Microsoft Denies Kinect-Related Xbox FailuresMicrosoft Denies Kinect-Related Xbox Failures

Microsoft is denying reports that Kinect is causing some Xbox consoles to freeze or seize up altogether and display the dreaded "red rings of death" error message.

The Kinect hands-free motion controller, which Microsoft introduced in November, is "designed to work with every Xbox sold to date," a Microsoft spokesman told the BBC.

"There is no correlation between the three flashing red lights error and Kinect. Any new instances of the three flashing red lights error are merely coincidental," the spokesman said.

The spokesman's comments were in response to the British news service's report that numerous Xbox 360 users claim that their Xbox consoles failed after they plugged in the Kinect control bar.

"We plugged it in the day we got it but only played it a few times before we got the red lights," said a ten-year old identified by the BBC as Adam Winnifrith. "The next day when we tried it again we still had the red rings of death and haven't been able to use it since," Winnifrith said.

"It is quite a shame as we got loads of new games for the Xbox too and I never had a chance to play them," he said. The BBC also quote messages from tech forums in which other Xbox Kinect users said they were experiencing similar problems.

"I have never had a single issue with my Xbox," said one forum member. "I got Kinect for Christmas and the screen started freezing randomy. Then on New Year's eve … BAM, I got the red ring, very said," the user said.

In 2007, Microsoft was forced to take a charge of against earnings of more than $1 billion to cover the cost of an extended Xbox warranty program it put in place after it identified a hardware defect that caused the red rings error.

The company said it has since changed its manufacturing methods to eliminate the defect.