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I recently bought a preowned copy of Mass Effect, and it was in perfect condition when I first removed it from the case, but after bumping the console while playing it the disc now has a large circular scratch on it and won't play. Is it possible to repair discs without spending much money? The only self-repair device I've seen was over $1000 AUD, and I'm not spending that much to repair a $34 disc.

I either licked the cd or spray hair spray on + wipe after.

It worked.
Though your immediate concern should be to what caused the scratch , because chances are your lense will be next to be damaged.

You should actually be able to take it back and exchange it for another copy, if for a small fee. Most shops have the equipment to refurbish discs.

And let that be a lesson to you! Don't shake things I learned it with Killzone 2 on the PS3.

I don't think I can get preowned games replaced at JB Hi-Fi (where I bought it). I could if it was a new copy, but I decided to pay $34 for a preowned copy instead of $60 for a brand-new one.

And I certainly can't get a new copy after blowing my money on a limited edition of Gears of War 2.

I just use glasses spray and glasses cloth on it, tends to work well.
If not, exchange it back. If you can't, you're boned.

I used to rub clear wax in the scratch and buff it.

Cheese Elemental wrote:I don't think I can get preowned games replaced at JB Hi-Fi (where I bought it). I could if it was a new copy, but I decided to pay $34 for a preowned copy instead of $60 for a brand-new one.

And I certainly can't get a new copy after blowing my money on a limited edition of Gears of War 2.

Hrmh.

In that case, go with what Golden Eyed Scout said. Glasses cleaner(or if you don't have glasses like some freakish nerd without glasses :-P) or a few squirts of Windex into a small bottle of water. You're going for a 90-10 mix.

Here cheese , pick any method:
http://www.wikihow.com/Fix-a-Scratched-CD

Go to a game shop, they repair games for a small fee.

i just did this too with one of my sons christmas gifts on christmas morning... what a headache, but at least it was only a 10 dollar new game.
what hes talking about is not going to get cleaned by any of the "cleaning" methods. what happens is for some reason microsoft makes it so that the lens can actually touch the disc and it scrapes a burrow all the way around the disc. not only is it all the way around the disc but it is also wide. this is also the reason you hear a lot of people recommend that you dont put an xbox on its side.

@cheese - if you actually figure something out then please post it here but i'm pretty sure what you have is a worthless disc.

thankfully i bought mine at gamestop and they exchanged it without even looking at it.

If the lens has gouged into the disc there is a good chance that the game is permanently damaged. "Repairing" the disc won't bring back the lost data. I had a copy of Oblivion that my x-box decided it wanted to eat and it literally erased a quarter of Cyrodil. The game still ran but an entire quarter of the map ceased to exist.

You could try to return it to a game trader but then it's very likely someone will end up buying that broken game and have the same problem.

Its a common problem with Xbox 360's. Put it up high where its hard to bump, and DO NOT put it on its side. I lost my Half Life: Orange Box to a simular mishap.

I use boking soda toothpaste. works well. just rub it one and use circular motions for a few moments. the clean it off.

Railguns wrote:If the lens has gouged into the disc there is a good chance that the game is permanently damaged. "Repairing" the disc won't bring back the lost data. I had a copy of Oblivion that my x-box decided it wanted to eat and it literally erased a quarter of Cyrodil. The game still ran but an entire quarter of the map ceased to exist.

You could try to return it to a game trader but then it's very likely someone will end up buying that broken game and have the same problem.

The lens is on the opposite side of the disk from the encoding layer. Damage to the substrate can often be repaired. It's a read error that lost you a quarter of Cyrodil, and come to think of it you're lucky it didn't just crash when it tried to access it. If you went and scratched the printed side of the disk somehow, then yes, you've actually damaged it.

I don't understand why people keep using side-mounted ODDs. We may as well go back to cartridges... by which I mean those funky caddies that CD drives often used to have.

The 360 can either stand up on lay down. It has rubber feet on both sides. As I'm sure mine would eat discs if given the chance it lays down. Plus when it stands up on one end it's actually on a vent basically or at least looks like it >_>
Sideways + CDs = Stupid idea just waiting to launch CD fragments at you IMO

Anyway if a game shop won't do it, take it to somewhere that rents DVDs and they should be able to do it as well for a small fee. Also if it is cracked do not put it into a CD-drive unless you're going to throw out that drive.
Launched the cover of my old drive in my PC over my shoulder about 5 meters that way followed by some shards but they missed as well

Strange, I was told by Harmonix to never have my xbox standing up, always lay it down. I had this happen with a RB 2 disc and I called them up and they sent me a new one. We were actually able to use a cheap disc refurbisher (that basically used a very fine abrasive on the disc) and the damaged game worked fine (gave the spare disc to a friend).

Ozymandias wrote:Strange, I was told by Harmonix to never have my xbox standing up, always lay it down. I had this happen with a RB 2 disc and I called them up and they sent me a new one. We were actually able to use a cheap disc refurbisher (that basically used a very fine abrasive on the disc) and the damaged game worked fine (gave the spare disc to a friend).

Not just Harmonix, Microsoft has said as much since day one. Part of the reason the originals were overheating was that people were standing them against walls, where the vents on the bottom/sides were having the hot air just forced back in--which wasn't a good thing.

I was told by a girl at game stope that if it stands up the when it gets to hot the lens will pop out and scratch it.

Arctik_Firangi wrote:

Railguns wrote:If the lens has gouged into the disc there is a good chance that the game is permanently damaged. "Repairing" the disc won't bring back the lost data. I had a copy of Oblivion that my x-box decided it wanted to eat and it literally erased a quarter of Cyrodil. The game still ran but an entire quarter of the map ceased to exist.

You could try to return it to a game trader but then it's very likely someone will end up buying that broken game and have the same problem.

The lens is on the opposite side of the disk from the encoding layer. Damage to the substrate can often be repaired. It's a read error that lost you a quarter of Cyrodil, and come to think of it you're lucky it didn't just crash when it tried to access it. If you went and scratched the printed side of the disk somehow, then yes, you've actually damaged it.

I don't understand why people keep using side-mounted ODDs. We may as well go back to cartridges... by which I mean those funky caddies that CD drives often used to have.

Lucky me, this happened with my Game of the Year edition of Oblivion I bought to replace it. It simply refuses to run now because of spontaneous x-box dickery. I still haven't beaten that damn game.