Optical Drive Cleaning

thefabe · 03 Jan 2011

I too unfortunately smoke or i can say now smoked. I used the disk with the brush one sigle brush angled halfway on the disk.
It's a Maxell Lens cleaner CD-340 Thunderon.

I purchased it from good ole Walmart.
The instructions say to run the disk up to 20 seconds then you will hear a tone this signals your lens is being cleaned. Then remove. You should use it every 10 hours of play time. Which I find excessive as the disk deteriorates and that's never a good thing. Just keep an eye on the brush and if you see it wearing don't use it.
Fabe

seekermeister · 03 Jan 2011

Your Maxell sounds like a counterpart to the Philips cleaner that I use, except that mine has two brushes on it. It also has a similar audio that plays, but I believe that it is nothing more than a sales pitch, that has nothing to do with the actual job at hand. I guess that if there were no audio, that the drive would soon become idle, but when I put any disk in the drive, it will automatically run 20 seconds or more while seeking data to initialize, so the disk has to spin anyway.

seekermeister · 03 Jan 2011

ickymay said:

seekermeister said:

ickymay said:

I used to service optical drives and the most effective cleaner was saliva

I am of course not suggesting you lick it

Yes, but I bet that when you serviced a drive, it involved a bit of disassembly to expose the lens, and you could wipe the spit off. I doubt that spit on a cleaning disk would work the same. Besides, the result would probably vary depending on what you just ate or drank.

EDIT: Is that how you got your username?

hah no its a spoonerism of my rl name lol which became my monica when working in the music industry

I am however serious about the saliva which works very well as a degreaser when applied to a cotton bud or onto the brush or pad of a disc cleaner so works with or without disassembly , but your correct not to be used if your eating or drinking things that change your saliva too much

Okay, I thought that might also refer to your subcaption about liking it GOO-ee.

ickymay · 04 Jan 2011

seekermeister said:

ickymay said:

seekermeister said:

Yes, but I bet that when you serviced a drive, it involved a bit of disassembly to expose the lens, and you could wipe the spit off. I doubt that spit on a cleaning disk would work the same. Besides, the result would probably vary depending on what you just ate or drank.

EDIT: Is that how you got your username?

hah no its a spoonerism of my rl name lol which became my monica when working in the music industry

I am however serious about the saliva which works very well as a degreaser when applied to a cotton bud or onto the brush or pad of a disc cleaner so works with or without disassembly , but your correct not to be used if your eating or drinking things that change your saliva too much

Okay, I thought that might also refer to your subcaption about liking it GOO-ee.

GOO-ee = GUI = give me big fat buttons everytime I've never been keen on DOS commands and using code

seekermeister · 04 Jan 2011

Well, considering the fact that I have a coffee mug permanently affixed to my right hand, I think that I will pass on the saliva. I'm considering using Windex, instead of alcohol, because the alcohol might effect the cleaning disk.

A Guy · 04 Jan 2011

I wouldn't use windex, at this point I'd leave it be. Distilled water, or alcohol that doesn't leave residue is one thing, cleaners with ammonia and such, I wouldn't. A Guy

thefabe · 05 Jan 2011

If I think the drive is really dirty I use a spray CD cleaner used to clean Cd's. I don't have the package it came in with the contents on it but it smells like Isoporpyl Alcohol. I just spray the cleaner CD with it and run it a few times.
My Blu Ray optical drive is a lot more sensitive to even minor scratches or even finger prints will imped the playback yet after a year when I did smoke I still haven't had to clean it. as of yet.
Fabe

seekermeister · 05 Jan 2011

Joules said:

Ya Fabe,

Iso alcohol works great. I mean I open up my drives with cats and dust in the house you should see the dust bunnies in my drive, it's ridiculous! You'd think the thing was a vacuum cleaner! lol I had to give up on the dvd cleaner disks I just don't trust them after one of them screwed up a drive a few years ago...

How so...did it break apart?

seekermeister · 05 Jan 2011

A Guy said:

I wouldn't use windex, at this point I'd leave it be. Distilled water, or alcohol that doesn't leave residue is one thing, cleaners with ammonia and such, I wouldn't. A Guy

You may well be right, but aren't the lens made of glass? If so, I would think that a glass cleaner would be perfect...streak free.

seekermeister · 05 Jan 2011

Joules said:

seekermeister said:

Joules said:

Ya Fabe,

Iso alcohol works great. I mean I open up my drives with cats and dust in the house you should see the dust bunnies in my drive, it's ridiculous! You'd think the thing was a vacuum cleaner! lol I had to give up on the dvd cleaner disks I just don't trust them after one of them screwed up a drive a few years ago...

How so...did it break apart?

No I guess one of the brushes had some foreign particle in it and muffed up the lens really good, just a freak thing I guess...

Thats odd, because those brushes are so tiny, that one would think that anything foreign, that might damage the lens, would be apparent...maybe it was diamond dust.

The only drive destroyed by a disk for me, was by a regular CD, on which I had ignored a small crack that had formed on the inside edge. Running it, the crack grew, and the disk flew apart and smashed into pieces inside the drive. I tried to remove those pieces, but I think that some must have been left lodged in the wrong place, and the drive failed. Needless to say, I don't use damaged disks anymore.