Consoles built after those dates were designed in such a way that the failures no longer occurred, Bach said. "It ends up being a combination of both things in the box and circumstances," he said. "It did take us quite a bit of time to understand that there was a challenge."
The recall represents a significant portion of the world-wide Xbox installed base of more than 20 million. Microsoft debuted the Xbox in November 2001 in the United States and subsequently rolled it out world-wide.
Based on reports to its customer service unit and warranty repair data, Bach said Microsoft had observed a failure rate of about 1 in 10,000 units. In 30 of those, users suffered either minor burns or damage to property, including scorched carpets, he said. Affected customers can request a new power cord free of charge via the Web site, Xbox.com (http://www.xbox.com), or by calling toll-free numbers in their respective countries.
Microsoft said customers would get replacement cords within 2-4 weeks from the time of order, and in the interim it advised users to turn off their Xboxes when not in use.
In March 2002, Japanese retailers temporarily stopped selling the console just weeks after its launch there because some machines were scratching discs. The company made an unconditional offer to replace hardware and any damaged software.