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Friday, March 23, 2007

Xbox 360 error "This disc is unreadable" OR "Unplayable disc"

Turned on your Xbox 360 console one day and and when you try to play your game you got the message "This disc is unreadable" OR "Unplayable disc".....??

First determine whether it's a fault with the disc or not, by having a look on the disc itself & make sure it's not scratched and there are no flaws even on it, and try other game discs on your Xbox 360 console .

If your disc is scratched or have flaws try putting other discs in your Xbox 360 console just to make sure it's the disc not the actual console causing the error, If other disc are working fine, refer to the scratched discs page on our website to know what are the steps you have to follow to get it sorted out.

If the disc is not scratched and doesn't have any flaws on it, cleaning the disc and trying it once more may solve the issue, if that doesn't work try to check it by putting other discs in your Xbox 360 console, if they all work that would be definitely a fault with the disc itself and in a case like this you have the right to exchange it from the retailer you bought it from as it's not scratched.

In all cases if other game discs are giving you the same error message "This disc is unreadable" OR "Unplayable disc" you need then to contact Xbox 360 customer support to send your console to get repaired or exchanged.

30 comments:

Unknown said...

can you say obvious?

Anonymous said...

No Help, how can you remove the cover and vacuum out the dust?

Unknown said...

Hi there,

Basically if you mean you want to remove the face plate of the console it's fine and that's how to remove it:

1- Close the disc tray, remove any memory units if you have, and then turn off the Xbox 360 console.
2- Locate the detachment slot on the right side of the faceplate. It's is located on the bottom side of the faceplate if the console is positioned vertically.
3- Then pull the slot to detach the faceplate.
But make sure you hold the Xbox 360 console firmly to keep the console from falling as you remove the faceplate.

To attach the face plate back, align the tabs on the faceplate with the slots on the console, then press the new faceplate into place.

But I would like to explain something to you. Make sure you only remove the face plate not the cover or the case of the console because if you do so this will ruin your warranty and Microsoft will deal with your console as a tampered OUT OF WARRANTY XBOX and they will never help you if you face any issue with your console that needs repair for example.

Cheers,

Unknown said...

1-800-4MY-XBOX doesn't seem to be working. Another great Microsoft product!

Anonymous said...

This happened to me - totally out of the blue. Not scratched disc, brand new game. Hadn't moved console with a disc in or dropped or anything. Its exactly what happened to my 1st 360 premium before it finally died. 2nd RROD. On my 3rd 360 (an elite) and its started playing up a mere 5 months in.

Whats worked for me is - as a temp fix for me this weekend - I will be taking it back of course (if you've tried the other fixes I'm sure you've googled already):

When you close the dvd drive bang the top of the xbox 360 repeatedly above the dvd tray to "coax" the highly delicate electronics to actually read the damn thing

It took a fair whack to get this to work. I'd suggest keep trying opening closing upping the level of force until it works.

I'm guessing I've got something out of alignment, or the magnet issue (Hitatchi drive). Its strange that is just a disc recognition issue - although I have heard this before and watch a video of someone with case open, coaxing the drive by manually spinning the disc just to get it going.

Its what I ended up doing for my first 360 - but it failed completely about 2 months after that so its certainly not a long term fix.

I have to say I'm far from impressed with reliability of the modern consoles - my old SNES had beer split in it, got knocked about constantly - and never died. Hope this helps - only other thing as it out of warranty is cough up the cash to get MS to repair - or try one of many more severe dismantling / repairing fixes easily found online.

Disclaimer: please do not hold me responsible if you try this and things get worse

Anonymous said...

its those darned hitatchi drives. they used a cheap glue on the magnet and it sticks to the roof of the drive causing it not to function. way to go microsoft!

oh, by the way, i've gotten back two refurbished consoles from microsoft and they both ended up with the same problem eventually. and the refurbished consoles were actually older models than the one i originally purchased.

good thing HD DVD died. now i can go buy a spare external drive alot cheaper and it'll even improve the look of my regular dvds.

YAY Bill Gates!

Anonymous said...

personally i would say the average 360 lasts a year but then it starts to mess up. my current 360 has no red lights but will not play any disc but word of advice to broken 360 people with no warrenty. if the repair price is over 75% of what the core of the xbox 360 costs, sell the one you have on ebay for a low price and by a new one FROM microsoft because the warrenty was extended to 3 years AND you dont want to be sent back a repaired risky console as it is older and likely to break (although i have seen some last another year or so) but nothing is as good as a new console which can be repaired / replaced for free so if it breaks? get microsoft to empty their pockets, NOT YOU.

other options:

you can choose to repair your console yourself but risk of damaging it further may lower the price you are able to sell it on ebay or other trade sites.

if choosing to repair yourself, unless you know what your doing you need to get the XBOX 360 REPAIR GUIDE which costs a mere $25

Anonymous said...

