Troubleshooting a "Disc Read Error" in Call of Duty: Ghosts—specifically during the high-stakes "Homecoming" mission—is a frustrating hurdle that has plagued players since the game's launch. This fatal error often triggers when the game engine fails to access specific assets (like techsets_prologue or techsets_nml) required to load the next environment.
For the uninitiated, few things ruin a nostalgia trip faster than a hard crash. You’re playing the eighth mission, "Homecoming"—where you defend the U.S. carrier group from orbital bombardment—when the screen freezes. A harsh buzz emits from the speakers. Then, the dreaded black box appears: "Fatal Error: Disc Read Error 'Homecoming'." Troubleshooting a "Disc Read Error" in Call of
This issue typically stems from disc or drive read problems, but can also be caused by corrupted data or a mastering/patch bug tied to that mission. Players can often recover progress by cleaning, reinstalling, or using a different disc/console; developers should prioritize a patch or downloadable mission data to eliminate the dependency on disc reads. How to do it: Turn off the PS3 completely
Run a Check Disk (CHKDSK): This utility scans your hard drive for bad sectors that might be preventing the game from reading files. or using a different disc/console
Clear Steam Appcache: Completely exit Steam and delete the appcache folder located in your Steam installation directory. Restart Steam and try launching the mission again.
Corrupted shader cache or config files can mimic disc read errors.
The “Homecoming” mission is known to be particularly finicky on PC due to heavy scripted events and streaming textures. Even after fixing the error, you may want to lower texture quality to “Normal” before replaying that mission, as high textures can exacerbate read-time issues on slower drives.