Microsoft is recalling over 14 million of the power cables for its Xbox game console, representing more than half of all those sold worldwide to date and including all those made for continental Europe prior to January 2004 and those for the rest of the world prior to October, 2003.
About 1 in every ten thousand cables are likely to fail, and so far seven users have experienced burns from faulty cables and 23 users observed minor smoke damage or burn damage to property.
Owners can request a new power cable from the Xbox website, which should arrive in 2-4 weeks. You'll need your serial number and manufacture date to order the cable. Until then owners are advised to " turn off their Xboxes when not in use". (Don't people do that anyway? My question is, why the year delay for the recall if MS already knew of the fault and had corrected it by late 2003 in one market and early 2004 in another? --Ed)