it would be 140 dollars. I said screw that.

And it's been a paperweight since then. I called on Friday after I heard about the warranty extension and, after an hour of holding, got on the phone with a rep. Even though I gave them my previous case number and told them what problem I had, they had me repeat the troubleshooting steps back for about ten minutes and repeat all the information I originally told them. What's the point of the case number then, imbeciles? Garbage. That and I can barely understand the obviously non-native-English speaking correspondent. Then, after the box comes, it's 4-6 weeks to fix it. What? Come on, Microsoft, you had to expect there'd be this many coming back.

Oh well, at least it's free. Overall, an unpleasant experience dealing with Xbox 360 customer support--I've not played video games for a few months, and I can't wait to get it back. Too bad it'll be a while yet.

It's what the executive producer said:

"I do have a backup should one Xbox 360 fail ... evidently they do that sometimes."

Which is pretty funny and sad at the same time when someone like him stating such a thing and on E3 nonetheless.

Now I'm seeing more BS posted on this website more than ever. I love my 360. But you'll never hear me downtalk Sony. What news is this...? The man had a backup system?!! He gets 2 flashing red lights because the cable was not plugged in?!! And this is supposed to be news?!! There are some sorry SOB's on this website!!! But I never seen so many fanb!tches spawned up more than ever!! This crap is getting really tired!!! I could care less If anyone disaggre with me!!

I'm so PO'ed that I didn't even spellchecked!!

WOW! Thanks for the breaking news... I had no idea 360s had issues! This will hit 1000 degrees for sure!!!

this is really not news, but what is really funny, is that the few months or moneth before this, there was nothing but bad rep for sony, and bad sony articles, and the xbox fanboys trashed the ps3 non stop, and now there is bad press for 360, 360 fans say, hey stop! get off microsoft, and blah blah, its really funny now that the tables have turned, their all crying

Thursday July 12, 2007
The Guardian

Where the Xbox 360 went wrong:

Whoops, there is a problem with the console failing in significant numbers after all, said a reluctant Microsoft this week. So what is the cause? Charles Arthur investigates

There are seven stages of grief: shock, denial, anger, bargaining depression, testing and acceptance. But with the Xbox 360, which has been giving a significant number of its owners grief, Microsoft last week moved directly from the first stages to the last - from denying any problems with it to admitting a $1bn (£500m) problem that potentially affects all 11.6m consoles sold so far.
Three weeks ago Todd Holmdahl, vice-president of the gaming and Xbox products group, said repeated problems where people had to take back up to 11 consoles came from "a vocal minority" (blogs.mercurynews.com) and dismissed suggestion of endemic problems.

Then last week Microsoft abruptly announced that it would set aside between $1.05bn and $1.15bn, charged against the just-finished 2007 fiscal year, to cover the costs of extending the warranty for every machine from one to three years, and to fix the many which show the "red ring of death" - three red lights on the front panel control ring, indicating a general hardware failure.
'Different issues'
How many? Unfortunately, Microsoft still isn't ready to deal with that issue. "When you look at the financial implication, obviously it's not a small number," said Robbie Bach, president of its entertainment and devices unit.
Sony, which last week had denied it would cut the price of its struggling PlayStation 3, saw an opening and snipped $100 off the US retail price, prompting a surge in sales there. (An announcement on the PS3's UK price is expected today.)
Microsoft repeatedly declined to talk to the Guardian about precisely what problems the failed consoles suffer from. However, Peter Moore, head of the Xbox division, told Gamesindustry.biz: "There are a lot of different issues that eventually could all combine to create the three flashing red rings that appear on the power button on the console; no [one] specific issue." He was repeatedly evasive in interviews, leaving the impression that the problems were either profound - or embarrassingly simple.
The financial problems, though, are stark. The sum being set aside amounts to between $90 and $99 for every console sold - extra loss on machines that are already sold at a loss. On its launch, analysts reckoned that each Xbox contained $525 worth of components; but the machine sold for, at most, $499, and more price cuts are rumoured to be on the way to keep ahead of Sony. On average, Microsoft took a $126 loss on each console sold at its starting price - $1.4bn so far.
The billion-dollar figure also indicates that Microsoft's repeated insistence that the failure rate was about average for such hardware - that is, between 3% and 5% - cannot have been true. The real failure rate is probably about five times greater than the company has admitted, which would put repair costs at between $330 and $660 per console. At that upper limit, it would be cheaper for Microsoft simply to send a cheque for a brand new console.
So what are the causes? Owners and analysts have made their own investigations. The most obvious suggestion is that parts overheat; the Xbox 360 draws 160 watts, which has to be dissipated via two large heatsinks and two fans. One suggestion is that when the machine gets hot, the motherboard warps and pushes the graphics processing unit (GPU) off its board. Another is that some of the soldering is imperfect and so cracks at high temperature. A Microsoft support document also suggests, improbably, that surge protectors and extension strips contribute to the problem by preventing the current surge needed for the fans to turn on; this seems unlikely, since that surge would be too small to trip them.
In desperation, some owners have turned to home-grown cures - including wrapping a towel around the machine, blocking the fan vents. This may - depending who you believe - either cause the solder to reflow or the GPU to reseat. (Microsoft has not commented.) The fixes sometimes work, at least temporarily.
We can deduce some of the reasons from the fact that Microsoft is declaring that the problems are sorted out - just as it is moving from 90-nanometre to 65nm chips, which should reduce its power consumption significantly, and using a two-part heat sink in the new designs.
The key question though is whether these flaws will put off future customers, and how badly they have annoyed existing ones. The principal problem for the latter is that any content bought online must be re-enabled for a replacement console.
Does the admission mean that Microsoft's dream that the Xbox will form the centrepiece of a strategy to put Microsoft software and hardware into everyone's living room has been permanently sunk?
A report from Jupiter Research, published this week, suggests that there is now everything to play for. "Jupiter Research anticipates the competitive field will be much closer than in the past; at the end of the current [console] cycle in 2012, the range in market shares is projected to just under 10% as compared to the 33% range in market shares at the end of the last cycle in 2005."
Then, the PS2 dominated, and Nintendo was nowhere. Now, Nintendo's Wii is rocketing towards the Xbox 360 total; sales data suggests it is selling nearly three times faster than the Xbox 360 or PS3.
Long game
The optimistic forecast - written before the Xbox's problems were admitted - suggests that the Xbox will continue to sell. Moore repeated his insistence that the Xbox division will move into profit next year; having shovelled the billion-dollar faults back into 2007, it can look for profits from its online service, peripherals and games. The strategy remains untouched. All that has changed is the time it will take to pay back. But Microsoft is prepared to play the longest of games - even when it has no chance of winning.
· If you'd like to comment on any aspect of Technology Guardian, send your emails to tech@guardian.co.uk

we all ready know about the 360 problems

its a sad day week for the 360 never mind a sad day

the problems have been documented, and this guy, like any smart technologically involved person would/should do, provided himself a back-up. When you're at an event like E3, and are showing off your hard work, why wouldn't you provide yourself a means of ensuring that you can display your product? Should he have to bring two consoles? No, but like I said earlier, the problems have been documented. He's taking a precaution. I'm sure this is not how MS planned things to go. They're having to sleep in the bed they've made, but they're trying to fix it. I have to at least give them credit for that.

PS3 doesn't die on you every 2 weeks,