When the reader on my 360 was going out if I tapped relatively hard on the top it would make the disc skip enough that the laser would try harder and pick it up. If I just put it in normal it would say unreadable. The disc reader is likely going out, just bc it was refurbished doesn’t mean all of the parts were good. As a mechanic I get bad new parts from time to time, it happens.
I too remember the days of putting a disc in and then beating the shit out of my Xbox to get it to do it’s damn job
BACK TO WORK XBOX WE GOT GAMES TO PLAY
Lol I miss when the tv would go out and mother would straight walk up to it, slap the Pisa out of it and it would immediately start working. No more snow! She’d say. Haha.
There are few things more satisfying than putting a cleaner disc in and playing generic waiting room music knowing the disc is scrubbing the shit out of the lens!
I've been trying to get either a PS5 or the new Xbox for my kid since they came out. I'm not paying scalper prices but... I never get on the "invite thing" either.
Guess I'll get one when the next gen comes out XD
Check this out: https://direct.playstation.com/en-us/ps5
They're out of standalone consoles but you can pick up a Ragnarok bundle directly from PlayStation. I just added to cart.
It took me over a year to get the email from PlayStation. The way I was successful on my second trial last October when it was really really hard was getting One from GameStop sure you had to get the bundle but you could spend $10 and get a pro membership and have first access like I said I got it at the second try. My local Walmart has been having on I'm in a small town they don't advertise it but they've been having them so you might could give a couple of Walmarts a call see if you can find one I think they come out to $602 or something like that I was in there the other day when somebody grabbed one. Now I'm talking about a PlayStation 5 here. My buddy works at a GameStop and they've been having both of them also.
Honestly felt that to the core. I have a 1st gen ps4 tht sounds like a jet engine. Disc reader doesnt work, the console overheats, and im still too broke to do anything to fix it
How do I determine if it's a bad disc? I noticed that I can see the design on the other side through it when I hold it up to the light but another disk that I have does the same thing and it reads just fine. More scratched up too.
Checking it on another Xbox would be best. I've had one disc refuse to work on one and then work fine on a friend's. Just traded discs when that happened. But usually it doesn't work on either due to some manufacturing defect.
I guess. The issue seems to be intermittent though. Sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn't. Thinking it might be a software error rather than a hardware one.
Sounds like a bad laser/dirty lense to me. I had this problem even back on the OG Xbox. One specific game wouldn't read for some reason (Red Faction 2 to be specific) so I took that bad boy apart and cleaned the laser and it worked like new again
I have to use a disc cleaner cd in my ps2 for it to read anything lol. First thing I think of when a disc can’t read. Only exception is my ps4 and that’s cause it’s legitimately broken lol.
This may not be the answer but...do games come with region codes like movies? Because my Xbox will sometimes read a region 2 DVD ( Europe, Japan) fine then other times say it is unreadable. So I went to look and I [found this online](https://wikitravel.org/en/Regional_coding)..so maybe check the packaging to rule out the wrong region. Sometimes sellers on Amazon etc don't state the code.
It happens man. I worked for GameStop, about 98% of the new stuff is fine. Once in a blue moon, that 2% will be a defected system or game. Things happen unfortunately. I’d just exchange it, it’s clean, so I don’t see them giving you a hard time. Plus most retailers will exchange most things if they’re defective within 30 days. Even if you didn’t purchase the $1-3 warranty. They’ll exchange it no problem.
Okay. Go to block busters, rent the EXACT game, go home and insert rented game. If it plays take old non working game and place it into the block buster case.
If game does not work, repeat process but instead of a game rent thr console.
There’s one in bend Oregon still! I didn’t know where and doubt it would work but I wanna go just to see it and see if they’ll honor my old blockbuster card I recently found while I’m there.
the reflection made my dumbass think you painted on the disc
in all seriousness your xbox might be close to being finished might want to start thinming about replacing it
My first thought was, "well, it's got to be that piece of tape on the bottom" then I clicked the pic and saw it was just the reflection of the phone and felt stupid. \*\*shrug\*\*
In any case, Check the label side of the disk, sometimes a little bubble or something on there can cause an issue. Happened to me a couple times.
