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?
Posts
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.
NintendoID: Nailbunny 3DS: 3909-8796-4685
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).
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-months-later-reader-gets-new-xbox-after-ups-loses-his
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)
Thanks. Will fill this out and see what happens.
Edit: sniped... yeah you said it better than I anyway.
Let me tell you about Demon's Souls....
billg@microsoft.com, steve@microsoft.com, jallard@microsoft.com, rbach@microsoft.com, joeb@microsoft.com, khogan@microsoft.com
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
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!
.. 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.
Sending to Consumerist/Kotaku.
you guys rule
Try sending a plain-text mail rather than in HTML format. Some gateways still bounce the latter.
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.
Are you sending to multiple people at once? Perhaps send the e-mails one at a time to each address?
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970666737/
The little nub that holds the disk is too big and puts a lot of pressure in the center hole and when you pull the disk out it requires more pull then usually needed.
This is from the Halo 3 collectors edition case and also using a Halo Xbox 360. I'm on my second disk and may have to get a third one cause I'm getting new fractures in my replacement disk.
In the meantime, I would rent games and swap the damaged disc with the rented one. I feel kind of bad about it now, but I really wanted to finish Oblivion.
This is most likely an useless thought, but is your 360 standing or laying down?
this is awfully cute, but you had horrible reasons. You should have been doing that with games worth your time :P
dream a little dream or you could live a little dream
sleep forever if you wish to be a dreamer
Not that it would change FW's situation, but it should be a standard option.
Ya, but that's ridiculously too much money. If your disc breaks 6 months out, you're probably better off buying a used copy.
Shit like this is why people are going to want digital distribution. Your broken 200$ machine just cost you another 130$ of damaged software and your options aren't that great for getting it all taken care of. Good luck, that really sucks.
But first, inform someone in charge that you're considering this option, and that you post on a lot of internet forums.
dream a little dream or you could live a little dream
sleep forever if you wish to be a dreamer
@gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
I've been considering ditching $200 bucks for a 360 this very weekend.
Not that I won't continue bitching about it, but it would be nice to be able to keep up with the few games I want to play without having to borrow one every year or so.
But this problem blows. My cousins had two seperate 360's do this, losing two games each time it happend. The worst part is that by the time you notice it really chewing them up you've already lost at least one.