# Why won't "Mercenaries" work on my friend's XBOX?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wont-mercenaries-work-on-my-friends-xbox/293793>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 10, 2005, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wont-mercenaries-work-on-my-friends-xbox/293793 "2005-03-10T05:21:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Merl\_Minnozza](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b3f665/32.png) [@Merl\_Minnozza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merl_Minnozza)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wont-mercenaries-work-on-my-friends-xbox/293793/1 "2005-03-10T05:21:58Z")

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Another technical question (sorry,) this one about the XBOX game console.

I have “Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction” and it works just fine on my xbox. My friend’s system, though, won’t play it; it makes a rattling noise in the tray and loud clicks while trying to load. Then the screen goes black and it says the disc is “dirty or damaged.”

I bought the lens cleaning kit, and put it in the Xbox tray and cleaned it like i was supposed to. Didn’t help. I cleaned the disc in their SCAM disc-cleaner which SCRATCHED IT UP WORSE THAN BEFORE! Of course this didn’t help either.

I know that this guy’s Xbox is old and he bought it used. What, besides the lens (which I supposedly cleaned) could be causing this loading problem?

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**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wont-mercenaries-work-on-my-friends-xbox/293793/2 "2005-03-10T05:43:42Z")

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Best guess: Dust. Buy a can of [compressed air](http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog%5Fname=CTLG&product%5Fid=64-4345) and blow it vigorously into the XBOX DVD drive.

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**Author:** ![Darwins\_Finch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darwins_finch/32/20304_2.png) [@Darwins\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darwins_Finch)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wont-mercenaries-work-on-my-friends-xbox/293793/3 "2005-03-10T06:28:08Z")

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> [@Merl Minnozza](#):
>
> I have “Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction” and it works just fine on my xbox. My friend’s system, though, won’t play it; it makes a rattling noise in the tray and loud clicks while trying to load. Then the screen goes black and it says the disc is “dirty or damaged.”

I had that problem. Turns out the DVD drive (a Thomson drive) crapped out. I bought a new drive (a Samsung, this time) for it, and it runs perfectly now.

See [this site](http://www.xbox-linux.org/Xbox_DVD_Drive_Identification_HOWTO) to determine if your friend might have a dreaded Thomson drive.

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**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-wont-mercenaries-work-on-my-friends-xbox/293793/4 "2005-03-10T13:19:49Z")

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Yup, Thompson drive problem. Mine died four months ago. Tell your friend he should look into replacing it.

There are many very good online resources for replacing XBox components. Be warned that it voids the warranty, but I’m guessing your friend’s box is way past its warranty period anyway.