An anonymous customer service rep for Microsoft predicted that the New Xbox Experience update for Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console would cause serious problems for a minority of owners – including the infamous “RRoD” Red Ring of Death, meaning a dead console. And now it looks like, for some, those predictions have come true.

Speaking to GamingConfidential, the anonymous rep said: “Microsoft is releasing the update just a couple of days after the extended warranty period for launch Xbox 360s end. Our department is bracing itself from irate callers after the update is released.” The source added that their department received a flood of RRoD calls after each major firmware update from Microsoft.

Luckily, it seems that rather than causing a flood of further lawsuits, with very suspicious timing (the NXE update coming just as early Xbox 360 warranties finally run out), Microsoft have done the right thing this time. Only a few forum posters are now claiming to have an RRoD so far. And one of Electric Pig’s own writers had a router die midway through install, a surefire way of testing the update’s ability to crash a console, and it continued after reboot without a hitch.

That said, do let us know if you’ve had any major issues with the New Xbox Experience…

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  • http://www.gravatar.com James Holland

    Mine’s been pretty much perfect. I’m loving the speed increases, especially the hard drive installs for games. Mine’s an Elite – hoping they’re immune from RROD…

  • http://camera-shake.com Fraser Smith

    My son’s 360 suffered a RRoD two days after the upgrade, prior to this it had worked without fail.

    Luckily, the 3 year extended warranty didn’t expire until next February so it’s already on its way to MS for repair, FOC.

    There’s no doubt in my mind that the NXE upgrade contributed to this failure.

  • http://jimkirkthomson.com J-Tho

    I am on my third console and I don’t play that often. The third one just died. I’m pretty livid. Can’t wait for microsoft to send the next brick.

  • http://thedude.com Thedude

    Mine died about a day after the update. It is one of the original xbox 360′s and my second one.

  • joe

    I BOUGHT MY SON AN XBOX 360 ELITE ON THE 15/11/07 FOR HIS CHRISTMAS,THE MACHINE HAS BEEN WORKING GOOD UNTIL I SET IT UP LIVE FOR HIM,GOT THE UPDATE FOR NXE & DAYS LATER TWO RINGS OF DEATH,CONTACTED XBOX CUSTOMER SUPPORT AND TOLD THEM SINCE I GOT THAT UPDATE THAT MY SONS 360 HAS THIS PROBLEM, THEY TOLD ME A LOAD O S–T EXCUSES THAT IF I WANTED IT FIXED I WOULD HAVE TO PAY AS THE WARANTY HAS RUN OUT ON THE 15/11/08 SO HOW WEIRD IS THAT.WE JUST BOUGHT HIM SOME ASSESORIES AND LIVE GOLD MEM TOO AS PART OF HIS CHRISTMAS. NOW WE ARE AT A LOOSE END AND DONT KNOW WHT TO DO.

  • Temkahn

    The November update has crahed my machine! I have not had this unit on the internet for updates in about a year i kinda quit playing im 40, so my 5 year old started to play the unit, got him games etc, well this x-mass the wife got the boy and me brand new games, call of duty 4 and the wall for the boy, pop the game in and the unit says we have to update and if we choose no we cant play the game’s, we tried both new games by the way same result, so i took the unit to the modem downloaded the new freaking patch ( virus i like to call it) the unit rebooted , had all new avatar or WHATEVER when the unit rebooted, pop the new game in and now the unit wont play games anymore. I called xbox and get this, after troubleshooting the machine they finally told me to turn the xbox 360 off for a couple of hours and that might take care of the problem, hahaha omg, well end result they want me to send the machine back to them and pay for repair! They force me into this download and it destroys the unit and i have to pay, i think this download targets some machines not all, good luck on the download everyone, hope yours dont end up like mine..

  • jennlilli

    My brother’s crashed on Christmas day. We’ve got the two RRod and the unit constantly thinks it is overheating now. Code 0013 And of course we have to pay $99 because we bought it exactly one year ago.

  • Maverick

    Why does anybody buy this crapola anymore? If it was a car it would have died at birth. How is it Microshaft is alowed to produce $500 bricks? Sony has a miniscule failure rate, you just do not hear of PS3′s failing, so can anyone tell me honestly why on earth would anybody buy a 360?

  • CrapolaLover

    @Maverick:

    The 360 came out way before PS3 and the live experience that Xbox provides cannot be matched by Sony.

    They have even stolen the “Achievements” from Xbox with “Trophies”… how cheesy!

    The only reason that people bought PS3′s in the first place was to get an inexpensive Blu-Ray player, not a gaming system.

  • Stacey2009

    As a game tester who works on development kits 360′s all day long and never had a red ring at work, im pretty peeved that my elite at home which i’ve had for 2.5 yrs red ringed straight after downloading the new dashbord, which i might add i did not want to download at all in the first place but when told “you cannot run this game without downloading the new experience” thought well i guess i have no choice. VERY ANGRY INDEED!!!!

  • andariel

    my xbox has just gone red ringed and im trying the towel trick. it doesn’t work im gonna send it back to microsoft and i might buy a PS3. It Happened when i was playing Guitar Hero World Tour as well. VERY ANGRY!!!!!

  • andariel

    the towel thigh didnt work

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