GTA IV - disc read error! Am i alone?

jagdeepp

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Has GTA IV killed my 360?... or vice versa perhaps?

Bought the game ystdy. Played for around 40 mins before being called out to work. Today played an hour and a quarter online and got a message that the disc has an error. How so, i just bought it brand new yesterday for £45! I opened the tray and examined the disc. To my horror there was a white ring along the outside which went right around the disc. I used a cloth to give the disc a wipe. A portion of the residue cleared but there was still an imprint. The game starts. Just before the menu it returns the same message and crashes. This has never happened before! I tested fight night round 3 and pro evo 2007. No problems at all. Nothing appears to be wrong with the 360. I've read quite abit about this being a common error.

I'm happy to return this for another copy but what happens when i'm out of warranty. Bought it from Game. They say they'll replace it with another copy, frankly i dont want the game anymore if it carries a risk that it'll be damaged after 28 days! They wont give me a refund. I understand they'll only accept a sealed unopened copy. I guess the only way to deal is then return back with the unopened replacement copy and get my money back!!!!

Anyone else had this issue? Sure i'm not alone.

Getting fed up of the 360. Its frozen a few times last year on me and is louder than my wife's diesel car. It's always a relief when you switch the machine off and enjoy the silence. If i could sue Microsoft, i would!!!!
 
I think you are just unlucky with that disk, maybe a bad one off the production line. I know many people with the game and nobody has had that problem.

Just examined my disk and it is clean, no problems at all. I guess your dvd drive could be faulty. Is your 360 still under any warranty? Might be worth getting a replacement if possible.
 
This happened to me last night too. Can't get the game to work at all now.
 
I had a simular problem last year with my last xbox and Forza2. It was the DVD drive scratching discs.
May be worth looking at your other games, seeing if there is the same patern on the discs.
 
Dont think its just my dvd drive.. I've been playing Fight Night Round 3 regularly for over a year. Also Pro evo soccer. No problems with either of those discs.
 
I had a simular problem last year with my last xbox and Forza2. It was the DVD drive scratching discs.
May be worth looking at your other games, seeing if there is the same patern on the discs.

Let me guess.. the only way to resolve the issue was to spend close to another £200 on a new 360?! To be honest i wouldnt buy one again.
 
Its your DVD drive on the 360, if it isn't damaging all disks it soon willl be. If you google around there are some fixes for this if you want to have a go at fixing it yourself. Alternatively you can pickup a arcade for £140-150 and just use your HDD off the old one.
 
I had the same problem with my GTA disk, and have also had it with Mass Effect, DMC4 and GoW.

I have however played countless other games with no issues which leads me to believe that the problem is down to games that require a lot of disk access, ie loading lots of data etc. As the disk spins up to speed it wobbles on the spindle and that’s why you get the circle scratches around the edge from the drive tray, or round the middle from the laser. All this because the drives MS used don’t have any pads to keep the disk flat / level as it spins (Google “360 dvd drive scratches disks” or similar for a better explanation of this, it’s a well known problem).

My 360 is out of warranty and I didnt want to pay MS £60 to get the drive fixed so I just got the disk cleaned in Gamestation for £1.99 and it’s been fine for about 10hrs play since.

Also, as I have no warranty, I ordered some foam pads from Xbox repair specialists llamma.com for $3.99. Once fitted these should stop the disk wobbling on the spindle and save me the cost of future disk cleaning, and of course the £60 MS want to fix the drive. I also ordered the X-clamp repair kit should my 360 develop 3RLoD again.

Anyway, in your case I would just take Game’s offer of a free replacement and if your 360 is less than a year old then I would call MS and tell them your drive is scratching your disks.

Best of luck ;)
 
I often get a message on certain games that the disk is unreadable....very frustrating. Thankfully its only happened once on GTA IV. Happened all the time on Dead Rising. I just put it down to the poor quality of the 360.

On a different issue, i was stupid enough to move my 360 once whilst it was turned on, with a game (forza 2) in the drive and it scratched a ring right around the disk (something that the 360 tends to do when you move it with a game in). Game wouldn't take the disk back and blamed me for it, saying i shouldnt have moved the xbox with a disk on the tray...fair enough i guess. But its ridiculous that it should happen in the first place.

In the end i found a local shop who charged £3 to skim the disk. Apparently they just take a very thin layer off the scratched surface of the disk, making it possible for the 360 to read the data again. result!
 
In the end i found a local shop who charged £3 to skim the disk. Apparently they just take a very thin layer off the scratched surface of the disk, making it possible for the 360 to read the data again. result!

That's the same service as Gamestation / Blockbuster offer... except for £1.99. Very handy indeed!
 
