XBOX 360 question

Darksider · Post by **Darksider** » 2006-12-09 01:49pm

Has anyone here ever heard of an XBOX 360 console burning small rings on to a disc with continued use? I'm noticing dark spots on some of my discs, and a slight increas in glitches. (nothing major so far) I haven't been able to find anything out about this particular problem online so far.

Does anyone know anything about it?

Count Dooku · Post by **Count Dooku** » 2006-12-09 05:59pm

If you tilt your Xbox 360 while there is a disk in there it will 'carve' rings into the disk.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-12-09 06:32pm

Count Dooku wrote:If you tilt your Xbox 360 while there is a disk in there it will 'carve' rings into the disk.

Whoa, really?

Edward Yee · Post by **Edward Yee** » 2006-12-09 07:06pm

Is this not the case with PS2 as well...?

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-12-09 07:08pm

What? No, no fucking way. Why would it? I've waved all kinds of drives around, used them for ages at wierd angles, etc... and the worst that happens is the disc misaligns, and it keeps going. Burning fucking marks onto the disc? What the fuck is that?

Is it a DVD thing? Because people spent a decade slinging around portable CD players and this didn't happen.

Xisiqomelir · Post by **Xisiqomelir** » 2006-12-09 07:15pm

Is this really new to everyone? I remember it was a big deal just after Huegbox 2 launch.

Here's a Joystiq article from last year about it.

Vendetta · Post by **Vendetta** » 2006-12-09 07:23pm

Stark wrote: Is it a DVD thing? Because people spent a decade slinging around portable CD players and this didn't happen.

I think it's more an issue with tray load systems, rather than the media type.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-12-09 07:26pm

Vendetta wrote:I think it's more an issue with tray load systems, rather than the media type.

Eh? I thought the marks were burnt by the laser (hence my shock). Are they just marks off poorly designed disc cradles? The highspeed disk shouldn't be able to touch anything dangerous while on the spindle, that's pretty elementary stuff.

Darksider · Post by **Darksider** » 2006-12-09 07:32pm

Xisiqomelir wrote:Is this really new to everyone? I remember it was a big deal just after Huegbox 2 launch.

Here's a Joystiq article from last year about it.

:::Looks at picture ::::

Woah. Fortunatly, the rings on my gears of war disc aren't anywhere near that bad. I think it's still salvageable.

Vendetta · Post by **Vendetta** » 2006-12-09 07:35pm

Stark wrote: Eh? I thought the marks were burnt by the laser (hence my shock). Are they just marks off poorly designed disc cradles? The highspeed disk shouldn't be able to touch anything dangerous while on the spindle, that's pretty elementary stuff.

Which is why it happens when you tilt your device whilst the disc is spinning. The drive tilts faster than the CD, which has rotational inertia due to it's spin speed, and comes into contact with things it shouldn't. Top loaders hold the disc on the spindle, rather than balancing it there, so they don't have this effect.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-12-09 07:38pm

Oh? I clearly don't know enough about slotdrives then, I though they were just a fancy way of putting a disc on a regular spindle, instead of any complex balancing act. I've never damaged a disc in this way, and I've heard the rim scrape on various things inside drives dozens of times. Why would there be anything to touch the data surface? Is it the laserhead itself?

Wii uses a slotdrive too, I wonder if it has the same problem?

Vendetta · Post by **Vendetta** » 2006-12-09 07:57pm

It's tray load drives that seem to encounter problems, rather than slot load ones. I suspect the disc is making contact with the tray or the read head.

Different drive designs also have different clearance between the read head and the disc, so some drives may do this more than others. But then changing the orientation of the drive whilst spinning is never a good idea anyway.

SylasGaunt · Post by **SylasGaunt** » 2006-12-09 11:56pm

Darksider wrote:Has anyone here ever heard of an XBOX 360 console burning small rings on to a disc with continued use? I'm noticing dark spots on some of my discs, and a slight increas in glitches. (nothing major so far) I haven't been able to find anything out about this particular problem online so far.

Does anyone know anything about it?

My old Xbox 360 made a scuff/scratch mark that went about halfway around. In another incident it started scratching a ring into my Oblivion disc.

So I took the thing back and exchanged it for another. Listen for any odd noises.

Darksider · Post by **Darksider** » 2006-12-17 10:37pm

I know this is a necro, but as I have a new question, I think it's ok

Sylas: can you describe or send a picture of the scuff mark to me?
What kind of damage did the mark do, gameplay wise? do your games still run?

I have a single thin line scratch that goes about halfway across my gears of war disc, near the center hole of the disc. I have yet to experience any significant gameplay problems.

any XBOX 360 owners: Are any kind of scratch marks normal for this system after about a month of playing a game constantly? I also notice several milimeter long scratches all over the disc.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-12-17 11:15pm

I think it's pretty depressing you have to ask questions like that. Well-looked after discs shouldn't be getting scratched by the drive. Then again, most scratches are purely cosmetic and don't cause problems.

Darksider · Post by **Darksider** » 2006-12-17 11:20pm

Stark wrote:I think it's pretty depressing you have to ask questions like that. Well-looked after discs shouldn't be getting scratched by the drive. Then again, most scratches are purely cosmetic and don't cause problems.

