Cracked CD? This happen to anyone else before?

Karl Hungus

No, this is nothing to do with a no CD crack, but an actual physical crack on the CD! I only noticed this a while ago, but the crack was from the inside hole outwards. Now the disc isn't working at all for me.

Oddly enough, the exact same thing happened to my copy of C&C Generals. Another EA game, and the crack devoloped in the exact same way. This is boggling me, as of all the CDs and DVDs I've owned, this has never happened to me before, untill C&C which I put down to a fluke, but now that my BF2 has cracked in an identical fashion, I'm getting a little worried.

What gives?

I really am wondering if anyone has had this problem with any EA games before, or is this some rather unfortunate coincidence. I'm also wondering can I get the disc replaced, or does the warranty cover this at all?

Any help at all appreciated.

whiskeyman

Happened to me as well. small crack and then it just got bigger...
I rememer posting about it here and others reported similar incidences... apparently the BF2 DVDs are of poor quality.

Karl Hungus

whiskeyman wrote:

Happened to me as well. small crack and then it just got bigger...
I rememer posting about it here and others reported similar incidences... apparently the BF2 DVDs are of poor quality.

Hmm... That ****ing sucks. I seriously doubt I'll be buying an EA release again after this. :v:

kirving

Would EA send you out another disk if u proved u bougt it? Same thing happened to my sisters shrek DVD the other day!

ArphaRima

My copy of generals had a few not-so-small cracks coming from the center hole outwards.

My copy of battlefield 1942 exploded savagely in the cd drive, spraying plastic shrapnel all over the room. A scared little brother tried to explain it to me at 1am. He was white as a ghost!

I didnt even try to get a replacement 1942 disk. Didnt fancy giving Game a handful of plastic shrapnel shards.

And before anyone asks; they were in different disk drives, and my cds/dvds are handled in only the correct way or they dont get used.

Rev Hellfire

I remember going to play Battlefield 1942 back in the day and hearing an almighty bang from my machine, followed by a rattling noise. The cd had exploded in the drive into numerous pieces. This I gather is not that uncommon.

Since that point I've been using disc images.

Ciaran500

Same thing happened to my BF1942 CD. Also happened to my Sims CD and it happened to my friends Yuris Revenge CD. It definatley sounds like an EA problem.

ArphaRima

Or is it just that EA publish the best and most popular games, therefore most-used disks?

ghost26ie

no i blame the case they put the cd's in. i had this problem with my bf1942. the case was not built for 2 discs but htey put them in it anyway. eventually a crack formed from the middle hole and moved inwards. whenever i tried reinstalling or playing the game it wouldn't. the crack was about an inch long.

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

I avoid cracking disks by leaving them around... a scratch is less serious.

GreeBo

Drill that sucker out efore it hits the writable area...
avoid cases, use sleeves

BadCharlie

my C&C Generals also cracked. My friends copy of BF1942 cracked and at the time on pc zone mag people were e-mailing them saying that they were having the problem. Pc zone called up EA or who ever and they said they would replace and cd's that were cracked due to use. My friend anyways contacted them and returned his cd and got a new version some weeks later.

Karl Hungus

Christ, I had no idea this was so common. Seems like fairly dodgy practice on EA's part.

The Real B-man

yeah my BF1942 disc cracked to!!!!! fecking EA and there cheapass Discs :rolleyes:

wideangle

I snapped my bfv play disc taking it out of the box, but because it was the 3 cd version I was able to use disc 2 or 3 as the play disc.If it happens to me bf2 disc id be out of pocket and would have to buy another one!!!

IG-Calibre

I think EA replace damaged disc's for a fiver or something like that, details can be found in the back of the manual..

jaggeh

ea will replaced the disc if you send it to them, they got into serious crapola a few years back with their sh1tty nfl perrenials being printed on poor quality plastics. they still use the same discs for a lot of games.

if you have a 36 speed or better drive its highly likely that the disk will start to crack.

Stephen

I had a need for speed cd do that on me a couple of years ago. They replaced it free of charge after I posted it to them. I reckon this was to do with the crappy envelope type things they use to cram multiple discs into the one box.

The Real B-man

jaggeh wrote:

if you have a 36 speed or better drive its highly likely that the disk will start to crack.

most of the pc gamer community so:rolleyes:

spooky donkey

My Bother mentioned to me a while back that his BF1942 cd was cracked so I made images of mine for when I reinstall my PC I wont use my disc`s any more. I like to reinstall my PC every 3 months so I reinstall games a lot and dont like using CD`s to do it. Another bad thing about EA games and I thought my brother was just rough with his disc.

ambro25

[note to Mods]Not an incitation to anything illegal (because it's not to-)[/note to Mods]

Use a mini-image. Extensive tutortials available courtesy of Google, though done in 3 clicks and it takes 10 seconds, and you never need to use your CD/DVD again - problem solved

jonski

I now have BF2 and COD2 comming and going from the Dvd drive and with the young lad playing both I just know it's going to end up costing me more money . It would now be cheaper to buy a second DVD drive than to replace the game and my tech knowledge stops short of this imagy thingymebob .

ambro25

jonski wrote:

my tech knowledge stops short of this imagy thingymebob .

That's what your brain (evolved over some '000,000s of years) and tutorials (evolved over 2 or so years) are for

Note that (i) it's very simple to do (I should know, I hadn't a clue either but it worked first time even though I had to 'fudge/guesstimate' since the tutorial wassn't quite right/applicable), (ii) it is arguably 'doubly' legitimate, since (1)you are not circumventing DVD copy protection (the protection is embedded in the program on the HDD, not the DVD or CD), and (2) it only works if you make a mini-image of your genuine BF2 DVD.

spooky donkey

ambro25 wrote:

[note to Mods]Not an incitation to anything illegal (because it's not to-)[/note to Mods]

Use a mini-image. Extensive tutortials available courtesy of Google, though done in 3 clicks and it takes 10 seconds, and you never need to use your CD/DVD again - problem solved

These are handy if ya dont want to keep pulling out CD`s to play games. In fact the only time I need to get a CD to play a game is when im on my Xbox. But Im talking about when I reinstall my PC I want to put my games back on. I use my 5 NWN CD`s to reinstall NWN. But use my Imaages for my two BF games nam and 1942.

ambro25

spooky donkey wrote:

(...) But Im talking about when I reinstall my PC I want to put my games back on.

Fair cop

(though don't know why you'd want to reinstall everything from scratch every 3 months - antivirus and spyware issues aside, just defrag and clean the registry every now and then)

spooky donkey

Well I know some one who does it onece a month. There is nothing like that reinstalled feel to feel refreshed. Some people just drink sprite, I reinstal!

Rev Hellfire

Just make a ghost image of your machine once you get it setup nice and shiney, then its just restore from time to time to lose all the crap of the day that builds up much quicker than reinstalling but the result is the same.

jonski

Rev Hellfire wrote:

Just make a ghost image of your machine once you get it setup nice and shiney, then its just restore from time to time to lose all the crap of the day that builds up much quicker than reinstalling but the result is the same.

I always say I'll do this and then when it comes to it , I'm saying " I must just do this/that or change this/that first " and eventually it gone too far

koneko

I must be either really lucky or really careful, I haven't had a problem like that with any of our discs (includes 2x BF1942, 2x BF Vietnam and 2x BF2).

I store a lot of my discs in a case now (this one in pink) instead of the original cases, so that might help.

RPGGAMER

i echo this crackage story. v. flimy cds

Borderfox

Yeah I had a C+C generals disc crack from the centre out, I got a copy of a mates disc and used my cd key.......seriously this is not pirating!!