Gears is unreadable and we want answers!

by Dustin Burg { Dec 13th 2006 at 8:30PM }

Alan over at 1UP brought up a very interesting topic a while back when Gears of War launched, stating he had issues with disc read errors when playing Gears of War. The funny thing is a select few of us in Fanboy Towers are also suffering from this evil Gears disc epidemic still today! Though, we too passed it off as a fluke, or a rare case, but even this week our Xbox 360 had to be reset due to this disc read error when playing Gears. Anyone else having issues with Gears acting up and causing you troubles? If so, complain below and release all of your anger ... on second thought, hold it in for months on end and use it to your advantage when playing Gears on Xbox Live. Genius!

Tags: disc errors, DiscErrors, epic, epic games, EpicGames, gears of war, GearsOfWar, gow

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)

Alpha @ Dec 13th 2006 8:39PM

I was having this issue with my disk, this happened mostly during Coop play, but I took it back to Circuit City to have it replaced. You have a 90 day warranty on the discs through Microsoft. So far so good with the new disc.

MoltenGrog @ Dec 13th 2006 8:38PM

Yeah I've had that trouble too.

Seems like Gears and Chromehounds are the two games that give me the most trouble.

John @ Dec 13th 2006 8:38PM

Yes mine has become unreadable as well as Call of Duty 3. I haven't played my 360 in weeks because of this. I was thinking it had something to do with either the update, or the fact that I just got mine back from microsoft(red lights of death) and they screwed something up...basically I don't know the cause of these mess ups and its frustrating to say the least+

BklynKid @ Dec 13th 2006 8:41PM

Its happened to me once and otherwise I've had weird freezing issues every so often. Pretty annoying.

gtpunch @ Dec 13th 2006 8:42PM

I had this happen with a few disks when in the first few days that I had my 360. I had it in the 'vertical' orientation, and tried lying it flat. The problem went away, and I've kept it lying flat ever since (possibly just superstition caused by a coincidence).

I noticed that the 360 in the article is flat though; perhaps there's another reason why the disk isn't being picked up properly, or is unstable when spinning.

Another issue here is why can't the 360 just ask you to clean and re-insert the disk, and continue from the point where it left off? Wouldn't be much help in an online game, but I don't see why this has to cause a restart. Anyone care to ask MS this?

a 2yr old boy @ Dec 13th 2006 8:48PM

Happens to me too. I generally clean the disk and don't have a problem for a while... I used to stand my console up but found that standing it up was scratching my games... Let's see this game is SSOOO
awesome that not only have we horrible match making set up but now we have unreadable discs every so often... Congrats Cliffy on delivering a game that
could be the best but is quickly becoming AVERAGE!!

Sincere7745 @ Dec 13th 2006 8:53PM

I had a problem a few days ago that when I was playin on live that after a few matches i would get the half of the ring of death in the 1st and 3rd quadrant. it happen to me a couple times that night. it would let me play a few games and then do it again. i would have to unplg my system to get it to reboot. but it's been workin fine since then.

gtpunch @ Dec 13th 2006 8:57PM

I'm not so sure it's the fault of any specific game or disk. Perhaps it's more obvious in some games than others because they use more of the disk's capacity, or because they do more random access reads, or because they start and stop the drive more often, etc.

The one that caused me the most trouble was FIFA 07, which would play perfectly until I had to make a substitution when a player was injured. The substitution screen would appear, but when it tried to load the background music from disk it gave the error.

The internal drive is one of the 360's worst points- it's loud, it scratches disks, and it may be the cause of these read problems.

thasmadawg @ Dec 13th 2006 8:58PM

thought it was just me, but randomly gears will make my xbox sound like theres poprocks in it and that screen will show up, its fine after a restart but still, wtf.

kruton05 @ Dec 13th 2006 9:01PM

same thing happened to me. just gotta wipe it w/ one of those disc clean wipes

fraggedbylaggers @ Dec 14th 2006 11:17AM

I have NEVER had ANY problem with my 360 AT ALL. I guess I am just lucky. I keep it vertical and the discs are fine- no scratches of DREs to speak of. I have had it almost since launch and havent had to return it to Microsoft yet (knock on wood).

