XBOX360 - Scratching Games

[Duer 157099]

This is getting beyond ridiculous, I'm so furious.

My son has totally destroyed some 4 or 5 games in the past couple of weeks, or rather, his XBOX360 keeps destroying discs.

Goddammit! Somebody please tell me how to make workable copies, because goddammit, I'm not EVER EVEREVEREVEREVER EVER! going to pay $60 for another game that will go into that machine, without FIRST making a copy to ruin!

He just now ruined a game he borrowed from a friend!!!

I'm so pissed I can't even see straight right now.

FUCK their stupid fucking copyfuckingrightbullshit, I don't care!

[Occulus]

1. And that would be the #1 reason to be against any and all forms of DRM.

That they made it actually illegal under the DMCA to circumvent any form of copy protection makes all DRM a racket. If you learn how to do it, please post the process.

You may want to contact the manufacturer of the game and see if they'll send you a replacement if you send in the original, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for them to 'yes'.

[semillama]

2. have you tried calling technical support?

I'm assuming that you've verified your son is treating the games with care and isn't blaming the machine when he had been leaving the discs out of their cases instead - boys are tricky! In which case, give the tech guys a call. My experience with them when I experienced the "red rings of death" was very positive.

[Duer 157099]

4. Yes, it's not his fault - this is definitely the machine doing it

plus after googling about it, turns out this is a known hardware defect.

Yes, called tech support and the have sent a box to send the machine in (for how long? summer for a teen without an xbox, how nice for him). But, for the discs ($60+ each, thank you very much) they will replace only microsoft games (which none of these are) and for $20. FUCKERS.

[semillama]

7. Well, if you can't get the game manufacturers to help you out with replacements

I guess your son can always go to gamestop or someplace and replace the games with used copies. It sucks they won't replace your games, but it's probably not worth your time haggling about $60 games ( if you consider the likely amount of time you might spend in pursuing it).

[Ignis]

3. I second the rec to call tech support.

It's smarmy Microsoft tech support, but at least they're reasonably thorough and interested in keeping happy Xbox customers.

My guess is that the CD-ROM in your Xbox is ejecting the disks before they're completely spun down. I had a drive in a PC that was doing this, and it ruined several disks before I replaced it.

Also, some game manufacturers have a policy whereby you can send in your scratched disk and ~$5 to get a new disk of the same game. I realize this is a big pain, because you have you go around to all the various manufacturers, but you might even be able to get free replacement disks if you find sympathetic support people.

And yes, fuck their DRM crap. Fuck it right in the ear.

[Duer 157099]

5. Yes, see post above n/t

[Ignis]

6. $20 each for replacements? That's robbery!

But the turnaround on Xbox repair is pretty swift. You should only be without a system for about 2 weeks, plus shipping.

Of course, 2 weeks in a lad's Summer without games...that's asking a lot. :)