I’m sure everyone is already familiar with the many hardware problems that have plagued the 360 so there’s no need to go over them here. However, imagine my surprise when the first problem I had with the system wasn’t the fabled RROD but disc reading issues. Whenever I put a 360 game in the system I get the white screen with the error message telling me to “put this disc in an Xbox 360 console”. (Let’s double check, I’m not accidentally putting it in the toaster am I? Hmm… nope, it’s definitely the right machine.) If I reboot enough times usually the game will eventually run, but sometimes I just get frustrated and decide to go do something else instead. I also have a PS3 that is, consequentially, getting a lot more use these days.
I’ve done some cursory research on disc reading issues with the 360 and it seems that the laser lens might be scratched. But the strange thing is I’ve tested the machine with my original Xbox games and regular DVD movies and they’ve booted up the first time, no problem at all. If the laser lens was scratched wouldn’t that affect all discs, not just the 360 games exclusively? Or am I way off base on this and there’s some sort of physical difference between 360 games and other dvds?
I hate to use you guys as tech support but the issue seems to be getting worse. Is this a known problem? Any advice short of sending it back to MS and losing it for a month, or chucking the damn thing out the window and wasting another $200 on a console I’ve already purchased once? :mad:
Well, I’m off to play Rock Band 2 on my PS3 instead of the copy of Too Human that I purchased yesterday because the damn thing won’t boot up tonight. (It ran fine last night…)
there is a fundamental difference between the medium Xbox games and DVDs (DVD format) are printed on and the medium X360 games (and wii games) are printed on (DVD9, or DVD-DL format). DVD9 is a dual layered DVD, so I can imagine circumstances where a laser might have problems reading a dual layer but be alright reading a single layer disc.
That said, if you’re laser is scratched you might be SOL. It may just need a good cleaning (I’ve never heard of this problem, though, so I don’t really know) but getting your system open is a pain in the ass and it voids the warranty (my system is years beyond its warranty, though, so I have no worries in doing such things). Best bet might be to just send it back if it’s still under warranty (which by your post I assume it is) and tell MS the problem. If all it’ll take is a disc drive swap it might not be a month, but I really have no experience with MS tech support so I dunno
Thanks for the reply PopeJewish. I should have specified the age of the system in my OP. It’s not new. I originally purchased it back in early 2007 and it worked fine for well over a year. This problem first cropped up some time in… I’m thinking late September in '08. I know by the time I was playing Fallout 3 in November it was an issue. I don’t know what MS’s warranty policy is, but it’s probably long since passed. It looks like I’m off to MS’s site to see what a repair is gonna cost me…
Quick question though if anyone would be kind enough to answer… I ran a dry drive cleaning disc through the system once and it hasn’t helped. Would a wet variety be better? Or would that possibly damage the system more? I’m hesitant to do anything too drastic at the moment because the console does still work. I finally got Too Human to run and I’ve been playing it for an hour now. (That’s another strange thing. Once the game is up it runs without a problem. It’s just the initial booting process that’s inconsistent.)
I should also note that I might have come off a tad negative in my OP. I like the 360. I played GTA 4 and, as I said, Fallout 3 on it and Mass Effect is one of my all time favorite games. I’ve owned pretty much every major gaming console dating back to the original NES and this is the first system I’ve had these kind of problems with. It’s just frustrating.
wet might work a little better, but a scratch is a scratch (if that’s the problem) so not much can help that. I’d check the price of the repair cause if you’re system is over a year old and it’s not RRODing then I don’t think it’ll be covered by MS’s warranty (though I’m not sure, look into it). Basically if the laser’s scratched, there’s not much to be done short of replacing the lens. check out a repair cost and stuff (definitely mail MS about it)
My 360 console is having a similar problem. It also will occasionally make a grinding noise while you’re playing and then give a disc read error. I got tired of it last week and called Microsoft’s support number.
I’ll spare most of the details but it was one of the worst calls to support I’ve ever made. After giving my console serial number and home telephone number three times, I got to start the troubleshooting phase. I described the problem much the same as above and the tech actually asked me if my television was on the right channel.
Long story short, it’s going to cost $120 if I set up the repair over the phone or $100 if I set it up over the internet. Since I want a bigger hard drive anyway, I think I’m just going to go get a whole new console with my tax refund.
I’m wary of used ones and at Gamestop you don’t really save that much vs the cost of a new one. You might want to consider getting the Arcade bundle without the HD and just install your old HD onto the new machine. I briefly considered doing that myself.
