Defective Console DVD Drives?

ksplatter asks: "I Purchased an X-Box back in January of this year. Everything was working just fine until I bought a game called Outlaw Golf about 2 months ago. I literally had not one problem with the unit before this. So after playing the game a couple of times I went to insert the disc one day and the X-Box told me it was unable to read my disc. I thought it was odd but continued anyway. Ever since then, my console has been more and more picky in deciding which disks (games or DVDs) to actually play. It is to the point where now the unit is completely useless. I called Microsoft and the tech support blamed the problem on rental companies (i.e. blockbuster) putting stickers on the CD that damaged the DVD lens. They told me they can't do anything for free but for 100 BUCKS M$ would replace the drive. I went on the Message board for the game that started this problem and they blamed the issue on some cheap/defective DVD drives that were installed in X-Boxes between last November and January. I was curious if anyone out there ran into this problem and what they did. Is there any sort of action I can take against Microsoft?" I't like to point out that this can be a problem with some Playstation 2 systems as well. I am now on my second PS2 unit (obtained after the price drop) because my original unit could no longer read DVD-based games or movies (however my original Gamecube, purchased at about the same time, is still purring along just fine). Might this be a sign that the early DVD units provided by both companies were just not able to handle the environments in which they were placed (ala hot TV cabinets, dusty living room floors, smoke filled areas and so forth)?

Comments

Re:Dust/dirt and DVD drives in general

[OnyxRaven]

This datasheet tells you all about the drive that is in about half of the xbox units out there.

More or less its a great little drive. One platter (they only use one side of the 2gb platter) means less operating parts and longer life, lower power consumption, and lower heat emission. Oh and they are also amazingly quiet too.

now the dvd drive, I bet the same thing happens with dvd players as well, i've seen it starting to happen on one of the players I've had frequent use of (old roommates) - but a cleaning with just the typical cd lens cleaner did the trick, at least for now. eventually a real cleaning may be in order. just like my cd player in my car.

good ole slashdot. 'of course its an xbox problem'. (just in case that tag doesnt go through, Copy/Paste: http://www.seagate.com/cda/products/discsales/mark eting/detail/0,1081,277,00.html )

Re:The PS2 problem can be fixed

[optikSmoke]

The disc troubles you are having sound like problems my system goes through leading up to its eventual all-out I-won't-read-a-damn-thing behaviour :).

My advice: If you have a chance to get a new one, do it. I have a friend who has a later PS2 version than mine, and he's never encountered any problems with it. So go for a new one if possible, and avoid the problems I'm having. On the other hand, I won't say for sure that your problems will lead into the kind I'm having, so if it will cost you a lot of money to get a different system, you might want to wait until it actually starts failing completely before you get a new one.

Similiar Problem with Phillips/Magnavox DVD Player

[Monkelectric]

This dvd player "degrades" simliar to what you are describing. First it woudln't play really old 1 layer discs, then grrr american beauty wouldn't play, then a few dvds wouldn't play ... (of course this started the moment it got out of warranty) finally over the course of a year the ONLY dvd it would play was fight club, which is a damn good movie, but kind of lacking in variety.