So my XBox would freeze up with the dirty or damaged disc error like 10% of the time when I would play Tiger Woods 2005 but I played through it. But last week I bought NCAA 06 and it freezes up pretty much every time I play it. And I can tell when it's about to freeze up because I can hear the drive almost clicking as it struggles to read the disk. But I learned that I can pause the game when it starts to do that and that stops the noise.

Anyway, when my NCAA disc started freezing I got scared that my XBox was dying. I looked it up and I do in fact have the dreaded Thomson drive.

But I also saw that there's a certain problem with newer discs so I played two straight games of my Madden 2002 disc and it didn't even make one noise. I just smoothly played the game without any problems which makes me think it might not be the XBox breaking.

Now I see where people online are saying to BOIL the disc which may somehow correct the problem. Boil as in placing the disc in 212 degree water on purpose. Now, I really don't want my XBox to be broken, but I'm not so keen on dropping my brand new game into a pot of boiling water. Then again, everything online is true.

get a new drive! you can replace the drive or laser, but it might be cheaper to send it back to microsoft and have them fix it.

I'm tempted to just mod my XBox just so I can avoid these problems. I have no desire to play any games that I don't legally own, but I know that the chances that my XBox will still work in five years is somewhere near 0%. The replacement DVD drives are ridiculously expensive, and can still fail. Replacing an IDE hard drive would be much cheaper, be available longer into the future than replacement drives, and games would be faster loading. I don't care about XBox live, so I can't really see any down sides...

As for your specific problem, I'd first at least try to swap your disc for a new one.

I'm like 99% sure it's not the disc. I tried a friend's and it did the same thing.

Have you tried boiling your X-Box?

I doubt many people have a restaurant size stock pot in their house.

I had to boil a game once. Worked perfect. It was brand new and I was very hesitant, but everything turned out great.

Yeah, your drive is going bad...happened to me too. MS will charge you about $90 + shipping...so it's over $100 for a new drive. You can do it yourself, but replacement drives still go for around $60 on EBAY (last time I checked...might be cheaper now)

Either, wait for XBOX360....or get a new XBOX (drive). Some people have had success getting MS to pay for most of the drive....good luck

Dunno, I remember a year or two back -- none of my OXM discs would work at all because whoever was mastering them was crapping an extra layer of plastic on the bottom -- boiling it for a couple of minutes (boil the water, lower the disc in flat - turn off water and let sit for 5 min or so) always did the trick. Of course at another time I had to get my drive replaced but it was free under MS's extended warranty.

It's the drive, not your discs. Most likely you have a Tomson drive and not a Samsung or Phillips. Tomsons are the most common in Xboxes, and have the most problems.

Send it in for repair, or wait 'till the 360...

Makes you wonder who they will go with on the 360.

I think most of the NEW XBOX's have something other than the Thompson drive...of course, I'm sure they are still out there in stores.

You would think, but mine crashed and burned last year and had to get a replacement(BB warranty). Replacement? An 'effin Thomson.

Oh, just use one of those they use for the deep fried turkeys around Thanksgiving. I bet one of your neighbors probably already has one of these.

Yeah I think my XBOX is on it's last leg too. Since 360 is coming I decided to wait it out though. I've also tried boiling those crappy demo discs from the XBOX magazine but it never worked for me. I eventually stopped buying the mag because it seemed every other disk wouldn't play. I guess it could've been my XBOX....

Anyway, Often when i'm online with Crimson SKies I'll get a dirty disk message. I'm also currently playing "The Suffering"(great scary game) and there have been a few times where during gameplay it stops and gives me a "Dirty or damaged disk error" screen. I did buy the disk used but I checked and it has no scratches.

But I was wondering, if one replaces his drive with say one of those very fast 48x drives or something like that would it speed up gameplay(load times)? How fast are the drvies that come with the XBOX fromt eh factory?

The only thing that keeps me holding out hope is the fact that my Madden 2002 disc works with absolutely no problems.

If my XBox goes, I'm just going to wait for the 360 and I wouldn't normally care other than the fact that I JUST bought NCAA 06.

Are there any stores that would swap me a PS2 version of the game for my XBox one?

Yes, you'll get shorter load times. Even if you stick with the factory drive, you can get up to 30% shorter load times by simply replacing the ATA-33 IDE cable with an ATA-100 cable. No mods, hacks, illegal activites, etc are necessary. It will likely void your warranty, though. One site did benchmarks:

Halo Test #1
Trial | ATA33 | ATA100
1| 19sec | 14sec
2| 18sec | 13sec
3| 19sec | 12sec
4| 18sec| 13sec
AVG| 18.5sec| 13sec ---> 29.7% Improvement

Halo Test #2
Trial | ATA33 | ATA100
1| 18.5sec| 13sec
2| 18sec | 12sec
3| 18sec | 14sec
4| 18sec | 13sec
AVG| 18.25sec | 13sec ---> 28.7% Improvement

Prince of Persia
Trial | ATA33 | ATA100
1| 3.5sec | 3sec
2| 4sec | 3.5sec
3| 4sec | 3sec
4| 5sec | 3sec
AVG| 4.125sec | 3.125sec ---> 24.2% Improvement

SW - Knights of the Old Republic
Trial | ATA33 | ATA100
1| 18sec | 13sec
2| 14sec | 12sec
3| 16sec | 12sec
4| 15sec | 13sec
AVG| 15.75sec | 12.5sec ---> 20.6% Improvement

It's cheaper than getting it repaired, the games load faster and are less prone to crashing, you can replace the hard drive yourself if it dies, and there's some fun homebrew stuff out there. For anyone comfortable working inside a PC, I see no reason not to mod their Xbox.

FYI, Microsoft has said that the 360 will only have LIMITED backwards compatibility with Xbox... i.e., only for the most popular games.

Really? Shit. I had been trying to keep up with their final decision on this issue but I guess I missed this latest bit 'o' info.

yeah that kinda sucks but thats life

Cool. Thanks.

I am almost positive that all new xboxs have Samsung DVD-Rom drives in them now, I had the dirty disk error bullshit going on with my xbox I replaced the laser assembly for $30 and it worked fine so I sold it and bought a new one with a new drive

Anyhow could the reason your Sexbox still plays Madden02 but not newer titles be simply because of the type of media used, wouldn't Madden02 still be on CD whereas most of the newer titles are actually using DVD media now?

<--- Is sticking to Nintendo systems for now on. They messed up the original NES but have made solid stuff since. Before my Thompson Drive XBox got zapped by lightning it started having problems reading disk. Ironically the cube was on the same power strip and it survived