XBox 360 may damage your discs

AN INVESTIGATION by Dutch TV programme Kassa has found that some XBoxes are scratching games discs.

Boffins working for the programme say they conducted their tests under lab conditions and found that regular use of some discs in some consoles caused damage to the discs.

Microsoft says it did not participate in the Kassa's experiment and so has "little insight into the methodology that was used".

"While we are aware that discs can potentially be scratched through normal wear and tear, we have not received any widespread reports of the issue highlighted here," a spokesVole told the INQ.

On taking a few Xboxes apart and fiddling with their giblets, the investigators decided that there are differing laser heads and differing drives used in the console. And some have a greater tendency to scratch the disks more than others.

The investigators suggest that some drives made by the Toshiba Samsung Storage Technology Corporation (TSS) are not as disc friendly as those made by Hitachi.

Microsoft is looking into the business. "It is important to us that all of our customers have the best gaming experiences possible, and these claims are obviously very concerning to us," a spokesman emailed us to say."

"We encourage any Xbox customer who believes that their discs have been scratched in the same manner as identified by KASSA, to contact us at 1-800-4-MY-XBOX or www.xbox.com/support. We will examine the console and make appropriate repairs if necessary in order to restore the console to full working order, as well as provide customers with information on how to obtain replacement discs should they need them."

More details on the tests are available in English at hardware.info here and in double Dutch at here and Kassa, here. µ