In other news, my Xbox 360 broke as I was writing the last post. How nicely ironic. It will now only read games as DVD videos.
UPDATE: I talked to Huy at Xbox 360 Support, he told me to send in my system for repairs - it will take 8 days and I get nothing in return for my hassle. At this point, I'm kinda mad, but it's all cool - I only waited 6 months with $400 of my money in someone else's hands for this thing. Then Huy tells me that since I bought a premium system I have to send the HDD in with it - again I'm cool because I can't use the HDD for something else anyways. THEN - Huy tells me that I need to back up my HDD because MS may format it. WHAT THE HELL? I have to spend $40 of my money because MS may delete my data? Who's smart freaking idea was this? I'm pissed, but at least my console is getting repaired...
UPDATE 2: I called back and talked to someone else because no retailers around here have memory cards. This guy actually spoke English. He told me that THE XBOX 360 IS NOT DESIGNED TO PLAY GAMES IN THE VERTICAL POSITION! That's right, they advertise it, but its DVD drive doesn't have stabilizers so it SCRATCHES ALL THE DISCS IT READS when it's in the vertical position. What kinda crock of crap is that? So the guy had me horizontally orient the 360 and the games started working. He did tell me to exchange all of my games that I could at my retailer, though, because the scratches may still cause problems. That's cool, but what about my Halo 2 and SC:CT discs that aren't covered by my retailer's 30-day warranty? MS will replace them if they give me problems, thankfully. Here's my point: is this a huge coverup at MS? They KNOW that it will scratch discs when orinted vertically, but it is NO WHERE IN THE MANUAL OR ANY OTHER DOCUMENTATION and IS ADVERTISED THAT IT CAN - and now how many other people are screwed like me? For those of you that are worried, look at the bottom of your discs. If there is a hairline scratch just outside of the center of the disc making a perfect circle (or sometimes multiple ones forming concentric circles), then the vertical 360 has most likely ruined your discs. Start playing your 360 vertically and exchange your discs at your retailer. Now here's a kicker: if I send my 360 in, they WILL NOT fix it to play discs vertically, in fact, they have NO PLANS to add stabilizers to the DVD drives in the 360.
In conclusion: playing games off of a disc while in the vertical position WILL ruin your discs. MS will admit this over the phone, but not in advertisments or manuals. ONLY play games off of a disc when your 360 is horizontally oriented. If your discs are scratched beyond repair and you can't exchange them, call tech support at 1-800-4MY-XBOX.
Post your rants in the comments section below and forward this to all the forums and gaming websites you know - GA.com knows first about the vertical disc-scratching, but we need to get the word out to save other people from my troubles!
EDIT: Just for clarification's sake - this has NOTHING to do with changing orientation WHILE the game is playing - I have never touched my 360 while a disc has been in it other than to press the eject button. It has to do with the fact that the disc is scraping against the lens mechanism while it's spinning - even though the 360 is stable and not moving.
Well thats funny...
Ive been playing my 360 vertical and no scratches on my discs. But just incase I don't want to take any risks... *turns system on its side while its still off* Hey it still looks cool.
yeah, I didn't have any problems from Nov 22 until today, either - but this is just warning - it WILL scratch your discs, the only question is WHEN.
Thanks goodness for that infovideo.
I personally always use D_Skins on my games, so I'm not really scared of playing it vertically
Are you sure you didn't change it's position while it was turned on? Because it says pretty clearly in the manual to take the disc out and turn it off before you do that.
yes, Seymour. let me make it clear: this has NOTHING to do with changing orientation WHILE the game is playing - I have never touched my 360 while a disc has been in it other than to press the eject button. it has to do with the fact that the disc is scraping against the lens mechanism while it's spinning - even though the 360 is stable and not moving.
...this really sucks if true. I'll have to check my disk, cause I'm not sure if mine is scratched or not. Only got one title, so its been in most of the time. I really want to keep it vertical though, my room is setup for it to be that way. I don't have a lot of space, and unless I want it on the floor, horizontal just won't work.
