Is Halo 3 suffering from disc read error syndrome?
by Dustin Burg 
{ Oct 1st 2007 at 1:45PM }
We didn't post about this news previously, because we couldn't be sure if the problem was related to scratched Halo 3 collector's edition discs or not, but now it seems like it's becoming a little more widespread.Over on the official Xbox.com forums and all across the internet come reports from gamers who are claiming that certain copies of Halo 3 suffer from disc read errors problems. Varied first hand reports from recent Halo 3 purchasers talk about certain campaign levels not loading, certain multiplayer maps not playable and just general disc read error problems. Heck, we thought it was a fluke at the time, but even had a first hand Halo 3 disc problem where one of our copies wouldn't work on a certain 360, so we swapped out the disc with another and it fired up just fine. An odd occurrence indeed.
We're sure some of the complaints could stem from scratched discs or other 360 related hardware failures, but with our first hand experience and just the shear number of reports we've come across, we have to be at least a tad suspicious. We'll keep an eye on this mini-Halo 3 disc read error drama for further developments, but until then we advise playing Halo 3 ... that is if you don't get a disc read error.
[Thanks, xUNBOUNDx]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
DjDATZ @ Oct 1st 2007 1:48PM
heard about this...hasn't happened to me...*knock on wood*
Kryptinite @ Oct 1st 2007 1:49PM
I've been playing my scratched up Limited Edition since launch with no problems whatsoever. I think I'm going to wait until last minute to send it into Microsoft for a new disc, if I do that at all. I think I already threw my receipt away.
Cardshark @ Oct 1st 2007 1:52PM
No issues here -- i wonder if the reports are legit.
WTangoFoxtrot @ Oct 1st 2007 1:52PM
i had this issue yesterday with my collectors edition. i simply cleaned the disk and put it back into the 360 and it worked fine. still im gonna get it replaced for the standard ed.
Justin Fletcher @ Oct 1st 2007 1:52PM
I havnt had any disc read error messages, but there have been a couple of times the campaign level would not load and the 360 just freezes, no buttons would work. I would turn it off and on again, and all is well. Strange indeed.
Josh @ Oct 1st 2007 1:53PM
I haven't had any problems nor have any of my friends...weird stuff though.
jf1116 @ Oct 1st 2007 2:17PM
Thought about sending in my complaint earlier but thought I was just the only one with this problem. My Halo refuses to play co-op campaign or campaign once I get to Tsavo's Highway. The copy of Halo 3 I bought was a regular one and it was scratched. The store was out of them already so I went and rented a copy and it does the same thing. This copy is scratch free and it does the same thing once I try to load Tsavo. Hope this gets fixed soon somehow (don't know how) because it's really annoying not being able to get passed that part.
I also restarted my campaign on heroic to just try to play it again and as soon as I got in the elevator and the fire blew out of it my disc got dirty apparently.
sorry for the long rant
xenocidic @ Oct 1st 2007 1:55PM
it's bound to have more reports than a regular game simply because it has sold more and is being played more than regular games.
i doubt this is anything more than the scratched limited editions coupled with the normal amount of 360's per day going bad.
Fontez @ Oct 1st 2007 2:00PM
Ya I agree with you...
The only issues I've been having is Online...
I've been signed out of live a few times automatically... and dropped from games for no reason...
and pretty frequently I get the "Information could not be retrieved from Bungie" a lot...
MARKTW @ Oct 1st 2007 2:00PM
I've had this problem with a few games, It seems like when the disc is left in your 360 for a while it gets a static build-up!
Now I put the disc back in the case after every use and have had no problems!
Yuccadude @ Oct 1st 2007 2:11PM
Yeah, I haven't had it happen to me yet, but last night while playing, my 360 made the normal noise it makes when I get a disc read error in Oblivion(my Oblivion disc was hella scratched and then disc doctored), but the map loaded and nothing bad happened(except to the other team).
jeff allan @ Oct 1st 2007 2:15PM
No problems at all. Halo 3 is humming along as expected.