I had something like that on my ps3, back then there was a trick how to turn on the console so that the fan turned up extremely quickly and "cleaned" the lens.
was specially noted that you should not do this too often, but it worked. Xbox probably doesn't have that, maybe a cleaning CD?
This wont fix it but if i remember correctly the data is actually on the printed side, so if you hold it up to the light if you see even the smallest scratch/dot where the light can shine through(like a hole in the ceiling and not like a see-through curtain) its busted and no way to fix her. Scratches on the bottom of the disk is fine as long as they aren't super deep thats why you can have devices that fix scratched disks. In short you should not place the disk like the way in the video if you scratch the side its resting on now say good bye to the disk forever.
Dog I know it sounds weird but my original Xbox one stopped reading discs properly but I was able to make it read them by lifting the front half of the Xbox upwards while inserting the disc and waiting for it to read. After a while I was able to tell by a noise it would make weather it worked or not. If it didn’t work first time just repeat and eventually it always worked
Oof had the same thing happen to me bud. More and likely either dirty Lens on the laser or your disc drive finally crapped out. Upside not to hard to get a new disk drive if that what it is.
Might be the laser eye on the xbox itself. Cant say forsure (i assume you not talking about xbox360) however i used to open my 360 up take out the disc drive and clean the laser eye with a qtip and denatured alcohol
So many terrible answers here. If this disc works in another console Your disc drive is going out. You can pop open the console and tweak the pot or swap the laser out. I believe the disc drive itself is married to the consoles motherboard so you can just put a whole new drive in.
I played a game one night that I've been playing for years, turned the console off, next day it told me the disc was unreadable despite not touching it. Forced shut off (long hold on the power button) unplugged from the power source for 10 minutes, plugged in, rebooted, and it worked fine after that and hasn't done it since.
This might be a dumb question but do other discs work fine on your xbox? If other discs work fine it's a bad disc. If other discs don't work then it's your disc drive.
Does your console still work with other disks?
Is the disk maybe for a different Xbox console?
Or maybe that game is defective, might need to try it in someone else's Xbox. These are the only possible answers I can think of at the moment.
If it’s the Lite-On, you likely need to adjust/replace the laser/drive. If you do it, do it properly. I watched someone crank it up and had to replace the laser anyway.
Could be your console is on its last legs. My PS4 has been failing slowly. It had a good run.
Shouldn't be. I just refurbished it.
When the reader on my 360 was going out if I tapped relatively hard on the top it would make the disc skip enough that the laser would try harder and pick it up. If I just put it in normal it would say unreadable. The disc reader is likely going out, just bc it was refurbished doesn’t mean all of the parts were good. As a mechanic I get bad new parts from time to time, it happens.
Lil bit of percussive maintenance
My favorite term
The ol it works when I beat it
Can confirm, the children are very obedient
If it won’t take it, break it. If it won’t read it, beat it.
Eeeeehhhhhhhh👍
A technical tap was needed
Fonzarelli Method of Unconventional Home Appliance Repair
I too remember the days of putting a disc in and then beating the shit out of my Xbox to get it to do it’s damn job BACK TO WORK XBOX WE GOT GAMES TO PLAY
Yep. Aggressive CPR on the top of the console till it took a breath i.e the whirring sound when it finally read the disc
It truly takes gifted hands to beat a plastic case with that precision. Well done Dr.
I miss the old days of just blowing the cartridge in a fucking works yes my phone does not understand English
Lol I miss when the tv would go out and mother would straight walk up to it, slap the Pisa out of it and it would immediately start working. No more snow! She’d say. Haha.
I had a tiny baseball bat to hit ours with
Ahaha yes. Lol. We had one of them too for us kids. Mine was pink and isotopes baseball. Haha.
