We've received a number of emails today about the Fall dashboard update for the Xbox 360 turning gamers' consoles into bricks.

One of my friends just bought himself an Xbox 360 premium pack with PGR3 while we were in town. I wanted to see a live unboxing, so I helped him set it up. After getting whooped on PGR3 he decided to go online to find some easier meat. The box told him an update was necessary, so he told it to go ahead and update. Once the update had downloaded the box turned off, then the ring lit up again as it started to boot - normal enough, I thought. Then, as the Xbox logo whooshed past, the screen went black. Then some white multilingual text appeared, with the one english line saying that he needed to contact support. The error code E-71 was also shown, and the ring of light had a single red quadrant in the bottom right. He rang microsoft, who made him put his 360 through a string of tests (remove and reattach everything in varying orders) all to no avail - he was told to return the box to the retailer. When asked, the rep also said that he had recieved a number of phonecalls that day with the same symptoms and cause.

Good news and bad news. The bad news is that the update is bricking some consoles, the good news is that Microsoft is on the case and hopes to have the problem fixed with a dash update soon.

We're hearing from a small number of customers (less than 1%) that are having issues with the Fall Console Update. I've been told that the team should have an updated version in the next 12-24 hours. We'll let you know when the issue is resolved.

If you are having problems with the update for any reason, please call Xbox Support (1-800-4-MY-XBOX in the US and Canada). We're working with those affected to get them back up and running, and we're committed to making sure the update doesn't cause problems for anyone else.

So don't update your console just yet, unless you already have. I wonder just how much testing goes into a dashboard update, that how many different types of Xbox 360 consoles are out there. Brian Crecente

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