My friend just came into the office and told me his 360 just died.. LOLZ.

I actually believe this. Although it's partially Microsoft's fault ... if they'd dealt with the defective rate earlier, the "red ring of death" wouldn't have become a meme.

At that point, the masses of morons that don't know how to do a little bit of reading or research probably started sending their consoles en masse to the repair centers.

Agreed. I've had the red lights three times, (once even the three ring variant), and I just turned it off and it worked fine after. I did get the full ring once when my internet went down, and the other time I can't remember what happened.

don't people have to call and go through some checks first? wouldn't the call center support techs catch this?

I remember when my Xbox kicked the bucket and I was looking on the Xbox forums for information. The first reply to almost every post was "is it 3 or 4 lights".

They should get rid of the 4 red lights in the next update. It's confusing for a lot of people.

The original Xbox did some weird flashing thing when the video cable was unplugged too.

I remember freaking out thinking something broke, but like a good trouble shooter I checked the physical connections first.

When will the lies end...

Excuses for Mircosoft's inability to make consoles. Lets say for a split second that this is true does it still make up for the fact that they released a console that is flawed? no... So why does the amount of consoles matter if its broken its broken.

You dont buy a new car and it breaks think oh well everyone elses is ok because the company said so, you think godammit i hate j00 all!!11

Stop with the excuses and work on the solution mircoshit

Wow.. yet another article! :D Its like the videogame tabloids "New shocking info of Lindsey Lo... erm, the RRoD!"

Two words combined. Hype + Internet. Mass hysteria. Destruction. Terror. Red ring of doom zomg beware!

Actually it is true that the 360 is easy to die, while I do believe there's a big deal of internet hype to it, as well, as mine and a friends never had serious problems, but that's another story.

Question: Wouldn't it make more sense to have the critical error as the four light code, rather than the "plug the cable back in" error?

Or at least have the DVD tray slide out and slap you in the face with a disc?

We sure are talking a lot about the 360's unreliability today...

I mentioned on another site the possibility of mis-returned systems due to this user error and how it might skew the number of "broken" consoles. Hopefully Microsoft will do something about it.

I got the full ring after a close-by lightning strike/power surge a few weeks ago. both my consoles shut down and I gor the red ring. restarts on the 360 and the PS3 got things working normally again.

@lunarworks:
They cant stop the disk tray from eating the games like fat people in McDongles never mind slapping peeps in the face, although would be pretty fun to witness.

Ps3 could ninja star a bluray at you if you press the PS button, more realism to NGS?

[notharrypotterspoilers.ytmnd.com]

*sings along*

I had the four red rings, and immediately assumed that my 360 had died, since I'm pretty sure it's going to die sometime in the next year.

A quick check revealed the cable had come out at the back, but I can understand some people just losing the plot.

lmao,ill admit this happened to me =(.right when i got my 360 my cousins 360 had just died on him.i had everything connected but the video plug was not pushed in all the way in.i click power and i panicked a bit lol.i check the cords because i knew the rrod was 3 not 4 lights and all was fine.the scare sucked though.

I think this speaks more to the incompetence of Microsoft's outsourced technical support. These people are complete moron's that can't even troubleshoot a cable being disconnected. How hard is it to ask, "How many lights are blinking?"

It always amazes me how these high paid upper management types can't ever see farther than the next quarter letting their companies images be totally destroyed by inferior customer interaction. The absolute failure of technical support in the high tech industry over the last 10 years is really embarrassing. Embarrassing because I work in this industry (in development though, not support)

How does a cable come unplugged? I mean are you guys moving the system around? I've never had a cable come unplugged, unless the socket was for shit and the plug did not sit securely in the 'home' position.

I'm confused as too why there would even be a video cable unplugged error and it NOT be the first thing to check when seeing red.