I've never been overly concerned with the way my CD's look if they work alright, so I don't know what kind of scratching it takes to actually kill one. But this disc looks similar to ones i've had since the 90s, and that's got me worried, considering I haven't even had the game a month

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-12-17 11:23pm

Yeah, shallow superficial damage doesn't make any difference, but even a very small deep scratch (particularly one that goes around the disc, following the tracks) can cause serious problems.

I've seen rental discs that look like someone's used them to clean sandpaper, and they still work. I've got a disc with a tiny 5mm scratch, and the installer on it is fucked and the disc is pretty much useless.

SylasGaunt · Post by **SylasGaunt** » 2006-12-17 11:30pm

Darksider wrote:I know this is a necro, but as I have a new question, I think it's ok

Sylas: can you describe or send a picture of the scuff mark to me?
What kind of damage did the mark do, gameplay wise? do your games still run?

No pictures. The gears mark was a ring-shaped scratch that went about halfway around the disc then trailed off into a wider scuffing mark. First I noticed it was when I get a DD error and took it out to take a look. With oblivion it was a ring scratch broken into three sections about equidistant from each other. That one I caught right when it was being made though so not much damage done.

Gears I ended up running through my disc repairer and it works fine now, oblivion has run with no errors even without being repaired so the scratch can't be all that bad.

I have a single thin line scratch that goes about halfway across my gears of war disc, near the center hole of the disc. I have yet to experience any significant gameplay problems.

Circular or straight scratch? If it's a straight line one then it's not the same thing that happened with mine. My advice would be to closely monitor it, if it gets worse and you're absolutely sure it can't be from anything else (like the table or desk the 360's on wobbling while the disc is spinning) contact tech support and get it replaced (I was fortunate in that I had a PRP from Best Buy for mine so I just took it down and swapped it out).

any XBOX 360 owners: Are any kind of scratch marks normal for this system after about a month of playing a game constantly? I also notice several milimeter long scratches all over the disc.

In my experience discs tend to accrue minor cosmetic scratches normally (but that isn't xbox 360 exclusive). That isn't to say anything deep or that makes the game unplayable but a scratch here and there doesn't seem out of place.. now if it's a deep one that's interfering with the disc's ability to run then that isn't normal. If the scratches are being made in a regular pattern (like my aforementioned ring) then you might have something loose or protruding that's doing it and you should get it fixed.

Darksider · Post by **Darksider** » 2006-12-17 11:31pm

Stark wrote:
I've seen rental discs that look like someone's used them to clean sandpaper, and they still work. I've got a disc with a tiny 5mm scratch, and the installer on it is fucked and the disc is pretty much useless.

My Original Halo disc looks like my dog clawed at it for five hours straight, and the game still runs fine. Normally, if I were concerned that my 360 were fucking up a disc, i'd just take it back and be done with it, but the women I bought the extended warrenty from at best buy said I could only bring it back once. If I give it back to them, and they give me another bum system, i'm fucked, so I want to make sure it's really mauling my discs before I bring it back.

SylasGaunt · Post by **SylasGaunt** » 2006-12-17 11:33pm

Yeah my Halo 2 disc is similarly scratched up. It's all in how deep the scratches go and their shape. From what I remember circular scratches are a much bigger problem then normal line scratches.

And that's an odd statement from the best buy representative.. mine said my PRP was good for the rest of it's remaining time.

Darksider · Post by **Darksider** » 2006-12-17 11:36pm

SylasGaunt wrote:Yeah my Halo 2 disc is similarly scratched up. It's all in how deep the scratches go and their shape. From what I remember circular scratches are a much bigger problem then normal line scratches.

And that's an odd statement from the best buy representative.. mine said my PRP was good for the rest of it's remaining time.

Maybe she was Bullshiting me. I'll go back and ask. If I can bring it back more than once, I might just return it and be done with it.

Darksider · Post by **Darksider** » 2006-12-17 11:52pm

SylasGaunt wrote: Gears I ended up running through my disc repairer and it works fine now, oblivion has run with no errors even without being repaired so the scratch can't be all that bad.

.

A quick question.

What do you use as a disc repairer?
In my experience the one I bought, a GameDoctor, is useless.

Xon · Post by **Xon** » 2006-12-18 12:31am

Stark wrote:
Count Dooku wrote:If you tilt your Xbox 360 while there is a disk in there it will 'carve' rings into the disk.
Whoa, really?

Virtually any CD/DVD player risks doing this when you cause a 90 degree change in orientation while it is spinning at 52x speeds.

No fucking suprise there.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-12-18 12:42am

Xon wrote:Virtually any CD/DVD player risks doing this when you cause a 90 degree change in orientation while it is spinning at 52x speeds.

No fucking suprise there.

Wrong. I just checked both of my drives and a laptop. Nothing of the sort happened, no damage at all. Whoops, looks like some people design drives to keep the disc away from obstacles and some don't! Not to mention the 360 apparently damages discs if you STEP ON THE FLOOR TOO HARD.

Darksider · Post by **Darksider** » 2006-12-18 01:21am

Stark wrote: Not to mention the 360 apparently damages discs if you STEP ON THE FLOOR TOO HARD.

This is the part that really pisses me off.

I mean, the 90 degree change in orientation thing I can understand slightly, but STEPPING ON THE GODDAMN FLOOR?

That screams "shitty design" loud and clear.

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