How to instantly destroy a game disc

[keilbaca]

However, I do have a solution. Rent the game/borrow the game from a friend, and install it to your hard drive in the 360. That way it just needs the disc to verify/start the game. Problem solved

 

Yep that's a great idea to try if a resurface fails. I'd recommend installing any game that you'll be playing for a considerable time anyway, saves you time and wear and tear on the DVD mech.

 

That's exactly what I do. If I plan on spending an extensive amount of time playing the game, I install the game... even if the company says not to, due to faster load times. I like making my DVD drive last as long as possible, it also makes the xbox run cooler being that the GPU heatsink is directly below the DVD drive.

[+Cafeman]

Al, I did the same thing the first day we owned the 360,like 2 years ago. We bought Guitar Hero world tour, and while the game was running, I moved the Xbox 360 to hook up the USB microphone .. and the disc was irreparably damaged. We never even played it! Fortunately, I returned it to BB and they swapped it for a new one. Hope you can resurface your scratched disc.

 

Between the easy disc scratching and the FREAKING LOUD FAN NOISE, the 360 kind of ticks me off, although I do enjoy playing my games on it.

[keilbaca]

Al, I did the same thing the first day we owned the 360,like 2 years ago. We bought Guitar Hero world tour, and while the game was running, I moved the Xbox 360 to hook up the USB microphone .. and the disc was irreparably damaged. We never even played it! Fortunately, I returned it to BB and they swapped it for a new one. Hope you can resurface your scratched disc.

 

Between the easy disc scratching and the FREAKING LOUD FAN NOISE, the 360 kind of ticks me off, although I do enjoy playing my games on it.

 

That's another reason why I install my games onto the hard drive... that drive is just too loud.

[Albert]

Had the disc resurfaced on my way to work and it looks much better. Won't know if the game actually works until tonight. IF the disc works, I'll definitely be installing the game to the hard drive!

 

 

..Al

[+remowilliams]

That's another reason why I install my games onto the hard drive... that drive is just too loud.

 

Yes it made such a huge difference on my older 360s. The S is very quiet to begin with, but with the install to hd it's just about silent.

[A_Locomotive]

Had the disc resurfaced on my way to work and it looks much better. Won't know if the game actually works until tonight. IF the disc works, I'll definitely be installing the game to the hard drive!

 

 

..Al

 

I can't think of any reason it won't work again. Since it cleaned up so well it wasn't a deep scratch which can't be fixed and unless it some how damaged that actual written part of the disc there is no reason it shouldn't work. Glad to see it cleaned up so nice.

[Austin]

Well, I don't see a circular ring anymore, so I think it should be good now.

[Albert]

The repaired disc seems to be fine..

 

 

Installing the game now!!

 

..Al

[Metal Ghost]

Congrats! BTW....like your game line-up sitting on your desk! Am currently waiting for Fable III to be delivered, and have played the heck out of Ed's game on his site.

[A_Locomotive]

The repaired disc seems to be fine..

 

 

Installing the game now!!

 

..Al

 

Glad to hear its working fine again. I had a feeling it would seeing as I've done the same thing two games(you'd think I'd have learned after the first time lol) and both were salvageable.

[+remowilliams]

The repaired disc seems to be fine..

 

Good news. No more console juggling for you.

 

Congrats! BTW....like your game line-up sitting on your desk! Am currently waiting for Fable III to be delivered, and have played the heck out of Ed's game on his site.

 

Sadly, Fable 3 was very underwhelming and actually a bunch of steps backward.

[Mord]

Like it or not, they actually specifically tell you not do to that while it's powered on.

 

Using a legal fix to an engineering problem is never acceptable in my books.

 

Especially when the problem is being made worse than it was originally. I remember watching a video of a guy demoing the new S model at a show (Can't remember if it was E3 or what.) and on camera he had simply moved the unit like a couple of inches and had the situation Albert had. "And they told me not to do that too. Damn, they're serious this time!"

[keilbaca]

The repaired disc seems to be fine..

 

 

Installing the game now!!