UtahRootBeer @ Dec 13th 2006 9:38PM

It Happens With Me Too, I Just Eject The Disk With My Universal Remote, Or Restart The Whole 360 And It Works Fine For A Couple Of Days. I Have It Standing By The Way Cause It Used To Freeze On Me All The Time When It Was Laying Down.

notpokey @ Dec 13th 2006 9:20PM

I've never had a single problem with dirty discs. But I've always been extremely careful with my discs - never storing them upside down, always putting them back in the jewel case when they're not in use.

My 360 is running flat, as well.

I HAVE had rare problems with crashing. Couple times in Oblivion, Saints Row, Call of Duty 3, Need for Speed Carbon, Tony Hawk's Project 8 and so on. Minority of titles and it seems to be related to the cache, not the cleanliness of the disc.

C0ldf1r3s @ Dec 13th 2006 9:22PM

This didn't use to happen when I first played GOW, this happens a lot during cutscenes at different times in the game. I'm on my third copy now. Still having errors. And it's only happening in this game. I've played Viva Pinata for about 100 hours no with no such error.

Phoenix @ Dec 13th 2006 9:25PM

I haven't had this problem with GOW, but I have with Dead Rising and Oblivion, it seems to be an error in the disk cache, if I remove my hard drive the game runs just fine, I had to buy a memory card so I could do this and keep my saves. It's really rather disappointing though, I hope a patch is released to fix this eventually.

m! @ Dec 13th 2006 9:25PM

yup. had the same problem the first day i got the game. my 360 isn't a launch console, is well ventilated, and well taken care of. i've gotten the error about 5 times in the past couple of weeks.

the only other game that gave me this error was dead rising. so who knows whats up.

Om @ Dec 14th 2006 1:30AM

Happend to me just after the update but it's been fine ever since that one time. I dont have live so I hope when I eventually do, everything will be OK.

Om

Marcos @ Dec 13th 2006 9:33PM

HELL YEA I HAVE THIS PROBLEM!!!! i remember when i first got it and it was the cut scene before you get trapped in the building with the berserker. so i am watching the cut scene where the locusts start coming in, and it friggin says disc read error!!!! i was so pissed, cuz i told my friends and there were all like i misssed the best cut scene in the game. so i had to wait and play it again on insane to see it. which didnt take that long given how short a game it is >.

e. @ Dec 13th 2006 9:34PM

Dead Rising just gave me a disc read error a few minutes ago. Sigh.
This happened a few times before, and only with this game.
My 360 is standing up vertically, guess I'll try changing the orientation when I want to cut some living impaired.

notpokey @ Dec 13th 2006 9:49PM

Someone who has this problem might want to try reloading the game cache during boot-up and see if this does anything to change or fix the problem.

There's two ways I know of to clear the cache - hold down A during the booting of a game (before any splash screen appears) or load three different games besides the game you want to clear the cache for (I'm pretty sure there's only three caches still, like on original Xbox). Obviously this second method isn't useful unless you have at least four games.

Worth a shot, if nothing else works, at least.

Anthony Alvarado @ Dec 14th 2006 3:57AM

Yeah two days after i bought it, i start getting this error, what is that? i really want to know if they are gonna give new disc or what?

Aex @ Dec 13th 2006 10:02PM

I had the problem the other day. I was in coop on live playing as dom and we just finished the prison break scene. It was rather annoying, all I had to do was eject the disk and put it back in... Just got the Xbox and this scared the crap out of me. Hasn't happened since, and I'm hoping its a update fixable problem :)

Either way, I

Ryan @ Dec 13th 2006 10:40PM

Thank you very much finally, X360F!
I'm on my second copy. It's a Limited Edition. My last copy wouldn't get past the last cutscene in Act 1. This one won't start a new campaign, but I can start from a different chapter and so far it has been working fine. Both copies had no issues with DRE's in multiplayer though.