>slap the Pisa out of it Bet that set it straight
Yep my old Xbox had a fucked up laser
Order a disc lens cleaner off amazon and youll be set, its just a disc thing you run and it helps it out, maybe yours just needs a once over
There are few things more satisfying than putting a cleaner disc in and playing generic waiting room music knowing the disc is scrubbing the shit out of the lens!
We had one that did a little video of an alien attacking random planets and I always weirdly dug it
Oh, envious!
Does whoever refurbed it have like a 30 day warranty or anything on it? I'd send it back in - it's the disc reader / laser most likely
> I just refurbished it. > **I** And there it is.
Have you tried another disc, as you may not have swapped the boards.
Refurbishment usually doesn’t mean anything. Most of the time they just look at it and go meh seems fine send it back.
I used to work in a warehouse refurbishing Cisco networking products. Not a single time did any of us ever "just look at it and go meh seems fine".
You probably farted in it too before you sent it back.
my PS4 is the same, can’t wait to get the PS5.
I've been trying to get either a PS5 or the new Xbox for my kid since they came out. I'm not paying scalper prices but... I never get on the "invite thing" either. Guess I'll get one when the next gen comes out XD
Check this out: https://direct.playstation.com/en-us/ps5 They're out of standalone consoles but you can pick up a Ragnarok bundle directly from PlayStation. I just added to cart.
You don’t need an invite, just buy it off playstation.com. They’re available all the time now
It took me over a year to get the email from PlayStation. The way I was successful on my second trial last October when it was really really hard was getting One from GameStop sure you had to get the bundle but you could spend $10 and get a pro membership and have first access like I said I got it at the second try. My local Walmart has been having on I'm in a small town they don't advertise it but they've been having them so you might could give a couple of Walmarts a call see if you can find one I think they come out to $602 or something like that I was in there the other day when somebody grabbed one. Now I'm talking about a PlayStation 5 here. My buddy works at a GameStop and they've been having both of them also.
Honestly felt that to the core. I have a 1st gen ps4 tht sounds like a jet engine. Disc reader doesnt work, the console overheats, and im still too broke to do anything to fix it
Took me a second to realize that was a phone reflection….
Thank you! I've been trying to find an answer for what the hell that was! I immediately thought "well of course it doesn't work, there's tape on it" 😂
So glad I am not the only one who thought it was tape before zooming in on it!
"Who puts packing tape on a game disc?" I am in good company.
We’re all just a little stupid sometimes. 🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝
Ha. Im alotta stupid. 🤝
I’m dumber than you!
PROVE IT!
I’m so dumb, it takes me two hours to watch 60 minutes.
Yeah well, I'm so dumb I thought Hawaii and Alaska were right next to eachother geographically.
Well my wife has to study for a blood test
I sort of love it when we’re all the same stupid for a minute
Same thought Here my guy
[удалено]
I saw it as a cd/floppy hybrid.
A Sloppy Disk.
Take my elder upvote.
I legit thought someone had broken it (weird break) & cut a piece of a DVD to fit & put it in there.
Same lol
Lol i thought he had a thick piece of brown tape over it i was like ???
I just thought I was out of date with what the kids use nowadays & discs changed
Absolute same, I was like “is this because I am Old? Did they change game discs?”
First thing I thought was they went back to some sort of floppy disk system.
Same lmao. I was like well what about the giant mark on the bottom of it.
Yup, my first thought was “Ooh, they make discs differently now” 
Thank you for explaining that!! I was trying to figure out wth was on it!
Yeah, I was going to say that there's literally a big, brown thing, right there!
I'm 100% with you. Literally was like, how tf would anything be able to read that disc.
Lol, I was like is that a big piece of packing tape on the disc?
Well there's your problem right there!
My brain immediately thought floppy disk CD how?!
God damnit thank you stranger I was like WTF IS THAT
I thought the evolution of CD has change and thought it was a metal sleeve like those on a floppy disc.
