Xbox scratches game discs

October 5, 2008 2:21 PM

Our Xbox 360 is scratching the discs. What can we do?

My son's Xbox 360 is scratching his discs. At first I was blaming him for moving the unit and causing it to scratch but now I know it is not his fault. The unit is in a secure position and has not been moved. He is on his 3rd Halo 3 disc and it has circular scratches on it.

Google has shown us that there are problems with this but most mention things in EU as far as getting help.

Has anyone in the US had this issue? What can be done? These games are too expensive for this and he has to use his own money. The unit was purchased in about 2 years ago.

posted by maxg94 to technology (6 comments total)

Here is your magic bullet: you can try these.
I have used a few before, and can confirm that it does exactly what it intends to do.

However, it could get expensive if you have many discs to cover.
posted by softsantear at 2:58 PM on October 5, 2008

Is it stored horizontally or vertically?

It should be stored horizontally.

Do it. Do it naow!
posted by turgid dahlia at 3:15 PM on October 5, 2008

It is stored horizontally, and has been for some time. I didn't think vertically seemed stable enough. So that change won't help.
posted by maxg94 at 3:37 PM on October 5, 2008

The "magic bullet" of d-skins sounds like a good idea but they can still get scratched themselves. A lot cheaper than replacing discs, but I am also wondering if the unit itself can be fixed. Does Microsoft do anything since it is their unit ruining discs? Like replace discs? Or fix the unit? Anyone with experience with that?
posted by maxg94 at 3:45 PM on October 5, 2008

Are you within your 1yr warranty? If not you're out of luck. If you have an older unit you might try selling it on eBay to recoup your costs, as the older drives could be flashed via SATA cable to read burned games. I don't think any new units have this ability.
posted by geoff. at 5:03 PM on October 5, 2008

This is a well-known problem with some units, here's how to fix it yourself: http://www.llamma.com/xbox360/news/Xbox-360-Game-Disc-Scratched.htm
posted by bizwank at 5:54 PM on October 5, 2008