Xbox 360 scratching discs? Maybe, says Microsoft
So far the Xbox 360 has had its fair share of hardware problems, both large and small, and while Microsoft has dealt with most of these challenges by extending warranties and offering up free fixes, it usually takes its own sweet time to come around, which seems to be the case here. After completely ignoring a minor public outcry over what appeared to be a problem with a decent number of the 360s produced in December 2006 -- where a missing part in the drive caused the Xbox to scratch the disc it was reading -- Microsoft is finally confessing that there might actually be a problem and promising to look into it. This statement comes after Dutch TV show "Kassa" gave the movement some PR and ran its own tests on the 360, proving it to be the scratching culprit. Microsoft's still pretty wishy-washy about the whole thing: [Via gadgetzone.nl]
Update: Microsoft hit us with its actual statement on the matter, since a bit of the meaning got lost in translation. The truth is a bit more encouraging: "Due to the fact that we did not participate in the experiment done by Kassa and have little insight into the methodology that was used, we cannot comment specifically on the outcome. While we are aware that discs can potentially be scratched through normal wear and tear, we have not received any widespread reports of the issue highlighted here. There are millions of Xbox consoles in use today and we know that the majority of our customers are having a great gaming experience. That said, it is important to us that all of our customers have the best gaming experiences possible, and these claims are obviously very concerning to us. We encourage any Xbox customer who believes that their discs have been scratched in the same manner as identified by KASSA, to contact us at www.xbox.com/supportor 1-800-4-MY-XBOX for additional information. We will examine the console and make appropriate repairs if necessary in order to restore the console to full working order, as well as provide customers with information on how to obtain replacement discs should they need them."
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
FrankTheCrank @ Apr 16th 2007 12:11PM
Ring of death...
Scratching discs...
$6.29 for three songs(GH2)
WHAT A PIECE OF CRAP!
Frankenstein Black @ Apr 16th 2007 12:11PM
Has anyone ever conducted a side by side 360 vs PS3 problem comparison?
It would be interesting. Anyone care to list a quick problem chart?
LongshotX @ Apr 16th 2007 4:20PM
I know a nasty PS3 problem, it's called NO GAMES!!!!
Jon @ Apr 16th 2007 12:13PM
One of many problems I hope they fix with the Elite.
tiuk @ Apr 16th 2007 2:05PM
I don't expect a single thing to be fixed with the Elite. Eventually maybe fixes will be made, but if they are they'll be applied to all consoles being manufactured at that time (white or black).
Robert Preseau @ Apr 16th 2007 12:16PM
What is that thing in the picture for this thread?
tid @ Apr 16th 2007 12:41PM
Its a disc destroyer as someone just said, it makes your data unreadable. Kind of pointless - i prefer snapping the disc a few times personally.
I had a launch console, and within a month it scratched PGR3 so bad it was no longer playable. When i rang the support line i was told by some American woman sat in America that it was because most houses in Britain are unstable and this caused vibrations which were the cause of my disc scratching. Honestly, i know 3 year olds that talk more sense.
Grant @ Apr 16th 2007 12:22PM
lol @ the disc destroyer image.
zacksonneborn @ Apr 16th 2007 12:32PM
FrankTheCrank - Sony called, they want their nuts back
CBMTTek @ Apr 16th 2007 12:36PM
Why the surprise. It is just another form of DRM
jake @ Apr 16th 2007 12:37PM
Is there any more specific information on which units are supposedly defective? I got my 360 around Christmas, but I haven't really played it enough to know if it damages discs...
Chapman @ Apr 16th 2007 12:58PM
Must be all those earthquakes that we DON'T get that shakes houses. What an amusing response. Don't accept they have a problem and blame the house!
ryan @ Apr 16th 2007 7:17PM
if anyone who ever purchased any piece of equipment ever read the manuals then 95% of all problems with these said devices would never occur. if you read even the quick start of the xbox 360 console that is on top of the console and also the warning in the box, you would know that you are not supposed to move the 360 from vertical to horizontal while the console is on. this causes the spinning disc to tilt and touch a nearby component of the dvd drive, causing the scratch during the spin. This makes it look like a ring of death. i think we should call it a ring of stupidity because the only way to achieve such a ring is to be really quite dumb.