 

..Al

 

Good to hear

[Albert]

Using a legal fix to an engineering problem is never acceptable in my books.

 

Especially when the problem is being made worse than it was originally. I remember watching a video of a guy demoing the new S model at a show (Can't remember if it was E3 or what.) and on camera he had simply moved the unit like a couple of inches and had the situation Albert had. "And they told me not to do that too. Damn, they're serious this time!"

 

Agreed, 100%. The video you're talking about may be the one I linked to on the first page of this thread.

 

..Al

[+Mitch]

The repaired disc seems to be fine..

 

 

Installing the game now!!

 

..Al

 

I think I have that exact same model TV hooked up to my 360.

 

Mitch

[Cebus Capucinis]

Where's my Alan Wake? You didn't use it for testing, did you?

[HammR25]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pele5vptVgc

[Video]

My problem is with the mindset. The "I've done it before, so I can do it again"

 

I've personally NEVER seen a drive, disc drive, hard drive, or otherwise, that claims it can be moved while a disc is in it. Every one, of them, from the cheapest to the most expensive (though to be fair, the most expensive drive I've ever bought was only like $500, so who knows what the truly expensive ones could do) they all say "don't move the drive with a disc in it (or while the computer is on, for HDD)

 

It's kind of like saying "I ran into a building with my car and it crumpled the front all up, why? I've driven into buildings a lot and never had that happen"

 

Sadly, one of the devices I have that actually does take good care of the discs in them, even in motion, is actually a portable CD player that cost me $5, the disc physically locks into place....Seems they could up that tech into a console costing hundreds.

 

Anyhow, sorry to hear that it happened, just not that sorry.

[Albert]

My problem is with the mindset. The "I've done it before, so I can do it again"

 

Uhrrr, that wasn't really my mindset. I just wasn't expecting the Xbox to (attempt to) destroy the disc. Given how often this seems to occur, many people are of this same "mindset". I'm a very tech-savvy individual and it never dawned on me that, "ZOMG if I move the Xbox while the optical drive is spinning it's going to destroy the disc!" Primarily because I've done this with various devices over the years and NEVER had anything like this occur.

 

I've personally NEVER seen a drive, disc drive, hard drive, or otherwise, that claims it can be moved while a disc is in it. Every one, of them, from the cheapest to the most expensive (though to be fair, the most expensive drive I've ever bought was only like $500, so who knows what the truly expensive ones could do) they all say "don't move the drive with a disc in it (or while the computer is on, for HDD)

 

There are many devices that can be moved with spinning media. Laptops, for instance, with both the internal hard drive and optical drive. I move my laptops around ALL THE TIME while they are powered up. Laptops these days have "sudden motion sensors" that will quickly park the hard drive if a large jolt is detected, but casual movement of laptops is expected. Otherwise they wouldn't be so useful! Same goes for various portable devices. How about iPods and other music players that have internal hard drives? Portable CD players, as you mentioned below, completely contract what you just wrote. The same is true with CD players in cars, which can experience all manner of forces (acceleration, sudden deceleration in a panic stop, hard jolts when hitting potholes, etc.)

 

Given the Xbox can be placed horizontally or vertically, it's only natural to expect people to move the device from the horizontal to vertical while it's on. It's going to happen, and it's going to happen often. The Xbox 360 engineers could certainly have taken this into account, but I'm guessing this wasn't done as a cost cutting measure. I never saw the sticker on the front of the 360 S as someone else unpacked it and took the sticker off. That I didn't see this sticker is not Microsoft's fault, but I can still cite them for piss-poor engineering and/or cost cutting.

 

Sadly, one of the devices I have that actually does take good care of the discs in them, even in motion, is actually a portable CD player that cost me $5, the disc physically locks into place....Seems they could up that tech into a console costing hundreds.

 

Yes, indeed. Especially when we're talking about games that cost $60 upon release. At least if I scratch a CD (do people still use portable CD players?), I have already ripped the music into my computer. Not so easy to do that with a $60 Xbox 360 game.

 

Anyhow, sorry to hear that it happened, just not that sorry.

