Is The Xbox Kinect Causing The RROD?

According to the guardian, connecting a new Xbox Kinect to an old model Xbox can potentially cause the Xbox to overheat and display the Red Ring of Death that has affected more than 30% of the consoles produced. Microsoft claims that there is no correlation between the two actions.

"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."

Microsoft Spokesperson

There are many plausible explanations as to why these new RROD's could have happened - Some claim that the Kinect uses too much processing inside the graphics unit which is the part of the console that is susceptible to overheating. Another theory to this is that when the owners of the Xbox 360 buy a Kinect, they use the machine more and more, which means that there is a higher probability of getting the RROD.

I'm not suggesting that you don't buy a Kinect here though. If you do need a Kinect however, buy a new console that can handle the processing.