Disc cracked while playing

Dcully

While my son was playing burnout paradise the game just stopped and said the disc was unreadable.
For some reason the disc has a rather large crack in it about an inch in size and the game is unplayable.
I know the disc was fine previously as its been in the console a few days.
Im wondering why it just cracked,should he not keep discs in the console while not in use? maybe that could have contributed ?
Anything i can do to prevent this from happening with his other games?
Its a 10 month old console and never gave any previous trouble.

muff03

while i've never heard of the console breaking games like this, i had a 360 for three years and had plenty of games scratched so bad by the console that they became unplayable. as for the crack, i'd say it fell or was struck, but i wouldn't be too surprised if the console actually did it.

nothing worse than buying a brand new game, only to find two hours later that they wouldn't accept it back in the shop, because it's so scratched it won't play.

Dcully

muff03 wrote: »

while i've never heard of the console breaking games like this, i had a 360 for three years and had plenty of games scratched so bad by the console that they became unplayable. as for the crack, i'd say it fell or was struck, but i wouldn't be too surprised if the console actually did it.

nothing worse than buying a brand new game, only to find two hours later that they wouldn't accept it back in the shop, because it's so scratched it won't play.

Its an old game but he recently got a new island and new cars for the game.
Looks like ill have to source another one for him.

muff03

played that one to death myself. i found with my 360 that after a year or so, it began to get a little worse for wear. had to send it back with the red ring to microsoft. worked grand for awhile after that, then once it was out of warranty, it decided it was going to wreck all my games. keep an eye on the games while you're using it.

Dcully

muff03 wrote: »

played that one to death myself. i found with my 360 that after a year or so, it began to get a little worse for wear. had to send it back with the red ring to microsoft. worked grand for awhile after that, then once it was out of warranty, it decided it was going to wreck all my games. keep an eye on the games while you're using it.

Its a replacement console after rrod.

muff03

that'd be a reconditioned one so, and there's as much a chance of that happening again as with any other xbox. but hey, you might get lucky and it never happens. its the disk reader that'll do the damage to the games, and thats not covered in the extended warranty.

johnjoe96

what you could do to prevent this from happening is when you put the disc in the drive install it to the harddrive by pressing y on the my xbox and the game screen, and then it will only read permissions from disc. if you dont have a hdd i would seriously invest in one. hope this helps

danois

johnjoe96 wrote: »

what you could do to prevent this from happening is when you put the disc in the drive install it to the harddrive by pressing y on the my xbox and the game screen, and then it will only read permissions from disc. if you dont have a hdd i would seriously invest in one. hope this helps

Can i ask why you do that my son has the elite with 250 hd i think but he never really uses the harddrive cause he doesnt go online at all should i tell him to do that too or is it only for online play??

Thanks

Rob2D

My mate had a disc crack on him before like this. What happened was there was a hairline crack in the disc in the beginning that was barley visible and overtime the crack got bigger with use. So this might be what happened to you.

johnjoe96

danois wrote: »

Can i ask why you do that my son has the elite with 250 hd i think but he never really uses the harddrive cause he doesnt go online at all should i tell him to do that too or is it only for online play??

Thanks

it has nothing to do with online, its just the laser in the xbox is extremly strong and precise if you knock it or move it while the disc is spinning its likley to crack or severly scratch the game(has happened to me before) so xbox brought out a software update so you can save your games on your hdd. you still need the disc in to play them though, it will just read the permissions from it but thats it. it will make your xbox virtually silent during game play too. if you need steps to save the game to hdd just ask. hope this helps.

danois

wow the thoughts of a quiet xbox is bliss sons xbox is at the wall and my bed on the otherside of the wall it wakes me every weekend lol

if you wouldnt mind letting me know how to do it. tell me in small easy steps last games console i played was the atari lol so my son will be well impressed with my new found knowledge

thanks

Myrddin

johnjoe96 wrote: »

it has nothing to do with online, its just the laser in the xbox is extremly strong and precise if you knock it or move it while the disc is spinning its likley to crack or severly scratch the game(has happened to me before) so xbox brought out a software update so you can save your games on your hdd. you still need the disc in to play them though, it will just read the permissions from it but thats it. it will make your xbox virtually silent during game play too. if you need steps to save the game to hdd just ask. hope this helps.

It's actually nothing to do with the laser, it's the lock that usually holds the disc in place during operation that gets weak/fails. I've seen discs getting scratched (perfect circular scratch), but never heard of them physically cracking...prob a design flaw in the disc itself. If it was the laser being too powerful, it would burn/scortch a disc before breaking it.

johnjoe96

danois wrote: »

wow the thoughts of a quiet xbox is bliss sons xbox is at the wall and my bed on the otherside of the wall it wakes me every weekend lol

if you wouldnt mind letting me know how to do it. tell me in small easy steps last games console i played was the atari lol so my son will be well impressed with my new found knowledge

thanks

no problem here we go...

1. turn on xbox with disc in tray, if the game automatically starts press the xbox button on the middle of the controller(between start and back buttons) and press y to return to dashboard.

2. go to my xbox and you will see the game.

3. on that game screen it will say on the bottom left hand corner press a to play game or press y for options. you press y.

4. at the bottom of that screen it will say install game to hdd and just install the game. (it will take a while).

5 once the game is installed you can go back and play the game as normal it will automatically play from hdd making your xbox so quiet you can hear a fly fart.

6. repeat steps for all games your son owns.

ps. if you want to uninstall the game just do the same thing with a game you have installed and instead of install it will say remove or delete or something like that anyway. hope this helps.

johnjoe96

EnterNow wrote: »

It's actually nothing to do with the laser, it's the lock that usually holds the disc in place during operation that gets weak/fails. I've seen discs getting scratched (perfect circular scratch), but never heard of them physically cracking...prob a design flaw in the disc itself. If it was the laser being too powerful, it would burn/scortch a disc before breaking it.

tell that to my halo 3. she suffered an awful fate. you could be right about the lock alright though, i stand corrected.:D

Myrddin

johnjoe96 wrote: »

tell that to my halo 3. she suffered an awful fate. you could be right about the lock alright though, i stand corrected.:D

It happened my Forza 2 disc years ago too. I had the console standing vertically, and it got knocked over onto its side and chewed the disc. I think the disc slips off its lock while spinning and makes contact with something else, thats why the scratch is always circular.

The physically broken disc is a new one on me though As I said, I reckon it's a weak disc or at least something more related to the disc itself as opposed to the console.

Mrdata.

I also had this problem with two different Forza discs. I think the cracks in the middle of the disc came from them being heated up in the xbox over a long gaming session. Then taking the disc out and pressing it into the catch in the case for the game before it had cooled down.