A while back, I discovered that Rock Band 2 was cracked. I figured it might be just a defective disc, and have been trying to get EA to replace it. Then, last night, I heard a weird "clack clack clack" sound from my drive while playing Halo 3. While it might look like I just took a shot of the same disc twice, the top one is Halo 3 and the bottom one is Rock Band 2. The same exact crack. In fact, there's a smaller crack on the opposite side that goes in the same direction on both discs. Since it's near impossible to get the crack to show up in a photo from farther away than 1 inch, I took one shot and drew where there were cracks on 3 games: I tried calling MS that same day, but it was someone in India and they were of the usual no help, denying that Xboxes are capable of breaking discs. Think I can get them to fix my Xbox and replace my discs? Now I'm afraid to put other games into the Xbox, and managed to get someone to lend me Halo 3 so I could copy it and play it for now using the cracked disc. I know for a fact that the Xbox did it because I keep my games in their boxes. And I know for a fact that the Halo 3 did not have that gigantic crack in it before I put it in last night, and it got one right after I heard the sound. I looked at it, tried to load it again, and the crack got bigger. It also resulted in the game not being able to see it's own content: For those of you that don't play Halo, this is only showing DLC maps and one disc map (Narrows) I have no campaign levels. Is this Halo 3 Home Basic? Has anyone had this happen to them? What are the magic words you need to say to get them to acknowledge the problem?

Don't waste your time with tech support. Go to Defcon 5 immediately and start contacting executives.

Yep. Executive e-mail carpet bomb should do it.

Any good sites with the pertinent info or do I have to go dig them up on Microsoft's site? At first I thought it was just a defective disc, but for the same pattern to show up on 3 discs in the course of the last month, after playing Halo 3 constantly for a year or so, sent up red flags for me.

By the way, I had a similar problem shortly before an RRoD. I think it was heat related, not drive mechanics (expansion and contraction.) MS Replaced the console under warranty, but they would not replace my Crackdown disc despite telling me it would be mailed out on two different occasions.

Dvd-readers are not powerful enough to cause cracks (think snopes had a link), but existing cracks can be expanded. But those pictures do make me go wtf How are you storing the discs? Have you dropped the console? (NailbunnyPD mentioned heat, but can the 360 get that hot so it actually expands the discs? I mean its already melted material to begin with).

Here's the format: http://consumerist.com/consumer/how-...omb-259713.php Send emails here: steveb@microsoft.com and here: billg@microsoft.com I'm serious. These are very likely answered by secretaries or assistants, but it's better than someone for whom English isn't their first language. A story of success here: http://consumerist.com/333807/6-mont...-ups-loses-his

Dvd-readers are not powerful enough to cause cracks (think snopes had a link), but existing cracks can be expanded. But those pictures do make me go wtf How are you storing the discs? Have you dropped the console? (NailbunnyPD mentioned heat, but can the 360 get that hot so it actually expands the discs? I mean its already melted material to begin with). One of the things that grab the disc could be defective, which would allow the disc to flex enough at that point to create a crack. Once the crack starts, playing it from that point on would make it worse. Or something. I'm just guessing here. Discs are stored in their boxes. When I take a game out, it goes in a box. The 360 has never been dropped. Also, if I try to run Rock Band 2, it makes the weirdest sound ever when it DREs, like a engine revving up over and over again, and it won't stop until you turn the Xbox off or eject (normally when a 360 DREs, the disc drive suddenly winds down and stops)

Here's the format: http://consumerist.com/consumer/how-...omb-259713.php Send emails here: steveb@microsoft.com and here: billg@microsoft.com I'm serious. These are very likely answered by secretaries or assistants, but it's better than someone for whom English isn't their first language. A story of success here: http://consumerist.com/333807/6-mont...-ups-loses-his Thanks. Will fill this out and see what happens.

It could be that the dealy that holds the disk in place is misaligned and hence puts undue stress on the disc. Edit: sniped... yeah you said it better than I anyway.

