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 4 of 4)
10-02-2007 @ 2:35PM
xenocidic said...
@edog, yea you pretty much just reinforced my argument.
bad optical drives, not bad discs.
and the fact that your other discs work IS typical of how the optical drive fails. read my later comments. my problems started on 1 particular game, then spread to all of them within a month and a half.
so again, I stand by my assertion that Halo 3 discs are not defective (notwithstanding the scratched Limited Edition ones) but that a normal amount of failing 360s are being incorrectly diagnosed as bad Halo 3 discs when in fact this is not the case.
( more people playing Halo 3 than any other game = more peoples optical drives failing ON halo 3 than any other game )
of course I am speculating here. time will tell.
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10-02-2007 @ 10:43PM
crazyblackman said...
I had this problem frequently and found a quick fix. 1)Take the Halo3 disc out of the drive. 2)clean disc thoroughly with a soft nonabrasive cloth. 3)place disc back into 360, while being very careful not to smudge edges of disc. 4)unplug 360 from brick power supply. 5)transport 360 to nearest trashcan. 6)head to nearest electronics retail store and purchase PS3. 7)start spending money more wisely, dumbass.
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10-03-2007 @ 12:04PM
James said...
I believe the Limited Edition was either assembled improperly or the case design is flawed. The guy at Gamestop kept checking cases until he found one that didn't rattle, and gave that one to me. Still, when I opened the case at home the discs were loose, perhaps why all these discs are scratched.
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10-03-2007 @ 12:09PM
James said...
Sorry for my redundant post, I had not noticed there were many comments and an entire article about this.
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10-03-2007 @ 1:57PM
kakoschris said...
@ #13, same thing happened on my brand new elite, the fire in the elevator RROD'd my brand new system, and now my back up system won't play the disc nicely either, since playing a campaign mission last night online I can't access any games, says player failed to load, and sometimes it says the disc read error....
I hate microsoft....this is my 3rd box and I think I'll be seeing a new one again soon....
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10-03-2007 @ 7:04PM
affr0thund3r5 said...
aight
im fucking pissed so fucking much
my halo limited version fd up today
im so pissed
xcuse my language ppl but you serio dont kno how pissed i am
omfg
they better recall this right now n give me a new halo game within a week or i might have to curbstomp some bungie employees
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10-04-2007 @ 10:53AM
paul said...
Last night I had to stop playing because the game kept freezing up. My disc is not scratched and xbox works fine w/any other game. happened once a few days ago and then last night. Turned off the xbox, re-inserted the disc 3 more times and still it would freeze up in menu. Not happy!
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10-04-2007 @ 6:02PM
SelfishGene said...
I got this error when we were about 10-15 minutes away from beating the game. It has not loaded the last level since then. I contacted MS and they said I would have to purchase another copy of the game. Only the legendary edition is eligible for the disc replacement program. I also got the red ring of death this week after only a week of playing Halo 3. The unit has been sitting outside my media console for better ventilation.
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10-05-2007 @ 4:56AM
Kelsey Steinman said...
I'd been playing online co-op with my friend to beat Legendary and right when we got to the end cut scene the error popped up on my screen.
My friend didn't get to see the end film....his first time through the game.(sry dude).
The strange part was...my game hadn't been out of my xbox since I'd put it in. When did it get scratched?!?
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10-06-2007 @ 9:01AM
Latinsoldier77 said...
I had the unreadable disk error not once but three times... My first disk I returned and received a new one played to the 3rd level them froze and gave me an error... The same with the 2nd one but could not get into the game it would get to the start up menu and not show the text for what type of game I wanted to play. It is weird... My friend brought his disk over and his started up fine but eventually got the error message too. WTF.....
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10-07-2007 @ 10:50AM
Erik said...
I've this problem.
My xbox360 is as new as Halo 3, and I'm also at my second copy of Halo 3. Still the error message pops up on the same place, right after the cinematics when I had finished the anti-airgun.
I sent a mail to Microsoft, and got a looney response:
"
I understand when you load a game disc or any other type of disc, you receive the following error message: “This disc is unreadable. It may be the wrong region for this console. Match the region of the disc to the console. Clean the disc with a soft cloth. Restart the console. For more help, go to www.xbox.com/support.†I deeply apologize for the inconvenience that this might have caused you."
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10-08-2007 @ 6:52PM
Shinigami87 said...
I have a normal edition of Halo 3 and not all the time but sometimes, when the game is about to start or end online, the cd sounds like it stops spinning, and says "The disc is unreadable" and brings me back to the dashboard. I reload and play for a while and it happens again. WHATS THE DEAL!?
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10-11-2007 @ 9:45PM
Ryan said...
I was playing Halo 3 when suddenly it would not load the map, so I tried restarting the console and now no game will load. It will just say Reading, and then Open Tray, can anyone help me?
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10-14-2007 @ 1:30AM
Chester said...
I've been having the loading problems like crazy with my copy. The disk is in perfect condition without a scratch on it. Everything works fine on it except for when you try to play campaign on Legendary. That's the only time it won't load. But it's getting old cause I just want to beat it on Legendary and don't want to send it in cause then I can't player multiplayer.
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10-14-2007 @ 4:22PM
jamesd said...
ive got legendary edition and when i try to do any campagn forge or multiplayer it says player has failed to load content ,, it might be becauuse of when it forces u to download the update on ure xboxx when u first put it in
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10-16-2007 @ 11:14AM
John Camp said...
Entirely true. I opted for the legendary disc after being told the limited edition was usually scratched. Played fine until this morning. Called Microsoft, they said the issue was with the disc and to send it to them. Thinking this was true, I went to my local game shop and purchased a new regular edition disc to play until that time. It also had the read error. Took it back to the shop, got a new one, (both were completely brand new sealed copies) and that one also did not work! Called Microsoft again, explained the situation, and they told me to send both discs in for replacements. I'm of the mind-set that it is a hardware issue, but according to Microsoft it is purely a game disc issue. I have since tried two friend's copies and all have the error. All of my other game discs work perfectly fine, and Halo 3 has worked fine since release date up until this morning!
Sincerely,
A confused and Halo-less reader.
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11-17-2007 @ 4:00AM
aaron said...
It's either a disk error or an Xbox error. Halo did it a couple times and now COD4 does it a lot. I didn't take the disk out of the xbox and had just beat it. I put it up a difficulty level and started playing it. Then it pulled the same error. Now I can't play the campaign anymore on either Halo or COD and some of the multiplayer maps screw up.
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