A national UK newspaper has indicated that the Xbox 360 Elite could be suffering from the same 'red ring of death' overheating problem as earlier models of the console, despite protestations to the contrary from Microsoft.
"Microsoft sets aside huge sum to fix infected Xbox Elite consoles," consumer editor Ruki Sayid writes in the Daily Mirror.
Hundreds of angry owners
According to the report, "hundreds of angry owners are sending back their £290 consoles, which are being shipped to Germany for repair. But the fault remains a mystery.
"Jamie King, 16, from Gomshall, Surrey, said: "I got my Xbox in September and it packed up eight months later in June. First, it kept freezing, then it developed the red ring of death."
The Mirror goes on to (misleadingly) report that a "£500 million repair fund has been set up for Xbox 360 Elite consoles suffering the 'red ring of death' fault."
Misleading report
While this line could be down to poor sub-editing over at the Daily Mirror - as it's well known that the whopping £500 million repair budget was allocated back in the early summer of 2007 - it is still worth noting that, at the time, Microsoft's Robbie Bach did go on record to state that the new Xbox 360 Elite console would not suffer from the well-documented red rings overheating problem that dogged earlier batches of the machines.
Microsoft told the Daily Mirror: "The majority of Xbox 360 owners enjoy a great experience with their console. Anyone with a problem should call Xbox customer service."
Elites are fine
Geoff Croft, customer service manager at the UK's leading console repair service Micromart told TechRadar:
"We don't deal directly with the three red rings problem any more, although we would still have heard from our retail clients if it was becoming an issue with the Xbox 360 Elite.
"I can't really comment on that story in today's Daily Mirror. All I can say is that we have had very few Elites in for repair since they launched last year."
So from Micromart's point of view there is no widespread or 'endemic' problem with Xbox 360 Elites overheating and suffering the dreaded three red rings.
Video card issues
However, Micromart has been experiencing another growing problem with the original models of the Xbox 360 – the failure of the video chip.
"We are getting around ten 360s a week in with this problem – which when you consider is around 500 a year –is quite a major problem," Croft told us. "So we are telling customers to send them directly to Microsoft."
If you didn't take out an extended warranty with your original Xbox the cost to replace the video chip is in the region of £60 to £80
TechRadar has contacted Microsoft and a number of leading UK games retailers for further information on the reported 'red rings' problems with Xbox 360 Elites and the apparent growing problem with the original video cards in earlier 360 models. We'll bring you further updates as we get them.
Your comments (4) Click to add a new comment
loki
July 8th 2008
4. I've had my 360 since launch and haven't had any problems with it, except a few times it has gotten 2 red lights, but that's no big deal, just have to unplug and let it cool. I must of gotten lucky.
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flea79
July 8th 2008
3. workin for currys i see them all the time, i purchased a 360 elite on launch day with promises that faults were fixed, however come april it went wrong scartching discs, swopped it over only for the new one to intermittently suffer the red lights, touch wood its fine at the moment, but the console is unfit for purpose and by law shouldnt be on the shelves
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zoydwheeler
July 7th 2008
2. Have you tried a PS3? They are brilliant and - as an added bonus - don't seem to break either!
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colts420
July 7th 2008
1. I am on my 6th Xbox 360.I sat in line for around 15 hours on launch Nov 22 2005.The next day my 360 was chewing up disks.Returned it to Walmart got another one.Then about 4 months later I had the red rings of death.At this time Microsoft only had a 90 days warranty on the 360 and wanted over 150 to fix it.So I went ahead and bought another one not wanting to have a defective system even though they say it was fixed.So now Im $700 in two systems but I am still happy I love the games they put out especially once Gears of War came out.Anyway before my Walmart warrenty ran out I had to replace 3 more Xbox 360 there.All the systems I got from there failed so to make a long story short Microsoft extended the warranty and now I have sent 2 of them back and now I have one that stopped spinning disks.I have to pay $99.99 for this repair which I am going to do later this week.My gamerscore is just under 30,000 and I have over $500 in downloadable content on my hard drive that I have bought.Not counting the 50 games I bought at $60 a piece.Thats another $3000 in software.I can't believe that I need to pay them again to fix my 360.Just because it doesnt have the red ring of death.Why can't they just replace all the faulty parts .There have been enough people with drive problems where this should be covered also. Haven't I already bought enough?Sorry this was so long had a lot to say.
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