Sounds more like Microsoft is putting their PR plan in full-swing. Just put out doubt about the abnormally high failure rate by claiming a large number were just stupid users. There is no way for us to confirm the truth behind this, so now Microsoft is no longer responsible for putting out flawed machines.

Very smart PR move. Cast doubt on a serious issue and then let your rabid fans take it from there in internet forums. Before you know it the fans will be arguing there was never a problem.

I call BS on this story.

Microsoft tech support... ie the people you had to call before the stupid website was made, had you unplug all the cables then re-plug them in. They then had your turn it back on. Next they had you remove the harddrive and repeat the previous step. lastly they wanted you to be plugged into the outlet directly.... thinking your surge protector wasnt given it the right power ammount.

There is No way anyone made it through all that crap just to have the cable not plugged in.

Whatever spin or stupid damage control explination this one is.... its nothing more than Total BS.

Haha. I was at my friend's and hooking up my 360 for some Madden one night when I got that other red ring. I really thought I was fucked but then I realized I hadn't hooked up the component cable yet (I was wasted).

:o Ever since Kotaku "stopped" being MS sponsored, I've spotted more dislike to the 360 articles.

Hmmmm....

@cametall: The original Xbox flashed the red ring there too, as opposed to FRAG (flashing red and green). Of course, error codes were not nearly as prevalent on the original Xbox (except for modders).

The only reason I know about the no-video-cable error on the original Xbox is that I had to keep the video cable plugged in when I was testing my Xbox while working on it open-case.

I had a unique 360 meltdown. I was watching a DVD and all of the sudden the screen melted and froze. Then one red light lit up. After that there was always one red light and an error code. I went through some BS troubleshooting with tech support. Tried a different video cable etc. Nothing. Looks like the video chip fried. First one I've heard of.

@hexix: I'd also like to point out, if there was any truth behind this whatsoever we wouldn't be hearing about it now. They would have said this immediately when the problems started surfacing.

This happened to me with my 360. I checked up the error code displayed on-screen (when the four segments went red) on the Microsoft website and it told me about the cable. Like CRUITHNE says I can understand people panicking, but if an error code is displayed people should check it out, it's what codes are for.

@Witzbold:
Ha, thanks for that. :)

I'm confused on why it's 3 for death and 4 for plug something in... I think I missed something.

Ummmm when you call MS they go over this with you usually twice. Once automated, and once with the rep on the phone to make sure your not being stupid and getting this error.

What do you expect from $10.00 an hour tech support out source non Microsoft employees. They don't get any of the benefits working for Microsoft so why should they really care...

When my roommate got his 360 (no problems so far, *knocks on wood*) almost a year ago, the first thing we did was lookup with the RROD and any other possible flashing light errors were. The only other one we could find was that having all 4 quadrants lit up was for the video cable not being plugged in.

This information is real, and its nothing new. No doubt that MS should have made it a tad bit more different from the 3 light RROD, but I guess the hysterical, non-technologically skilled people will get this changed, and everyone will be happy.

@Kokuryukai: Because its their job thats why.

Thats the problem with most people, if you arent going to take your bloody job seriously, dont take it at all.

Microsoft just needs to start selling 360s like tennis balls. With three to a pack, if one breaks, you always have two others. One lost, two others. One stolen, two others. One abducted by a group of aliens in search of the worst-designed products of the universe, two others. This way microsoft can then claim to have lowered repair orders.

If this was any company BUT Microsoft, every one of these comments would be about how the console owners are idiots.

@Witzbold: <3 ytmnd

It's kinda funny, and normally, I'd call stupidity on the customers, but Ms ditched it's own 'grave' here.

Thankfully, it's getting better.

@Moonshadow101: Well its not so much that they are idiots, but the average person doesnt realize that electronics are delicate things and need to be treated with a certian amount of care to keep it running.

Fuck'in Crenente!! LOL.. that last potshot was classic ;)

Yup. This is why we say RTFM... It is in the manual right? I didn't read it. :D

..This happened to me once, but rather than freaking out, I remembered we hadn't hooked up the video cable yet. When it actually DID ring out, then the freaking out commenced.

