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SCRATCHED DISK UPDATE - July '07: Oh no! My 360 suffered from the ring of death and I'm having another load of hassle and delay getting it fixed. Read more here xbox 360 disk scratching and support customer experience - 10 APRIL 2006 Original thread here: http://forums.xbox.com/3375843/ShowPost.aspx Started by vanRossum at 04-07-2006 12:16 AM. Topic has 56 replies. Xbox Forums » General Discuss... » Technical Issue... » MY POOR OBLIVION!! MY STUPID XBOX!! This post was copied here because I have some images to help describe my experience. I wrote this post in response to another post called MY POOR OBLIVION!! MY STUPID XBOX!! I've also added some more bits, so it's not exactly the same my original reply... Same story here, starting with the xbox 360 horizontal in a quiet vibration-free and tilt-proof area. My Oblivion disk became unreadable after 15 hours play with two rings towards the centre of the playing area in the disk, formed from a large number of small 'dinks'.
I'd bought the 360 from Argos and 'Elder Scrolls - Oblivion' from 'Game' stores, so I took Oblivion back to Game for exchange. The chap there kindly agreed to swap it and we both inspected the perfect unscratched new disk. I put it in the 360 and continued playing Oblivion, but after 1 more hour's play, I took the disk out and found 2 new dinks in roughly the same area as on the previous scratched disk. When I called Microsoft support, they told me I'd been nudging it and they would only take it back if I tried to rip an audio CD on it to see what would happen. I refused - destroy my own audo CDs? - no thanks! And, I'm not interested in ripping CDs on my 360, just playing Oblivion for now. The support people seemed focused on their theory that the disk spins fastest when ripping CDs. Anyway, they would not take it any further, saying they've already proved that this can not happen so it would be pointless to have them look at my xbox 360. In "99.999%" of all cases they said, "its xbox 360 tilting or nudging that does it". They added that they've had too many back with no fault found. Hmmm... After the frustrating set of calls that included a supervisor escalating my issue outside his Newcastle call centre, I did rip 3 audio disks (just to see) and the CDs did not scratch at all - so much for that test. I decided to carry on playing my new copy (2 scratches) of Oblivion VERY CAREFULLY to see what would happen. After another day's play, tip-toeing around the living room only when absolutely necessary, and having the sound turned right down on the TV (just in case!), there were 21 scratches on my disk in total - around 2 rings in the middle of the disk play area. I had noticed some loud ticking noises coming from the xbox 360 during play, happening in a fairly sporadic and random way throughout the playing session.
Is the speed a factor in disk scratching as xbox 360 support told me? Surely the drive accesses disks in a totally different way when ripping from playing games, especially since games and audio CDs are written in different formats. Is it not more likely to be sudden seek changes and laser re-focusing as data gets read from different areas of the disk, which has to speed up and slow down to maintain constant linear velocity? What about customers who do not have any audio CDs to run this 'test'? Is asking customers to potentially damage their own disks a responsible and creditable support practice? Why no other alternatives? Shame on you Microsoft, especially since your support for original xbox customers was brilliant. Ah, the good old days... I remember 2 free games and an extra controller as early adopter thank you present. Also they sent out a mains RCD breaker box because some of the ealy machines had a vague risk of catching fire. Now, with the xbox 360, they refused to help me with a damaged piece of hardware unless I tried a ridiculous, technically flawed, potentially destructive test. I can imagine other customers going through the same process and being left fuming and feeling totally helpless by the support department's lack of faith and unreasonable stance. If these scratches are caused by me jumping up and down or slapping or tilting my xbox 360, then why do they occur gradually with dinks forming in two rings, rather than randomly across the entire playing surface?
Anyway, there's a happy ending for me - seeing as there was no option to deal further with the manufacturer's support at that time, I took the dodgy console back to Argos. I got another xbox 360 with no quibbles, and after 2 more days extended play, I still have 21 scratches on my Oblivion disk - but no new ones! The new xbox 360 does seem to sound different when accessing the disk with no more of those loud clicky noises. I have a disk scratch removal kit on order from Maplin to polish the existing scratches out. Oh, I had to buy a memory card to copy my game saves and profile, costing GBP22 - terrible value for 64Mb RAM, but essential for me to save progress on Oblivion between consoles. UPDATE - 11 April 2006 at 15:00 GMT I've just had a call from Zoe at Microsoft. She said Microsoft monitor their forums and was calling about the message I posted there. We went over the events that led to me exchanging my 360 at Argos. Zoe kindly offered me a free game from a choice of 3 Microsoft 360 titles for my feedback and for trouble caused. What a super gesture! My faith has been restored in Microsoft once more. They didn't have to bother, but they did and that counts for lots. Plus, Kameo is coming in the post soon! I'd just like to point a finger at Microsoft's initially poor customer service. Those guys could learn a thing or two from Argos and Game, two understanding and responsive retailers that seem interested in customer satisfaction. But I should also 'doff my cap' to Microsoft because the Zoe phone-call showed that they are ultimately interested in their customers. So well done and thanks to them for that. Here's my advice:
Thanks for reading! xbox live Gamertag - UsernamePending UPDATE - 11 July 2007 Oh no! My 360 suffered from the ring of death and I'm having another load of hassle and delay getting it fixed. Read more here
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