 

I consider myself fortunate that it only cost me a dollar and my time to repair the disc. Certainly I won't be doing that again!

 

..Al

[Metal Ghost]

I can definitely see where you're coming from Albert. I do, however, think that it's in large part based on previous experience, because I personally have never used a tray-load optical device that I didn't think would scratch my disk if moved, assuming that it didn't clip the disc in as my laptop does. I don't know....I've always just assumed that would happened (no doubt I read it somewhere years ago about CD/DVD players).

 

It might be a bit cynical to assume that this was the direct result of cost cutting, as opposed to design oversight (which, admitedly, may be naive of me!). I guess once they made the choice to go with a tray-load device, which may have been a cost decision in and of itself, then this was simply an outcropping of that decision. I personally would rather simply not move the console after game boot-up rather than clipping my disk in every time.

 

I mean, I can honestly say that I really can't ever see myself moving my console once she's booted up. Then again, I don't have it on my desk while playing. Being in the games industry, wanting to move it after it's running may be a much more obvious thing to do than I'm giving it credit for.

 

But the important thing here is....everything worked out!!!

[Emehr]

I would have never thought that moving a CD/DVD player while the disc was spinning would cause that much damage. About the only system I wouldn't want to move would be my Sega CD 2 console, only because it's a clamshell design and the CD doesn't clip to the spindle. I figured all tray or slot-loading drives had some kind of mechanism to keep the disc from wobbling off-axis if moved. Even a cheap-o thirty-dollar DVD player I recently tossed had a powerful magnet that clamped the disc down while the DVD was inserted.

 

Knowing really is half the battle!

[Seob]

I remember some big bold text in the documentation not to move your 360 while a spinning disc is in place.

 

Would you turn your desktop PC or laptop from horizontal to vertical while installing software?

Yes, I have turned my laptop on its side while the disc has been spinning, with no ill effects. Same thing with various CD-based music players (and many years ago with them!) I have no need to turn my desktop computer from vertical to horizontal (or vice versa), since it's only designed to sit in the vertical orientation.

 

Sure, there may be a mention of this in the manual, but who reads manuals for consoles these days? This is poor engineering and/or the desire to use inexpensive optical drives on Microsoft's part. I've certainly learned my lesson, to be sure, but I doubt I'll buy another Microsoft console after my first one RROD'd and now this.

 

..Al

Sorry to say, but a optical drive inside a laptop or a portable cd based music player are designed to operate when shifted or moved. Stuff that is design to be put somewhere and operate from a static point isn't designed to cope with movement if the system is moved from horizontal to vertical position.

This was already big news when the xbox360 original was released, and i think it will say so in the manual not to move the system when running.

So in this case it's your own fault. Can't blame microsoft for this.

[Video]

I think that's the deal, certainly better drives do exist (the laptop drives also have that same locking spindle in them, or at east the one on my computer does) but a console wasn't intended to be moved.

 

Funny thing, I doubt that little spindle thing with the bearings to hold the disc in place cost more than a buck or so (considering, as I said above, a $5 handheld CD player has them)

 

Then again, my PS2 slim also has that bearing inside it, and I feel like I'm going to break a disc every time I put one in or take one out.....that could have been solved with a game.cube style eject button though...

 

[edit] Oh yeah, sorry about that last post, I sounded rather jackassey in that one, that's why I shouldn't post when I'm tired LOL:P

Edited November 23, 2011 by Video

[marcfrick2112]

I see where you are coming from as well Albert. We all know not to it, but sometimes we still do. I still think that something a bit more that a red sticker should have been in order...

 

Ya know, as much as I like it, I have to admit the CD32 is very poorly-designed....One late night fighting its' crummy composite, I yank the thing up.... with the power still on, and Simon the Sorcerer II in the drive... Well, the CD32's 'clamping method' is mostly wishful thinking, and if tilted the 'clamp' allows the disc to slow down. .. So odd, that such a primitive design like this is still kinda useful.... LOL

[Phredreeke]

Also don't forget that the Xbox 360 spins the disc very fast compared to other systems.