360 Disc Drive Troubles

quovadis13

Okay, so my girlfriend's little brother has a launch 360. Recently, his disc drive has been acting kind of funny. He can load a regular DVD and that plays on the 360 with little problem. Recently, when he puts in an actual game, the xbox wont even load it up. Is this a hardware problem with the xbox or something else??

He is debating whether or not he should call Microsoft and send it in for repairs. If not, he could also purchase the HD-DVD add on, but both of these options will cost money. I am well aware that if he could Red Ring the xbox, he would get a nice shiny new one for free.

I am not sure how ethical it would be to purposely "break" an xbox just to avoid paying on repairs. However, if you see no harm in this method, what can one to do help "nudge" the xbox closer to the now-somewhat-desirable RRoD??

Also, if you think this problem is caused by something else, please let me know.

Loathing

Pouring honey into the disk drive would help you 'break' it. They'd never know the difference, trust me.

Really, I don't know.

Kyougu

My friend had a disc drive problem. All she did was called MS, and they agreed to repair it with no hassle.

Santa Claustrophobia

If they're going to send it in for repair, they should buy an extended warranty from MS. I think it's about $140. Otherwise, it could cost more to repair. An added bonus is that apparently if you call about an issue when out of warranty, I've heard that MS will deny selling the extended one if you try again. So beware about that.

As far as troubleshooting goes, is it the same game? Is it all games? If it's just one game, does it happen on other 360s? Is the disc dirty or scratched? Has the Oblivion cache clearing been done?

When you say it doesn't load up, is it stuck on the Xbox splash screen? A black screen? Is there any sound coming from the TV when it 'stops'? Are there any third party items (such as an Intercooler or controller or something similar that was not made by MS?) attached to the 360? If so, don't tell that to MS should they call. Have they tried booting the game without any controllers attached or synched?

That's a lot, sure. But it does help to narrow the issue down some. It sounds as if the 360 works otherwise so it may not be hardware related at all.

Shy Guy

I think what you described, quovadis13, is exactly what happened to my previous 360.

It started out only not reading occasionally, until it just stopped reading 360 games altogether. DVDs always worked fine though, as did CD-RWs.

Definitely call Microsoft. Mine did also get red rings, but that might not be necessary for a free repair/replacement in this case.

Mr Peepers

My 360 occasionally scratches discs. Why it chooses the ones it does, who knows.


I think it is just tired of playing Oblivion, and just fucking hates NCAA Football 08.

Damn thing loves Halo 3 though. It is quite the nice looking disc.

Inzigna

Red ring it.

Wrap a towel round it, and let it run. The heat would build up and eventually red-ring the entire thing.

desperaterobots

I'm not sure inducing the red lights will necessarily mean new disc drive. Because the red lights are not caused by a faulty disc drive.

HarshLanguage

So that 3-year warranty that MS announced a while back was only for the red rings? Not for any other major problem, like, say, not playing games? O_o

He should call MS support and demand a replacement. Or actually, his parents should call. Worst they can do is say no.

desperaterobots

Well, to be fair, a disc drive, being a mechanical doo-dad with moving whatsits is probably going to be more prone to dysfunction and abuse than most other bits.

The 3-year for red-rings was about the utter unpredictability that your console would simply die for absolutely no discernible or user-diagnosable reason. This is hardly the first console that's seen an optical drive failure. You could still play live arcade games and demos, though!

Oh, and OP: You can't play games via the HD-DVD drive. Microsoft need a call on this one.

quovadis13

Update for anyone interested. They called up Microsoft yesterday and they would gladly repair it for them for a fee of somewhere near 100 bucks. Funny thing is, apparently their billing system was acting funny yesterday because for some reason they got billed like 8 times for it. I am pretty sure his dad was on the phone for like 2 hours trying to get everything sorted out.


I would assume everything got sorted out, becuase my girlfriends dad is a little bit anal when it comes to money.

gleep-glop

Should have just lied to them about it. My dvd drive on my second 360 died and was out of warranty.. I called them and said I was getting the RROD, received the coffin, packed it in, slammed it against the wall a few times, and two weeks later, new 360.

Djiem

quovadis13 wrote: »

Update for anyone interested. They called up Microsoft yesterday and they would gladly repair it for them for a fee of somewhere near 100 bucks. Funny thing is, apparently their billing system was acting funny yesterday because for some reason they got billed like 8 times for it. I am pretty sure his dad was on the phone for like 2 hours trying to get everything sorted out.


I would assume everything got sorted out, becuase my girlfriends dad is a little bit anal when it comes to money.

I don't think it is being anal to not want to pay the same fee 8 times :P

quovadis13

Djiem wrote: »

quovadis13 wrote: »

Update for anyone interested. They called up Microsoft yesterday and they would gladly repair it for them for a fee of somewhere near 100 bucks. Funny thing is, apparently their billing system was acting funny yesterday because for some reason they got billed like 8 times for it. I am pretty sure his dad was on the phone for like 2 hours trying to get everything sorted out.


I would assume everything got sorted out, becuase my girlfriends dad is a little bit anal when it comes to money.

I don't think it is being anal to not want to pay the same fee 8 times :P

I agree, but the anal I am refering to is much more anal. He would probably have had the same reaction if he was charged 10 dollars more than he should have.