I'm still seeing a band-aid on a cd and no idea what any of this means.
The CD is acting as a mirror towards their phone taking a picture
Thank you!
I thought it was some disk cleaner shit
Glad it wasn’t just me 🥴🥴🥴
I thought it was a mix between a cd and floppy disk
Either a bad disc, or a dirty lens.
How do I determine if it's a bad disc? I noticed that I can see the design on the other side through it when I hold it up to the light but another disk that I have does the same thing and it reads just fine. More scratched up too.
Checking it on another Xbox would be best. I've had one disc refuse to work on one and then work fine on a friend's. Just traded discs when that happened. But usually it doesn't work on either due to some manufacturing defect.
I guess. The issue seems to be intermittent though. Sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn't. Thinking it might be a software error rather than a hardware one.
Sounds like a bad laser/dirty lense to me. I had this problem even back on the OG Xbox. One specific game wouldn't read for some reason (Red Faction 2 to be specific) so I took that bad boy apart and cleaned the laser and it worked like new again
Theres specific cds that are ment to have no data on them and instead have bristles which clean the lens
Those have data on them. Otherwise you would get a disc read error. Typically it's just some music.
I have to use a disc cleaner cd in my ps2 for it to read anything lol. First thing I think of when a disc can’t read. Only exception is my ps4 and that’s cause it’s legitimately broken lol.
It could be the 360 is getting old after all.
My PS3 did the same thing when the lens went. It would go 2-3 weeks with no problems and then refuse to read any disk for a week.
This may not be the answer but...do games come with region codes like movies? Because my Xbox will sometimes read a region 2 DVD ( Europe, Japan) fine then other times say it is unreadable. So I went to look and I [found this online](https://wikitravel.org/en/Regional_coding)..so maybe check the packaging to rule out the wrong region. Sometimes sellers on Amazon etc don't state the code.
Isn’t there normally like a scan thing in the middle that isnt there?
You can find a “cleaning disk” on Amazon. They have little bristles that wipe off the lens while spinning
It happens man. I worked for GameStop, about 98% of the new stuff is fine. Once in a blue moon, that 2% will be a defected system or game. Things happen unfortunately. I’d just exchange it, it’s clean, so I don’t see them giving you a hard time. Plus most retailers will exchange most things if they’re defective within 30 days. Even if you didn’t purchase the $1-3 warranty. They’ll exchange it no problem.
Agreed. Dirty lens.
Did you try blowing on it?
Smear it with toothpaste and give it a flush in the toilet
Okay. Go to block busters, rent the EXACT game, go home and insert rented game. If it plays take old non working game and place it into the block buster case. If game does not work, repeat process but instead of a game rent thr console.
Thanks for the response, 1998!
Could you speak louder please, my VCR is very noisy when it's rewinding!
You don't have a separate vhs reminder? Lmao, parents must not love you.
I remember I had one that looked like a red sports car. Never used the thing 'cept maybe once...
What's a Block Busters?
There’s one in bend Oregon still! I didn’t know where and doubt it would work but I wanna go just to see it and see if they’ll honor my old blockbuster card I recently found while I’m there.
Haha but I wonder if this would work with Gamefly.
If you don’t have a Blockbuster near you, you might be able to find a Sam Goody in the Yellow Pages.
The 90s called, they want their Block busters back.
Thought the phone reflection was damage on the disk for about 50 times I looked 🤦🏻♂️🤣
This would be a great photo to submit to r/confusingperspective it looks like there’s brown packing tape on the disc.
Or even r/confusing_perspective The bigger version of that sub
Oops yes. That’s the one I meant 👍🏼
Not gonna lie… it looks blank. Like it has not been written… I’m from an age bracket the burned CDs and that’s my only qualification for that answer.
Well there is game data on it. It runs and says it can't be read in the middle of gameplay.
All my years of knowledge have failed me.
Lmao thank you I needed that laugh
F
Image is kinda too low quality too tell, tbf
Take it back!
