Xbox 360's NXE patch births RRoD complaints
Microsoft keeping quiet
The New Xbox Experience (NXE) patch - released earlier this week to fix an HDMI audio issue caused by downloading the NXE interface itself – appears to have brought the dreaded Red Ring of Death (RRoD) to rather a lot of consoles.
Microsoft’s own Xbox 360 Forum has been inundated with complaints from gamers that the patch – which was supposed to restore audio to gamers using the console over an HDMI connection – had frozen their machines instead.
One gamer by the name of Tenious Tza said: “After downloading the update - RROD.” User CrzyPnoy9 described the HDMI patch as “bulls**it” because his brother’s console now suffers from the RRoD.
Gamer DaddyFatSacks70 claimed that the update caused his console to display an E74 error message, but that when he called the Xbox support telephone line he was told he’d be charged £100 ($146/€114) to fix it.
Presumably DaddyFat refused to pay the charge, because he said: “Guess it's time to dust off the old PS3”. Could problems like these be causing some Xbox 360 owners to turn their attentions to Sony’s rival console? We contacted Microsoft in the hope of some official comment or acknowledgement of the latest patch’s alleged problems.
Sadly, it seems the firm didn’t want to respond to its customers. All it would tell Register Hardware was that it has a “detailed and comprehensive test and acceptance plan” for software updates.
We pushed for more specific answers, but were told: “The nature of the console itself is very complex, as it’s a consumer electronic product that contains more than 1700 different components and 500 million transistors.”
Thanks. Microsoft, very helpful... ®
COMMENTS
Nice...
Windows updates might b0rk your Windows install, but usually you're still able to enter "Safe Mode" and save whatever you need to rescue. XBox360 bricks with firmware consoles. Which is worse?
On the other hand, my PS3 did have to be changed because I got one of those 0.01% that have a faulty Blu-Ray drive (jokingly dubbed the Blu-Ray of Death) and met shocked faces at GameRush when I went to change it. I was the first one *ever* to return a faulty PS3, and they were visibly surprised to see one failing. 360's are much more common, of course.
Oh, and like someone mentioned ... there's a "Safe Mode" menu available in the PS3, where you can repair faulty firmware.
Mine bricked.
Updated last night, now it's a useless lump of plastic.
Microsoft quoted me upto 6 weeks to get it fixed, and £100 cost.
Bricked "normal" consoles
The update bricked 2 of my friends consoles.... both unopened, unmodded and up until now have behaved flawlessly. Ironically, one of them has an Xbox360 which does not have an HDMI port!
Plastic helmets on everybody!
Mine upgraded fine, although, did this HDMI issue only affect a select number of machines? Mine didn't give me any trouble, I was rather puzzled as to what the update was for when mine prompted me last night.
Mines the one with the mace in the pocket, because the fanboys are about to land and we normal dudes have to defend ourselves from the Sony and Ninty fanboys somehow. (I bought all the consoles, so I'm indifferent.)
BS
“The nature of the console itself is very complex, as it’s a consumer electronic product that contains more than 1700 different components and 500 million transistors.”
Yet Sony manage it, which a higher component count, more transistors, and REAL cutting edge hardware like Cell and Blu-ray.
When will people understand, all Microsoft care about is quick cash. There is no long term customer retention, or goal to produce decent reliable hardware. Like the 360 launch, "get it out there before Xmas, I don't care if it's fundamentally flawed in it's design, we'll fix this in the Xbox720".
