Peter Moore yesterday released an open letter to the Xbox 360 community announcing a new three year warranty extension that covers systems that fail due to the red ring of death.

Although Microsoft has not announced the official cause of the red ring of death issue, unofficial reports seem to indicate the problem is related to the proximity of the DVD drive to the board, and the lack of airflow through that region causes the board to warp, breaking contacts and additionally causing the solder to reflow.  Some have reported that Microsoft has begun to add additional heat piping on repaired systems to fix this problem.

I’ve previously written about my experiences with the Red Ring of Death.  I should like to comment that after calling for support, Microsoft shipped me the packaging box (”Dubbed ‘The Coffin’”) several days later, and after a couple of weeks, I received my system back.  I’ve had not a single issue with it since the joyful return of my system almost two months ago.  Overall I didn’t have to pay a dime, and Microsoft gave me a free month of Xbox Live Gold access for the inconvienence of losing my system for a couple of weeks.  All in all, a generally positive customer experience.

If this is indeed the problem, one would not expect Microsoft to own up to it specficially, because the onslaught of ‘Heating upgrade requests’ would be financially damaging, and in many cases unnecessary.  For those systems that require the upgrade, this should become obvious well before the three year deadline arrives.  This certainly bolsters my spirits and hopes that we’ll all be able to enjoy the 360 in years and decades to come.  I congratulate Peter Moore, Microsoft, and the Xbox 360 team for owning up to the fact that there is a problem, and stepping up to the plate to ensure the customers and community remain satisfied with the 360 Experience.

Kudos.