Xbox 360?

kathos

So I bought an Xbox 360 off Ebay and it should be arriving soon. Problem is, I don't know if it's going to be scratching my discs. The 360-scratching-every-damn-disc problem, is that on EVERY 360?

Acolyte57

Mine hasn't scratched a single disc.

Hewn

It's an isolated problem, not one widespread enough for it to be a worry. Certainly not to the point of the overheating issues on early models.

If you know how old the machine is, that will determine your level of coverage with Microsoft's warranty in regards to disc scratching or overheating. The overheating failures, aka red rings of death, are covered 3 years from purchase. Everything else is 1 year.

But to get to the point of your concern: Place a disc into the drive you do not care about. Old music CD. Rubbish DVD. Let it spin awhile. Check for scratch. Mystery solved.

King Kong

Almost 90% of scratched discs is the owner having the system vertical and it getting tipped or nudged while running. In all honesty in my time working in an indie game store since it's launch thats the only time I have seen discs get scratched.

kathos

And what about this Red Rings of Death problem? Is that a really common thing?

Hewn

kathos wrote: »

And what about this Red Rings of Death problem? Is that a really common thing?

Depends who you ask.

All data seems to support that older models are far more likely to have the affliction. Which is why Microsoft upped the warranty to 3 years. The repair process on old models and the revisions on new models appear to have solved the vast majority of the issue.

In other words, you're relatively safe these days from suffering too much financial setback from a lemon 360.