PlayStation 4 Disc Drive Making a Concerning Noise -- Some Games Not Installing

Gamer Bhoy 89

Problem fixed, see bottom of thread.

This is going to be a bit of a lengthy post, please bear with me.
Last Summer, my PS4 began making this worrying noise in the drive -- it happened when I tried to reinstall a game (Horizon Zero Dawn, to be precise).

The best way I can describe it is: it sounded like the disc drive was revving up, then revving back down, in half a second intervals, and in some occasions, after about 5 minutes I would get a message saying the disc could "not be read" and to check and make sure it wasn't dirty.

The message looks like this (not my picture)

(That message wouldn't always come up, and when it did, the game would have to be actually on and being played for it to happen. Some games can be played while being installed in the background and usually it was those games that gave me that message)

Concerned, I checked the disc itself. It was immaculate, which I expected, as all of my games are well looked after - I have never owned a broken PS4 game on a day of purchase, nor has a game ever stopped working after time, and I have a lot of physical games for this system. After confirming to myself that the disc was fine, I tried another game -- Mass Effect Andromeda. The exact same thing happened. The game would not install and it made the exact same noise. So I looked at the disc, and it was also clean and not a mark was on it.

I tried to install one other game to be sure that this was the PS4 doing this and not the discs. So I installed No Man's Sky. It installed without a hiccup.

Other games that successfully installed were;

- Final Fantasy XV
- Micro Machines World Series
- Watch Dogs
- Grand Theft Auto V
Those were off the top of my head the games that I can confirm fully installed without any problems.

Games that installed after multiple attempts

- Horizon Zero Dawn
- Metal Gear Solid 5: The Definitive Experience

When I say multiple attempts, I mean it eventually managed to install the games almost twice the length it originally took (because of the noise) and I never got the "dirty disc" message.

The last and final game I attempted to install was FIFA 17 and it never did. So I ditched the console and never bought another physical game again. When I did return to it I only bought and played digital games for a while.

This was all between June 2017 and July this year.

I saved up and got myself a new PS4 Pro.

Delighted to be able to buy physical games again, I bought 5 games a week after the PS4, (three were brand new and two were pre-owned) and installed some of the games I wasn't able to install again.
All of the 5 games I bought installed. Some of the games I couldn't install before, finally installed. Then I tried Mass Effect Andromeda again.

There came that noise I dreaded to hear. The game was, I'd say 75% done on the installation when I booted the game to play what was available. I went into the character creation screen and I got that dreaded "dirty disc" message once again. I ejected the disc and looked at it, it still looks 100% clean.
So I tried the following games;
- Horizon Zero Dawn. It installed without an issue.
- Metal Gear Solid. It installed without an issue

Most of my games installed and then I tried DriveClub. It made the noise and failed to install.
Skyrim failed to install
Infamous: Second Son installed longer than usual, the noise still appeared.

And now my recent attempt, Kingdom Hearts 1.5/2.5 Remix, is not installing, and at the moment it's the worst of the lot, as now my disc drive barely trying to spin the disc.

I didn't want to believe that I got ridiculously unlucky so I tried my girlfriend's PS4 - a PS4 that has only played a total of maybe 6 games in its life time, the disc drive barely gets used. I tried some of the games that didn't install on my two PS4s, they didn't install on hers either.

She tried to convince me that my old PS4 had probably damaged the discs to the point of making them no longer readable. I'd be prepared to believe that and take it as an educated guess except Kingdom Hearts was never used on my original PS4 when it started to play up - I had it played and beaten long before that.

She is actually concerned herself now if her PS4 has been f*cked all this time and she never knew - and her warranty is long up.

I am at my wits end now and I don't know what to do. I literally just bought this console over a week ago and I'm heartbroken that I've waited this long to finally be able to play some of my physical games again only to run into the very same, exact issue I had for over a year on the last system.

I have Googled up and down to see if anyone has ever had the same problem with the exact same noise, to no avail. This is my last attempt to get some help or just to get someone to tell me that I'm not the only one that has experienced this, before I make the decision to return it to get fixed or replaced. To those that have had the "disc is dirty" message, all responses to that have been "the disc is probably faulty" or "the disc is probably damaged" and people have sworn by the fact that it is most definitely a disc problem..

I don't know so much anymore........

To clarify:
A total of 3 PS4 systems all making the same noise when trying to install a game and the game failing to install.

I cannot be so unlucky to the point that all 3 PS4s have the same issue - considering two of them were bought in one shop and my newest one was bought in another. How unlucky could I possibly get?? It honestly doesn't make me any more willing to stick with a PS4 ever again, and it hurts me to say that as it's my favourite console right now.

My Kingdom Hearts disc, right now, couldn't be more of a better example of it not possibly being the disc that's damaged. Because that game was bought brand new, in a plastic wrapping, it was unwrapped, installed, and was never taken out until I was done with it. I finished it, uninstalled it, and stored it away again and I never touched it since. My PS4 was working fine at this point and it didn't play up until months later. Now, all of a sudden the same game isn't installing on 3 PS4 systems? I don't understand.............

Here is a video I took of my PS4 trying to install Kingdom Hearts. (It's pretty much a black screen, it's all just for the sound.)

https://youtu.be/nL4clljb8rw


My other last resort is to find one of those games really cheap and just buy it and see if it installs. If it does, I'll reluctantly admit it's the discs themselves (which will still baffle me as my games are mark-less, if that's a word)

Final Clarification.

Games that DID NOT install on any system I tried;

- DriveClub
- Mass Effect Andromeda
- Skyrim
- Kingdom Hearts 1.5/2.5 HD Remix
- FIFA 17*


I haven't tested every single game yet, but I'm actually too scared to even check more of them anymore, I'm already disheartened as it is.

ANY help would be appreciated. Literally any help at all.

Thanks in advance.

* Update:
FIFA 17 Tested - Failed to Install, just like the last PS4

* Update 2:
I tried more games this morning;

- Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
- Assassin's Creed: Unity
- Assassin's Creed: Syndicate
- Ratchet & Clank
- XCOM 2
- Call of Duty WWII
- FIFA 16

All 6 games installed without an issue.

So far the majority of my games have installed - the number of games that have not installed can be counted on one hand.
So I am more hopeful that it's not a console problem with my Pro and my GF's PS4

* Update 3 - Fixed:
I went into town today and repurchased FIFA 17 and Mass Effect Andromeda (and I also picked up Gran Turismo Sport because I was gonna buy it anyway).

- FIFA 17 installed fully, no problems with the drive
- Mass Effect Andromeda, as I write this update, has been installing the last 15-20 minutes and has not hiccuped once. So far, so good, and a massive improvement to the last copy I had. Fingers crossed it goes all the way to the end.

As it stands, I am of the opinion that it was indeed the discs that were the problem and not so much the consoles....... well, I am going to pin the blame on my previous PS4 for possibly damaging the discs in the first place.

I've no use for this thread any more and consider it closed. But can I ask moderators to just let this thread exist and not to delete it entirely, in case anyone else runs into the same issue?

whiterebel

I was getting that on a couple of disks on a fairly new Pro, but there were fingerprints on them, and a good clean sorted it out, although I did hear that repeated spin up/down a few times last night.

DirtyBollox

Have come across this two to three times with games and bluray's.

spin up and down and then just crash to an error and then the home screen. Found out that the console had chipped these discs around the edges, not by much but enough to not be readable.

Wouldn't mind, but like yourself, one of them i had bought new and had never been out of the box.