MY2NADS @ Oct 1st 2007 2:15PM
Not that it's Halo 3 that wouldn't work for me but after the update that the Halo 3 disk did my HD-DVD addon is acting flaky and wouldn't read most of my HD-DVD's now and there's no scratches on it either (and yes the addon firmware is updated FYI) it could just be my add on but it's almost brand new and barely used (10hrs) worked perfect the night before. I wonder if anyone has this problem?
Si @ Oct 1st 2007 3:11PM
Working fine for me...
inferno3387 @ Oct 1st 2007 2:18PM
Hey, you guys need to talk about the d-pad to talk problem. We have to push the button if there are more than 4 people on our team. Talk about that! I know this disk read problem is a problem, but that d-pad thing is worse...
dunnypop @ Oct 1st 2007 2:27PM
I agree about the Dpad thing. It's ridiculous when you are playing CTF. You can't coordinate anything.
I had the disc error once when I was in the dashboard.
Kevin @ Oct 1st 2007 2:23PM
my copy of halo 3 has frozen on start up 4 times in the last 3 days the disk does not have a scratch on it so this has me somewhat worried as ive never had a game freeze up or had a disk read error before halo 3
Darayz @ Oct 1st 2007 2:26PM
My collectors edition had some small scratches on the main disc. But nothing my 360 couldn't handle without help from a disc cleaner.
dont drop the soap @ Oct 1st 2007 2:29PM
@cardshark your an idiot. i'm sure everyone is lying about it including the writer of this story. hmm i wonder if you even read it
TORO @ Oct 1st 2007 2:29PM
Hey everyone I missed this place, just got back from vacation today :)
On topic: my legendary edition disk seems to be working just fine.
E.J. @ Oct 1st 2007 2:32PM
A friend went through 2 Halo 360's after playing Halo 3 for 4 hours each within a week of each other. Both DVD drives failed the same way: they stopped reading Xbox 360 discs and DVD movies. The weird thing was that they read Xbox1 games just fine.
Don't know if it's related, but weird nonetheless.
buddyleeWI @ Oct 1st 2007 2:35PM
The first time I put the disk in my brand new 360 Elite I got that message. I took it out and put it back in and it worked fine. No problems since though. I'am keeping an eye on it though.
jojopet @ Oct 1st 2007 2:37PM
I work at a certain retailer called *#*$stop and I got a regular edition returned yesterday. It was flawless on the back. We've had a few regular editions have this problem.
MY2NADS @ Oct 1st 2007 2:38PM
In a way I'm so glad that I bought the Legendary edition since that has less of a problem apparently but now I have to return 3 of the legendary since I preorder too many, ok I was going to ebay em but it seems that no one wants em.
Oh well I guess get my $400+ dollars back and use that money towards a new puter.
jm6k @ Oct 1st 2007 2:42PM
I have had a problem with Halo 3 giving me the disk read error. It happens to me either right before I start a campaign level, before I enter Forge, before I enter the Theater, or before or after I get done with a game online. I've swapped my disk out twice now, and they both have been giving me problems. I'm beginning to think the Gamestop where I got mine received a bad batch of Halo 3 copies.
kakoschris @ Oct 1st 2007 2:51PM
Yeah, this happened to me launch night when I bought my legendary copy and a regular copy that came with my new elite (which RROD'ed the next day subsequently).
I figured it was because my 20gb drive is from launch 2005 and that its so fragmented from repeated moves, deletions etc that halo 3 which is optimized for the hard drive coulnd't write clean sectors to the HDD, I backed up everything to a memory card and formatted the HDD and no problems since
Andy @ Oct 1st 2007 2:58PM
Haven't had "disc read" errors, but it has frozen on me about 2-3 times while initially turning on the console, firing up the game and accessing "Resume Campaign". It'll take forever for the "halo-drawing" loading screen to finish, and will sometimes hang entirely on a black screen afterward. It's a bit annoying--I'll have to restart/reboot my console, and it'll start fine the next time.
