While everyone knows someone who has been affected by the Red Ring of Death, another evil was slowly growing under the surface. It was Error 74, more commonly known as E74, and unlike the dreaded Red Ring of Death, it was not covered under Microsoft's three-year warranty. Until now. Microsoft has confirmed that systems that fall victim to an E74 will be replaced, free of charge, and that they are refunding all money for anyone who had to pay to have their system repaired because of the defect.

"While the majority of Xbox 360 owners continue to have a great experience with their console, we are aware that a very small percentage of our customers have reported receiving an error that displays "E74" on their screen. After investigating the issue, we have determined that the E74 error message can indicate the general hardware failure that is associated with three flashing red lights error on the console. As a result, we have decided to cover repairs related to the E74 error message under our three-year warranty program for certain general hardware failures that was announced in July 2007."

Great news for gamers, bad news for Microsoft's wallet - the last warranty increase set them back a pretty penny. There's no telling how much this change will cost them, but odds are it won't make them any money. So much for being in the black.

Fun fact: Many Xbox 360 games allow players to pick a code name, usually represented by a letter and two numbers. E74 has been marked as vulgar since the Halo 3 beta, two years ago.

[Source]

Related Articles:

Happy Valentines Day!

Rumor: Microsoft Insider Tells All

Red Rings of Death Strike Back!