Tid @ Apr 17th 2007 12:05PM
@Ryan about the fact I should of read the manual.
I did. My console has never ever been in the vertical position since i got it, neither have I intentionally moved it with a disc in. I'd appreciate it if you kept your wild assumptions to yourself in future.
Maestro @ Apr 16th 2007 12:42PM
I'm a big proponent of the Xbox 360. It is not however, without it's flaws. I mean how hard is it to put a decent dvd-rom drive in to the console? I built my own PC and the dvd drive is way quieter. I would hope they know a bit more about hardware than I.
McGinley @ Apr 16th 2007 1:43PM
A couple of rubber washers do the trick!
SH @ Apr 16th 2007 12:47PM
Looks like planned obsolescence to me.
JinKazama @ Apr 16th 2007 12:53PM
Friend of mine fell victim to this, mind you this man still has his NES, GENESIS, Dreamcast...all in pristine condition all still playable. He's had discs for years without as much as a piece lint on them.
He noticed his 360 games getting scratched and some becoming unplayable, called up MS and got the, "it must be something you're doing treatment." I'll admit even I thought no way is the console scratching the games. Knowing him I thought the case or something may be doing it. Guess he was right.
jimhuf @ Apr 16th 2007 12:56PM
Iv never seen a single scratch on any of my games. i have my console standing up and iv heard it will scratch if you move the console while its spinning the disc so the solution seems quite simple - dont move the console!
Bill S @ Apr 16th 2007 6:27PM
Got o the MS website, they will replace it for you, it's a new program that started a few weeks ago.
WTangoFoxtrot @ Apr 16th 2007 1:20PM
Ive had a console fr only 3 months now and ive already lost one game - Gears of War :(
Brandon @ Apr 16th 2007 1:31PM
Xbox360 Disc Replacement Program
http://www.xbox-scene.com/xbox1data/sep/EEZVVZEyEVuJycZeaV.php
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/systemuse/xbox360/gameplay/discreplacement-program.htm
Shmoe @ Apr 16th 2007 1:40PM
Quiet fans and a quiet drive that doesn't scratch discs with slot loading and gigabit ethernet is what the 360 needs.
Chris @ Apr 16th 2007 1:53PM
$20 to replace a disc? Nice "disk replacement" program...NOT.
A "DVD" game wouldn't cost NEAR that much to produce (for a replacement).
So, they are basically making $$ off of a DEFECT in their DVD drive.
I agree with Maestro - how hard could it have been to put a descent DVD player in the system? It's not like it's cutting edge like a HD-DVD or bluray.
Mak @ Apr 16th 2007 1:59PM
Not as bad as a GH2 patch bricking your console, or the 30% failure rates I suppose, but still not good...
Still I suppose if you rush a product to market and employ aload of Mexicans to throw aload of cheapo components into a white box, it's hradly suprising the 360 has all these problems. Infact it's suprising the 360 works at all...
Darren Wilson @ Apr 16th 2007 4:03PM
"Still I suppose if you rush a product to market and employ aload of Mexicans to throw aload of cheapo components into a white box, "
You mean like Apple do???? LOL
M Burke @ Jun 5th 2007 2:58PM
They're not fixed with the elite... mine just ate my Marvel Alliance game.
Nerath @ Apr 16th 2007 2:07PM
I Had this exact problem with my old Xbox as well as the 360. I always take the games straight out of the machine and back into the case after use. THEY cost a fortune for a circle of plastic and metal.
My 360 has rendered my Gears of War Campaign unplayable. The old box killed stacks of games in its time.
Pretty average if you ask me.
ssuk @ Apr 16th 2007 3:07PM
Protip: read the sticker that comes on the front of the 360 drive. It says, do NOT move the console while there's a disc in the drive. Whether the console is on or not. Problems while the console is stationary are a concern though.