DeadPlasmaCell @ Oct 1st 2007 2:59PM
No issues personally, I play with about 5 or 6 people and one did have that happen to him once, but only once so far.
Jim @ Oct 1st 2007 3:02PM
I've never had a problem, until I put in Halo 3. Ever since the 1st time I put the disc in, it freezes 6 to 10 times every nite. It's not just disc scratches, I returned my 1st disc hoping that was the problem, no such luck. STILL FREEZES. Now, I'm sure I'll get the 3ROD.
Spitkicker @ Oct 1st 2007 3:07PM
Well I have been playing it like crazy since it's release with absolutely no issues...then again I could be one of the lucky ones.
poprocker @ Oct 1st 2007 3:14PM
isn't just halo 3. all of my disks do that from time to time. nothing permanent or anything. i think it's just the flaky, Noisy as heck dvd player.
Aki @ Oct 1st 2007 3:21PM
I have the basic Halo 3 game and the disc is visibly scratched already. I cannot play the first mission anymore, I get the 'disc is unreadable' everytime after the animation before the actual 1st mission gameplay begins.
xVOLTAx @ Oct 1st 2007 3:32PM
I have had this problem with my regular edition Halo 3. Will not load single player, but the multiplayer is just fine.
RangerPrimeX @ Oct 1st 2007 3:35PM
no problems here
Andy R @ Oct 1st 2007 3:50PM
Hasn't happened with my disc.
Ruhmann @ Oct 1st 2007 3:57PM
I used to get a lot of disc read errors for another game I had. I learned a trick that shouldn't work, but it does. When you start up your 360, always open and close the tray before playing. Ever since I started doing that, I haven't had a single disc read error. Strange, but true.
Edog @ Oct 1st 2007 4:00PM
xUNBOUNDx here. I'm starting to think that there is a bad batch of disc out that is only evident on certain 360's. Sounds weird but reading Dustin's first hand disc problem and hearing a rumor on xbox forums that a phone tech let slip that M$ thinks it's a combo of two problems make this an interesting "issue". I had returned my disc 3X already, no scratches, all with the same disc scratch error. On a positive note if it weren't for my Haloz woes I wouldn't have played Stunman for 3 hrs. straight last week to get me my 1st #1 ranking on xbox live. yeah.
http://profile.gamebattles.com/UnboundEdog/photo-399993.html
Al Miller @ Oct 1st 2007 4:03PM
The DVD drives in the original Xbox and 360's have always been flakey. My launch day Xbox would only read Halo about 20% of the time. I returned it right away and the new one worked flawlessly until last month.
I think there is so much data and copy protection on these game disks now that if the DVD drive is even a a hair out of alignment, it won't read game disks.
I'd be willing to pay $100 extra for them to build an fricken Xbox 360 with higher quality parts then the Sh*t parts they have been using thus far. Sony has really screwed up this generation of consoles as far as games go, but their machine is soooo much more stable than Microsoft's IMO.
angryguy77 @ Oct 1st 2007 4:15PM
The only thing that this game is suffering from is lazy level design. The last three levels inspire me to never play the game again. I loved Halo 1 and 2, but Bungie could have did much better. Fighting the flood sucks bad because you can't fight, you have to run. Why in the world did they make a level where the only way to get out is to run. Its not fun. The first part of the game rocked, but those last 3 levels were boring as hell. I didn't let the hype get to me, but where were the levels like they had in the ads? When I watched those, I really thought there were going to be some epic field battles. But I was wrong. And why did they cut corners? Because they had to focuse so much on the mp. I enjoy the death match like everyone else, but am I the only one that is seeing a trend where the developers are neglecting the single play mode in favor of online?