I know what you mean, asd - I had to rearrange a lot of my furniture to get my 360 in the horizontal position. The scratches apparently come over time, because mine worked great until yesterday - so you may have very small scratches now that don't mess with the game, but after a while your game may crap out (and that's even worse if it's past your retailer's return date).
now what about that whole rubber stop thing people were doing in order to prevent scratching? They were putting a small piece of rubber or maybe foam inside the drive, that way when you moved the system it wouldn't tilt and scratch the disc. I realize this isn't happening because of people moving it, but I was just wondering if it would have the same results, and allow us to leave it standing vertical.
yes, asd, that would fix the problem as those foam pieces are the "stabilizers" I was referring to. it's just an oversight my MS (or a cost-cutting solution), but it's a hefty one. the foam fix is good if you don't mind voiding your warranty (I will add the foam to all of my modded 360s)
I think I'm going to do that then, I don't want to deal with problems in the future. Thanks for making me aware of this.
C'mon Matt, admit it. You were shaking your 360 vigorously while playing.
yup, I loves me some 360 shakin' :) [/sarcasm]
How is this any different from having a mini ATX PC box with the DVD drive vertical? It's a shame that the drive scratches disc's like that. And the fact that the kiosks at the stores have the 360 set vertical makes me question why the Microsoft Rep would say this. It's good info though. I'll be sure to keep mine in the horizontal position. :)
lol this is unfortunate, one little piece of rubber crap is all MS needed to do to stop this from happening... but NO... and its so simple too. Hahaha this first gen of xbox 360 seems fairly suckful.... by the time its launched here in Australia i hope they make these improvments..
I had the same experience. I had been playing it in the horizontal position fine. I powered down, moved it to another room in the vertical position and played COD2 most of the night. The next day it locked-up. I ejected the disk - a ring of scratches on the outside of the disk. Will the retailer really take the disk back? What the heck do you say? Here is my mangled disk?
Got Xbox 360 last week and it also scratched our discs. One was ruined, Microsoft support sounded as if they never heard of this problem.
Told me to send it back.
Yeah, finally happened to me as well
found out about "The List" though, article is at
http://www.gamerandy.com/archives/2005/12/getting_on_the.shtml
Ive had my XBOX 360 oriented horizontally on a flat wood surface away from other sources of heat. Ive not moved the system while there has been a disc spinning in the drive. Although ive taken all of these precautionary measures for the safety of my console and the disc I notice small scratches on the discs here and there, ive have not yet oriented the console vertically to see if it would stop these minor scratches because I dont see how having the console vertically could cure this. If anyone has had a similiar problem please reply to this comment. I think I may need to purchase some foam rubber pads from the llama.com website to better stabalize my drive but I dont want to void my warranty.
Any reply would be greatly appreciated.
Yes i am getting the same problems as Matt. I guess i will have to put it horizontally and get the games replaced even though one of them was off ebay. :@. Thanks for the info though
I was switching my component video cable from the HDTV setting to the TV setting (switch on the cable) and I accidentally turned the console over about 2 inches on its side and now my 60 dollar game is ruined.
Got G.R.A.W. and 3 days later my 360 pretty much ate it. It has a continuous scratch all the way around the outside of the disc. Best Buy told me they would exchange it for me though :).
I've expirienced small scratches here and there, with one disc having a large swipe of scratches at one point. These appear randomly on the disc. However, none of the games have been scratched beyond the point of not being able to be played. My console is oriented vertically. I'm not having rings of scratches, just random scratches all over my discs. Has anyone else had this problem? Or is it just me and everyone else has rings?
Please reply if you know anything about this. It would be greatly appreciated.
it sucked i was playing call of duty 2 on my 360 and i didnt think i needed to read the manual quite yet. so i was playing and i turned my 360 while it was on pause and what do ya now an error accured. i looked at my game it had scratches all over it now i dont now what to really do about it.
it sucked i was playing call of duty 2 on my 360 and i didnt think i needed to read the manual quite yet. so i was playing and i turned my 360 while it was on pause and what do ya now an error accured. i looked at my game it had scratches all over it now i dont now what to really do about it.
Today is the second time my 360 has wrecked my game. I have been playing it vertically because well that's how I have seen it and hey, it looks pretty cool that way. Both scratches have come in the game Oblivion when I have been about 20 hrs in. I guess I will have to exchange my game AGAIN and start a new one because I assume my saved game will have saved with the missing data so even if I get a new disc the data in the saved game will be corrupt. This is really frusturaiting.
I just bought my son a xbox 360, and we went to Blockbuster to rent a game, the guy told me that if the game comes back with ring scratches "you bought it" I didn't know what he was talking about, knowing that we take care of games, I wasn't worried. Well, it happened! I've been informed that the last 6 games returned have been charged to the renters, I think Blockbuster should explain a little more to the customers and I think they are making a lot of money renting 360 games and charging full price when you return them!
fricken BS I spent 60 dollars on oblivion just to have my 360 ruin it 2 weeks, no moving it while playing either, im about 2 break it. NE ways i am callin ms and hopefully return 360 peice of shit and get a ps3 when it comes out.