As for those saying they hope the problem is fixed in the Elite, well... They're fixed right now. I got my 360 in November '06 and I've had 0 problems with it standing upright or lying down flat. I don't see why Microsoft hasn't investigated this issue until now though.
sycks @ Apr 16th 2007 3:32PM
From the blurb...
"After completely ignoring a minor public outcry over what appeared to be a problem with a decent number of the 360s produced in DECEMBER 2006 -- where a missing part in the drive caused the Xbox to scratch the disc it was reading"
So its not fixed.
nes @ Apr 16th 2007 3:52PM
I bought mine late December and am relieved to find out i'm not crazy. Gears and my NHL 07 both have been scratched pretty bad from my own 360! Hopefully we get compensated.
David @ Apr 16th 2007 4:02PM
I have a 360 and I have yet to get any problems yet. The problems seem to be with the early models that came out. I never buy a new system within the first year it comes out, there are usually problems.
David,
americanlegends.info
bobartig @ Apr 16th 2007 4:05PM
After spending about 600 hours with an X360 in 5 months, I'm convinced that some xbox 360's have problems being played vertically.
Placed vertically, both of my 360's got read error probably twice a day. This stopped immediately when I placed them horizontal.
My housemate with a retail x360 was getting read errors from a brand new Dead Rising disc (he's currently playing the hell out of it) about once a day. I placed the console horizontally, and there hasn't been one in over a week.
Matt B @ Apr 16th 2007 4:07PM
It is comforting to know that I can leave my blu-ray discs laying about without worrying about a scratch.
Sam @ Apr 16th 2007 4:17PM
I have lost gears of war to this problem TWICE. IF my Xbox 360 is tilted even ever so slightly while it is on i hear RGRGRHRHHRGRGRRRRR and i quickly eject my disc to see a deep and perfectly circular scratch around the edge of my disk, rendering it unplayable until i take it to a store and get it fixed. Also just the other day i was playing GoW and my sister hit the power cord of my 360, causing it to fall over. At this time i opened the disk drive to find that the 360 had EATEN my game. I had to use many tools to pry a now unusable GoW disk from the innards of that Microsoft disk eating monster.
sycks @ Apr 16th 2007 4:36PM
That would be funny if it was true, unfortunately being April now there are games for the PS3, and plenty, maybe not ones you want to play but they are out there...
But I understand when something is funny, unfortunately not everyone who reads can tell the difference between a fact and a joke or even an exaggeration.
James @ Apr 16th 2007 4:30PM
From Brandon's link:
The following game titles are currently available for this program:
* Crackdown™
* Fuzion Frenzy 2
* Gears Of War®
* Halo® 2
* Kameo™: Elements of Power™
* Ninety Nine Nights™
* Perfect Dark Zero™
* Project Gotham Racing® 3
* Viva Piñata™
* Xbox Live® Arcade Unplugged Vol. 1
So, not only do you have to *pay* to get the disc replaced (which, if the subject article is true, is through no fault of your own), you can only get certain games replaced. Not really a "solution", if you ask me.
Zeus the God @ Apr 16th 2007 4:33PM
I have a tip for all of those who have this problem:
Don't move your Xbox while it's running a disc.
The fault lies with the customer, not MicroSoft.
dito @ Apr 16th 2007 4:40PM
I borrowed an XBox for 5 days and finished Gears Of War.
I would have finished in 3 days if I didn't have to reset it and clean the disc every 20 minutes.
And they were both new, the disc looked fine and such...
James @ Apr 16th 2007 4:47PM
Zeus: RTFA. Microsoft has done their own testing and determined that on certain machines, *a part was missing* that caused discs to scratch with extended use, not through any fault of the user's. It is, in fact, Microsoft's fault, at least in those cases.
I, for one, would make an argument that even if a scratch was caused when the user moved the Xbox while the disc was spinning, that's *still* Microsoft's fault, at least to some extent -- why has that never happened on my PS2, or my original Xbox, or any of my 3 laptops? Certainly my laptop DVD drive is capable of everything the 360 drive can do.
