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"Dirty Disks"

The other day my X-Box decided to pull the middle finger and say
"Sorry mate, you got a DIRTY DISK! mwahahahah! Go buy another X-Box so Microsoft can say they've sold even more machines. Not that they're just BADLY made!"

Anyone had this issue? Happens to EVERY game (DVD/CD) I stick in the thing. Tiss quite annoying because I hardly ever use the thing anyways, but I bought Broken Sword 3 last week and was in the middle of playing it.

I've read on other forums that "Sometimes they just die." WTF!?! Cheap c###y console. It shouldn't 'just die'. Just not good enough.

And no, I don't have warrenty left, as I think this was one of the original X-Boxs.

Anyone know any magic tricks to fix it? Before I bother to one day, open the thing up, and have a little tinker and a spring clean. The only other alternative at the mo, is to buy a replacement drive from someone for £40. But I don't really want to do that.

:)

the x-box is only desined to last one year the lasers knack up after a year so its so simple what you have to do just get a new laser put in it but i will let you in on a secret if your waranty has run out just open your x-box up and clean your laser by your self but warning swich it off and use a dry cloth this should get it up and running for a couple more months

I had to pay £50 for a whole new drive!

Cheap scummy buggers...

I had the very same problem - I thought is was just every thing I owned went wrong. Some games work fine tho - instantly even - but some stoopid discs wont work @ all!

I have no warranty left and I'm slightly peeved at everything the Xbox chucks up on the screen saying it won't work.

It is also scratching some of my discs - so I had to fork out £29.99 for the skip drive - which has done the job.

Buy one to save all your precious games and try blowing into the disc drive to blow away any dust.

GOOD LUCK

Yup. Though I saw on some site "DO NOT DIRECTLY BLOW CANNED AIR INTO THE DRIVE" as your more likely spread the dirt than help.

I didn't care, cos it couldn't get any worse.

Thought for a couple seconds it might have helped... but no.

:(

Tried blowing into the machine thought the drive? :-P never know!

Cooky wrote:
> fire_starter wrote:
> Is it the game disks that are dirty, or the hard disk?
>
> I'm quite an@l about cleanliness and keeping my stuff in good working
> order, so the disks are fine.
>
> It's the lazer inside the DVD drive. It's either moved out of sync,
> or there is like a spec of dust on it, or the mirror.
>
> :(

You can buy one of those laser lens cleaners. I think I saw them in Virgin.

Concept wrote:
> Can't you send it back to microsoft at all?

erm... it's been 'fixed' so to speak. So I don't think so. Had been previously 'fixed' when I bought it 2nd hand to.

> Maybe those "clean the lense" cd things could help?

Bought one, didn't help. Think the fact it won't play any CD/DVD might have been the issue using it mind. As you play the CD in the machine, and it does its job cleaning while playing some music etc. But as the drive won't load anything, didn't quite work.

:(

fire_starter wrote:
> Is it the game disks that are dirty, or the hard disk?

I'm quite an@l about cleanliness and keeping my stuff in good working order, so the disks are fine.

It's the lazer inside the DVD drive. It's either moved out of sync, or there is like a spec of dust on it, or the mirror.

:(

Pick it up, turn it around....shake it.

Sure it might damage everything else inside it buy might fix the dirty discs problem :-)

Yeah, I'm getting the same problem with mine at the moment. DVD's that are completely scratchless randomly won't work. But if you try again 5 minutes later, they will work.

I get the same problem with some games as well (notably Halo 2). It knows it's an Xbox disc because it plays the same movie you get if you stick an xbox disc in your PC 'This is an xbox disc. Put it in your xbox to play.'

And also with some CD's, it makes strange crackling sounds over some tracks which doesn't happen on my PC/CD player.

Hrmm :S