Death of an Xbox 360 Fanboy?
Well, it finally happened. Instead of seeing a green quarter light up when I turn on my Xbox 360, I get a red one. Just one, which apparently is worse than the infamous 3 red lights of death. It happened last night just after Deanna got home from work. I was all excited about the E3 trailers that hit the Marketplace and was dying to show her the Xbox Live Arcade montage as it featured sequels to a couple games she was really into. As the video was nearing the end, a band of pixellated noise stretched across the middle of the screen from edge to edge. I let out a little shreak as I pointed at the TV while covering my mouth. I quickly turned it off, let it sit for about 10 seconds while I shat my pants, then turned it back on. To my dismay, the bottom right quarter lit up red and error code E74 appeared on screen.
What Does This All Mean?
Surprisingly enough, I didn’t freak out right away. But I did run down to my office in the basement and Google the error. I found it amongst a list formed by the community at Xbox-Scene and it didn’t sound good.
E74: There is a 90% chance it’s a scaler chip problem (the “ANA” or “HANA” chip near the AV cable connection) it can also be caused by a faulty AV cable so check that first. In rare cases it is a problem with the GPU.
Obviously, the first thing I did was try a different AV cable. No dice. I continued to read different articles that mentioned the error until I came across one that mentioned this error was corrected by swapping the power supply. Luckily, I have a second console that I use to capture screenshots for DashboardThemes.com, so I was able to try this out. Unfortunately, it didn’t make a difference.
Time to Call Xbox Support
I knew this was going to suck, but I picked up the phone at 11pm (they’re actually open until 1am) and called anyway. After sitting on hold for 45 minutes, I ended up speaking to a very cheerful woman who proceeded to get all of my info and register my console – I thought I had done that online when I first bought it, but apparently I didn’t. Once she had my info down, she started asking about my console. I started chuckling as I knew the serial number question was coming – this is funny because I painted my Xbox 360 black just after I bought it (in March 2006) and covered the entire back panel which displays all the console information. I know I should have masked it, but I literally thought about it as I was making my first pass with the paint. Anyway, this is when I told her that I had removed the case to paint it nearly a year and a half ago. Turns out there’s another spot where the serial number is located (inside the front USB port door) and that was that.
Once the console was registered, she started looking into the error. When she wasn’t able to find E74 in the database, I knew it was trouble. I was put on hold for about 10 minutes and asked to try a few obvious things when she returned – remove the HDD, try a different cable, all things I had done before calling. When the result never changed, she told me that I’d have to send in my console. As she’s explaining the process, she stops abruptly and I hear her speaking with someone else in the background. Her return was accompanied by a completely different attitude. All of the sudden she was stern and calling me sir. She then proceeds to tell me that Microsoft cannot repair my console because I opened the case myself. At the time, I totally lost it. Being somewhat of an Xbox 360 fanboy, I pretty much took this as a direct insult. She mentioned it’s their policy to reject any consoles that have been “tampered with”, and yes, it’s right there in the warranty manual. Of course, I didn’t bother to read that before hand and figured I had simply voided my warranty when I opened the case. Had I known I would have no official support what-so-ever, I doubt I would have followed through with the painting.
No Help From Microsoft, Now What?
By the time I got off the phone with Microsoft, it was nearly 12:30am. But I knew I wasn’t going to sleep if I tried without some sort of resolution. After a quick search, I found a company that does out of warranty Xbox 360 repairs. I emailed them to see if they had encountered error E74 before, to which I received the following reply early this morning…
That sounds like a motherboard level repair. Board level repairs are rarely possible with the Xbox 360. New motherboards are not cheap, right around $249 + GST installed, (when we have them available). Fell free to submit it for a free, no obligation estimate.
OK, now I’m fucked.
At this point, I’m not entirely sure what I’m going to do. Well, I do know that I’m going to send my console in and have them look at it. There’s still a couple things it could be, and that’s a better option than just buying a new one out-right. Knowing my track record with ATi, it’s probably the GPU. I’m actually hoping that it is the GPU as that’s probably a minor fix compared to the scaler chip or the motherboard itself.
Now I Wait
I’m going to ship my console off in the next few days and will have to wait until they can give it a look before I know the fate of it. If it’s bitched, Old School Gamer will buy it off me for parts and I’ll have to pick up a new Xbox 360. Which apparently is a whole other issue in itself. It seems that the Xbox 360 Elite is as rare as a Nintendo Wii these days. I haven’t been able to find a single Canadian retailer that has them in stock. So if it comes down to that, simply getting a replacement console is going to be a whole new adventure.
I must say, I’m feeling pretty fucked over at the moment. Yes, I opened the case. No, I didn’t break the console. This is not my fault. With a failure rate of 30% (that’s almost 1 in 3!) and the headline, “Microsoft Admits *ALL* Xbox360’s Are Defective” hitting the front page of Digg tonight, I’m having a hard time stomaching all of this. I love my Xbox 360 and I’ll defend it in any conversation as being the best gaming platform out there. But I’m really not stoked on the position I’m in and I wonder if I would even be willing to continue to support Microsoft if there was another option out there that even came close. Luckily for them, there’s not.
Even With a New Console, I’m Not in the Clear
If OSG comes back and tells me my console is dead in the water. I’m going to pick up another Xbox 360, if I can find an Elite that is. But I will still have a significant battle on my hands – getting all of my XBLA games, themes and gamer pics working for all profiles on the new console. I’ve written about this at length before, and a comment was made by a reader explaining a process to bypass the bullshit DRM that Microsoft has forced on us. But it’s one that takes weeks to complete and will result in many phone calls to Xbox Support.
I really hope that I can keep my spirits somewhat out of the gutter while I go try and get myself back up and running. Time will tell.