Xbox 360 DVD Drive - Unreadable Disc
Posted on August 18, 2008 by Jared
Last Wednesday, I decided I would play some GTA IV before the wife got home. So turned on the Xbox, popped in the disc, and got to it. About 20 minutes into my session, I began to hear a horrible noise coming from the DVD drive. After a few seconds of growling, a Xbox blade came across the screen saying the disc was unreadable.
Cursing under my breath, I got up from the couch to give the Xbox and game a close look. Of course, the disc was fine. I put in another game just to be sure, and got the “unreadable disc” error once again. I inserted a movie we had watched over the weekend. No dice.
What comes next is what really frustrates me. My Xbox 360 is just over a year old so I consider it to be pretty new. Also, it’s the “Elite” version, a version I had hoped Microsoft had released with confidence. Besides all that, I have never heard of DVD drives just going out like that and, if they do, it’s because they are obviously defective. In my six years of working at Dell, you want to know how many computers I had to repair because of a bad CD or DVD drive? That’s right, none.
I called 1-800-4MY-XBOX the next evening to see what my options were, even though deep down I knew that I was going to have to pay to have it repaired. After speaking my way through the automated options (which I’ve never understood why it’s better than just “pressing 1″) I got in touch with a support guy rather quickly. He walked me through some really basic troubleshooting in his best “I’m hip and young too, bro” voice and soon agreed that my DVD drive was toast. Then he informed me that, since my Xbox was out of warranty, I could have it fixed and my warranty extended for $99.
I’ll admit, I thought about just trying to fixing it myself. I mean, it’s just a DVD drive, right? Well, I did a little research and found that I’d have to buy a particular brand/model and somehow flash it with the Xbox’s key. Looked like that was going to cost me around $60 + my time, so the $99 repair fee began to sound better and better.
I plan on making another call tonight to go through with the repair. I also plan on updating this post with all of my experiences with the repair process as they happen so that other people may know what to expect. I also hope that other people who are having this same kind of problem will leave a comment for the record. Who knows, maybe this will turn out to be the same sort of thing as the Three Red Lights.
im sad my DVD Drive just took a dumb on me aswell.
I feel your pain, man. I was using my xbox as my dvd player too, so now I have to watch my movies on the tiny TV in the bedroom. Sucks.
I know I said I was probably going to send my box in for repairs within a week of the post, but I haven’t been able to do that just yet. The wife and I have been spending all our extra cash on baby stuff! :o
I had the same problem and found your site and this thread: http://forums.ea.com/mboards/thread.jspa?threadID=424003&tstart=0
You might want to look at it.
There seems to be a WHOLE lot of people experiencing this problem. My main question is what is MS going to do about it? (The answer…probably nothing because they don’t have enough money to make good quality gaming systems.)
I think that my problem may be alittle different, but not sure…Since i just experienced it a few minutes ago and am still doing some research I haven’t found the solution I’m willing to accept at this moment. Anyways my situation is this…
I have a BRAND NEW game (as in just opened it 20 minutes ago) that my 360 refuses to recognize, while still playing some older games, some in excellent condition and some with a few scratches. There is absolutely no rhyme or reason to this error. I shouldn’t have to try 3 other discs (as suggested on the xbox.com website) or rub it’s HDD counter-clockwise with strawberry scented massage oil to make it work. (Some of the “solutions” I have found so far actually sound this ridiculous lol.) For $350 it should blow me as well as play ANY disc I put in it!
This will be the last Microsoft gaming system I spend a penny on!
This same problem happened to me, along with probably hundreds of thousands of other people as well!! Microsoft is so STUPID; obviously, this is a major recurring problem, and it is MICROSOFT’S MISTAKE!!! So why in the hell do the paying customers have to pay for them being terrible at making a video game system!!!? It’s not our fault that they suck at making good products. They need to pay for their problems, which is causing many, many people to be angry at microsoft! I’m not forking out 100 bucks for their crappy ass hardware! It should be included in the warranty!
Microsoft’s reputation is going down the toilet everyday!
Same problem with me. My dvd drive sucks. It messed up last month and now I can’t play gears of war 2, one of my all time favorites. I’m starting to think Microsoft is doing this on purpose. My charger broke,controller and about 4 gears of war games (and I take good care of my games) and now I’m hearing that the elite is f**ing up!!! The one system they said was gonna last! I’m just going to give up on Microsoft. They are sinking to the ground… if it wasn’t for halo 3 and gears of war, they would have been dead already!!!
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