How to Clean a DVD or CD Drive [GUIDE]

[admin]

It is not uncommon for a DVD burner or DVD recorder to exhibit problems with media. In general, problems arise from the following three conditions:

1. The DVD media is not very good. The discs may not be very reflective (Ritek is a common offender, along with "gold archival" discs), or the dye isn't great.
2. The burner is dying. Remember that optical lasers used in DVD/CD players/recorders/burners are only rated for a few thousand hours maxmium.
3. The burner is dirty! That's what this post is about...

Sometimes a drive that is mechanically sound, but the laser itself has been introduced to too many foreign elements. You can clean it yourself quite easily. Don't use a "cleaner" device, take the drive apart.

Also note that optical electronics develop "lung cancer" and die very early. Optical electronics in the home of smokers have extremely limited lifespans. In some cases, it is possible to clean the build-up off the lens. It's a filmy tar that develops on the optics.

Here is the "How to Clean a DVD/CD Drive" image-based guide:
Note: You may need to register for the forum, and log in to view the images!



Remove the drive from the computer, and unscrew the cover of the drive. Note that you may have to break the warranty seal (but seriously, who cares?).



With the drive unscrewed, start to dismantle it by sliding the various pieces around, removing removal parts.



Look for foreign matter, such as dust in the drive, which could be the entire cause of your problems. Computers are magnets for dust, and that includes your drive. A can of compressed air ("duster") may be good here, but be sure it does not spew liquid propellant. Hitting the laser eye with this liquid often kills it permanently, as the chemical tends to destroy the optical coatings. Cheap ones from OfficeMax tend to spew liquid, while better ones from Fry's and Microcenter do not.



Get yourself some alcohol. It needs to be denatured alcohol, or at very least 70% or better (70-100%) isopropyl alcohol, commonly sold as "rubbing alcohol" in drugstores. Please watch for the isopropyl % as many of them are 50% or less, and you don't want those.



Get a good non-cotton swab and lightly soak one end in the alcohol. The photo above is a Q-Tip, a "cotton swab" -- you DO NOT WANT THESE. Using a cotton swab could scratch or otherwise damage the eye. Non-cotton swabs are also often sold at the drug store, near cotton swabs. Electronics stores (Fry's and Microcenter, for example) usually have non-cotton cleaning swabs too. Don't let a salesman sell you their other cleaning products (mostly overpriced junk), however.



Find the laser eye, and gently swipe the lens once or twice. If it does not dry instantly, you can turn the swab around and very gently swipe the lens dry once. Looking at the eye, there should be no residues on the majority of the lens starting from the center (optics often has build-up around the very edges, this doesn't matter as much, it's been there since manufacture most likely).

You're done. Put the drive back. If it works better, your cleaning helped. If this did not help, you have other issues.





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[SRoyC]

Thank you, a good guide. Though a little explanation in the sliding part could do.

[funky_junky]

Done it a few times myself before reading this post, but still, I feel much more easier to do it again now that someone relevant said it's Ok to do it that way.
I've also been using one of those "cleaning-discs" with brush on them, but always felt a bit anxious to because it seemed to me that it's more likely for it to cause problems, by scratching disc surface, than to solve them.