Thursday, July 10, 2008

Red Ring Of Death

The Xbox 360 video game console is subject to a number of technical problems which may render it unusable. These problems are identified as equipment failures, and are indicated by three red lights flashing on the power button. Since its release in 2005, numerous articles have appeared in the media portrait of the Xbox 360’s relatively high failure rate. The three red lights flashing have been dubbed in these articles, and by the general public, as the Red Ring of Death / Doom (RROD), Red Light of Doom (RLOD) or Three Red Lights (3RL).

Several video games blogs, newspapers, magazines and reports on an interview with a Seattle PI Reader Blog Digital Joystick with a confidential source inside Microsoft by the name Xbox founder. He said that the source was a team leader and key architect in the creation of the Xbox and Xbox 360 and a founding member of the Xbox team, and has since left the company but has maintained close links with other Xbox staff. The interviews suggest that Xbox 360 units that do not take early in their life do so because of problems in system design, parts supply, material reliability and manufacturing, and not a tolerant system fault. These issues would be the final result of management decisions in Microsoft’s Xbox team and inadequate resources before testing at the console’s release. Other sites claim to the insider l 'authenticity was confirmed.

In the first months after the console’s launch, Microsoft said the Xbox 360’s failure rate was in the consumer electronics industry average of 3% to 5%. However, Microsoft has not published their official statistics on the failure rates of different versions of the console, the company 's relations with the press policy is to focus on the speedy resolution of any technical problem. In February 2008 an examination of 1040 Xbox 360s by SquareTrade found a 16.4% failure rate, 171 were returned by ensuring that disabled , including 60% with the failure of equipment, with other sites saying even 30% failure rate, and 10% even on the most recent models. On July 5, 2007, the Vice-President of Microsoft 's Interactive Entertainment Business Division has issued an open letter acknowledging the console 's problems, and the announcement of a three-year warranty extension for each console Xbox 360 that experiences equipment not indicated by three red flashing LED on the console. During the GDC 08, Microsoft announced that the failure rate has officially dropped .

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