Disc Read Error Rising
by Ken Weeks 
{ Sep 3rd 2006 at 2:00AM }
Dead Rising is DOA on my 360. I loaded the menu ok, but when I tried to start the game, it smacked me with a disc read error, despite being a pristine new copy. The usual "clear the cache' tricks didn't help. But, as suspected, when I removed the hard drive, things worked fine. It turns out plenty of other deadly pissed off customers have a reason to stumble back to the mall with receipt in hand:
http://forums.xbox.com/6234648/ShowPost.aspx
http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/...000689731/p/14
http://boards.ign.com/dead_rising/b8413/125103317/p1/
http://www.capcom.com/BBS/showthread.php?threadid=11141
http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?t=28765
Some of these poor folks have already paid $130 to repair their 360 over what is almost certainly an issue with the game itself. When I called Microsoft Support, they told me that there are "multiple known issues" with Dead Rising and that MS is working with Capcom on a fix. Various rumors blame the fact that DR is supposedly the first game to utilize all three cores, but who knows? A couple days ago we were celebrating Capcom's success, and now I'm forced to conclude that Dead Rising is broken for a significant number of gamers.
Needless to say, my enthusiasm for this title is temporarly zombified. Hey Capcom, where's our patch?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
suineg @ Sep 3rd 2006 2:07AM
I don't mean to be cynical but what good is a patch going to do if you can't get your game even running.
Not to mention if it has to with the files on the disc what good is a patch on the hard drive going to do?
I think a patch to fix this if it is really a problem on the disc won't be a simple fix they can push out overnight.
Or are we talking savegame because if we are then I think Saints Row needs to be brought up also. I hear a lot of people complaining about messed up savegames that lock up on them.
Matt @ Sep 3rd 2006 8:46AM
I think there are problems w/ many games.
I've had problems with Madden and NCAA Football, both brand new copies. I go to end game after spending 30 to 45 minutes playing a game and it gives disc read error, on brand new discs!
pennywise969 @ Sep 3rd 2006 2:39AM
If you read the post, he said things worked fine after he removed the hard drive. Which implies that it is a problem with the hard drive or with data being read from the hard drive. Therefore, a patch of information saved to the hard drive would probably fix the problem.
Pseudo99 @ Sep 3rd 2006 2:54AM
I've played through 100+ hours on this game with no problems whatsoever on two different launch systems. Just my experiences.
Azerael @ Sep 3rd 2006 3:15AM
At least you get to play it... We have to wait almost 2 weeks until it launches here in Australia.
Our copies better not be screwed up.
Don Wilson @ Sep 3rd 2006 3:57AM
Like I said in another comment, I had to reformat my drive in order to play Dead Rising. It got to the menu just fine, but when I tried to load up the game it would say Disk Read Error. Try that :)
TheH2s @ Sep 3rd 2006 9:52AM
I think there is a fix or somewhat of a fix to this. You need to play three other 360 games and then play DR. It deals with how many games the 360 can cache. Apparently, the Xbox 1 only cached one game but on the 360 it caches like 4. So by playing the 3 games prior to DR, it will use up the cache and Dead Rising doesn't have to cycle down and read from the disc. I've butchered the explanation obviously, but suffice it to say just play 3 other 360 games and then try DR. It should work.
Chris @ Sep 3rd 2006 12:10PM
I had the exact same problem with the disc read error. However, I got a a new copy of Dead Rising last week, and it has worked great through many hours of gameplay this weekend.
Hard to believe that the physical disc involved could make a difference, but somehow it did.
Jason W @ Sep 3rd 2006 12:17PM
Ive had no issue with this game yet either. Lets hope it stays that way.
Hodge @ Sep 3rd 2006 12:48PM
this happened to me. instead of going to load game, start a new game and dont save, then quit after a few minutes. you should then be able to load your game without the error.
(i started an overtime mode game instead of a new game, but just in case you don't have overtime, that should work to i think)
Thomas @ Sep 3rd 2006 2:38PM
I havent had one single glitch with DR, but I just bought Madden 07 last week and I feel its riddled with bugs.. First 8 hrs or so went fine but now it locks up sometimes causing me to lose out on some of my games (not being able to save and all).. Last night, b4 a franchise match, I did the training and after 3 failed attempts to even start the training, I said screw it and just played my next game.. It would come up to the begining of training and then say it was paused.. The controller wouldnt do anything for Madden, but I could bring up the Guide and go back to the Dashboard to try, try again..
