You know, I try to defend the XB360 as much as I can, but after today screw that crap. Never had a RROD or any other issue, no what I get is much worse. So after three months of playing ME off and on, I finally get to the end and the return to the Citadel, I hit the first elevator and bam, disc unreadable. Reset and try again, Bam unreadable disc again. Take the disc out and what do I see, a nice circular scratch going around my entire disc. Thanks a lot MS, nothing like designing a console that not only dies itself, but kills your games too.

You know, I try to defend the XB360 as much as I can, but after today screw that crap. Never had a RROD or any other issue, no what I get is much worse. So after three months of playing ME off and on, I finally get to the end and the return to the Citadel, I hit the first elevator and bam, disc unreadable. Reset and try again, Bam unreadable disc again. Take the disc out and what do I see, a nice circular scratch going around my entire disc. Thanks a lot MS, nothing like designing a console that not only dies itself, but kills your games too.

And you didn't move the console while it was reading the disc at any point?

That's weird.

Hell no, my console hasn't been moved in two years since I got it, it just sits in my center behind glass.

Alright different issue now, I tried cleaning the disc several times with a CD cleaner and nothing happen, but when I used a Monster TV screen cloth on the disc, the "scratch" came right out. It seems that the XB360 is instead putting a ring of smudge on the disc, I testyed the new clean disc and after letting it play a few minutes I took the disc out and noticed the smudging again. Anyone have ideas what this could be, I clean my XB360 drive at least every few weeks so It should be clean.

I clean my XB360 drive at least every few weeks so It should be clean.
What do you clean it with?

I have heard of this:

http://www.llamma.com/xbox360/news/Xbox-360-Game-Disc-Scratched.htm

But it involves opening up the console.

Alright different issue now, I tried cleaning the disc several times with a CD cleaner and nothing happen, but when I used a Monster TV screen cloth on the disc, the "scratch" came right out. It seems that the XB360 is instead putting a ring of smudge on the disc, I testyed the new clean disc and after letting it play a few minutes I took the disc out and noticed the smudging again. Anyone have ideas what this could be, I clean my XB360 drive at least every few weeks so It should be clean.

Like BillKen, I'm suspicious of this part. I never clean my DVD drive and have had no smudging or scratching issues. Obviously the smudging is caused by something getting in to the DVD drive that shouldn't be there, and it seems like introducing a foreign material through cleaning may be the cause.

All I use is a CD that has like a cloth part on it to clean it, any suggestion on a better product I could use?

All I use is a CD that has like a cloth part on it to clean it, any suggestion on a better product I could use?

Usually those have a cleaning fluid that goes with them so they don't scratch up the laser.

Personally, I'd say a better product is using nothing, unless you're in a very dirty/dusty environment.

"Personally, I'd say a better product is using nothing, unless you're in a very dirty/dusty environment."

Absolutly! Any CD/DVD laser cleaning product is absolute garbage. DVD drives are sealed enough to prevent dust from randomly getting on the laser head, plus the turbulance caused by disc rotation further protects the laser lens. Opening up several year old drives, you tend to find a bunch of dust compressed into the corners, joints and tray underside, but the lens area is almost always pristene. CD shaped lense cleaning products are one of those things that exist purely because people will buy them, not because they are useful. :)

As to the actual problem? The tray's gear mechanism in a disc drive has a smear of grease applied during assembly to reduce friction upon ejecting. That smear tends to group up into a ball o' grease over time. Normally that ball sits under the tray out of the way, but it sound like your ball of grease is sitting somewhere that has access to the disc. The laser head tracking also has a similar situationt that may be causing issues. I can't think of a simple way to fix that problem with opening up the drive for inspection though.

You know, I try to defend the XB360 as much as I can, but after today screw that crap. Never had a RROD or any other issue, no what I get is much worse. So after three months of playing ME off and on, I finally get to the end and the return to the Citadel, I hit the first elevator and bam, disc unreadable. Reset and try again, Bam unreadable disc again. Take the disc out and what do I see, a nice circular scratch going around my entire disc. Thanks a lot MS, nothing like designing a console that not only dies itself, but kills your games too.

Yeah, one of the four 360's I had would actually crack my discs. The crack would start in the middle and slowly grew until the game was broken. This happened twice with Gears of War, and once with Guitar Hero II.