B-RYAN @ Oct 1st 2007 4:17PM
I have had BIG Problems. First Halo 3 was messing up with me on campaign. It would freeze up and I would start the system over. It still kept messing up. So I went and got it exchange at game stop with no problem and it still kept doing it. (mind you there are no scartches on the game). So I called microsoft and they help me do a memory maintance on it. It work for a day. The next day i was playing it and it stop on me agin. So I cut it off and was Greeted with three lovely RED lights. Now I am piss because this is the third time in less then a year that I have to have my xbox sent off to get fix. Not only that NO Fucking Halo 3. My girl is more piss then anything. I am trying to get a replacement sent instead. But major bull. Anyone else having problems like me?
loutang82 @ Oct 1st 2007 4:32PM
This is happening to me. My disc doesn't have a single scratch on it and works whenever it feels like it. My xbox is less than a month old and no other games give me this problem
Surreal @ Oct 1st 2007 5:34PM
I get these disc-errors with almost all the games I have. Powercycling the 360 always solve
temporarily the issue.
E8 Foe @ Oct 1st 2007 6:35PM
Here's my swear-to-God-true-freaking-I'm-still-pissed-story that happened to me last night.
At the end of the game (no spoilers, don't worry), I made the heroic you-know-what, and as the final cut scene was playing, DISC READ ERROR. Maybe 5 seconds in to the last scene. Anyway, I go back in, and the last save was 3 hours before - the same place I was before I started playing yesterday! Stupid freaking disc read error, and, even more so, STUPID FREAKING "SAVE AND QUIT" OPTION! Why should I have to quit my game to save?
Dammit Halo 3, I love you so much. Why would you do this to me?
T Ghost @ Oct 1st 2007 6:36PM
I'm playing it everyday a lot since I got it on the 25th, MP, SP, Co-op, forge, and never had a single DDR. None of my over 20 friends that I play over the Xbox Live had any DDR neither.
Maybe the problem is not the disc but the DVD player. The 360's units are cheap and go down almost as often as PS2's DVD drives.
Plinko @ Oct 1st 2007 7:02PM
@ Don't Drop The Soap
It's "You're." You should watch yourself before flaming.
mmeyer @ Oct 2nd 2007 9:14AM
How is this for being born under a bad sign... I put Halo 3 into my 360 and I got through the intro, pressed start and, and, and WTF the red ring of death. My 360 died. Restart after restart the 3 red lights.
Has this happened to any one else?
MrZ @ Oct 1st 2007 8:48PM
I've had this problem since launch. I had two awesome days when I managed to get it to work and finish the campaign, but now it's back to the exact same problem.
I ALWAYS get that message at the same time: When the campaign first starts, after the opening cutscene, and when loading the Sandtrap and Narrows maps.
I managed to make it work that one day by starting a couple other games first Blazing Angels 2 (which had always worked before but stopped after the problems with Halo) and Call of Duty 3.
I could probably live with this for a while, but it's causing me to LOSE rank on Halo 3 MP. Every time I load one of those maps it acts like I deliberately dropped and hits me for 1 EXP. Usually I play with friends and they have the decency to veto for me, but I hate to ask them to do that. I still haven't played a game on Sandtrap.
MrZ @ Oct 1st 2007 8:50PM
Oh, forgot to mention that I've been through four disks - all pristine and perfect - from three sources. Two from the store I bought it at (first was returned), one from my local Blockbuster and one from Gamefly.
Jim @ Oct 1st 2007 9:58PM
GAAARRRR!!!! I'm on my second copy (bought at circuit city), and it's giving me disc unreadable errors, too. There also doesn't appear to by any autosave, so when it stops reading, if I reload, I get to replay the last two hours. AWESOME! Then it fails at the exact same spot. AWESOME!
As much as I love(d?) Halo, this whole deal is bringing me right to the tipping point of saying SCREW IT, I'll get my money back, and never play Halo again. Bungie/MSFT FTW!
vid33nyc1 @ Oct 1st 2007 10:28PM
My H3 disc works perfectly fine.Not ONE freeze or disc error.Been playing since launch.Most likely that person has a bad drive or its starting to go bad.