NHL 09 disc error also known as the cache time-bomb

by Xav de Matos { Sep 13th 2008 at 4:00PM }

Sports fans, grab the tissues because the tears are about to start flowing. Users on the official EA Sports forum are reporting widespread disc read error issues with NHL 09 -- over time. Many users are reporting the popular hockey franchise works as advertised during the initial play through but eventually crashes after loading saved modes or regular games once the Xbox 360 reboots.

While EA has yet to release an official statement regarding the problem users have found success with two bandaid solutions -- which point to cache problems in the game. According to the EA Forum users clearing the cache of the Xbox 360 and disabling the auto-save feature in NHL 09 may help fix the problem but as gamers play more of the game the issue returns.

Let's hope we'll get a fix for the game soon. Actually, it's cool. We'll just play our 82 game seasons in one sitting. No, really.

Update: EA Sports actually responded to this issue late last night recommending the cache clear route as a possible solution. They have yet responded to the cries for a patch.

Tags: disc-error, disc-read-error, ea-sports, nhl-09

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Gerson @ Sep 13th 2008 4:13PM

This game sucks anyways...

bigC24 @ Sep 13th 2008 4:26PM

No.

You suck.

Erik Stroud @ Sep 13th 2008 4:37PM

in my opinion, all sports games suck. They are good every once in a while, but adding slightly new features isn't enough to warrant a new release every year.

Maximun2k10 @ Sep 13th 2008 5:33PM

@bigC24

Canadian speaking...

roach @ Sep 13th 2008 4:23PM

An EA game with a bug/glitch?

Must be lies!

roach @ Sep 13th 2008 4:24PM

Is the comment system messed up again?

jeff @ Sep 13th 2008 4:25PM

First of all there has been a response.

http://www.easportsworld.com/en_US/blogs/view/bid/5601

Second, I have been having this issue and their solution does not work. I have had to clear my cache with the yxxRBLBxx twice b4 every play through. and even then sometimes it does not work. How did this get throguh certification.

Xav de Matos @ Sep 13th 2008 4:30PM

The cache clear combination is actually:

Y (in X360 Memory menu) then X,X,LB,RB,X,X

rask @ Sep 13th 2008 5:03PM

Peter Moore knows people...

Bryan T @ Sep 13th 2008 9:23PM

Come on EA, this is the same thing as last year. Fix the game so we can enjoy it. (If this was madden it would have already been fixed)

Ryan.Whitney @ Sep 13th 2008 9:48PM

Fact.

John @ Sep 13th 2008 5:22PM

I haven't had any problems yet, and I've played over 40 games.

Edog @ Sep 13th 2008 5:44PM

Good luck guys.
When Halo3 came out there was a similar issue that caused DREs on certain 360s but not others. Without going into too much detail... it was not the 360 itself, or bad Disks (which was my guess). There was a 400 page thread with something like 3K post on xbox.com forums of this Halo3 debacle that mysteriously disappeared one day. We were left out in the cold! A patch never came out. The only "fix" from M$ on this issue was clear the cache.
It worked for very few on that deleted thread. My Halo 3 issue went away after clearing the cache about 15X, once every boot. What I hated the most was the lack of transparency. We didn't know if they fixed the problem quietly or even if they were working on it.
Make noise and good luck.

GameCollector @ Sep 13th 2008 6:34PM

I have no problems whatsoever and been playing like crazy (and it's on a refurb console after my first one died), but my best friend cannot play more than 10 minutes with his relatively brand new Elite...

ciscomancer @ Sep 13th 2008 7:47PM

there was a similar issue with Nascar 09.

psychohog @ Sep 13th 2008 9:42PM

Wow, yet another EA title with big problems. If it weren't for tiger(which has server problems all the time and is the only decent golf game on 360), I wouldn't play any of there glitchy server-problem based games.

el sworodo @ Sep 13th 2008 11:36PM

i must have played over half a season already with no problems

Familyguyrokz @ Sep 14th 2008 12:53AM

EA seems intent on shipping games with game-crippling bugs this ye- Oh wait, that's no different from every year.

+++volume+++ @ Sep 14th 2008 1:02AM

So I'm almost positive there's been at least one huge problem with every EA Sports game this year.

stinger503 @ Sep 14th 2008 2:08AM

What the hell is it with hockey and game destroying problems, the NHL 2k series had a problem like this twice! And it wasn't patched either time!

Brian @ Sep 14th 2008 3:00PM

First!
L)

Pixelantes Anonymous @ Sep 14th 2008 10:20PM

Ah, the old "delete your cache and everything will be ok" placebo.

Remember folks, whenever someone tells you to do this it's a sign that they have no idea what the hell is wrong, but they want you to think that they do.

Frankly I find it a little bit surprising EA still tries this crap on anyone. XB3F, do us a favor...next time some clueless game company lies to you like this, call them on it rather than just report their lies as some sort of miracle cure.

