xbox damaging games

wicklow joe

Just a quick question i have my new xbox 360 since early december. it has already damaged 5 games, (indiana jones lego and smackdown vs raw 2007,2009 among them).

And microsoft denied everything when i spoke to them saying i couldnt be there machine so it must be something i'm doing, my machine hasnt moved since i set it up.

Gamestop tell me its always happening but its nothing to do with them. There is a problem with the laser on the machine, microsoft says there isnt

I cant afford to go out and pay €50 euro everytime a game is broken.

Does anyone have any ideas about what to do next, besides get a ps3

thanks

tman

Do you have it upright or lying flat?
Could be worth trying it the other way around... I've had 2 xboxes (xboxen?) so far, both have always been kept upright and I haven't had any problems with them scratching games.

gino85

tman wrote: »

Do you have it upright or lying flat?
Could be worth trying it the other way around... I've had 2 xboxes (xboxen?) so far, both have always been kept upright and I haven't had any problems with them scratching games.

i think leaving it upright increases the chances of rrod in them as you are blocking the air vent on the bottom

not to sure on the disk scratching though

tman

Aye, true enough, not even sure if the orientation would make that kind of difference...
At the end of the day it sounds like the OP has a defective console, but if MS and Gamestop are both refusing to take responsibility then there's not much that you can do about it (I bet someone is going to suggest forcing RROD so that MS have to take it back:p)

Maybe kick up more of a fuss, if it has destroyed 5 games in less than a month then there is most obviously a problem with it!

wicklow joe

The console is standing upright, the laser is burning or scraping a perfect circle ojn the disc then its not readable

Axwell

Get the laser replaced by someone?
Install and run the games off your hard drive?

honeybadger

well joe. did you try to rub the disks clean after it happening???:),i had the same probem with mine when i first got it,i kept gettin a ring smear on the games after i playing them and it looked like they were ruined but it was grease off the lazer motor or someting like that in side the console from the disc spinning around inside (console was lying flat aswell).it turned out that the vibration from peoples footsteps coming running jumping and going out of my room was atualy wot was causing it to mess up as the vibration was travellin throu the floor and up throu the xbox where i had it positione,poor aul forza 2 neary went to splinters innside it and since i dont play it anymore haha,ave since moved my xbox to a more stable resting place and havent had any more issues wit it,hopefuy this info mite help u out as it would be a terrible shame sending a new xbox back under warranty after it not after getting the dogging it was designed for i tink its the best deal ever play it till it breaks and we,ll give you a new one,mine is 6 months old and still going strong haha well hope this helps again

J-blk

Axwell wrote: »

Get the laser replaced by someone?

Why should the OP have to pay for this though if the console is in warranty? Plus, doing so will void any remaining warranty...

Axwell wrote: »

Install and run the games off your hard drive?

It still periodically reads the disc so it might potentially keep damaging them...

The disc scratching problem is the second must publicized issue I've heard about though other than the RROD and in fact, Microsoft has another class action suit against them in the US about this:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/16/AR2008121602201.html

Just do a Google search for "Xbox360 scratching discs" and see how many results you'll get... Of course, MS is still denying the issue, so don't expect much from support on the phone. Your best best is probably to try to RROD it as already suggested it and hope for a replacement...

faceman

If your console is standing upright, lay it down flat. Its been known to cause problems for some people.

Also, the disc reader laser, isnt a weapon! Its not burning your disc. There must be something else doing it, broken plastic or faulty tray? Either way its not the laser.

My Xbox killed my original GOW disc (I later got a new one).

Basically sometimes you'd hear an awful noise coming from the Xbox as the disc spun, you were almost able to hear the damage being done.

Eventually there was a scratch mark in a perfect circle around the "read" side of the disc, rendering in unusable.

Funnily enough it only ever seemed to effect the GOW disc! Anyways when the problem first occurred, I went went to 'tinternet for advise and found this. Seems to be a known problem, I seem to remember reading that it was the manafacturer of the DVD drives in some Xboxes had made a faulty reader.