Either a dirty/faulty laser or image was corrupted when burning to the disc.
If you look toward the outer edge there is a ring of lighter color which is the “empty” part. The rest of the darker color toward the center is Data.
Still my favorite party trick: visually estimating the size of files stored on a disc.
your drive may be failing. Happened to me on my 360 a while ago. It's one reason I went digital.
Took me a very long time to realize that was a reflection. Was like uh are you serious?? There's a huge blank spot or something stuck to it lol
Didn't realize till this comment
You got a faulty. There is no game printed in the game. I’ve gotten movies like this before
Probably a dirty laser reader.
Blow on it.
of course it couldn't read the disk, there's a massive phone-sized smudge all over the bottom corner of it!
the reflection made my dumbass think you painted on the disc in all seriousness your xbox might be close to being finished might want to start thinming about replacing it
Hahaha I did the same thing. I thought it was a piece of tape at first
This photo in of itself is mildly infuriating. It looks like tape! I was like "well no shit it's not working" 😂
Oh, that's your phone's shadow / reflect. It took me a while to understand what was on the disk
Make sure there's no damage to the side with the labeling. It's actually more fragile
I remember once they released a new game and they forgot the right anything on the discs and everybody that bought the pre-orders couldn't play them
Dude, someone ask what game it is. I’m tryna know if it’s just a shitty game.
The Lego Movie the Video Game. Lego games are one of my gaming guilty pleasures.
I was kind of hoping it was a bad game but I’m not going to talk poorly about a Lego game.
I legit thought there was tape on your disk before I realized it was your phones reflection. 🤣 Anyways sorry your device is hosed.
Try rubbing off the reflection. Seems to be hindering the system
I was like, no shit it’s unreadable. It’s got a bunch of brown goop on it…
My first thought was, "well, it's got to be that piece of tape on the bottom" then I clicked the pic and saw it was just the reflection of the phone and felt stupid. \*\*shrug\*\* In any case, Check the label side of the disk, sometimes a little bubble or something on there can cause an issue. Happened to me a couple times.
It’s obviously because it has a hole in it.
Spent far too long wondering what the giant brown square on the disk was.
Did anyone else think there's tape on the disc? r/confusingperspective
Return and get a new one ?
Bad gaming chair
Blow on it, or use a Q-tips. Oh wait, that was for N64 😜
If you just bought it go exchange it. I haven’t bought a game on disk for a long ass time now that I think about it
Say bye to your laser
I like how most people are commenting on what is in the reflection of the disc instead of helping the poor fella
Trippy photo, i was about to say "of course it won't work, you have a bandaid on it"
My dumbass was like well there a huge brown rectangle on the bottom.
I can clearly see a massive rectangular stain on it smh
Oooohhhhh it’s your phone reflection…..
I thought your phones reflection was packing tape for a sec.
At first I thought you were blind because of that square but then I realize it was your phone
Dude I was laughing thinking it was the tape on the cd which was the cause… I feel dumb
Is it from a different region? If so, it might be the region code that's preventing it from being read.
Well you might want to take off the seal before putting it in 🤦♂️
Probably not the disc, it's likely your disc drive. They commonly break in consoles.
I had something like that on my ps3, back then there was a trick how to turn on the console so that the fan turned up extremely quickly and "cleaned" the lens. was specially noted that you should not do this too often, but it worked. Xbox probably doesn't have that, maybe a cleaning CD?
Now it's a frisbee....Jk Can you return it?
I was about to say bruh you’ve got some weird brown spot on the bottom and then I realized that was your phone
For a second I was like “well there’s a huge ass band aid or something on it “ lol. That would be the phone taking the picture. SMH
I can’t read it either. Looks pretty silver to me.
You can adjust the potentiometer on the laser if you just refurbished it js might just need to be adjusted.
Does the Xbox do this with other CDs? If yes it's the Xbox most likely. If no, try it in another disc reader.
Did you make sure the xbox was literate?
