My Xbox Murdered my Game

[Blatherscythe]

I was playing my copy of Fallout: New Vegas on my Xbox and had been playing for maybe 2-3 hours, after clearing a room and preparing to head into the next one my game froze. Since that's par for the course in a Bethesda game I turned it off and got ready to redo the entire area from my autosave. I couldn't.

For some reason the disk wouldn't read, so I popped it out and put it back in, same screen saying the disk wouldn't read. So yet again I popped it out and surveyed the damage, my jaw dropped. The Xbox left a half circle scratch across the game disk with whatever it uses to read disks. I tried to rinse it, hoping it was a smudge, the scratch was still there. I tried to get it to work again and go that same damn screen.

I was furious, if I wasn't at my grandmothers at the time I would have lost it in a rage of hurled cursewords and damnations upon Microsoft. I personally feel that they owe me for their system damaging my disk, but I know they'd worm their way out of it with some sort of bullshit in the owners manual or something. I can't get it replaced either, even if I had the disk insurance and the recipt I bought the game on day one so the insurance would have expired and they wouldn't be obligated to help me.

So if this has happened to you what would you do? If you were in this situation what would you do? I don't know of any store that does disk repair and I am open to buying a used copy (doesn't hurt the company I bought a copy already). Any suggestions? Heck, even sharing stories like this would be nice.

 

[Dr. Whiggs]

Did you move the console while the game was running? 'Cause that'd do it.

 

[hazabaza1]

I got that on my Fable 2 disc. If the console shakes the tiniest bit it apparently goes into "fuck yo shit up" mode.

 

[Gralian]

I used to have scratched disc problems now and then. Don't get it so much nowadays as i found the smartest thing to do is always install the game you're playing or know you'll be playing for a long time into your HDD. That way it only has to spin for the duration of the installation (well look at that, i'm a poet and i don't know it!) as opposed to the many hours it spins during gameplay.

One solution i tried way back in the ps2 era was this 'disc fixer' sold by Game, which involved putting some sort of fluid on the disc, then sticking the disc on a tray with a sponge type thing pressing firmly on it, and you turn a crank which rotates the disc while the sponge supposedly presses this magical disc-fixing fluid onto the disc, and you do this enough times and the scratches would supposedly fade. They never did - not significantly anyway and to this day my copy of GTA3 does not work.

However one local store called 'Gamestation' has a machine that can clean discs and fixes scratches, or so i've been told. I once bought a used game from them, and as the lady went to put the disc in the case, she examined it and said it was a little scratched and she'd fix it up for me free of charge. So i wanted a couple of minutes, got it back, went home and played it. The game worked just fine, so either the scratch wasn't a big deal or this machine was able to fix or buffer it out. Either way, if you live in the UK i'd suggest seeing if your Gamestation has such a machine or look for a store that offers a similar service. Otherwise; you're out of luck, friend. You'll have to buy another copy.

 

[Scabadus]

I can go one better than scratching a disk, my computer once blew up my copy of Yuri's Revenge. I was just playing a verses match against the computer when there was an enourmous bang from the computer and the game froze. I thought the computer had (violently) died, but I was able to quit to the desktop. I opened the CD drive the the CD itself poured out onto the floor; most of it was just dust, with a few larger fragments embeded inside the drive itself.

Half an hour with a screwdriver and pair of tweasers later, I'd gotten the biggest bits out of the drive and it was usable again, but the CD itself was way beyond any repair.

I was too shocked to be angry in the minutes after it happened, and by the time I realised I should be annoyed at my copy of the game being destroyed I was past the RARGH KILL stage.

 

[New Troll]

I get this all the time, that's why when I sell a system, especially a 360, I always recommend to the customer to lay it down, never stand it up on it's end. A LOT less likely to scratch up a disc that way.

For some reason my company insists on displaying our demos up on end, and it never fails that a disc will get scratched at least once a month. Almost always from the 360 too, though the Wii and PS3 have also killed a game or two.

 

[Sticky Squid]

Long rant that my post has nothing to do with

Is your avatar from purple and brown?

