Optical Drive Cleaning

[seekermeister]

Thinking about the fact that I had not cleaned my optical drives in a very long time, I used one of those disks with a couple of brushes attached, to clean my DVD drives. I can't be certain, but I think that it improved the read speed while encoding some video by 3-5 fps, and perhaps stabilized the speed somewhat.

That is as much as I have ever done, but being a smoker, and knowing the sticky nature of nicotine smoke, I would bet that the brushing didn't remove that. I read a couple of web pages, where it recommended using canned air to blast in the tray slot, but I tend to feel that might just blow the dust around, and still not remove the nicotine. Another metioned using a Q-Tip moistened with isopropyl alcohol, directly on the lens of laptop drives, because the lens is attached to the tray, thus exposed when the tray is open, but that is not true of an internal desktop drive.

Therefore, I'm wondering how advisable it would be to use that alcohol to moisten the little brushes on the cleaner disk for that purpose? Obviously, it couldn't be much, otherwise it would be slung around inside the drive, and likely would dry very quickly. I'm not sure if it would really make the lens cleaner, or just smear the nicotine around.

I'm hoping that someone that smokes and has tried something like this will respond, rather than others with no real experience.

 

[Ponmayilal]

I do not smoke and hence do not qualify for a suggestion but ranting - I never stop.

1. Do not smoke in front of the computer.

2. Just use a fine micro-fibre cloth and give some gentle wipes to the lense.( I would avoid any cleaning liquids)

I also have read that cleaning disks with minute holes that blow air on to the lense due to the centrifugal force of the spinning disks are available and is a better one than the brushes.

But in your case, a gentle wipe is perhaps called for.

 

[seekermeister]

Ignoring the rant, it is not possible to reach the lens with a micro-fibre cloth, or any thing of that sort, without disassembling the drive, which I'm not going to do, since it is an internal drive. I have not seen a cleaning disk with the holes that you speak of, do you know where to find them?

 

[Tews]

The cleaning discs do a passable job.. give em a spin, then enjoy!

 

[A Guy]

I'd say stay away from cleaning the lens manually. The pickup uses a very fine focus assy, which physically moves the lens part up and down. It's going to be very fragile. Leave it be IMHO. A Guy

 

[seekermeister]

I'd say stay away from cleaning the lens manually. The pickup uses a very fine focus assy, which physically moves the lens part up and down. It's going to be very fragile. Leave it be IMHO. A Guy

Does that include using a cleaning disk? I have done that a number of times before, without any apparent problems. This is what my OP was about in the first place, only adding alcohol, in some fashion.

 

[A Guy]

I'd say stay away from cleaning the lens manually. The pickup uses a very fine focus assy, which physically moves the lens part up and down. It's going to be very fragile. Leave it be IMHO. A Guy

Does that include using a cleaning disk? I have done that a number of times before, without any apparent problems. This is what my OP was about in the first place, only adding alcohol, in some fashion.

The disk is ok, it just brushes a bit. Adding the alcohol, hard to say, as you say, might just smear it around. Might do it several times, likely wouldn't hurt. A Guy

 

[ickymay]

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

I am of course not suggesting you lick it :shock:

 

[seekermeister]

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

I am of course not suggesting you lick it :shock:

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?

 

[ickymay]

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

I am of course not suggesting you lick it :shock:

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

 

[thefabe]

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]

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]

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

I am of course not suggesting you lick it :shock:

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.