Quantcast Warranty Update: Three Red Lights Issue - Ozymandias

Warranty Update: Three Red Lights Issue

Just wanted to point you to a warranty change we just announced regarding the "three flashing red lights" error some people have had. To quote:

As of today, all Xbox 360 consoles are covered by an enhanced warranty program to address specifically the general hardware failures indicated by the three flashing red lights on the console. This applies to new and previously-sold consoles. While we will still have a general one year console warranty (two years in some countries), we are announcing  today a three-year warranty that covers any console that displays a three flashing red lights error message. If a customer has an issue indicated by the three flashing red lights, Microsoft will repair the console free of charge—including shipping—for three years from the console’s purchase date. We will also retroactively reimburse any of you who paid for repairs related to problems indicated by this error message in the past. In doing so, Microsoft stands behind its products and takes responsibility to ensure that every Xbox 360 console owner continues to have a fantastic gaming experience.

Can't add much more, except to say that it's less likely that future consoles will have this issue. Again, to quote:

We have been following this issue closely, and with on-going testing have identified several factors that can cause a general hardware failure indicated by three flashing red lights on the console. To address this issue, and as part of our ongoing work, we have already made certain improvements to the console.

Look forward to your comments!

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Posted: Jul 05 2007, 10:33 PM by avrignaud | 36 comments |
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Comments

Xwar said:

Eh, you know you guys are damned if you do and damned if you don't. I expect nothing but more whining from this.

# July 5, 2007 2:51 PM

RomeoDude said:

For me, this came a couple months too late.  My XBox died in April and it was over a year old, so I got a new one with my Best Buy warranty, but I had to pay around $75 for a new warranty.  But I guess it's good that my new XBox is covered for 3 years without having to pay for a new warranty if it breaks.

# July 5, 2007 2:53 PM

vetoo said:

this warranty extend when they repair your xbox ?

ive a 360 covered in dust here for many a month now (repaired once already), out of warranty and 3 red lights , say this faulty launch machine gets fixed . 3 years after my purchase date and the xbox packs in again , what happens then ? they think this is ok ?

# July 5, 2007 3:11 PM

nopants727 said:

Glad to see Microsoft finally going the extra mile.  My 360 got the ring of death about a year ago.  Luckily the customer service rep said I didn't owe anything, but I know some others that had to pay.

# July 5, 2007 3:11 PM

10 said:

Way to go Microsoft!!!This is the great news that many loyal customer was waiting for...

I ve send my 360, 3 times to repair. the 4th one i ve received work fine for months now :)

But my warranty runned out recently and I got the 3red light of death troma: Every time I switch off my 360 it feel like it s for the last time...and than the 3red light of death will be back to haunt me..:)

...Now I got one extra year warranty!!! I may relax a little...;)...youhouhhh!

Thank s.

# July 5, 2007 3:57 PM

biosc1 said:

-------------

@vetoo:

3 years after my purchase date and the xbox packs in again , what happens then ? they think this is ok ?

-------------

What would happen is the same as any other piece of electronics you have bought.  If you buy a receiver and it packs it in after 3 years and it's out of warranty, what do you expect to happen?

# July 5, 2007 4:03 PM

vetoo said:

@biosc1

with a machine thats needed fixed several times over that 3 year ? and has lay broken in the corner for several month ?

i expect a new machine .

# July 5, 2007 4:10 PM

bean19 said:

This is a great move by Microsoft Ozy, and part of what I think you need to expand the console's base. Here are the 3 things that I mentioned in the post you made about wanting to appeal to casual gamers: 1. Lower the price to $200 or below. I expect that this will happen with Core units by the end of the year (possibly earlier considering the PS3 price drop). A $250 (or even $269) special price on Premium units to compare well with the Wii and get hard-drives out there to fuel online sales would be especially competitive. 2. Take responsibility for hardware failures and make substantive changes to fix the problems in order to avoid the 360 being perceived as a console that is expensive and will cost more money when it breaks. 3. Build up strong IPs that have universal appeal but that are obviously directed at children. Get some games that will eventually create a Mario/Zelda following and that you can create a bunch of fun, light, casual games that exploit the popularity of the license. Mario Strikers would have failed miserably if it was not supported by the franchise. In this regard, Microsoft Game Studios needs to start building IPs. My suggestion here is to fund Rare really well and build them up to be competitive with Nintendo. Expand them so they can produce more, and spread Rare's "Miyamoto" around on a bunch of projects.
# July 5, 2007 4:14 PM

Porktree said:

As someone that bought their Xbox at launch, and has had it in for service once, I'm glad to see this.  I think it's the right thing to do, and appreciate it.

