[quote name='MSUHitman']An IGN and Neo Gaf member, Shamrock2211 (also the most vocal IGN is in EA's pocket board member,) has an interesting theory that Microsoft may have changed some of the newer systems (ie Falcon's) to have just 1 RLOD instead of 3 when it fails in order to save on some repair costs. The links he gives for backup are:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=148060
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=217072
The hypothesis of that poster is:
"Using that thread at GAF is really the only research I can do because it is one of the only threads that keeps all discussion about system failure in one thread. I know for a fact on IGN I have seen literally dozens of singular threads about 1RLOD and people complaining how MS won't fix their system and it will cost them 99 dollars. Now whether you think it's crap or not, the fact still remains that for a year and a half I didn't see any threads about 1RLOD until recently (the last 4 months).
"Now how do we go from no one talking about 1RLOD, no one even knowing what 1RLOD was, to now seeing it posted about regularly at least to the point that no one even questions what it is anymore. People see a 1RLOD thread and they know exactly what it is. On top of this that thread on NEO-GAF, not one person posted about 1RLOD prior to August 7th, 2007. Not one out of thousands of replies. In the last 4 months there have been 10 cases.
"I think the e74 error code is for the ANA chip scalier. I think prior to this patch in August a ANA failure was reported as 3RLOD. I think MS bean counters sat down and crunched the numbers of exactly how many 3RLOD errors are specifically from the ANA chip failing. After gathering their data I think they decided that since the ANA chip and the GPU are two separate chips and ANA failure is not as common as GPU failure, they decided to seperate the two and give the ANA failure it's own error code. Even if ANA failure was only about 3-5% of 3RLOD cause, it would still save MS millions of dollars out of the 1.3 billion they earmarked for repairs.
"Now the reason I think ANA failure used to be classified as 3RLOD is because some of the same symptoms of 3RLOD are now reporting as 1RLOD. For instance people who are reporting 1RLOD are saying their system is freezing with artifacts on the screen (aka checkerboard freeze). In the past that was always the pre-cursor to 3RLOD. It was thought that was the first signs of the GPU dieing.
"In separating the two errors it saves MS some money, ANA chip failures are not as common, so the increase in 1RLOD would not be massive, but we would see a increase exactly like we are seeing now, and MS can sort of cover themselves because the ANA chip and GPU are two separate chips. They can justify the re-classification by saying 3RLOD is stricly GPU related and ANA is 1 Rlod related. So they would feel justified in their minds and possibly legally. Although they surely wouldn't want to admit or advertise this change as they would be crucified in the court of public opinion."
So my question for recently died 360 users, have you seen this happening with your or your friends systems? The reason I'm asking is my extended warranty with Microsoft ends next year (bought my console off EBay in Dec. 05) and I don't really have the money to buy a new console so if this is an issue, I may just need to pay the money to MS for a new extended warranty.
Thanks in advance for your feedback.[/QUOTE]
what the

!?!?!? Now that's plain shady. Now MS can say we will fix it for free if you get 3 red lights, but if you get less then 3 red lights, you have to pay us....

YOU MS!!!
Seriously, what's the deal with the class action lawsuits? People have the chance to really

up Microsoft because there are so many Red Ringing Systems out there. Seriously, if Microsoft doesn't get there act together... It's really going to hurt sales for their next system as no one will trust MS for building a system that won't randomly brake down easily.