You are a god amongst men!

Awesome! Glad I could be some help...

if you google the problem, you will find that some sites sell kits to prevent disk scratching. i believe the kits are foam buffers that go on the inner top of the dvd rom drive. they are inexpensive...

well, i would suggest three things if you continue to have problems...

That's the tough call we have to make. If its covered under warranty, which you need to call to be sure, then you have to weigh your options. If it isn't modded as mine is, you may want to take advantage of the warranty. That's probably the safest route. But if problems persist, you may want to go with the other fixes out there to spare yourself the headache and disappointment.

yes, you can use a rubber band, it will just take more adjusting where as the foam is a one time deal.

Glad to see my gta 5 isnt the only one doing it. Does everyone elses work after like 30 tries?

Simple I know, lol, but once the laser is reading in the proper place, bam! It works perfectly...

This may sound a bit nuts, but i had the same problem, i took apart the Xbox 360 took the DVD drive out opened it dusted it with air spray can, cleaned the lens with a Qtip with Isopropyl Alcohol. Closed it up and it worked fine since, i have another drive with the same issue i havent had the time to try it on this one but i will post my results.