Hyams on 19 March 2009
This is just something somone posted on Joystiq.com. Obviously, I can't vouch for its accuracy, but it's interesting reading none the less.
I've been through quite a few dead consoles and have gotten into the business of fixing failed 360s, so I'd like ot share what I've noticed recently. The E74 which has suddenly become so common shows the same symptoms prior to failure that the three red lights does. Graphic artifacts, in-game freezes, and texture corruption are quite common before the system goes into E74. This was also very common on systems with the three red lights, and, unsurprisingly, the fix is the same as well.
Of the three Xbox 360 consoles I have repaired with E74, reflowing the area around the GPU and CPU, using better thermal paste, and installing an X-clamp replacement has fixed the issue. Not once has the issue been with the scaler (ANA for pre-HDMI, HANA for HDMI systems) as this article suggests. Now, a while back, when the three red lights were common, the problem often was the scaler chip and could be fixed temporarily just by holding the chip down and permanently by reflowing it.
Anyways, what I'm getting at here is that these E74 errors are the three red lights, just presented differently. It's entirely possible for system updates to change the way the system reports errors. Since three red lights indicates "general hardware failure," making the updates affect error reporting does two things for Microsoft:
1. Gives a more specific error message to aid in the repair process.
2. Alleviates them from having to issue a free repair as part of the three year "extended service" plan which was only issued to appease a class-action lawsuit.
Sure, it sounds pretty conspiracy theory-ish, but based on my own experience in fixing E74 systems and observing systems with E74, as well as the findings of others, I wholly believe that this is the case. Microsoft has done aggressive things in system updates before. For example, when the hypervisor exploit was discovered, Microsoft blocked the ability to downgrade with a system update that actually blew eFuses in the CPU (although modders figured out that by removing a resistor, the system could be upgraded without the eFuses getting blown).
tl;dr - Microsoft has simply updated the system so what used to be reported as three red lights is now the E74, creating the illusion that the three red lights failure has been fixed and allowing them to save money from not having to do extended repairs.
Of the three Xbox 360 consoles I have repaired with E74, reflowing the area around the GPU and CPU, using better thermal paste, and installing an X-clamp replacement has fixed the issue. Not once has the issue been with the scaler (ANA for pre-HDMI, HANA for HDMI systems) as this article suggests. Now, a while back, when the three red lights were common, the problem often was the scaler chip and could be fixed temporarily just by holding the chip down and permanently by reflowing it.
Anyways, what I'm getting at here is that these E74 errors are the three red lights, just presented differently. It's entirely possible for system updates to change the way the system reports errors. Since three red lights indicates "general hardware failure," making the updates affect error reporting does two things for Microsoft:
1. Gives a more specific error message to aid in the repair process.
2. Alleviates them from having to issue a free repair as part of the three year "extended service" plan which was only issued to appease a class-action lawsuit.
Sure, it sounds pretty conspiracy theory-ish, but based on my own experience in fixing E74 systems and observing systems with E74, as well as the findings of others, I wholly believe that this is the case. Microsoft has done aggressive things in system updates before. For example, when the hypervisor exploit was discovered, Microsoft blocked the ability to downgrade with a system update that actually blew eFuses in the CPU (although modders figured out that by removing a resistor, the system could be upgraded without the eFuses getting blown).
tl;dr - Microsoft has simply updated the system so what used to be reported as three red lights is now the E74, creating the illusion that the three red lights failure has been fixed and allowing them to save money from not having to do extended repairs.
Source: http://www.joystiq.com/2009/03/19/joystiq-survey-xbox-360-e74-errors-on-the-rise-since-nxe/#comments
What he says does kind of makes sense, I guess. As he points out, it's not like Microsoft wouldn't do this sort of thing