# July 5, 2007 5:02 PM

JimmyDanger said:

That's the fix! Good move MS. My first ipod certainly didn't last 3 years, but that didn't stop those things from taking off. Seriously - who could complain about a 3year warranty? (woops I take it back - I just read some of the above comments) Parents, casuals - who may've heard from their friends or children who spend all their time on that internet, that there's "issues" - will have no uncertainties about the longevity from their investment. This - and the impending price drop (now Sony's announced it - surely it'll be confirmed by MS before E3) - is going to bring this generation right into the mass market. Once again - a move that shows MS believes in their product, and isn't afraid to back it up - and possibly the first strike (Sony responded with a price drop pretty quickly) in what looks to be an interesting summer of maneuvering and counter-maneuvering.
# July 5, 2007 5:03 PM

RDJ134 said:

This is a good step in the direction to the customers, most people i know who had the 'ring of dead' where complaining about it. So now this action is admitting there is somthing structual wrong with the machine, so i hope the cause of the 'rod' will be found and solved.

# July 5, 2007 5:18 PM

islandkiwi said:

I'm sure this was a hard decision for MS to to make, but it's the right one.  I know several people that refused to buy a 360 based on reliability issues, and this announcement should put their fears to rest.

My 360 is a release date box, and aside from being pretty loud, it's been flawless.  And because I bought the extended MS warranty, I'm probably protected until the next MS game console hits store shelves.  (=

# July 5, 2007 8:26 PM

Andrew Fong said:

Is the new heat sink one of the improvements? One of the most annoying things about this is that Microsoft hasn't been very open on the numbers about broken 360s or what the cause / solution is. A little information goes a long way in building trust.

Also, I don't know how feasible this would have been, but I think Microsoft should have, rather than sending back repaired 360s, sent brand-spanking new ones -- certainly once supply issues eased up in 2006. This probably would have mitigated the "my 360 broke 10 times" crowd, especially if the 360s were particular to a certain batch. It would also leave plenty of 360s in which you guys could do long-term testing in a controlled environment.

# July 5, 2007 9:03 PM

JohnCz said:

Generally I think its a good move but I would have gone about it differently. $1 Billion..thats a tremendous amount and it doesn't do much to turn around your sales efforts. I would have gone about it differently... $500 million to cover XBox warranty repair/replacement..should cover approx. 2.5 million repairs $350 million to cover $100 price cut..will allow you to quickly add 3.5 million new users. Thats probably a reasonable expectation of how many new customers you can pick before 2008. $150 million to do a XBox 360 lineup refresh..emphasis on low power consumption. I'd give the new lineup a suffix like 360S. It will help with perception..and not to mention buzz.
# July 5, 2007 9:24 PM

shufflemoomin said:

This is certainly good news. It takes the bigger man to admit that there's a problem and that they're taking steps to deal with it. Well done MS on that. What would make it even better is doing something to improve UK repairs. My dead console has been away for weeks and the support line greets me with a recorded message that turn around time for repairs is currently 25 days. That's a little unacceptable, wouldn't you say? I think if this issue happened to me again, regardless of a free fix, I wouldn't be looking forward to not seeing it for at least a month again.

Still, good news on the warranty.

# July 5, 2007 9:31 PM

PaleGringo said:

My story is pretty similar to Porktree above - at the particular GameStop outlet I went to, I picked up a 360 console on launch day - the first one out the door, actually.

It lasted me about two months, the red-ringed in February.  I was sent a refurb, different Serial Number, and have had no problems since.  I know that I'm fortunate in that regard, though.

At the beginning of May of this year, I picked up my second 360, this one an Elite.  I haven't experienced any hardware problems since that first box, but I am grateful to see a company offering support for its customers.

Keep up the good work, MS.  Bright future ahead.

