Do New Xbox 360 Units Suffer from E74 Error?

Kris Erickson • Jan 20, 2009 • Comments ()

We have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that recent upgrades to the internal components in the Xbox 360 have significantly reduced the Red Ring of Death problem. Data shows that the failure rate of new Falcon and Jasper chipsets released since 2007 has fallen by as much as half. You can read about how to make sure your system is a Jasper by looking at the outside of the box in our previous article on the subject, and we recommend picking up one of these newer models if you can.

The bad news is that these new Jasper chips might not be totally immune to red light errors. A new outbreak of system malfunctions has slowly appeared, suggesting that the recent NXE update and/or the new hardware components could be generating problems. This error is different from the Red Ring of Death, because only one light on the unit is illuminated. A big warning on the user’s screen then informs the owner that the Xbox 360 has suffered from error E 74.

According to our handy dandy guide to Xbox 360 error lights, the one red light and code number indicates either a failure of the HANA scaler chip or the GPU.

One major problem with this new outbreak of failures is that Microsoft’s extended warranty does not cover the E74 error problem for more than one year. If it turns out that many people are in fact suffering from this problem, then we would hope that Microsoft would extend its famously generous warranty to cover it.

If your 360 is no longer covered under warranty, these resources may help you repair your system at home:

XBox 360 Red Light Fix

Xbox Secrets Revealed

Everything4360 Download & Game Backup Service