There's been many a time that I've heard that dreaded click-click-click coming from the front of my TV. "Disc is unreadable," says my 360. "Clean it off, dirtbag."

The disc is, of course, flawless, but I don't have the heart to tell the poor, blind Xbox that. I hit the power button, and hope that I remembered to save my game before that big boss.

Sound familiar? 1P Start has a possible solution:

after talking with several techs, I discovered that it was the game. Elder Scrolls IV takes a heavy toll on the 360 cache. Of course Microsoft in all of their infinite wisdom doesn't have any sort of menu feature to clear the cache. I was instructed by several of the techs to hold down "A" on your controller as the game is loading and that clears the cache.

Apparently it works, because after I tried it there were no more lockups.

Real solution or voodoo chicken-waving, I don't know -- but after the fourth or fifth time Dead Rising dies and refuses to rise I'm willing to try about anything.