Now I fear everytime I turn it on, I'll see red lights. It's also important to mention that there's lights for when it's overheating, as well. Two if I remember, right?

I wonder if there's a way you can babysit the temperature without voiding your warranty. *thinks*

Heh, my 360 did that type of Red Ring, and I remember panicking so bad. ...Then I plugged the cables back in :P

Great PR, absolutely superb!

Our machine don't stop working because they are built to crappy designs by the lowest bidder, no, it is due to USER error. Honestly this is probably true but this statement means that their tech support is so retarded that they are unable to diagnose the fact that your AV cable is unplugged.

This reminds me so much of the good old days when it was Sony who were making the stupid statements, my how times have changed.

Um... Having worked in IT, I could totally see this happening. Not everyone that sends in their console calls tech support. A large number of people don't bother calling tech support and just send the console straight in to be repaired. Probably because they don't want to talk to someone in India. I don't know where exactly 360 tech support is based, but to most people tech support = India.

I actually do this to my friend from time to time. Disconnect the cables and watch him jump when it red rings. Anyone think this could be the culprit behind all those "I returned 12 360s" stories?

As for the crowd that's saying this is just PR kicking into swing, well, maybe. If that makes you sleep better at night, sure. But you're really overestimating the size of Microsoft. Something non-critical like this could just slip through the cracks.

@People saying customer support should catch this:

I told the MS support guy that I already did that, they said "okay, lets set up a RMA".

Plus, people THINK they plugged it in all the way, but didn't. PS3 fanboys.. ROLLOUT!

Mine didn't even red ring for a while, but it would routinely lock up during the opening logo sequence. MS wouldn't even accept it for repair because it didn't have any rings, and I was out of warranty. Figures that they extend the warranty after I have to shell out $70 at best buy to get a new service plan for the replacement and arguing for 20 minutes as to why I was switching out the hard drives.

oh crec ... this is so obviously an PR tactic but im glad you called it a rumor .. until MS puts up real numbers it remains to be seen .. however coming from my gamestop buddies .. its never this simple and they recall weeks where more xboxs came back than got sold.

good job MS PR. brilliant move.

that happened to me one time. gave me quite a turn. fortunately, i checked all connections before panicking.

@headgoomba: I don't know where MS's tech support is as I've never needed to call them on any of their products but as indicative of outsourced tech support these days... it pretty much sucks everywhere. It's so sad that when actual good tech support occurs, it has a high chance of making the evening news.

Why in gods name is there a "video cable is not plugged in" error anyway? Isn't the fact that there is no video enough to tell you that?All three consoles need to stop with this error code garbage anyways, there's no reason I should have to go online to look up error code 86070 if its just a connection time out error, just tell me that the connection timed out, try again later!

I panicked when I got the 4RL, but then realised what was wrong

I ended up with 3RL in the end

@okenny_unbanned: I've rung from the UK and and ended up with India, US, Ireland and (I think) Newcastle.

Whenever I got through to India I ended up having to tell them "look, I'll ring back later" as neither of us could understand what the other was saying.

The same when I got through to Newcastle...

While it's true that support goes over this with everyone, I'm sure there's a decent sized percentage that goes "Ya, ya, ya ..." on the phone without even trying the steps.

Or the people who are just 100% convinced something is wrong with their console and going to get it shipped in no matter what.

It may not be a huge percentage, but I suspect a notable number of the 360s shipped in are actually OK.

@Cellien: Just out of curiosity, did the support guy ask how many quadrants were lit?

If he had and you told him three, then he obviously wouldn't pressure you too much to check the connections. If it was four he'd probably have made you do it again.

By the way, I think it's a bit ridiculous for you to call anyone critical of what seems to be an obvious attempt by Microsoft to brush the problem under the rug a PS3 fanboy.