Game Breaking ME3 issue remains unfixed for some users, after two months!

[garyopa]

'Black Screen on startup' on Mass Effect 3 (XBOX 360)



According to Bioware, they are still looking into it, but already two months have passed and some users still can't properly play...

If you didn't know, some users experienced a game-breaking issue on the XBOX 360 version of Mass Effect 3, here's a little background:

Every time I start ME3 the game freezes to black screen after the intro scene with the sunrise over earth before the 'press start' screen. It worked fine the first time I played, but never after that. I have already installed the game to HD and exchanged for a new disk.

Well, more than two months have passed since the game launched, and the issue remains unfixed!!

According to BioWare, they are still looking into it:



Of course, users aren't happy:

*sigh* its been 2 months and they are still investigating that's just disappointing.

[...]

I don't like this word, "Investigating." It sounds like they've got Magnum P.I. on the case or something. This bug doesn't need a detective; it needs an executioner.

[...]

2 months... i refuse to do the fix, I know Microsoft is unlikely to pistol whip me, but I really like my account...

Well, bad luck for them. If yours works just fine, you should consider lucky?

NEWS SOURCE: http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/to...ndex/9684873/1

Our thanks to 'Gauss' for this news story!

[wewii]

I've never had an issue.... so what so different about these people?

The disc are identical last time I checked.

[GaussTek]

I've never had an issue.... so what so different about these people?

The disc are identical last time I checked.

Dunno. But, one thing is sure, Bioware doesn't know what's wrong either lol

Thomas Abram wrote...

We are still investigating this - We have received a very large amount of support from BSN users but are looking for some different information now. If you could take the time to send me the following information it would be greatly appreciated (on top of what has already been requested):

- What were you doing in the last play session before the crash (MP, SP, level, etc.)?
- Did you crash or make a save during your last play session?
- Do you recall any odd behavior during your last play session (temporary errors, anything out of place/acting weird)?

Thanks!

However, the thread is too long now, and I'm unable to see what all users are responding. heh

[billysastard]

I've never had an issue.... so what so different about these people?

The disc are identical last time I checked.

there is something dodgy with the 360, not just me3, loads of people have issues where some games wont install, for me its ff13-2 and sonic generations, yet other machines install them just fine, some machines wont install disc 2 of a game unless you install that first and some wont play me3, of course for the installation problems you can sign out of live and then they will install, install disc 2 first then disc 1 but with the me3 problem there just doesnt seem to be a way around it other than changing the actual xbox for a new one.

[DEDDOA]

there is something dodgy with the 360, not just me3, loads of people have issues where some games wont install, for me its ff13-2 and sonic generations, yet other machines install them just fine, some machines wont install disc 2 of a game unless you install that first and some wont play me3, of course for the installation problems you can sign out of live and then they will install, install disc 2 first then disc 1 but with the me3 problem there just doesnt seem to be a way around it other than changing the actual xbox for a new one.

I suspect it's the constant drive changes, I for one know that on my PC's, some disks will work fine in some drives but won't read in others, and yet the drives that won't read one disk will work fine with other disks. If MS had stuck with one drive then there would no doubt be far less in the way of issues. Burnign DVD's tends to higlight this, some drives are only happy with certain disks or if they have been burnt at the lowest setting, and some are fine with anything you throw at them. I know it's true to a certain degree as I have replaced drives for peolple inthe past and they have said some of their games don't work as well and some work better than their old drive. The constant changes to a key component for the console is bound to lead to problems unless they are exactly the same drive but built by differnt maufacturers, which they are very much far from. They can't seem to beat the firmware hacks so they shopuld stick with one drive type. If they want to avoid disk scratching, make a clear warning about vertical standing position, I for one have never put any of my 360's, PS3's, PS2's or Wii vertical for that reason, why tempt fate.

[billysastard]

I suspect it's the constant drive changes, I for one know that on my PC's, some disks will work fine in some drives but won't read in others, and yet the drives that won't read one disk will work fine with other disks. If MS had stuck with one drive then there would no doubt be far less in the way of issues. Burnign DVD's tends to higlight this, some drives are only happy with certain disks or if they have been burnt at the lowest setting, and some are fine with anything you throw at them. I know it's true to a certain degree as I have replaced drives for peolple inthe past and they have said some of their games don't work as well and some work better than their old drive. The constant changes to a key component for the console is bound to lead to problems unless they are exactly the same drive but built by differnt maufacturers, which they are very much far from. They can't seem to beat the firmware hacks so they shopuld stick with one drive type. If they want to avoid disk scratching, make a clear warning about vertical standing position, I for one have never put any of my 360's, PS3's, PS2's or Wii vertical for that reason, why tempt fate.

well lets be clear i'm talking only about original discs not copies on a virgin 360 slim, my first encounter with an issue was ff13-2 ce, the only copy "game" got, it wouldnt install, took it back and persuaded them to they it in store as i thought it might be a bad press of the disc, it worked in store but as the game discs were identical between the ce and the standard they swapped them for me, the new copies wouldnt install either so i searched online and found out about it being a known issue and how to get around it, the not installing disc 2 only seems to have started since the advertbox dash update.

i must confess that i keep my ps3 slim and wii vertical (the ps3 has an additional stand of course, the wii has one as standard) but i dont really worry about that as i have solid floors with pretty thick carpet and underlay so they never move unless i want to move them.

[DEDDOA]

3 od the 5 drives i have replaced have been only for playing originals as they were for CoD addicts who would get the shakes bad if they couldn't get on XBL, they to have encountered problems. Infact 2 of the lite-on drives I had replaced with spoofed Benq or Samsung drives ended up with me having to get the owners to buy the same lite-on drive they had originaly to replace it again as the owners were worried about the games working (if I recall, one was lips and another was one of those dance games, so personally I see no loss there, but I guess they think they are michael jackson clones ). I only mention copies as that tends to highlight the issue, even on my windows drives. It is somthing that has been fresh in my mind recently as I did a full windows re-install on a couple of PC's, so I had made a disk with the latest updates to make the after install hassle minimal, 2 of the PC's installed fine, 1 gave me errors the first time but installed fine the second time, and a 3rd just wouldn't have it, so I had to burn on another make of disk at lowest speed to make sure, and that worked. I would have initially thought the disk may have been scratched, but later in the day I asked the missus to install XP on my gaming machine on the 3rd partition, which she ended up just formatting the drive and wiping Windows 7 (no big deal tho a it only takes about 15-20 mins to re-install), so I used the same disk that didn't work on my sisters laptop and it still worked fine.

So yeah, the drives can be dodgy on original and copies that can be perfectly fine on other drives. Given how often they change drives I'm not suprised there have been problems, when I got my first 360, from what I recall, they had already gone through 3 drives (ok one was 2 different types of firmware but one was samsung and the other was hitatchi) but that was less than 12 months after launch. I have lost count of the number of differnt manufacturers and revisions we have had int he past 6 years, and I wouldn't be suprised if when the disks are tested they aren't tested on every drive let alone console revision. It's certainly my first port of call when anyone tells me they are having disk problems with only one or 2 games, when the rest are fine, and I try the games on my 2 360, both of which having differnt drives (one with a Benq and one with a Lite-on).

[billysastard]

well, we only have 2 slims and its only mine that wont install certain titles, just for fun i tested installing on a flashed elite and both went fine, the machine was bought new, its not a reading problem though because all i have to do is sign out of my profile and then it installs just fine which kind of suggests that its a software / firmware issue rather than a disc read issue.