I would like you to consider two comments from Another One Bites the Dust:

John Ostermiller:  I've on a 360 since... November of 2006? I've had it since the first Gears of War, and have never had any sort of hardware fail.

 Derek Levine: @John You know you just jinxed yourself, don't you?

Now, I know that I didn't make the first comment, but I had to consciously agree with him. I've not had any problems with my 360 hardware to date. Now let me be clear: I didn't get a launch console, but instead waited and got a Halo 3 LE console. It's all pretty and green. And, guess what, it doesn't work now.

Oh, yes, I received the good old E 74 screen that so kindly informed me that I would be needing repairs for a "general hardware failure." I called Xbox support, registered my serial number, and printed out a shipping label. It was quite painless and I intend to mail it tomorrow. 

 However, we need to back up a bit for a second. The reason I waited to get my console was not for monetary purposes, or because I wanted Halo 3 to be my first game or anything like that. It was because I was waiting for my uncle to upgrade. I have an uncle who lives in Kansas (I'm in Ohio) who games religiously. I've only ever met him in person once in my life, and I was much too young to remember him at that time. Xbox Live and its community have been our major way of staying connected over the past few years, and as such, we wanted to get the sweetest-looking console that was on the market. (That honor now goes to the RE5 model, but waiting a year and a half more just wasn't a viable option).

 Anyway, I called him up after I got off the phone with support because I knew he was coming up to Ohio next week (for the first time in years) and wanted to see if he had another console to spare so that we could still have the LAN party we had planned. He now has two spare pro systems to go with his H3 console, so we were covered. 

 He informed me that he'd "not had any problems with my Halo Xbox yet. I upgraded to a larger hard drive and she's still running perfectly."

 Two hours later, my phone rang, and I heard this: "You bastard. You sent me a virus over the phone."

I was confused, thinking he was talking about his cell, but instead he continued saying "My Halo console crapped out on me halfway into the last level on Mass Effect. E 74 error and everything."

So, two awesomely (and similarly) designed consoles suffer from the same error on the same day within hours of each other. (It should be noted that he got his Halo 3 Xbox through Wal-mart and mine was from Circuit City's website). Anything to say, Microsoft?