# July 5, 2007 9:38 PM

Aaron Gong said:

It's nice to hear that Microsoft is addressing these issues and taking ownership for this. My 360 just red ringed recently, so I hope these "changes" will also be applied to repaired ones. I'm really looking forward to playing some of the upcoming fall/winter line up of games, but if my console dies again out of warranty I won't pay to get it repaired or buy another one. It's good to hear that the warranty will extend to three years, since I know for sure that I'll enjoy this generation of xbox games. This issue has to have effected the profitability of the 360; which makes it bad for both the consumer and Microsoft. I feel very relieved that this issue is being fixed, and I want to thank those people at Microsoft that made this possible.

# July 5, 2007 9:50 PM

Elliot said:

Well, okay then, I guess.

What does that ballsack Todd Holmdahl think about all this? Does he still say that an "overwhelming majority" of consumers are having a great experience with the box?

You guys dicked us around for a long time before coming to this. My second 360 red-ringed a month ago, it's been lost in an abyss of customer support double-speak for since then, and I just don't give a squat any more. Mainly because I got a Wii in the meantime, and have been spending what would have been 360 money to Nintendo instead.

See ya.

# July 6, 2007 12:57 AM

No problamo here said:

I have mine since day one without a single problem. I (as well as my children) play at least 3 hours a day.

I often wonder if people who's machines are breaking have them well ventalated or are they turning the console from horizontal to vertical while its running as these are two known issues. I have never turned my machine vertical and it is keep well ventalated.

Oz I would like your opinion on the HD vs Bluray fight as I do have the 360 hd player and quite a bit of HD movies however reading alot lately how bluray is winning...any thoughts?

# July 6, 2007 5:06 AM

Andrew Barlow said:

I paid £60 for the 2 year extended warranty. Does that mean I get that money back then if i'm automatically covered for 3 years anyway!?

# July 6, 2007 5:44 AM

vittala said:

"I paid £60 for the 2 year extended warranty. Does that mean I get that money back then if i'm automatically covered for 3 years anyway!?"

From reading the press release the extended warranty ONLY covers the 3 rings issue and not other issues. I imagine that the complete warranty is still a year (from  90 days originally) and that the extended warranties are still valid because they extend the FULL warranty and not only the 3 rings failure.

For example I dont think the new 3 year warranty would cover a bad DVD drive past the 1st year. At least this is how I read it.

# July 6, 2007 7:02 AM

JohnCz said:

My comments are not showing up.

# July 6, 2007 8:44 AM

brad said:

"Eh, you know you guys are damned if you do and damned if you don't. I expect nothing but more whining from this." Well, yea. The thing was damned to begin with. Loyalty only goes as far as the product can take it. I loved my xbox 360(s) when they were working - its just that I don't have the time or patience to keep sending these things back to the factory and getting a new one which erases all of my licensing for arcade games (i.e. I can't play full arcade games with my wife - wtf is the point then?) Of course whenever I talk to a MS rep about this they don't understand what I'm talking about. *Sigh* I just want to know whether my next 360 is going to break down or not. If its a failure in the design, I would much rather have my money back than an endless amount of faulty boxes shipping between myself and Microsoft. It would probably save them money.
# July 7, 2007 1:44 AM

brad said:

"I often wonder if people who's machines are breaking have them well ventalated or are they turning the console from horizontal to vertical while its running as these are two known issues."

No problemo, from what I have read online, and from my own experience, this is not the issue. I opened my second 360, played for 15 minutes, turned it off. The next day, three red lights.

I also imagine that most people that have bought the 360 have also bought the previous xbox and/or other consoles. Nothing like this has ever happened before. So unless a mass amount of people suddenly became stupid (and only with one, the same, console), then its probably a good bet that it is not the consumers fault.

# July 7, 2007 1:49 AM

Mikee said:

I called up support yesterday (to inquire about my recent repair order) about why my second 360 has died the same why the first one did, and he said it's because I have it plugged into a surge protector and it causes a power problem. According to him, the vast majority of 360's that have the 3 red lights get it from having it plugged into a surge protector for a few months or longer. MS really needs to put a big warning all over the place to tell people about that, because even though it's written in the manual, nobody knows about it.
# July 7, 2007 6:25 AM

shufflemoomin said:

My red light issue was certainly not overheating unless the fans failed completely. I'd only just turned the machine on, got the forza update, rebooted only to be greeted with a lockup. Resetting gave me three red lights. It had only been on for less than 10 minutes, so overheating shouldn't have been an issue. Also, changing from horizontal to vertical while running and vice versa causes disc scratching, no red lights or any other issue. That has been well documented.

