Help! Xbox ate my game...

[Austin]

Strangely today, I was playing my xbox, went to switch games, and when I ejected the game just wasn't in the tray. I can hear it rattling around in there, but I'm afraid of shaking the system too much for fear of ruining the disc and/or damaging the hard drive.

Any quick solutions for this? Am I best off trying to find a repair place for the system? Or can I get a cheap screwdriver at RadioShack that'd help me do the job myself?

Thanks in advance!

[Dobie]

Did you try to manually eject the disc? Stick a small pin or paperclip in the little hole beneath the disc tray, and it should come open.

Edit: Whoops... just realized the tray is open, with the disc inside. THAT is a new one. Assuming its not under warranty, then I guess what you need to do is open the Xbox up with some Torx screws, and remove the drive. The drive's cover should come off if I remember correctly, with a phillips screwdriver, and then you can survey the damage.

[tholly]

i dont have any advice, but good luck, ive never heard of this problem before......

[Vectorman0]

This happened to my PS2 a while ago. With a few screwdrivers and an hour of my time, I was able to get the disc out, with both the system and disc unharmed. I did void the warranty, but the PS2 has worked fine since.

If you aren't comfortable doing it though, I would try and get it repaired.

[Nez]

This happend to me becouse of those damn stickers they put on the center of discs. Had to get out a pair of pliers but it did the trick, my xbox was fine but the game was not.

[omnedon]

Stickers or stickum on discs = bad news

[Xizer]

A bit of advice: Don't starve your Xbox, man. It's a fatty. Fatties get mean when they don't eat for a while.

[Gamereviewgod]

You should take pics as you try and get it out. Should be a fun read, assuming it all comes out ok.

[Querjek]

The exact same thing happened to me last year around this time. The source of the problem ended up being a copy of Bad Santa on DVD that was a previous rental. I took the sticker off the center of the disc and didn't think twice about it--to what possibly could happen. The sticky residue coated the inner ring of the laser thing. A screwdriver and some goo goo fixed the problem.

[Austin]

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. :)

I was able to catch the inside ring of the disc with a bent paperclip and pull it out. I'm not sure what it was jammed into, as the tray still opened and closed without problems. The disc was pretty mangled, but at least the console doesn't seem to be damaged. I just wish I knew what caused it, just so I can be sure it won't happen again. I may as well take it in for a cleaning and checkup, as I've had it since near launch and haven't done anything like that.

[GrandAmChandler]

Moving this to the tech forum.

[omnedon]

Sticker caused it. If the transport cap is coated with stickum now (from some other disc) it will intermittently continue to eat and mangle your discs if you don't service it, or get it serviced.

The sticky stuff must come out.