 

[thejadefalcon]

I can go one better than scratching a disk, my computer once blew up my copy of Yuri's Revenge. I was just playing a verses match against the computer when there was an enourmous bang from the computer and the game froze. I thought the computer had (violently) died, but I was able to quit to the desktop. I opened the CD drive the the CD itself poured out onto the floor; most of it was just dust, with a few larger fragments embeded inside the drive itself.

Half an hour with a screwdriver and pair of tweasers later, I'd gotten the biggest bits out of the drive and it was usable again, but the CD itself was way beyond any repair.

I was too shocked to be angry in the minutes after it happened, and by the time I realised I should be annoyed at my copy of the game being destroyed I was past the RARGH KILL stage.

Well, duh! It's because it was too awesome for your PC to handle!

Seriously though, what the hell...? I don't even think I want to know what caused that (looks at my copy with worry). Err... any way to back it up?

 

[NintendHo]

However one local store called 'Gamestation' has a machine that can clean discs and fixes scratches, or so i've been told. I once bought a used game from them, and as the lady went to put the disc in the case, she examined it and said it was a little scratched and she'd fix it up for me free of charge. So i wanted a couple of minutes, got it back, went home and played it. The game worked just fine, so either the scratch wasn't a big deal or this machine was able to fix or buffer it out. Either way, if you live in the UK i'd suggest seeing if your Gamestation has such a machine or look for a store that offers a similar service. Otherwise; you're out of luck, friend. You'll have to buy another copy.

I work for a small chain of gaming stores in Virginia and we have one of those machines. It works great at buffing the games out. It uses a set of pads with descending-coarseness sandpaper and then a round of polish at the end. It works like a champ for everything except for PS3/BD discs. Those we can't do period.

Anyway, it is called an Edge machine and most small-time game stores have them. We have a Gamestop up the street and they always send their dissatisfied customers to me to fix the useless discs that Gamestop so frequently sells.

 

[Scabadus]

I can go one better than scratching a disk, my computer once blew up my copy of Yuri's Revenge. I was just playing a verses match against the computer when there was an enourmous bang from the computer and the game froze. I thought the computer had (violently) died, but I was able to quit to the desktop. I opened the CD drive the the CD itself poured out onto the floor; most of it was just dust, with a few larger fragments embeded inside the drive itself.

Half an hour with a screwdriver and pair of tweasers later, I'd gotten the biggest bits out of the drive and it was usable again, but the CD itself was way beyond any repair.

I was too shocked to be angry in the minutes after it happened, and by the time I realised I should be annoyed at my copy of the game being destroyed I was past the RARGH KILL stage.

Well, duh! It's because it was too awesome for your PC to handle!

Seriously though, what the hell...? I don't even think I want to know what caused that (looks at my copy with worry). Err... any way to back it up?

It was a very awsome game on a very old and un-awsome PC. I saw an episode of Mythbusters a couple of years later that may shed some light on it; if the CD spins too fast it can shatter through certrifugal force. If the CD's made of sub-par materiels or has a chip in just the wrong place, the speed needed is much lower.

As for backing it up... well, I'll vaugly mention CD rips and virtual drives here, I'm not sure of the legality of such things and I'm not after a ban, so I'll let you do your own research. Morally though... hey, it's your game. Copying it for a personal backup isn't the most evil thing in the world.

 

[newwiseman]

This is why I never used my xbox in the upright position.

Just go buy a disc grinder, they're always nice to have on hand, and swap out the stock disc drive in the xbox for one that won't eat disks. As I recall Samsung has drives that work plug and play style without any issue.

 

[Kingsnake661]

It's possible to buff out surface scratch for a CD. They can even be "fairly" deep and it'll work, sometimes. There's a kit you can buy, and some game stores offer the service. I had the kit for years, and have "repaired" a few of my older games. My old sega cd was NOTORIES for scratching the crap out of my game CD's. Lost my lunar 2 game that way, way way back. (Found one at a used game store, a few months back, an original lunar 2, in really nice shape, for like, 25 bucks? I jumped at that! LOL.)

Just FYI. It might be fixable. And, well, as for it happening... how does the old saying god... @#$@ happens... not much you can do about it....