Mal F4cti0n @ Sep 14th 2008 11:39PM

I have been saying this for....god, five years now....if the trolls/zombies/troglodytes would just stop buying the new, yearly roster updated games, maybe EA would be forced to make a good, bug free product that was worth my 50 or 60 dollars.

Please, boycott EA sports games for one year and show them they need to please the consumer.

MrViznasty @ Sep 15th 2008 2:37AM

if you knew anything about this years nhl 09 maybe you wouldnt of said your comment. Nhl 09 has something a sports game has never had so its not just an updated roster.

Mal F4cti0n @ Sep 15th 2008 10:12AM

@MrViznasty,

While you may be right about great new features in the game (I will believe you), this post shows that the product should not have have been shipped to consumers as it is broken. If no one buys next year's version (nhl 2010) because this year's was so broken, maybe EA will take the time to fix bugs before they ship 2011's version.

But....I can dream, can't I? ; )

ThomasJay @ Sep 15th 2008 5:44AM

It's not like the bugs are confined to just the sports titles. Pretty much everything I've played from EA within the past year or two has had something annoyingly wrong with it. They need to seriously rethink their quality assurance process.

Intangible 360 @ Sep 15th 2008 7:47AM

How does a bug like this not get caught? It seems nigh impossible that this could have been overlooked.

Ujn Hunter @ Sep 15th 2008 9:08AM

i've played online games daily... and be a pro season mode daily... and have yet to have any problems whatsoever... i don't think it's the game... it may be the disc, or the console... considering it only hits some people. also... NHL 09 is the sports game of the year again... ;)

Romo SBC @ Sep 15th 2008 10:30AM

Well...I reported this bug awhile back in the EA forums and although EA has yet to come out with a fix, this only affects certain users with certain 360's/hard drives.

I had an original launch 360 hard drive. After going through 3x360's due to RROD issue, my hard drive followed me the whole time.

All 2008 EA titles would freeze up on me...Madden, NHL and occasionally Tiger. I recently upgraded my 360 to the falcon chip version which I bought 6 months ago. I kept my original hard drive to avoid having transfering all of my content since both HDD were 20GB. When I purchased the new Madden09 and found that this game kept freezing on me at the identical spot as the 08 version, I knew something wasn't right considering I had a new 360. Ahh...but my hard drive was still the same from my launch 360.

If I would clear cache, it would sometimes let me get past where it usually froze, but would freeze up again eventually and I was stuck not being able to continue playing the game.

Last month, to prove a point about this issue which I logged in the EA forums, I went out and bought a new hard drive (120GB), transferred all of my content, and all of my freezing issues went away. This is why certain users have no issues and others do. Not sure if thsi is an EA problem or MSFT problem, but I'm problem free now and that's all that matters to me!

Pix @ Sep 15th 2008 11:52AM

Huge mistake by EA... I loved the demo and was about to get the game this week. Now with this news I am sure I won't get it until they fix this.

... and usually when I don't get a game when I had it planned I don't get it at all... so if more people do this then EA has lost a lot of costumers.

Jimmy P @ Sep 15th 2008 12:10PM

This is the same problem they've had with their games last year. It seems to only be an issue in franchise or dynasty modes. It's still frustrating, and why EA is the only game maker that has a problem is even more frustrating

Jimmy James 70 @ Sep 15th 2008 1:30PM

Dudes, don't worry about the new version. Just trade for NHL 08. I wrote about it here:
http://thegoozexreport.blogspot.com/2008/09/hockey-for-360.html

nick @ Sep 15th 2008 2:14PM

I am have extreme problems with this hockey game. I first thought that the game could be bad.; however, after my third replacment disc i found that i am not the only person with this "disc read error". I then tried the quick fix. No Joy! Problem came back the next day. Even when the game worked i could not play a good game online. This game needs some serious work. EA needs to fix this problem quickly.

Shawn @ Oct 8th 2008 1:39PM

It was awesome, it didn't load for the first 15 minutes I tried. Then randomly it worked! Then froze again. Then kinda worked! Shortly after I gave my box a rest and came back a few days later. Now, without ever having a load problem with any other disc, after the NHL 09 debacle nothing loads. Could this widespread disc error have been just the nudge my elder xbox needed to put it out of commission? I guess generally my question is, could a disc have really knocked my xbox out or is it more that I just happened to buy a bogus game right as my xbox was bound to die on me sooner or later?

Brent @ Nov 10th 2008 12:24PM

This clitch happened to me the other nite. I was drinking so I thought maybe it was just effecting my vision but tried it the next day when i was sober and still the same effect.

Man the game is so fun and now I can't play. Please EA.com fix. I am going to email them and complain/suggest.

Brent
www.extendedplayarcade.com

Brent @ Nov 10th 2008 12:35PM

Just went on Ea.com forum

Wow seems like a pandemic with this game. So sad because this game is so good. Best hockey game since NHL 95 on the Genisis.

Brent
www.extendedplayarcade.com