Xbox 360 Failures: Surge Protection?

Following Microsoft's admission that it must earmark up to $1.5-billion for Xbox 360 repairs, it's now being claimed that it's not the motherboard, nor the solder, not even any internal parts that are to blame for the red ring of death: it's electricity.

Well, according to a post on Law of the Game, it's actually surge protectors. Apparently LofG's Mark Methenitis contacted Microsoft Tech Support about his particular red rings of death, and reports the following explanation: "The Xbox 360 is highly sensitive to reductions in power, and even the slightest cut in power can cause things like the fans and even the DVD laser to malfunction. Surge protectors can cause this, and probably 90% of the consoles they see have all failed in 6-12 months of being plugged into a surge protector."

Here's what one of SPOnG's electricity experts has to say about surge protectors, "The power supplies I used to service back in my day as a service engineer had built-in surge protection. It was essentially a small discharge tube - much like a 240v neon indicator lamp. It just sits across the live & neutral and is completely passive - doesn't reduce or interfere with the power supply - until the voltage gets too high, then - pop - the power is discharged across the spark gap."

Obviously it's not surge protectors that are at fault - as only 90% of the affected boxes were using them. No, it's electricity itself. SPOnG can exclusively reveal that 100% of 360s that suffered from the Red Ring of Death used electricity.

Or it could be something to do with limiting liability?

Let's have a quick look-see at the Xbox 360 warranty and part of its section 'E':



Have you used electricity - sorry a surge protector - with your 360? Has your 360 died? Tell us in the Forum.

^{Source: Law of the Game}