MS is starting to piss me off..
Mark @ Sep 3rd 2006 5:41PM
With all these reports of games and systems failing its making me really nervous about just ordering an xbox360. Have people with newly manufactured systems had less problems then people with ones from a year ago?
I never thought buying a popular game console would be considered a "risky investment" due to shitty hardware.
Xavier @ Sep 3rd 2006 9:30PM
To number twelve...
I bought two 360's so far (So my roommate and I could play Chromehounds online at the same time) and I haven't had one problem. Both that I purchased were picked up post-May so that might have something to do with it.
As a gamefly subscriber, I've played about 75% of the titles released for the 360 as well, so it's definitely not a lack of game variety.
I think what we're seeing are the early adopters having issues more than anything else, plus a load of other console fanboys making up claims plus a healthy dose of UFIU (User Fucked It Up) by not storing the console correctly.
revovision @ Sep 3rd 2006 9:42PM
I personally own a 360 from the original release lot and a copy of DEAD RISING. Played the game entirely through and have a char around lvl40. NEVER ONCE has my 360 been unable to read the disc or shown any symptoms of an error. sux 4 u guys!
Joe Eversole @ Sep 3rd 2006 10:26PM
I'm still waiting for my box to arrive from MS to return my 360. Bought in February, died in August. 3 red lights, (the usual). $130 and what'll probably be 3 weeks later... I definitely lost by skipping the $40 extended warranty gamble.
dave @ Sep 3rd 2006 11:13PM
I never had any problems until i played saints row. within 2 minutes of playing my system went into meltdown and now i get the three red lights. In Australia we get 12 months warranty and another 12 months if you pay for extended warranty. I just sent my box back to microsoft and we will see how it goes.
David Elkinton @ Sep 4th 2006 9:01PM
Put everything you want to keep on your harddrive, over to a memory card.
Hit the "re-format option" from the menu, then place all your stuff from the memory card back on the harddrive. I did this, and Dead Rising works perfect everytime with the harddrive attached.
m! @ Sep 4th 2006 1:37PM
My 360 is only a few months old... and I get the disc read errors all the time with DR. It loves to happen right after beating a hard boss and forcing me to replay all that nonsense. I got in the habit of saving every few minutes just to avoid a long replay session. Done the clear cache trick, removed the harddrive, nothing fixed it.
I finally beat all the modes and got a good chunk of the achievements but sucks that I had to worry about it freezing up on me. Lame.
epobirs @ Sep 4th 2006 6:13PM
#7
No, the original Xbox cached four games at a time. In fact, the fix you describe applies to both versions of Morrowind on the Xbox. An Xbox owner with Morrowind and no other games had little hope of finishing due to the bug.
If the same fix applies to Dead Rising, great.
Rich @ Sep 4th 2006 11:12PM
I played a good amount of dead rising after it was released with no problems. I got to level 11 on my character and was on the 3rd or 4th case (I think). I had been playing Ghost Recon a lot since, but decided to pick up on Dead Rising again today. I didn't have the game loaded for more than 10 minutes, and my screen went black. Now I can't play any game more than 10-15 minutes without my Xbox freezing. I don't get the ring of death, but the system hangs. This is with a Core system purchased in January with or without the hard drive attached.
SuicideNinja @ Sep 5th 2006 12:44PM
The 360 is turning into a dreadful PS2? Say it isn't so xbox360fanboy, say it isn't so...
Since my room mate totally jacked my "Enchanted Arms" (he's 30 hours in already and I've only played it for 45 minutes!) he's supposed to buy me Dead Rising.
I've already got a vertical black console that DRE's...I doesn't need a white counterpart!
I'm not worried. My launch 360 is still going strong.
Grant @ Sep 5th 2006 10:35PM
yeah, i never had any problems besides halo 2 displaying the wrong texture or freezing on live 2 or 3 times. then i played the saints row for a couple of hours and crashed a few times, did the rememdies on microsofts website. Got my 360 up and running for a few more days, then played the dead rising demo, last thing to ever run on my 360. still waiting to see if the $130 would be worth it to just have the thing shit out on me in another 9 months.