Xbox 360 Not Reading Discs Properly

BloomerzUK

BloomerzUK

BloomerzUK

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Hi Guys.

Lately, my Xbox 360 has been making weird noises when reading discs, and sometimes not reading them at all, saying unreadable disc or sometime popping up unrecognizable disc. The noises it makes it like a shreaking noises.. thing is it only does it when reading games, not DVDs.

If a game works, it take about 1 minute for it to load from dashboard, but then it gets to loading into the menu (e.g Saints Row 2, Fifa 09) and the pop saying unrecognizable discs pops up. The Xbox is laid down if it makes any difference.. I have tried standing it up, to no avail.

It's out of Warranty by 2.5/3 weeks.. so this is really a PITA.

Any thing I should try out? or does this mean I have to buy another Xbox?

TIA
 
BloomerzUK said:
Hi Guys.

Lately, my Xbox 360 has been making weird noises when reading discs, and sometimes not reading them at all, saying unreadable disc or sometime popping up unrecognizable disc. The noises it makes it like a shreaking noises.. thing is it only does it when reading games, not DVDs.

If a game works, it take about 1 minute for it to load from dashboard, but then it gets to loading into the menu (e.g Saints Row 2, Fifa 09) and the pop saying unrecognizable discs pops up. The Xbox is laid down if it makes any difference.. I have tried standing it up, to no avail.

It's out of Warranty by 2.5/3 weeks.. so this is really a PITA.

Any thing I should try out? or does this mean I have to buy another Xbox?

TIA
Click to expand...

DVD Lens cleaner? Never used one with the 360, but as it is just a normal DVD ROM drive it may help? DVDs are read at single speed and games are read faster (which may be why you don't see it in movies?).

Either way for only 2-3 weeks out of warranty it's worth asking your retailer or MS. The console has 3 years for RROD so people may suggest you force yours to RROD to claim on warranty (I don't advise this myself as it is fraud).


rp2000
 
the laser could be the problem, so your most likely gona have to send it in either way...or try a lens cleaning disk like rp said
 
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I'd give a cleaner a go as said above, If it fails, Unfortunately you'll have to send it away, Phone and talk to them, They may take it from you. It's only 3 weeks after all
 
I'm going to buy a lens cleaning kit now. But say the lens is dirty... would it make weird noises? or would that be something else?

Thanks for help.
 
BloomerzUK said:
I'm going to buy a lens cleaning kit now. But say the lens is dirty... would it make weird noises? or would that be something else?

Thanks for help.
Click to expand...

If by noises you mean it spinning fast then slow repeatedly or the lens pickup mechanism kicking in repeatedly, then yes, dirty lens could cause that.


rp2000
 
Okay. Thanks for help :). Bought a Lens Cleaning Kit.. should be here sometime this week.

It does make a noises that your describing rp2000, speeding up likes it going to play then immediately slows down.

My brother just popped the Fifa 09 disc in once again, and now it loaded up.. and now he's in a middle of an offline match... it works? Weird..
 
BloomerzUK said:
Okay. Thanks for help :). Bought a Lens Cleaning Kit.. should be here sometime this week.

It does make a noises that your describing rp2000, speeding up likes it going to play then immediately slows down.

My brother just popped the Fifa 09 disc in once again, and now it loaded up.. and now he's in a middle of an offline match... it works? Weird..
Click to expand...

Sounds inconsistent so maybe a clean is best just to eliminate. tbh you can just walk into a shop and buy these for like less than a fiver in the high street, rather than waiting for an online order. (dunno how much yours cost, obviously).


rp2000
 
you can fix this by overclocking the cd drive lens pot. will require a multimeter and some torx screw drivers but cheaper than a new xbox! but as far as im aware this only works on samung drives.

to find if you have a samsung drive google "How to Identify Your 360 DVD Drive Without Opening the Console"

and for the pot overclock tutorial "Xbox 360 Dvd Pot Calibration Tut V1.0 By Moda"

i have done this to afew xboxs with good results
 
It's not overclocking, it's changing the resistance of a potentiometer to increase the power of the laser, shortening its lifespan.
 
Kreeeee said:
It's not overclocking, it's changing the resistance of a potentiometer to increase the power of the laser, shortening its lifespan.
Click to expand...

aye deffo shorten the life but if its not working anyways...im not going to pretend to understand everything to do with that tutorial but its an solution ive used anyways.
 
Kreeeee said:
Not always, it's always best to clean the laser with an air duster or cotton bud first.
Click to expand...

Cool, I used the airduster technique before with good results. Never tried a cotton bud, although I guess the DVD cleaners are just a brush on a disc so have same effect as cotton bud used lightly.


rp2000
 
Pretty much, except you can use 99.9% alcohol on cotton buds to improve the effectiveness. I've only ever needed an air duster on the 360 but my Wii needed a pot tweak to read smash bros brawl.
 
Disc drive being unable to read games was the first signs of my 360 RROD'ing. Had to be returned and they replaced the DVD drive and the motherboard. Its probably either a dirty disc drive, or your console starting to die :(
 
nicktay2605 said:
Disc drive being unable to read games was the first signs of my 360 RROD'ing. Had to be returned and they replaced the DVD drive and the motherboard. Its probably either a dirty disc drive, or your console starting to die :(
Click to expand...

Disc read errors are usually the laser - your console having DREs and getting RROD at the same time is merely a co-incidence.

To the OP, since it's out of warranty it's probably best to just buy a new laser instead of faffing about trying to clean it. They're dead easy to fit and only cost around a tenner. Messing about with the pot might get a bit more life out of it, but for the sake of a tenner, I'd just replace the laser as it'll most certainly last longer.
 
nicktay2605 said:
Disc drive being unable to read games was the first signs of my 360 RROD'ing. Had to be returned and they replaced the DVD drive and the motherboard. Its probably either a dirty disc drive, or your console starting to die :(
Click to expand...

The drive on yours was playing up then it red lighted. The two where not linked. Chances are they changed your dvd drive becuase it had a samsung drive or one of the others easier to mod.
 
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