Xbox 360 failures 'well behind us' - Microsoft

Following a controversial survey, Xbox 360 director of product management Aaron Greenberg says the console's hardware issues are a thing of the past, adding that the company still stands by its product.

In 2007, facing increasing reports of Xbox 360 hardware failures, Microsoft made a dramatic move. Just before that year's Electronic Entertainment Expo, it announced that it would extend the console's warranty to three years for the so-called "Red Ring of Death." Although that move cost the company over $1 billion, it further broadened the 360's warranty this past April to cover another issue known as the "E74 error."

Despite Microsoft's attempts to improve manufacturing quality, the Xbox 360 was recently accused of still having an alarming high failure rate by a Game Informer survey. Some 54.2 percent of 5,000 subscribers to the magazine said they had at least one Xbox 360 fail, with 41.2 percent saying they had at least two hardware failures. Though avoiding specifics on failure rates, Xbox Live and Xbox 360 director of product management Aaron Greenberg admitted the early production lines of the 360 were best by problems.

Aaron Greenberg.

"I can tell you the consoles we're making today have lower-heat chips and better cooling, and we're seeing fantastic quality in those consoles today," Greenberg told GameSpot today. "That said, I know people have had issues with systems which were bought earlier in the life cycle and that's part of the reason why we implemented our unprecedented three-year warranty for anyone who gets the three red-ring flashing light error or the E74 error."

He continued, "So I think we've made it clear we stand by the quality of our product and we will make it right by fixing the problem at no extra cost to you. But at the same time, we've been working hard to make improvements in the products we're currently making, so I really feel like most of this is well behind us." Greenberg then repeated the fact that three-year red-ring/E74 error warranty is in effect for all 360s already on the market--and will extend in the future to those currently being made.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6216345.html?tag=latestheadlines;title;2

So what do you guys think?  Can we kiss the RRoD goodbye in the current models of the 360?

They still don't deny it though.

I think its true, or possibly even higher.

from 33% ot 53% there going in the wrong direction

I don't know, sounds like they are saying the newer models don't have any problems.  They talk about issues people have had with models in the past.

They took $1Billion to fix the problem/cover their @$$, and gave me a 3year warranty with any 360 (more then any other console), so i'm happy...................now

Every revision gets better than the one before it and they give you a three year warranty as a safety net. What more can/should they do? I think some people are still unreasonably harsh on them even after paying out to correct their mistakes.

For the great value your paying for it would have problems at that price.

I think some people are just spoiled with the quality of the PS3. Microsoft is doing everything they can to improve the state of their hardware and lets just say its only going to get better with time.

They will have problems, just no where near as many as the launch 360's, or other previous models.

Either way we look at it though, 54% failure rate is disgusting.

There are only two things I have ever hated about the 360:
1) No web browser.

2) It makes me worry. I LOVE playing my 360, and I purposely waited to buy one until the Falcons came out, but my first one got E74 (or the beginnings of that error--yellow and green lines all over the screen). I had gone about a year with no trouble from my Falcon, and was starting to feel like it was going to be ok. But it wasn't. I have gotten into the habit of letting my 360 idle on the dashboard for 20 minutes after playing. I saw a video on YouTube that pretty much proves the most dangerous time in a 360's life is the time right after you shut the thing down. Running a 360 at full load and then immediately shutting off is a BIG contributor to RRoD, because there are no fans running to cool off the hot components. (Better solders or a thicker motherboard wafer would probably help with this problem.)

I HATE that I feel the need to take such precautions with my 360, but I really don't like going a week without it. At least now I will have my new PS3 if my 360 does this again. I plan on keeping both in action for the rest of the generation, but I imagine the 360 will still be my favorite.