This is the email I'm going to send to billg@microsoft.com, steve@microsoft.com, jallard@microsoft.com, rbach@microsoft.com, joeb@microsoft.com, khogan@microsoft.com Dear Sirs/Ma'ams, I am writing to you to inform you that my Halo 3 Xbox 360 console, which I obtained around October of 2007, has begun cracking game discs that I put into it. So far, it has cracked 2 of my games, which are Halo 3 and Rock Band 2. It has begun to crack a third game, Fable 2. All 3 of these games have the same exact crack pattern, which I have detailed in this internet posting: http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showp...40&postcount=1 I have tried to get your customer support line to assist me in this manner, but they either stonewall me or deny the Xbox is capable of doing this. I keep my games in their boxes, and take care of them. This has started to happen over just the past couple of weeks. I cannot get your customer support line to even consider fixing my Xbox, let alone replace my games. Losing over 180$ worth of games because my Xbox decided to break them is not a fun idea. If I cannot get them replaced, I am not going to rebuy them just to have them broken again, and I am not going to spend money on another Xbox to replace a manufacturer defect. There is also the fact that I cannot buy a new Halo Xbox 360, as they were a limited run. As a side effect of this, I can no longer play my hundreds of Rock Band DLC tracks, and cannot buy anymore without spending 60$ to replace the Rock Band 2 disc. I look forward to a reply on this matter, ######### ########@gmail.com (402)###-####

Heh, the mere fact that you bought a Halo 360 ought to catch their attention.

Go to Defcon 5 immediately and start contacting executives. FYI: Defcon 5 is absolute peace on the scale. Defcon 1 is nuclear war.

Go to Defcon 5 immediately and start contacting executives. FYI: Defcon 5 is absolute peace on the scale. Defcon 1 is nuclear war. Maybe Captain K recommends peacefully contacting executives.

Go to Defcon 5 immediately and start contacting executives. FYI: Defcon 5 is absolute peace on the scale. Defcon 1 is nuclear war. Maybe Captain K recommends peacefully contacting executives. Captain K is a man of peace so I believe this to be true.

Go to Defcon 5 immediately and start contacting executives. FYI: Defcon 5 is absolute peace on the scale. Defcon 1 is nuclear war. Maybe Captain K recommends peacefully contacting executives. Captain K is a man of peace so I believe this to be true. Fair enough. I've heard people misuse the defense condition scale before and now it's my sworn duty to correct it. Away!

Well, I recieved an email response... .. in the form of it telling me that my email has been marked as spam and wasn't sent through. What. edit: i modified the email by removing the need for the link, maybe that triggered it. If it doesn't go through this time, we're gong to Defcon 4, emailing it to Kotaku/Consumerist.

My friend had this happen. To more than one game. Hed put it in, play it, then youd hear a sudden cracking and snapping so he freaked out and opened the tray and guess what? His disc was shattered in pieces. This does happen. Its an xbox thing. Although playing games with already existing cracks WILL make them bigger.

Yep, it rejected the email as spam again. Sending to Consumerist/Kotaku.

Go to Defcon 5 immediately and start contacting executives. FYI: Defcon 5 is absolute peace on the scale. Defcon 1 is nuclear war. Maybe Captain K recommends peacefully contacting executives. Captain K is a man of peace so I believe this to be true. Fair enough. I've heard people misuse the defense condition scale before and now it's my sworn duty to correct it. Away! you guys rule

For those of you wondering, this is how I know it got filtered out by their spam filters Final-Recipient: rfc822; jallard@microsoft.com Action: failed Status: 5.0.0 Diagnostic-Code: X-Postfix; host winse-6216-mail1.customer.frontbridge.com[205.248.106.64] said: 550 5.7.1 <Your e-mail was rejected by an anti-spam content filter on gateway (205.248.106.64). Reasons for rejection may be: obscene language, graphics, or spam-like characteristics. Removing these may let the e-mail through the filter.> (in reply to end of DATA command)

Clearly you shouldn't have used so much obscene language in your email.

MS's filters are notoriously strict. Try sending a plain-text mail rather than in HTML format. Some gateways still bounce the latter.

It is plaintext.

One of the things that grab the disc could be defective, which would allow the disc to flex enough at that point to create a crack. Once the crack starts, playing it from that point on would make it worse. Or something. I'm just guessing here. I don't think anything grabs the disc at all. Not like those disc trays where you snap the disc on to a spindle at least. Ever bumped your 360 with it standing on end and a disc inside? It takes almost no effort at all to unseat the disc. Without dissecting a drive, my suspicion is that a wedge shaped piece pressed through the hole and into a receiving piece on the other side of the disc. Very small amounts of pressure, just enough to grip the disc and start spinning.