A Perfect Circle

Brimmy

Was just playing FIFA 09 when my foot touched off the Xbox that was on the ground knocking it over. Put it back upright and continued playing until 20 seconds later I got a note saying the disc is unreadable. Took the game out and placed it back to go again but got the same error.

Took it out again and noticed that there is now a permanent circle about a half inch in from the edge that goes the entire way around the disc. There's a lighter circle closer to the edge just further outside from that that isn't complete.

The game hasn't been out of the Xbox much in the last month really so if the mark has been there I haven't noticed. Anyone know what to do now? Would it be the Xbox or the disc at fault? The fall itself and am I just completely out of luck and have to repurchase the game?

LD 50

When I saw the thread title, I thought you meant the band!

Same happened to me and my copy of COD4. You may be able to go to a game's shop and see if they have a machine that'll remove the scratched layer from the disc. I don't know any that do though. So you may have to just suck it up and buy a new copy.

It's caused by the laser casing touching off the disc while its spinning, causing the circle. Usually when the console falls or moves. MS were too cheap to put a rubber gasket around it like Sony did.

Brimmy

Yeah I came here before going to Google so doesn't seem there's any quick home solution. Don't suppose anyone knows anywhere in Dublin that does it and save a poor student splashing out 30 euro that he doesn't have?

Also I knew people would think the band..it was the first thing I thought of after I posted

honeybadger

you coud try the toothpaste trick (rub toothpaste into the scratches and clean it off) and see can you save the game onto the hardrive if your xbox has 1

Rowley Birkin QC

A possible solution might be to rent the game from Xtra-Vision/get a loan of a copy from a mate, install it to your HDD and see if the console will boot the game with your disc in the drive.

Brimmy

bigkev49 wrote: »

A possible solution might be to rent the game from Xtra-Vision/get a loan of a copy from a mate, install it to your HDD and see if the console will boot the game with your disc in the drive.

Was thinking about that actually as the game will load up till the main menu.. Might give that a try.

Just in case though no one knows anywhere in Dublin that does the repairs?

Redlion

Brimmy wrote: »

Yeah I came here before going to Google so doesn't seem there's any quick home solution. Don't suppose anyone knows anywhere in Dublin that does it and save a poor student splashing out 30 euro that he doesn't have?

Also I knew people would think the band..it was the first thing I thought of after I posted

smyths at the end of henry street have a machine that will repair discs for ya, and it aint that expensive

LD 50

Redlion wrote: »

smyths at the end of henry street have a machine that will repair discs for ya, and it aint that expensive

Cheers. Might see if they can fix my COD4.

calex71

hands up who hasnt had this happen and who had the xbox vertical and now has it hosizonal ??????

Helix

calex71 wrote: »

hands up who hasnt had this happen and who had the xbox vertical and now has it hosizonal ??????

*puts hand up*

Redlion

calex71 wrote: »

hands up who hasnt had this happen and who had the xbox vertical and now has it hosizonal ??????

my friend has scratched four discs this way and still persists to leave his console in a vertical position :rolleyes:

Soby

I did it to GTA iv the day i got it..gutted:(..didnt know about that repair machine..cheers for that

J-blk

calex71 wrote: »

hands up who hasnt had this happen and who had the xbox vertical and now has it hosizonal ??????

*Puts hand up too*

Console always vertical, no discs scratched in 2+ years...

LD 50

J-blk wrote: »

*Puts hand up too*

Console always vertical, no discs scratched in 2+ years...

....yet

TheMooseInNam

J-blk wrote: »

*Puts hand up too*

Console always vertical, no discs scratched in 2+ years...

Three consoles in the house since launched, two vertical in the games room and a horizontal one in the sitting room. Never had a disk scratched yet (wish I could say the same for RROD!!!). Just make sure the consoles are positioned so that they can't be knocked, nudged or tripped over and never move one when the powers on or a game in the drive!

You'll have far less dust build up inside your console if you keep it vertical too... that's got to be a good thing right!

Helix

TheMooseInNam wrote: »

Just make sure the consoles are positioned so that they can't be knocked, nudged or tripped over and never move one when the powers on or a game in the drive!

this is the key

youre not going to scratch your discs if youre not going to knock your xbox

thebigcheese22

LD 50 wrote: »

When I saw the thread title, I thought you meant the band!

Yeah same here! I was like wtf is this doing in the Xbox forum lol

niallon

Every Smyths store has a disc cleaner, or is supposed to anyway! But with this particular scratch it all depends on the severity. The majority we get in can be repaired but if the disc has been rightly screwed then it's gone unfortunately. Best thing is to being it in and have it looked at though!

Another note on this issue though, this seems to have been happening to some consoles without there being a fall or knock, seemingly a flaw in the console, and upon being reverted back to Microsoft I've known people to receive a new console and compensation for the game. Not the most common of occourences mind you.

thebman

Ms also run an exchange program for discs if they published the game.

You can pay to have it exchanged if it is outside that coverage for some games I think.

duploelabs

BBC's Watchdog program did a feature on it yesterday

Brimmy

And? Or did you not see it?

HMV had this for sale for 19.99. Mate asked me to pick him up a copy, I used his copy to install it to the harddrive and used the perfect circled disc to authenticate it and it's working fine now

Thanks for all the replies and Smyths in Henry Street don't have a buffer apparently to whoever mentioned it. Though I'm not quite sure if the guy knew what I was asking..

niallon

Brimmy wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies and Smyths in Henry Street don't have a buffer apparently to whoever mentioned it. Though I'm not quite sure if the guy knew what I was asking..

Every store is supposed to have one, they should be advertising a disc cleaning service all over the gaff! If someone in Jervis said they didn't have one then I'm gonna assume they're new and just didn't have a clue! (Come to Naas, we have cookies! )

Redlion

Brimmy wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies and Smyths in Henry Street don't have a buffer apparently to whoever mentioned it. Though I'm not quite sure if the guy knew what I was asking..

i mentioned it and they do repair discs, i only just got two discs repaired there myself several weeks ago

Blazer

Go to PC World or Maplins..all these shops have home disk repairers.
About €10-20 so well worth it and they worth.