December 26, 2008
@ 05:34 PM
Comments [9]
Gears of War 2 on XBox 360: "disc unreadable" Woes

UPDATE: It seems the problem was hardware related. Disc unreadable errors with perfectly good discs is one of the symptoms of an impending red ring of death.


My wife bought me Gears of War 2 for Christmas from Amazon. So far I've been unable to get past the start screen of the game due to a This disc is unreadable error and attempting to install the game to the hard drive fails at 40% complete. This is the only game in my library that exhibits this problem. I also got Grand Theft Auto IV and have been able to play that fine with no problems.

Searching online indicates that this is a widespread problem.

The only consistent thing about all the threads is that I have seen no confirmed solution to the problem. The best suggestion seems to be to return the disk to the retailer and ask for an exchange for a different Gears of War 2 disc. With this option there's still a chance of getting another bum disc and it seems this would be a difficult option to pursue with an online retailer like Amazon.  There's also the option of sending my XBox in for repairs although given that the problem only exists with this one game, it is unclear that this is a problem with my actual hardware.

Before deciding to chalk up the $60 + tax my wife spent on this game to bad luck, I thought I'd throw up this blog post just in case one of my readers has encountered this problem and found a work around.

Merry Xmas!

Note Now Playing: The Notorious B.I.G. - You're Nobody (Til Somebody Kills You) Note


 

Categories: Video Games

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Friday, 26 December 2008 17:46:36 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
You could try exchanging it locally instead of with Amazon. Most stores will allow you to exchange a defective game for the same one. You shouldn't even really need a receipt -- just tell them you got it as a gift and they said they got it at ___.

OTOH, maybe you can return it...after all GoW is published by Microsoft Game Studios...you shouldn't have spent more thand $25 on it from the company store ;)
Oren Novotny
Friday, 26 December 2008 18:03:29 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Rent the game from blockbuster, and return the defective disc to them. Blockbuster has the manpower, and corporate heft to be able to muscle restitution for faulty wares
Anon E. Moose
Friday, 26 December 2008 18:11:09 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
I had the same problem with NHL08. Had to clear the memory of the XBOX to get it to work properly. Life was good after that. Excuse given was that there are games that are using memory reserved for other retailers. I don't buy that, but it worked. Go to System tab on dashboard and fumble through there and you'll find it.

HTH,
JH
JH
Friday, 26 December 2008 20:16:48 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Amazon is very good about returns, and with the amount of turnover they have from day to day, it's very unlikely that you'll receive a disc from the same bad pressing. Just return it, make sure you select the option that the product is faulty, and describe what's happening. You'll get an RMA and they'll replace it immediately.
Brock
Saturday, 27 December 2008 02:41:16 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
I had this problem about 2 months before I got the red ring of death. I would get it only with certain games, and it was consistent. My box was a launch box, so I was surprised to have it last until a few months ago anyway, given the extent of the RRoD problem. Simply try returning the game to a Gamestop. Without a receipt, they will give you a new one no problem (if they can repro the no-load error). If they can't, you might have a problem with the Xbox. I also had intermittent no-read issues, which I fixed using a DVD lens cleaning disk.
Brandon Watson
Saturday, 27 December 2008 17:20:12 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
I'm having the same problem with GOW2. Other games work fine on my X-Box. I tried clearing the HD cache but that didn't seem to work. Though I can occasionally get it to work by continually trying, oddly enough. I cleared the cache, watched Netflix, and then tried it and it worked. Almost as if the X-Box needed to "Warm up". However, I doubt that had anything really to do with it. Good luck!

And you should definitely return it and then go buy it from the company store. ;)
Haacked
Saturday, 27 December 2008 20:01:16 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
I had the same problem with Rock Band 2. I just exchanged the disc with the receipt.
In your case, you should return the game to Amazon and buy a cheaper one from the MS Company store.
Julien Couvreur
Sunday, 28 December 2008 02:35:22 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
I got another copy of Gears of War 2 and it has the same issues. Given that RockBand 2 has started giving Disc Unreadable errors during certain songs it looks like this could be the result of hardware problems after all. *sigh*
Dare Obasanjo
Tuesday, 30 December 2008 20:09:26 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
Maybe you should put down the video games and act like a real man.
Redford
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