Xbox One disc drive issues fixable, send back for replacment says Microsoft

As Xbox One customers begin to unbox their US$500 console, one thing is clear: that a small percentage of Xbox One owners are experiencing a disc drive issue or as Kotaku has called it, the “Disc Drive of Doom”. This video below will run your blood cold.

A brand new game, an Xbox One right out of the box and a horrible grinding noise. The user above is “extremely depressed” and there’s not much he can do about it outside of contracting Microsoft for a replacement Xbox One. Well over a million Xbox One consoles have been sold since launch date 22 November, said TechCrunch. The article even rightly says that the Xbox has matched the PS4 in sales so the talk of this generations console wars heating up seems to be all that, just hot air. Microsoft’s response, “Customers have the option for us to send a replacement console right away without waiting until they have returned their old one. This means a customer only has to wait a matter of days, rather than weeks to get back up and running.”

Both consoles are now seemingly matched in sales and faults, as the PS4 is experimenting its own “blue light of death” which causes the console to display the blue startup pulse, but never boots into the PS4 loading screen. Like this poor fella here.

Sony says that 0.4% of PS4’s are affected, or 4 out of ever 1000 machines. For Microsoft, this isn’t an isolated issue for Xbox and the Red Ring of Death (RROD) that plagued older Xbox 360’s instantly comes to mind. There were towel tricks, heatsink fixes, even punching the damn thing. Everything is a little less dramatic this time around, so if you’re one of the very unlucky few whose brand new Xbox One’s no longer read discs, then send it back, or call customer service or tweet @XboxSupport. Whatever you do, don’t punch it.