"Fault tolerance" is an important aspect of any consumer good, and having a drive that needs to be shock-mounted and immersed in non-conducting oil just to make sure it doesn't twitch 1/96th of an inch to run "properly" is, in fact, a bad product. Microsoft *should* have picked up the problem in testing and either modified the drives or chosen a different supplier; failing that, they should have had a BIG BOLD WARNING LABEL (apparently there was one, but I don't remember seeing it when I bought mine?) warning the users not to touch the machine while a disc was in use. I have not been bitten by this yet, but in an era where they keep you from backing up content at gunpoint, I don't want to wait around quietly until it happens.
E. Martin @ Apr 16th 2007 4:49PM
Some XBOXes have a DVD-player without measures to prevent the lens from scratching the DVD (which other DVD-players do have).
Here's the broadcast (in Dutch, ofcourse):
http://kassa.vara.nl/portal?_scr=kassa_artikel&number=3183097
And the follow up:
http://kassa.vara.nl/portal?_scr=kassa_artikel&number=3227123
James @ Apr 16th 2007 5:00PM
Even in PC DVDROM drives, I've experienced scratched discs. You know what the culprit was? The discs themselves. Some are warped slightly and out of balanced and you can tell when the discs spin up to speed that the sound is not right. Why do they balance tires? So they will wear evenly and run smooth. Just because something is round doesn't mean it's perfectly balanced.
James @ Apr 16th 2007 5:04PM
Oh yeah, none of my XBOX360 games are scratched.
I'll bet that those that have scratched 360 discs also have scratched music CDs, movie DVDs, etc. I'll also bet that they hold their discs like frisbees.
Zac Turney @ Apr 16th 2007 5:06PM
I had this problem with them when I first bought my system. It took me forever to get them to address the problem. Finally when I documented everything on a web-page they replaced my system. Check page for the whole story.
http://www.zacturney.com/miscfiles/xbox360.html
Spinpsycle @ Apr 16th 2007 5:16PM
Its true! Finally, validation! Love my crackbox but have to get the EBgames insurance because my 360 cuts regular grooves in the discs it spins. Typically I just play GRAW2 so I hardly ever change discs, but the drive plows troughs in my games.
John @ Apr 16th 2007 5:19PM
Yeah one of my friends' Xbox 360's scratched up my Halo 2 disc so badly that there's now a permanent ring around the outside, and it no longer works on my Xbox.
When I called Microsoft, they tried to say it was something wrong with my Xbox, and not the 360. I told them over and over again that a 360 had scratched it, but the customer service rep said that there was no way MS was replacing the disk.
=(
Pooka @ Apr 16th 2007 6:32PM
Well, considering the machine only scratches discs through user stupidity... I don't see how this is such a big issue. The only times I have heard of a 360 scratching discs is when the user moves it between vertical and horizontal with a disc in the drive. It very clearly states in the owners manual not to do such. It's also just common sense. I think microsoft has done a fine job of (eventually) owning up to the issues the 360 has had, and they have taken steps to correct those issues as well. If people aren't smart enough to follow directions, they deserve what they get.
M Burke @ Jun 5th 2007 3:02PM
Bite me. "User stupidity" = putting the machine upright as shown in nearly every commercial, ad, etc? I don't think YOU should be calling anyone else "stupid."
Burst Aneurysm @ Apr 16th 2007 6:43PM
My copy of GH2 suffered a sudden circular scratch and is now unplayable.
The disc hadn't left the console since I got it. Now I have a $90 game that I can't use.
Jack @ Apr 16th 2007 7:35PM
When people say ring of death they are referring to this
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&um=1&hl=en&safe=off&q=xbox+ring+of+death&btnG=Search+Images
Read my entry, the machine has flaws and they are not always caused by user error.. I love my 360, I just wish I didn't have to go through 3 of them before I found one that worked correctly..