I also had the exact same problem with my 1st gta4. luckily i was able to return it to tesco for full refund. I have since cleaned the drive with a dvd disk cleaner i have had sitting around for years. This disk hs four or so small brushes on the read side. I read on here somewhere to apply some alcohol cleaning liquid (sparingly!) to the tiny brushes. Then i ran the disk a coupletimes. This seems to have (probably temporarily) sorted the problem. As my current gta4 (bought from argos for £5 cheaper:)) has not given me the 'clean disk error since':smashin:

I will add that i have had the clean disk error prior to playing gta4. Only gta4 seems to have had the most crashes by a long way. As mentioned in this thread it is the amount of disk access that seems to be the clprit, along with it would seem microsoft neglecting to install the pads at manufacture.

I will be looking to install some of those pads soon:smashin: might same me spending more money later rather than sooner.

pixel
 
when my game starts up the character walks round in circles. sometimes it does it during the game aswell?. aint the pad, because it just started happening when i got the game.
 
My game is fine no problems. :)
 
Starting getting these errors on the three leaf clover mission, and yet the disc is pristine. Must be the drive....
 
when my game starts up the character walks round in circles. sometimes it does it during the game aswell?. aint the pad, because it just started happening when i got the game.

I get that occassionally if I leave Niko standing for a moment. Must be the game as I've tried two controllers and it still does it. Doesnt really bother me though, just so long as it doesnt start pulling to one side when I'm driving or anything like that.

Anyway, still no DDEs since getting my disk cleaned... looks like it does the trick! £1.99 is a bargain too :smashin:
 
I'm quite often getting the Disc unreadable error, usually after completing a mission but before the auto-save which is annoying!

I don't think my disc is scratched at all, will check it again later.

As it appears to be a problem with the Xbox hardware not reading discs properly, if it is still in warranty, is it worth contacting MS and returning it?
 
I'm quite often getting the Disc unreadable error, usually after completing a mission but before the auto-save which is annoying!

I don't think my disc is scratched at all, will check it again later.

As it appears to be a problem with the Xbox hardware not reading discs properly, if it is still in warranty, is it worth contacting MS and returning it?

Yeah mate, if it's less than 1 year old then I would definately suggest calling them as the problem will only get worse.

Turn around time on reapirs isnt as bad as the internet horror stories usually make out. I have returned 2 different 360s for repair and had them both back within 10 days of when they were initially picked up by UPS.

Alternatively, you could take the game back to where you bought it for an exchange, as you might have a dud. No use sending the console off if it's the disk that's the problem. If it still does it then call MS.

Good luck either way ;)
 
Right, heres an update. Returned it to Game last Sunday. Played it for around 4 hours in total so far. Put it on a couple of nights ago and i get a sense of de ja vu. DISC ERROR! I took the disc out of the drive and not a scratch!!! I dont understand. Since then, i have tested the 360 by running Fight Night Round 3, Pro Evo 6 and GOW. All run absolutely fine. Thinking of returning the game and just getting my money back. Would so prefer to back up the original onto the hard drive or to play a backup. Unfortunately this wont be possible for fear of being banned from live!!! Getting tempted to turn over to the PS3.....
 
Just stuck my bought from Asda on launch night 360 Gta in. Started a mission and got a dirty disc error. Tried again and the same. had a look at the dvd and it has about 4 little scratches on it running around the disc. Does it at the same bit every time.

What options do I have for getting a new one. Cant find my Asda receipt. Should I tell them I was there at midnight and hope they feel sorry for me. Arghhhhhh what a nightmare
 
Right, heres an update. Returned it to Game last Sunday. Played it for around 4 hours in total so far. Put it on a couple of nights ago and i get a sense of de ja vu. DISC ERROR! I took the disc out of the drive and not a scratch!!! I dont understand. Since then, i have tested the 360 by running Fight Night Round 3, Pro Evo 6 and GOW. All run absolutely fine. Thinking of returning the game and just getting my money back. Would so prefer to back up the original onto the hard drive or to play a backup. Unfortunately this wont be possible for fear of being banned from live!!! Getting tempted to turn over to the PS3.....

Let me just highlight something for you. You have had 2 copies of a game that there is absolutely no widespread issues of having read issues and still have problems. Which do you think is the more likely cause for your problems, a disk manufactered using the same procedure as millions of other disks which left the production line or the 360 which is renowned for having being built using the cheapest components imaginably and is reknowned for read errors because of said cheap drives.

I said it before and I'll say it again, it's your 360 DVD drive that is at fault and it may not yet have problems on all games but it will sooner or later. If you don't believe me consults your local Game and ask their staff about the issue.

Just stuck my bought from Asda on launch night 360 Gta in. Started a mission and got a dirty disc error. Tried again and the same. had a look at the dvd and it has about 4 little scratches on it running around the disc. Does it at the same bit every time.

What options do I have for getting a new one. Cant find my Asda receipt. Should I tell them I was there at midnight and hope they feel sorry for me. Arghhhhhh what a nightmare

This again is the disk has been scratched by your 360. Assuming you didn't pickup the 360 or jump around it while playing any replacement you get may have the same issue appear too. I'd get the 360 replaced/repaired personally before it damages other disks of yours.
 

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