Microsoft has extended their three year warranty to E74 errors, further refunding those who have previously had to pay for a repair related to the error.

The Red Rings of Death (RRoD), which represents a general hardware failure, was rumoured to affect 30% of Xbox 360’s sold. The controversy led to Microsoft announcing an extended three year warranty in 2006 that would see the company repairing all Xbox 360’s affected by RRoD free of charge.

However, the E74 error has been gaining as much attention this year, being called “the new RRoD.” Instead of displaying three red lights, the console would display an E74 error on-screen, which is also said to relate to some kind of system failure.

Reportedly the error is either related to the AV cable, or the more fatal occurrence of a burnt out scaler chip or even the death of the console’s GPU.

The increased reports of the E74 error has resulted in Microsoft issuing an extended warranty to include the fault:

“While the majority of Xbox 360 owners continue to have a great experience with their console, we are aware that a very small percentage of our customers have reported receiving an error that displays “E74″ on their screen,” Microsoft’s release reads.

“After investigating the issue, we have determined that the E74 error message can indicate the general hardware failure that is associated with three flashing red lights error on the console. As a result, we have decided to cover repairs related to the E74 error message under our three-year warranty program for certain general hardware failures that was announced in July 2007.”

As well as an extended three year warranty, within the next 4-12 weeks Microsoft will refund those who have already paid for an E74 repair:

“Microsoft will refund to customers the amount paid for an out of warranty repair due to a general hardware failure associated with the e74 error message. Those customers should automatically receive the refund within 4-12 weeks, and no additional action by customers should be necessary.

If you don’t receive a refund by July 1st you must visit www.xbox.com/support before November to find out more information on how to place a claim. Make sure you receive your refund before November 1st, otherwise you just won’t get one.

At this moment the announcement only covers Xbox 360’s in the US, but we expect the warranty and refund to be rolled out around the world and to the UK specifically.

Have you been plagued by E74 or RRoD? Tell us in the comments section.