See below for more info:
http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/16/xbox-360-scratching-discs-maybe-says-microsoft/

wicklow joe

Just an update on my first post, got a new console delivered today and a cheque to cover my damaged games and a few extra bits a pieces,

SRFC90

wicklow joe wrote: »

Just an update on my first post, got a new console delivered today and a cheque to cover my damaged games and a few extra bits a pieces,

How ya manage that!??

120_Minutes

just want to post here, i've had my first xbox since christmas, and its standing upright. no scratches yet but disc activity is really loud, enough for me to be concerned. GOW is particularly loud, like an effing motorbike starting up. is this normal?

120_Minutes

120_Minutes wrote: »

just want to post here, i've had my first xbox since christmas, and its standing upright. no scratches yet but disc activity is really loud, enough for me to be concerned. GOW is particularly loud, like an effing motorbike starting up. is this normal?

Congrats on getting the best console around!!!

Now that we've a new OS, you might try downloading part of GOW to your hard drive, I believe that's meant to make it far more quiet, as the console does less reading off the disc.

J-blk

120_Minutes wrote: »

just want to post here, i've had my first xbox since christmas, and its standing upright. no scratches yet but disc activity is really loud, enough for me to be concerned. GOW is particularly loud, like an effing motorbike starting up. is this normal?

Yep, like Druss Rua said, that's completely normal - in fact, my original 2006 one sounded more like a jet taking off, not a motorbike (they've gotten slightly "quieter" over time). The only solution really is to install the game to the HDD though the console is still louder overall than the PS3, even that way... I hope you have a 60/120GB HDD...

bennyc

Why not just ring the MS Call Centre and say you have had one instance of the three rings and everytime you eject the disk when the console is on the disk spits out while still spinning. IF you get any greif then demand to speak to a supervisor on the helpline, you might have to wait but you will get results. He will no doubt take the console back and they willl do a full check on it. I nkow its not what you are experiencing but if they do a full check then it might sort your console.

LD 50

Laying the console down flat decreases the risk of getting the circular scratch on the disks, but can increase the chance of RRoD. The disk scratching is caused by the laser lens casing coming into direct contact with the disk while its spinning. MS know about this and were meant to put a rubber seal around the lens, like the PS3 has. I don't know if they have or not.
Standing the console upright decreases the chance of RRoD, but increases the chance of disk scratching.

120_Minutes

J-blk wrote: »

Yep, like Druss Rua said, that's completely normal - in fact, my original 2006 one sounded more like a jet taking off, not a motorbike (they've gotten slightly "quieter" over time). The only solution really is to install the game to the HDD though the console is still louder overall than the PS3, even that way... I hope you have a 60/120GB HDD...

will do, had fallout installed on hd as i was playing it, now that i'm finished GOW is next.

Thanks!

WolfForager

Deleted User wrote: »

Congrats on getting the best console around!!!

Pfft. I have a PS3 and Xbox and would prefer my ps3 hands down. I only use the 360 to play cod5 and fable2.

Psst, a tip for those trying to get a RROD. IGN had a video about it, all you have to do is put it in a microwave, throw it into a river, then (optional) throw it off a 4 storey building. Needless to say, it works every time.

Wetbench4

To Op, this happened to me with a few games i had when i first got the xbox. It turned out that when the xbox was switched on and you moved it, even a tiny bit, deep circular scratches appeared on the game and it wouldn't work.
I don't know if you moved it while it was on or not but that's what caused it for me, and now its practically glued onto the shelf and I haven't had a single broken game.

evad_lhorg

I see this happen a lot with discs where I work from xboxes. most cases are simply to not have it standing up right and keep it flat on solid ground. And not to move it when it is on. If not, it is a defective machine and you are within your rights to get a new one. Gamestop must replace it if it is within the year warranty but they are cnuts for doing this sort of thing.

carlrac

Ye same thing happened me but i bought it in the tesco where i worked at the time so they replaced it no hassle (and i forgot to put the controller in the box while returning it )

It's a horrible feeling on christmas morning when you fire up the xbox for the eagerly anticipated first time and it grinds like an drill is going through a brand new game!
But basically what i'm saying is i experienced the exact same problem as the OP and it is a known fault so be more authoritative with the gamestop manager or fake RROD as suggested by someone else until it gets replaced. Have my new one over a year now, its always laid flat, and still works fine.