 

[KiKiweaky]

Not trying to be a tramp or anything but if you have an asshat side you could rent a working copy and do a little switch with your dead disk for the working one. Your proably right on the microsoft bit, trying to get them to help would be like attempting to get blood from a stone :/

 

[garfoldsomeoneelse]

Hah, yeah, my buddy's 360 slim got knocked over by his cat and it decimated my copy of Fallout 3 with a ton of tightly-packed concentric scratches. He is my bro, though, so if you're asking what I did about it, the answer is nothing.

 

[Dr. Whiggs]

Rather than buying a kit, just take the game and receipt back to where you got it. If they're reputable and you didn't buy too long ago, just explain what happened and they'll probably replace it.

 

[Hong Meiling]

Yeah what a bummer! I know a guy that this happened to. Very frustrating.
I don't get it? There is CD Walkman players that does not have the same problem at all.

 

[Kaytastrophe]

I was playing my copy of Fallout: New Vegas on my Xbox and had been playing for maybe 2-3 hours, after clearing a room and preparing to head into the next one my game froze. Since that's par for the course in a Bethesda game I turned it off and got ready to redo the entire area from my autosave. I couldn't.

For some reason the disk wouldn't read, so I popped it out and put it back in, same screen saying the disk wouldn't read. So yet again I popped it out and surveyed the damage, my jaw dropped. The Xbox left a half circle scratch across the game disk with whatever it uses to read disks. I tried to rinse it, hoping it was a smudge, the scratch was still there. I tried to get it to work again and go that same damn screen.

I was furious, if I wasn't at my grandmothers at the time I would have lost it in a rage of hurled cursewords and damnations upon Microsoft. I personally feel that they owe me for their system damaging my disk, but I know they'd worm their way out of it with some sort of bullshit in the owners manual or something. I can't get it replaced either, even if I had the disk insurance and the recipt I bought the game on day one so the insurance would have expired and they wouldn't be obligated to help me.

So if this has happened to you what would you do? If you were in this situation what would you do? I don't know of any store that does disk repair and I am open to buying a used copy (doesn't hurt the company I bought a copy already). Any suggestions? Heck, even sharing stories like this would be nice.

I think Blockbuster does disk repair. If not try second hand shops (pawnshops, hockshops) they usually have ways of dealing with this sort of thing. You could also try and call Microsoft and just ***** them out until they do something (you never know). I've also heard you could use toothpaste a means of repairing disks (never tried it so I don't know). Lastly is the dirty underhanded route. Go to gamestop buy another copy of fallout get the insurance a couple days later go back with your game the way it is and use your insurance. Get another copy of fallout and sell it on ebay or something and get some money back. Dirty and underhanded: perhaps. Will it work: yeah. good luck.

 

[Shotgun Sam]

I can go one better than scratching a disk, my computer once blew up my copy of Yuri's Revenge. I was just playing a verses match against the computer when there was an enourmous bang from the computer and the game froze. I thought the computer had (violently) died, but I was able to quit to the desktop. I opened the CD drive the the CD itself poured out onto the floor; most of it was just dust, with a few larger fragments embeded inside the drive itself.

Half an hour with a screwdriver and pair of tweasers later, I'd gotten the biggest bits out of the drive and it was usable again, but the CD itself was way beyond any repair.

I was too shocked to be angry in the minutes after it happened, and by the time I realised I should be annoyed at my copy of the game being destroyed I was past the RARGH KILL stage.

This, this is exactly what happened to me about 8 years ago. I had my StarCraft CD loaded in my computer and was playing along happily when it suddenly blew up. I couldn't even get the CD drive open at first, but with enough shaking I finally got the drive open and my beloved StarCraft CD poured out onto the floor. But sure enough, after cleaning out the drive it kept working fine... although I'm always checking to make sure my CDs aren't cracked before loading them.

 

[demoman_chaos]

My friend's 360 melted the inside of the Gears of War disc (I forget if it was 1 or 2), and then Fable 2 instakilled his disc drive. He popped Fable 2 in, and it said disc read error. Nothing else would work anymore.