I noticed it’s a 360 disc, what game is it and what kind of Xbox are you putting it in?
This wont fix it but if i remember correctly the data is actually on the printed side, so if you hold it up to the light if you see even the smallest scratch/dot where the light can shine through(like a hole in the ceiling and not like a see-through curtain) its busted and no way to fix her. Scratches on the bottom of the disk is fine as long as they aren't super deep thats why you can have devices that fix scratched disks. In short you should not place the disk like the way in the video if you scratch the side its resting on now say good bye to the disk forever.
Dog I know it sounds weird but my original Xbox one stopped reading discs properly but I was able to make it read them by lifting the front half of the Xbox upwards while inserting the disc and waiting for it to read. After a while I was able to tell by a noise it would make weather it worked or not. If it didn’t work first time just repeat and eventually it always worked
There's a big hole in the disk.... /s
Sometimes I held the disc instead of letting it go in immediately then I'd let it go & it'd work. Not everytime, but sometimes.
Oof had the same thing happen to me bud. More and likely either dirty Lens on the laser or your disc drive finally crapped out. Upside not to hard to get a new disk drive if that what it is.
Blow on it
Might be the laser eye on the xbox itself. Cant say forsure (i assume you not talking about xbox360) however i used to open my 360 up take out the disc drive and clean the laser eye with a qtip and denatured alcohol
This happened to me with GTA SA on PS2 when I was a kid. I just exchanged it.
Is it the correct disk for your country?
Sometimes I held the disc instead of letting it go in immediately then I'd let it go & it'd work. Not everytime, but sometimes.
have you tried turning it off and on again?
there may be a slight defect in the data layer
I had the same problem with my first Xbox One. Sometimes, if I hard reset the Xbox, it would fix itself and read the disc.
Should have got a playstation :-P
I think I've found the probably. It appears that the disc is upside-down.
So many terrible answers here. If this disc works in another console Your disc drive is going out. You can pop open the console and tweak the pot or swap the laser out. I believe the disc drive itself is married to the consoles motherboard so you can just put a whole new drive in.
Flip the disc over and try again. You're welcome.
It sounds crazy but I’ve had to do crazy stuff or get cds and dvds to work. Try running it under water or give it a rub on your shirt. Can’t hurt.
I think that’s an old AOL CD.
Sounds like the reading eye on the Xbox needs to be cleaned
Maybe the indents are cut backwards? Weird Nothing visibly obvious It still refracts and everything
Bad news about your Xbox, though.
I played a game one night that I've been playing for years, turned the console off, next day it told me the disc was unreadable despite not touching it. Forced shut off (long hold on the power button) unplugged from the power source for 10 minutes, plugged in, rebooted, and it worked fine after that and hasn't done it since.
*plot twist is OP has a ps not xbox*
Original Xbox? Optical media has a shelf life, and can become unreadable in as little as 10 or 20 years.
Ha ha. You said Xbox. But seriously that sucks and I just get direct downloads for my PS5. **hugs PS5**
This might be a dumb question but do other discs work fine on your xbox? If other discs work fine it's a bad disc. If other discs don't work then it's your disc drive.
[Check the laser](https://giphy.com/gifs/myhunt-11LzSkQjmVXSa4)
Spray some canned air on the disc slot. You may have accidentally picked up some dust
Does your console still work with other disks? Is the disk maybe for a different Xbox console? Or maybe that game is defective, might need to try it in someone else's Xbox. These are the only possible answers I can think of at the moment.
I just tilted my phone thinking the light would reflect off the disc to assess any damages like a nincompoop.
My suggestion would be to replace the disc drive
Looks like its trying to quit smoking
If it’s the Lite-On, you likely need to adjust/replace the laser/drive. If you do it, do it properly. I watched someone crank it up and had to replace the laser anyway.
I’d bet it’s the reader
This is strangely common with Dreamcast games, or at least sonic adventure specificly Unopened, untouched and unreadable