 As Brad said, I've got an old Xbox, the Hulk, and that b*****d has been dropped, sat on, knocked over and god knows what else and it still runs like a champ. No build quality issues there...:)

# July 7, 2007 10:34 AM

Super_Nintendo_Chalmers said:

So . . . I keep hearing about the extended warranty applying to "three red light" issues. Well, my 360 is currently in McAllen, Texas being repaired for a 1 red light error, E 72. I had just picked up Dirt, and on the first track the graphics became green and distorted. On reboot, the sole red light and error code. Am I correct in believing that the extended program wouldn't apply to me because it's not a three red light issue? Obviously it was a graphics card issue, or something related. Plus, while I applaud Microsoft for extending the warranty without need for a class action, a little openess about the problem would be appreciated. They won't even give a number for the failed units, when previously they proudly threw around the 3% to 5% failure rate number. What gives?
# July 7, 2007 7:03 PM

Dave H said:

Why not set up rework centers in the major metro areas and have people bring in thier boxes for the heat pipe install?

Dave

# July 7, 2007 8:03 PM

Porktree said:

I was in the lobby in a GoW game last night and we were talking about this. Of the 7 people in the lobby 6 of them had had their 360 fixed at least once, and one guy claimed he was on his 4th box. Anecdotal if this is even barely representational it will save MS money in the long run (fewer repeat repairs) and engender a lot of good will. (we were all pretty positive about the news). Then we started talking about the PS2. Everyone of us had had disk read problems with their ps2. We'd all spent money to have the dvd drive replaced, and half of us had cracked the case and adjusted the laser. We all had a bad taste in our mouth to this day about the way Sony treated us and this issue. Once again kudo's to MS for this new policy.
# July 8, 2007 9:28 AM

Epsilon said:

I count myself lucky that my launch console has worked flawlessly since the day I got it (aside from the apparent instability of Vegas at times.) I feel for those who have had problems, especially multiple times. At least MS has really taken this problem head on now and is really making an effort to show that they are aware of the problem and are fixing it.

# July 8, 2007 4:43 PM

Hootenanny said:

I'm glad they've taken this step. I, personally, haven't had too many troubles with my 360 (although it is clearly far more tender than the original box), but this new warranty gives me renewed confidence that I won't have to shell out more cash anytime in the near future as far as three red lights are concerned.

# July 8, 2007 5:49 PM

Opticon12000 said:

good job the new 360's have the fan in the right place, should solve this problem

# July 9, 2007 3:19 AM

No problamo here said:

Wow talk about ironic...I posted earlier how I've had my machine since launch with no problems playing 3 hours per day and poof I got the three rings of death on Saturday...go figure.

# July 9, 2007 5:20 AM

vittala said:

I am batting .500 with my 360's so far. My sons got the three rings after a couple of months but mine works like a charm. Although, I bought an extended warranty. I am glad that MS is standing by their product by extending the warranty.

# July 9, 2007 7:04 AM

Fiction N Lies said:

Good job Microsoft, somebody at consumer services are listening to consumers.  I sent in my launch system to get it fix (no red lights, just a video glitch) about 3 months from when I bought it and it's been working perfectly ever since.  It's just hard to shallow all these stories about people who have sent in their systems multiple times since all my friends still have their original launch systems.  I guess we're just lucky.

# July 10, 2007 1:52 AM

shufflemoomin said:

Seriously Ozy, what's the deal with support for the 360? I'm in the UK. My box has been away for a month now and I spent 27 minutes on hold only to be told it's still at the service center waiting to be repaired. I'm all for being helped out with the free repair, but it's been gone so long I'm not sure I want it back. An expected turn around time of 25 working days is a bit crap, isn't it? Microsoft should hire more repair staff or something. Just speed this up. It's great offering the repairs, it's another thing getting it done.

# July 10, 2007 2:28 AM