Yes, just so you know. Same thing happened to me playing Oblivion(Awesome game by the way) Anyways, the consol was horizontal(tsk tsk) and I should have known becaues the PS2 was done the same way. Promoting it the same way just to find out you need to play it Vertically. Anyways, Microsoft told me to go F myself(Not literally) So I need to buy a new game, and that's that. But beware, dont play it Vertically!!
Yes, just so you know. Same thing happened to me playing Oblivion(Awesome game by the way) Anyways, the consol was horizontal(tsk tsk) and I should have known becaues the PS2 was done the same way. Promoting it the same way just to find out you need to play it Vertically. Anyways, Microsoft told me to go F myself(Not literally) So I need to buy a new game, and that's that. But beware, dont play it Vertically!!
Same here. I had the system mounted vert and it ate my GRAW disk today after about 6 times playing. It also left a small crack in the center of the disk.
Same here. I had the system mounted vert and it ate my GRAW disk today after about 6 times playing. It also left a small crack in the center of the disk.
I checked on this topic just a little too late. I bought an Xbox 360 about a week ago, along with Oblivion. Everything was cool and I was enjoying the nice (vertical) space that it fit into right next to my old Xbox. Like it's been mentioned before, with the absence of warning about the dangers of placing it vertically I lightly bumped the console on accident and I immediately heard fingernails on a chalkboard. I hurriedly removed the disk to see the previously mentioned halo of scratches around the outside and about halfway into my brand new, $60 Oblivion disk. At the time I was unaware of the dangers of placing it vertically and it happened again about 10 minutes ago… the disk is totaled.
Same experience here, only my 360 was horizontal and untouched. It made a brief grinding noise and my disc was ruined. M$ says "they've never heard of that abnormality" but they did offer to let me send in my xbox and pay 120 to repair.
It's odd that this never happens, they don't know what caused it, but they know how much it takes to fix it.
I've had a similar problem i left my LOTR BMFE 2 disc in my console for about a day and turned my console on and got a error so i chacked my disc and wouldnt you no it it had a circlular scratch
this happened with mine on n3 but a few mins later with some t-cut had the disc working fine.
Anyone that says it is the customers fault is full of crud. All my disks are getting scratched and I do not move the box and it is not vertical!!!
I have an engineering degree and have done work with Seagate. (This is a design problem) Also, I have an MBA and have been in the meetings for thinking of ways to blame the customer. (I am sure they have fixed the design problem... what is MS to do with all thoes units that have shipped?)
Yeh, Oblivion is dead. A scratch all the way around. Yes, I "WAS" vertical. MS told me it was my fault. It's either not level, I vibrated it, or I moved it when in use. I was just a little angry at this point. I never called names or used a vulgar word yet I was told I was banned from ever calling tech support again. I guess I made him mad when I questioned MS honesty:) I guess it doesn't matter since they won't help anyway. A little advice, buy from Circuit City and get thier replacment plan. When my XB360 broke, they just gave me another. Screw that $120 repair bill MS hands out. Chances are, it will still be broke. God Bless.
I had a similar situation with my xbox scratching a new gears of war game. Paid $60 only to have the game scratched by my 360. I agree with some of the earlier messages pointing to a design flaw. So, what can we do to make this right? We can write on every message board (as I am doing now) and tell everyone that we know of this problem. Word-of-mouth advertising can make or break a company. Yes, even one as mighty as MS. Over time, continual bad press will errode MS's reputation as a good gaming system, unless they get their act together.
My plan is to repeat this message as many times as possible. MS would have been better off replacing my game (and the games of others). Instead they will get more than $60 of bad press from me.
That's my two sents.
HORIZONTAL DISC SCRATCHING - So long story short, like many of y'all, my system scratches the discs while in the horizontal position. They aren't huge rings or scratches, but enough to make the game unplayable when it gets to the scratch.
HORIZONTAL DISC SCRATCHING - So long story short, like many of y'all, my system scratches the discs while in the horizontal position. They aren't huge rings or scratches, but enough to make the game unplayable when it gets to the scratch. So I'm currently looking into contacting a lawyer to start a class action suit due to issues of liability and faulty products. You can read the whole story on my website http://www.zacturney.com/miscfiles/xbox360.html and contact me from there.
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