Wow this generation of consoles is a cheap waste if u ask me my probably 10 year old ps1 still works and my ike 3 year old ps2 works but my 360 which is mayb a year olds and my ps3 which is only like 8 months old are both messed up allready i cant play guitar hero which is driving me crazy and i dont have the money to buy a new 360 or ps3 microsoft and sony tried to hard to beat each other and now its comin back on the customers my Wii is perfectly fine and its the oldest out of the 3 GO NINTENDO!

Anonymous said...

can you imagine someone reading those 'instructions" and actually learning something.
1] Turn xbox off then on
2] clean disk with cloth

they should add this:
3] take heels together 3 times and scream "I'm an idiot" all the way to customer service.

4] if Customer Service wasted an hour or two of your time and WASN'T of much use, then BUY A NEW XBOX.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, XBOX 360 Sucks... I've sent mine in for this (Unplayable Disc) problem 4 times, and every time they send it back to me, I power it up, throw a game in, and it STILL has the same problem. They're clearly incompetent, and I'm DEFINATELY going to PS3 next week when I get paid. This piece of crap is worthless...

-W&P

Anonymous said...

MICROSOFT SUCKS. im sick of that 1-800-4-myxbox bullshit. every time i call i get a chinese lady that i cant understand. and after an hour or two, they tell u what u already know!!!

Anonymous said...

the xbox360 is a decint pice of hardwear with good games and an almost flawless controler. but the wetbacks dont know how to assemble the damb thing. first i got the red rings of death before they extended the warrenty and fixed it my self with a little help from lows nuts and bolt sellection. now my disc is dirty or dameged after about five to ten min of play. why o why didn't they just get the slant eyed people to assemble the damb thing. i need a soluction if anyone has one. hit me up at donald_max123@yahoo.com

Anonymous said...

wow thats embarrassing, learn english before you post on the internet.

quote: "the xbox360 is a decint pice of hardwear"

Let me guess.. American??

Anonymous said...

Fuck Microsoft, I got the RRoD 5 months ago and I got back my 360 and it's already breaking again. Microsoft hasn't learned, let's fix this and leave all the other plastic chinese crap alone so we can make more money.

Anonymous said...

That's it!! I'm selling these games and tossing this piece o' shit out the window! *takes a deep breath* I bought the xbox 360 premium in december of 2006 for my husband. We started a business so we have MAYBE 100 hrs. total play time on it. Today we get the lovely white screen of death telling us (with everyone of our discs) "unreadable disc". Since we only ever had a 1 year warranty (and our orginal xbox broke and microsoft wouldn't fix it) we figured what the hell... lets google this shit and see if we can fix it ourselves or buy a replacement drive. We went through all the fixes you can find powered it up and no more grinding but now... still won't read and it wiped our hard drive so no profiles what so ever! MIcrosoft won't even let you register for repair online unless you have an xbox live acct. IF you purchase a replacement drive you have to download firmware but have to be a licensed tech to do it. *rolls eyes* So we've decided to quit screwing around with it. See if our friend who loves to tear these things apart can do anything and if not.... chuck it in the garbage with the rest of the cheap crap. The best way to get back at Microsoft is to NOT BUY A REPLACEMENT CONSOLE!!! I'm going back to NIntendo. THese new gaming consoles are all cheap crap!!!

Anonymous said...

If you have lost your warrenty theres no need to worry! just DIY instead. follow these two videos and you should get it working!

First how to dissemble:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXwXC1IE_ck&feature=related

2nd how to fix the problem:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEGKDGPj1iw

It is not possible to dissemble your 360 without tearing the warrenty so do not try it

Anonymous said...

I don't get it, I was playing and then it stopped, said the disc is unreadable! :( i can't play the disc anymore, i feel so sad. I tried some other games and it functioned perfectly, why did this happen?

Unknown said...

Hi ruza,

Did you check the disc?
It seems the disc is faulty.

Cheers now,

Anonymous said...

