Xbox 360 scratching game discs.......
Xbox 360 scratching game discs.......
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Discussion

catso

Original Poster:

16,386 posts

296 months

Friday 26th December 2008
quotequote all
My son has an Xbox 360, about 2/3 months old. Yesterday it scratched a disc with a full circular scratch, game now won't work. This is the second time it's happened.

Is this a 'known' fault, or is he just unlucky? any ideas? beer

The_Jackal

4,854 posts

226 months

Friday 26th December 2008
quotequote all
It can do that with some discs. Try saving your games to the hard drive to avoid it spinning all the time.

Mattt

16,664 posts

247 months

Friday 26th December 2008
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Mine has done it before. I didn't even move the unit.

Rob P

5,821 posts

293 months

Friday 26th December 2008
quotequote all
Mine did it too but only small 2-3cm each time.

Wiped off with a cloth.

Search the MS web site, I'm sure they replace discs for free if you send them back.

paul26982

3,850 posts

247 months

Friday 26th December 2008
quotequote all
Heres a quick TUT

things you will need:
toothpaste (try to get a real rough kind)
paper towels
pencil with a GOOD eraser
car wax
oh, and a scratched disc

first, you need a scratched disc. if you dont have one, pop a disc into your 360 and tilt the 360 a few times.

after you have a scratched disc, take your tube of toothpaste and the roughest piece of paper towel you have (im not kidding you) and rub the toothpaste in little circles onto the disc using the paper towel.

rinse it in warm water and dry it off. now look at the disc, you should see little scratch marks, but the big scratch from the 360 should be gone. if it isnt, repeat the process.

after that take your pencil and rub the eraser in circles all over the disc, do it a few times just to be on the safe side.

finally, your almost done! take your car wax, and you guessed it... wax on, wax off. your disc should be really really shiny now.

now pop it in your 360 and PLAY.

catso

Original Poster:

16,386 posts

296 months

Friday 26th December 2008
quotequote all
OK I've polished the disc so will get him to try it but I'm concerned about it doing it again.

I did a search and found a suggestion about sticking rubber pads inside to stop it scratching; http://www.llamma.com/xbox360/repair/Refurbishing-... - (anyone know what thickness rubber needed?) but it seems like it is a well known problem that MS should have fixed long ago not left to continue, the machine doesn't get moved whilst playing.

Both the machine and game (Halo 3) are still quite new so I'll look into what can be done warranty wise.

Thanks for the info. thumbup

Polarbert

17,936 posts

260 months

Saturday 27th December 2008
quotequote all
paul26982 said:
Heres a quick TUT

things you will need:
toothpaste (try to get a real rough kind)
paper towels
pencil with a GOOD eraser
car wax
oh, and a scratched disc

first, you need a scratched disc. if you dont have one, pop a disc into your 360 and tilt the 360 a few times.

after you have a scratched disc, take your tube of toothpaste and the roughest piece of paper towel you have (im not kidding you) and rub the toothpaste in little circles onto the disc using the paper towel.

rinse it in warm water and dry it off. now look at the disc, you should see little scratch marks, but the big scratch from the 360 should be gone. if it isnt, repeat the process.

after that take your pencil and rub the eraser in circles all over the disc, do it a few times just to be on the safe side.

finally, your almost done! take your car wax, and you guessed it... wax on, wax off. your disc should be really really shiny now.

now pop it in your 360 and PLAY.
This is a good idea but I've tried it before and had no luck. I think maybe the scratches were too severe but it didn't work for me unfortunately.


My xbox used to scratch discs more when it was vertical. I've had it horizontal recently and its been significantly better.

The_Jackal

4,854 posts

226 months

Saturday 27th December 2008
quotequote all
Before this turns into an ignorant "I hate MS" thread.
Wobbly discs in consoles and mainly due to irregular thicknesses/densities of the disks rather than the player. So blame the developer/DVD supplier.

And yes I used to work in the games industry so I do know what I am talking about.

Nocebo

279 posts

221 months

Saturday 27th December 2008
quotequote all
The_Jackal said:
Before this turns into an ignorant "I hate MS" thread.
Wobbly discs in consoles and mainly due to irregular thicknesses/densities of the disks rather than the player. So blame the developer/DVD supplier.

And yes I used to work in the games industry so I do know what I am talking about.
Do you? Ok, so if it's due to the disc surface being irregular, why does the scoring always make a full and complete circle, surely if it was just certain sections of the disc that were catching due to their excessive thickness the scoring would not appear on the thinner sections of the disc, no?

This is a well known issue with 360's disc tray. Lay it down flat and the problem dissapears. Fact.

Asterix

24,438 posts

257 months

Saturday 27th December 2008
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I have my xBox flat without an issue.

I heard it's only when you have it upright.

LaserTam

2,183 posts

248 months

Saturday 27th December 2008
quotequote all
You could try taking the disc into a Game shop. They do a disk 'polish' service for 3 quid I think. Worked for one of my discs, was fairly scratched up, didnt work in the Xbox, but afterwards, all fine.

The_Jackal

4,854 posts

226 months

Saturday 27th December 2008
quotequote all
Yes it is better when it is flat. I didnt say that because most 360 owners refuse to beieve that. I have always used it that way myself and havent scratched a disk.

But, density in different parts of the disk will cause unusual vibration. And when a disk is spinning at the speeds it does in the tray, a slight deviation from parallel will cause hundreds of circular scratches all the way round the disk before it settles again. Have you wondered why only certain games get more scratched than others? It is because not all games publisher buy their disks from the same company or batch of disks. I think there are only 3 companies that supply xbox disks.

catso

Original Poster:

16,386 posts

296 months

Saturday 27th December 2008
quotequote all
OK, so I polished the disc but wasn't getting very far with toothpaste, so I used brasso, followed by metallic paint T-cut (this is a car site after all) and then the toothpaste, finally used some car polish and although there is still a very faint mark in places the disc is mostly as shiny as a shiny thing, I could persevere and get rid of all of the marking but it works so we're happy again and I don't want to wear it away plus it might be wise to leave some 'meat' on it in case it happens again.

The console is lying flat and shouldn't have been moved but I've told the kids to make sure not to move the box/TV whilst the power's on, the only slightly untoward thing is that the Xbox is in the base of the TV stand which sits (on casters) on a floor that is not level as it's an old stable/barn and the floor slopes a little.

Just have to see how it goes, thanks for all the help. beer

The_Jackal

4,854 posts

226 months

Saturday 27th December 2008
quotequote all
Also install the game to your hard drive, then it will only need to recognise the game rather than run from it.

franv8

2,212 posts

267 months

Sunday 28th December 2008
quotequote all
Halo 3 is supposed to be optimised for DVD use - there was some advise not to do the install to hard drive on this game, think it was from Bungie or MS?

Many other games do apparently load quicker installed to HD.