Lance @ Dec 13th 2006 10:24PM

Its happened to me a few times. I even went and returned a copy and got a new one, but i still have the same issues. Though the new cd failure could be from the weird noice my xbox made the other day? I dont what happened, but after it Gears isnt working right

Jordan @ Dec 13th 2006 10:47PM

I also had this proble only when I play the firs 3 chapters on act 4 , all other parts of the game is fine but my disc isnt even scratched up, Its really making me angry as I want to complete that chapter on Insane and its the only one left

tim @ Dec 13th 2006 10:25PM

Yeah its happened to me a couple times on this, as well as in Oblivion and Dead Rising.

aMadeMann @ Dec 13th 2006 10:30PM

I had the same problem, I shipped my XBOX to Microsoft on monday. I saw that ewrror, shut down, then the damn Red light was on. Restarted from that and the system would freeze on the main screen. Then when it did get to the dashboard the second i press the XBOX button, the system froze. Happened after I tried everything microsoft suggested. Here is a video of my woes...

http://www.urbansory.com/video/?id=xboxcrash

aZTEKv2 @ Dec 14th 2006 10:34PM

Happened to me toooo! Jeebus, now I am waiting for the dreaded UPS box to arrive so I can send off my fourth console for exchange (thank god I have the 2 yr extended warranty through MS)

aZTEKv2 @ Dec 14th 2006 10:34PM

BTW: I noticed that my game a circular scratch due to the console lens. if you call this in make sure you dont mention that you want to exchange the console because its scratching your games, since MS will DENY it, and blame it on user error (moving the console when in use, or console set in environment that shakes/moves the console) I should know, I used to take those calls. Just say that it wont read any of your discs ^___^

scott @ Dec 13th 2006 10:40PM

I had the same issue. Also have the same issue with NCAA Football 2007

kromekoran @ Dec 13th 2006 10:42PM

I got the disc read error about 5 times during the campaign, and 3 times in the middle of a Live match. the disc is spotless, and when I eject it and then reload everything is fine.

I hear people bitching about this problem all the time in matches, so hopefully someone will figure out the cause and fix it because there's nothing actually wrong with the disc.

foehammer88 @ Dec 13th 2006 10:47PM

This happends to me every time I try to load JBA HQ Part 3 in Splinter Cell Double Agent. I cant beat the game now, It works on my friends consoles, but not my past two, just sent in my other refurb cause it had Ring of Death. This new refurb has the same problem. Also Oblivion spartically has this error but its not at one specific loading screen as in Double Agent.

Sean Stellato @ Dec 13th 2006 11:00PM

It hasn't happened to me yet, probably helps if you have your console horizontal instead of vertical.

nickdrj @ Dec 13th 2006 11:09PM

I have this problem sometimes, i know its going to happen when the 360's disk drive starts making strange clicking noises. This happens on other games too, and the worst part is that it game my precious gears disk a scratch!!!1! I have mine in horizontal orientation.

Matt Clipper @ Dec 13th 2006 11:55PM

Yeah, I've had the disc read errors with GOW. And unfortunately, several days later I ended up with the red ring of death. I'm not sure if it's GOW related, since around the same time I connected the HD-DVD player to it. Luckily Micro$oft was "sympathetic" and they gave me a 25% discount off the $140 repair fee. Yippee!!!

mike @ Dec 13th 2006 11:56PM

I had this issue on day one. I got 2 replacment discs and it kept happening. After it happened, the disc would no longer work, despite no scrathes on it.

I naturally assumed it was my console. So I phoned up MS since I had a launch console and it was still under warrenty, but they refused to fix it because they claimed its "impossible" to scratch discs and not work. I then got real pissed off they would not fullfill my warrenty.

Anyway, I took matters into my own hands and went to futureshop, bought a brand new 360 (for $50, with GOW and 2 other games during the ps3 launch whn they had the promo). I then sold my old xbox on ebay. days of my life wasted and about $50 in the hole after all the selling and everything, I walk out with a brand new console with store warrenty (Now I can go bitch in person if they refuse to getmy console fixed and they cant hang up on me like microsoft did) and also a 4th brand new copy of GOW.

Now with a new system, new drive and new disc I STILL have gotton the error. But now its nowhere near as severe. I simply eject and reinsert and the game then works fine again. Its also only happened 3 times in the past 3 weeks since Ive had it. But my fiend who has a lunch console recently had his disc go on him too. He went and bought a new GOW. Bah, they robbed him of some money.

