<P> On the Xbox 360 S model, the power button utilizes a different design that does not incorporate the same style of lighting that past models used . A flashing red light means that the console is overheating, similar to the two - light error code on the original model Xbox 360; however, an on - screen message also appears, telling the user that the console will automatically power off to protect itself from overheating . A solid red light is similar to the one - light error if an "E XX" error message is displayed and a three - light error code if the error message is absent . </P> <P> In the early months after the console's launching, Microsoft stated that the Xbox 360's failure rate was within the consumer electronics industry's typical 3% to 5% . Nevertheless, Microsoft has not released its official statistics on the failure rate of the various versions of the console . </P> <P> On July 5, 2007, Peter Moore, the Vice President of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business division published an open letter recognizing the console's problems, as well as announcing a three - year warranty from the original date of purchase for every Xbox 360 console that experiences the "general hardware failure" indicated by three flashing red LEDs on the console . A source that has been identified as a team leader and key architect in the creation of the Xbox and Xbox 360 and a founding member of the Xbox team provided insight as to the high rate of failures . The interviews suggest that Xbox 360 units that fail early in their life do so because of problems in the system design, parts supply, material reliability, and manufacturing issues as well as a system not tolerant to faults . These issues were alleged to be the end results of the decisions of management in Microsoft's Xbox team and inadequate testing resources prior to the console's release . A second source cited that, at one time, there was just a 32% yield of one of the test production runs . 68 of every 100 test units were found to be defective . </P> <P> Years after leaving Microsoft, Moore recalled preparing to tell then CEO of Microsoft, Steve Ballmer, of his planned response to the incident, "we've got to tell Steve, here's what we have to do: we need to FedEx an empty box to a customer who had a problem - they would call us up - with a FedEx return label to send your box, and then we would FedEx it back to them and fix it...I always remember $240 m of that was FedEx...It was sickening . I was doing a lot of interviews...We couldn't figure it out...There was a theory . We had changed our solder, which is the way you put the GPU and the fans, to lead - free...We think it was somehow the heat coming off the GPU was drying out some of the solder, and it wasn't the normal stuff we'd used, because we had to meet European Standards and take the lead out...He said,' what's it going to cost?' I remember taking a deep breath, looking at Robbie, and saying,' we think it's $1.15 bn, Steve .' He said,' do it .' There was no hesitation...If we hadn't made that decision there and then, and tried to fudge over this problem, then the Xbox brand and Xbox One wouldn't exist today ." </P>

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