I came to this blog because my husband's xbox started saying "unreadable disc" and I think the warranty is up. But I was shocked at the racist ignorance by one of these responses.
Qoute:the xbox360 is a decint (decent)pice (piece) of hardwear (hardware) with good games and an almost flawless controler (controller). but the wetbacks dont know how to assemble the damb (damn) thing. first i got the red rings of death before they extended the warrenty (warranty)and fixed it my self (myself)with a little help from lows (Lowes')nuts and bolt sellection (selection). now my disc is dirty or dameged (damaged)after about five to ten min of play. why o why didn't they just get the slant eyed people to assemble the damb (damn) thing. i need a soluction (solution) if anyone has one. hit me up at donald_max123@yahoo.com
Sir your racist comments come as no surprise from someone possessing such a wonderful grasp of the English language. Before you criticize foreigners and call them ignorant names, perhaps you should learn to read and write in your own language. I mean elementary school kids at least know how to spell "damn."

Anonymous said...

I got the unplayable disc crap today on gears of war 2 and stargate atlantis Season 4 Disc 4.

I cleaned the discs and then tried them again and same crap came up.

So I turned the 360 upside down (while off and no discs inside.) and only stargate worked.

I also tried DVD laser lens cleaners and still get the problem with gears of war 2.

The discs are brand new so there should be no problem, but microsoft tells me it's a disc defect and I have replaced it at least 20 times.

So according to microsoft all discs with that error are fucked from the begining. Ever heard the saying "A poor workman always blames his tools". Microsoft are like that them selves.

Anonymous said...

my console was fine until the NXE came out not it wont lod all of or some parts of my games like on farcry 2 my map editor and all of my GOW its so anoying

Anonymous said...

hi, some times my discs won't read either or it says this is not a DVD please put in xbox when I try GTA!!
I had the 3 death circles once.. I waited few mins and it worked fine which I find strange as everywer ive seen or heard of says its totaty fucked when they show up.. This was a few months ago and now exept the odd it can't be read in the middle of playing or about to, it works ok

How's this =S

Please email me if you know what the death circles mean other than system malfunction as mine seems ok
joachim@joachimc.com thanks

Anonymous said...

I seem to get a lot of unreadable disc errors at random times with gears of war 2. It has also happened once with NFS: ProStreet. Fixing it for me is to turn off the console and turn it back on, "rebooting" you may say. This issue has me worried since I bought this used and have confirmation that this unit has been already replaced once from Microsoft.

Anonymous said...

Hello im new to this forum but mine is like all of yours but ive had the same damn thing and my xbox is a pro version but i had no warranty and so me and my friend took it apart and put a halo elite edition in it and now when i put a game disk in it it reads it and say play dvd it does it to all of my games but when i put a movie in it it works fine please help....

Anonymous said...

my xbox reads the game but then when i press play game it goes to a black scrren and basically freezes until it says disc unreadable. this happens with all my games.

Anonymous said...

I bought my xbox about a month after it came out. About 4-5 months ago I got the RRoD and googled it and found that it was easier to just fix it myself. So I did. Worked fine but was a little slow whitch is alright. Now just recently started playin Halo 3 again because of the reach beta. And I'll be playin and all of a sudden it says error cannot read disc. So I took out my ODST mutiplayer disc and started to use that one. A few minutes later it says the same thing. So I power off and back on and it won't even play now. It's brand new. So yesterday I was playin' ODST and it started to do the same thing. I popped in my OCD6 disc and same thing. The only thing I can play is my Halo disc but none of my add ons work it will say the disc is unreadable. Well it must not be the disc because they are ADD ONS. I am just gonna buy a new box because mine is getting old.

Anonymous said...

Hi all,

saturday i bought Battlefield Bad Company 2, i was very happy and played it for 15 minutes before it said 'disc unreadable'. i cleaned it and putted it back in and it didn't help. i tried it for like 15 times but there was still that error. i went to the store and i got a new disc but it didn't work either. i visited xbox.com/support and did every step, exept let it repair but it didn't worked. does anyone know another trick? please email me: koen_stellaard@hotmail.com

later, Koen

Anonymous said...

i have had this issue for a while, the workaround i use is to save the game to the harddrive and play it from there.This still can cause errors, when the system tells me there isnt even a disc in the console (which there clearly is??) and of course, it means im only ever playing the same game because my 20GB HDD wont hold more than one complete game at a time. good thing im so obsessed with COD MW2.

Anonymous said...

I hate the disc unreadable error! It usually happens mid game during something important. Having played around with my 360 the cure I have discovered is to use your 360 in the horizontal position. SOund strange but it seems to work for me (touch wood) :-) happy gaming - Guthrum

Unknown said...

hey,

Thanks for leaving the tips, way back in the day. I gave the Xbox a love tap on the top and Madden 10 started up right away. Perhaps none of this matters to any of you because you've all moved on, but I just started playing a virtually brand new machine after a year or so absence.

Cheers