So anyway, I think its a problem with launch consoles specificaly. It only happens during Loading you will find. Many people are thinking its because there are times where the disc needs to be spun super fast, causing problems, especially with the older dvd drives on the launch console. It appears this is combinationof crappy old DVD drives with a game that just has to much power or something on it. Maybe a patch can fix disc read speeds or something to help prevent problems?

von551 @ Dec 14th 2006 1:35AM

i just got my 360 a month ago and within the first couple nights of playing it in the vertical position, i got the read disk error. why would i have to clean it if the game went straight from packaging to 360 and hasn't left it? so i eject and insert again without touching the disk and it worked again. i had that a few times and it freezing up. this weekend i put my 360 in the horizontal position and played for three hours straight without a hiccup. i have to see if it acts up anymore. i was ready to sell or send my 360 in to MS it was so frustrating. maybe i'll try exchanging my game, didn't know about the 90 day warranty.

T Ghost @ Dec 14th 2006 12:34AM

I literally NEVER had dirty disc error messages until this week.

GoW did this 2X. Once when booting up right after the MSG logo and second on the 2 chapter of 5th act while playing on hardcore.

Mark @ Dec 14th 2006 1:00AM

I have a launch console, picked it up the first week of December 2005 from Best Buy. So I've had the console for just over a year now, and I really can't recall ever having a disc read problem. My 360 has always sat horizontal in a well ventilated area. On the very rare occasion, the console has frozen/locked up on me which just required a hard reboot and it was fine again. No issues with dashboard updates or game patches. These issues with GoW being discussed here I've yet to come across. I also picked up the wireless headset when it became available. No issues with it either in regards to syncing problems people have reported. My original wired headset is as good as the day it I got it. The HD-DVD drive has been fantastic too, picked it up as well on release day.

My box is running as expected, and have no complaints with my 360 experience thus far. I'm scratching my head here when it comes to all the problems others have reported. I guess a big surprise for me having a launch console without any problems. How fortunate I am!

Surreal @ Dec 14th 2006 1:27AM

This happens to me regularly with Gears of War and other games. The worst was Perfect Dark Zero: the disk error message will lead to a corruption of the save game data. I bought a memory unit to backup my save games after losing all my PDZ progress several times.

I had the problem since day one. My xbox was originally setup vertically. This issue occurs less often now than it is set up horizontally, but it still occurs. In general, it occurs when I leave my xbox idle for a while.

Surreal @ Dec 14th 2006 1:29AM

I forgot to add that in general simply rebooting (i.e. turning off and on) the xbox solve the issue temporarily. No need to eject and/clean the disk.

von551 @ Dec 15th 2006 10:41PM

yeah, i've had my 360 a month now. i started using it in the vertical position. in the first week i got this message a few times along with some weird freezeups. i'd open disk tray and close without touching the game and it worked again. weird. this was after only an hour of gameplay. it's been happening so much, i was ready to either sell, get a new 360 from target, or send it to MS (have the two year warranty. then i decided to set it horizontally. i've only used it once since then, but it was for three hours and not one hiccup. hopefully problem solved. probably going to buy an antec notebook cooler to put under it too.

Kylearan @ Dec 14th 2006 2:39AM

Ayup, got hit by this on a couple occasions. *Thankfully* the game still remembered my most recent checkpoint, but still, annoying as heck.

squirrel @ Dec 14th 2006 2:50PM

yeah, it happens to me too. I hope there is some sort of firmware release to remedy the problem, because obviously replaced discs aren't doing the trick.

Uzi @ Dec 14th 2006 3:08AM

i had DREs too but they were gone once i moved my xbox to a better ventilated area

720 @ Dec 14th 2006 3:52AM

I've had this with Gears but it happens with PGR3 as well. I always find these small scuffs on the disc that wipe right off and I'm back in business. I think that the disc may be unstable when spinning and it's coming in contact with the internals making these scuffs. My 360 is horizontal.

vid33nyc1 @ Dec 14th 2006 4:15AM

I dont have this problem with gears but i get that screen sometimes with madden 07.The first copy i had just stopped working completely.Had to exchange but i have had this screen a couple times.

Mark @ Dec 14th 2006 4:21AM

Did at the start, but since changing my dashboard theme back to the default one it and other games have stopped playing up (as much), may be just my imagination, but it's worth giving it a go if you're having troubles

Boff @ Dec 14th 2006 5:38AM

Yeah had this happen to me quite a few times. It seemed to happen most in the first few chapters of the game.

The disc has no visible scratches whatsoever, my 360 is vertical.

But lately I haven't had any problems (oh bollocks I've just jinxed myself now!)

Definitely no problems since the latest dash update.